Blogs and Ads

What is a blog? It is nothing but a personal website where the person writes whatever he or she feels to write. It may be one’s personal diary. Most often one posts writings on matters of one’s choice; they may be stories, poetries, treatises, political opinions etc. Many blogs are about specific subjects or matters like pets, books, internet and as many as there are in this world. Some blogs inform links to other web pages. In simple way A blog is like an own website. You can compare it to your personal online diary or journal. You can use your blog for exchanging ideas, thoughts, experiences or simply to communicate with family, friends and readers.As per Wikipedia-“Usenet was the primary serial medium included in the original definition of the World Wide Web. It featured the Moderated News Group which allowed all posting in a newsgroup to be under the control of an individual or small group. Most such newsgroups were simply moderated discussion forums, however, in 1983-84, one exception, named mod.ber, was created, named after and managed by an individual: Brian E. Redman. Regularly, Redman and a few associates posted summaries of interesting postings and threads taking place elsewhere on the net. With its serial journal publishing style, presence on the pre-HTTP web and strong similarity to the common blog form which features links to interesting and cool places on the net chosen by the blogger, mod.ber had many of the characteristics commonly associated with the term ‘blog’. It ceased operation after approximately 8 months. Brad Templeton calls the newsgroup rec.humour.funny (which he founded) the world's oldest still existing blog.”There are more than hundred million blogs in the world now. The exact number can not be ascertained. So I am giving an approximate country-wise blog numbers.Austria: 20,000Belgium: 100,000Bosnia and Herzegovina: less than 3,000Brunei: less than 3,000Canada: 700,000China: 5 million and growingCzech Republic: 5,000Croatia: 40,000Denmark: 5,000Finland: 100,000France: 3 millionGermany: 280,000India: 100,000Ireland: 75,000Israel: 100,000Italy: 200,000Malaysia: 10,000Japan: 4 millionThe Netherlands: 600,000Philippines: 75,000Poland: 1.4 millionRussia: 300,000South Korea: 15 millionSpain: 1.5 millionUkraine: 50,000United Kingdom: 2.5 millionUnited States: 15-30 million And there are several web-hosts offering different blog-sites with different templates. The most prominent hosts among them are as given below:.Xanga: 40 millionsee note at the bottomMSN spaces: 15 millionTerra.es including 1 million users in Spain, at least 2.5 million US and approx 1.5 million in the UKBlogger: 14 million +total registered blogs: Blogger gives a unique indexed number for every new blog, the latest one I’ve observed is over 14 million.Cyworld: 11 millionSixApart: (Live Journal/ TypePad, MT): 9.5 millionI reported 8.7 million at the end of May and LJ has grown by 0.5 million in that time. I’m guessing again on the final figure because MT installs are hard to track, and SixApart haven’t release user numbers on TypePad as far as I’m awarePlanet Weblog Service: 6 millionLeading South Korean blogging providerYahoo Blogs Korea: 3 millionSkyblog: 2.5 millionGreatest Journal: 1 millionOther US Live Journal clones: 1 million Now with so many sites, the opportunity of monetizing came up and the blog-publishers were given the option to offer their sites as money making sources also. So it’s a lucrative exercise now for all the three parties involved-the blogger (as publisher), the Ad providing host and the advertiser. So the blogger finds it interesting to earn money while posting matters in the blog. But the whole matter of generating money from the Ads in the blog-pages lies with the blogger. Unlike the print media here the blog is not open to the public to have full views of the Ads. A blog may never be opened by anyone in the world as every blogger is just like an unknown man in this world and so the chance of Ads published in the blog to be viewed is almost remote. Moreover the Ads in the blog appear as a subject (however beautifully made) only and not in detail in view of space problem. So if a viewer wants to know in detail he or she must have to click the Ad front in order to open it in a full screen. Hence the publicity is effected in clicks by viewer of the blog. The blogger, therefore, is concerned with two things: a) to make the blog interesting, informative whatever the subject is b) the blog must have a large viewer- ship. Here in this matter of viewer -ship a blogger must find ways and means to reach to hundreds of persons and also while taking into account that a reader may not be interested in ads placed on the sides of blog-writing. One in a hundred may click and even then the viewer may not click all the Ads in the blog. So it’s a tough job to monetize one’s blog. To help the blogger there are many companies now who help to bail out the blogger in directing a good traffic to the blog in exchange of some charges. The main Ad hosts of the world that help monetizing the blogs are as follows:http://websense.blogspot.com/http://www.google.com/adsensehttp://www.understandingadsense.com/http://adbrite.com/http://www.sponsoredreviews.com/http://blogsvertise.com/http://crisp:/crispads.comhttp://ads-click.com/http://www.affiliatejunktion.com/http://www.smarty.com/http://www.payu2blog.com/http://www.bidvertiser.com/http://fbexchange.com/http://www.lookery.com/http://payperpost.com/http://www.pubmatic.com/http://www.text-link-ads.com/http://www.turn.com/corp/index.jsphttp://zookode.com/http://globalinteractive.com/Apart from the above sites there are also some web hosts those help the bloggers in many ways –web designing, directing traffic etc. A blogger may also visit the sites below to get the required benefits.http://adwords.blogspot.com/http://widget.criteo.com/http://www.slackermanager.com/http://technocrati.com/http://earnmoneyfromblog1.blogspot.com/http://affiliatejunktion.com/http://rncnet.com/howtopay.htmlHere are a few names of the blog-host sites:Blog.co.ukBlog.Some-Free Word Press BlogMy SpaceBloggerBlogpico.comGoogle Adsense Blog I’ll discuss elaborately in my next posts.

A Personal Tribute to Jatindranath, Indubala and Ranchi

Generally when a blogger writes something in his blog, he wants it to be read by others also, with some interest, even if the subject of his writing is just as personal diaries. So he writes on matters that may arouse some interests in the mind of his readers (though it is extremely difficult for most of the bloggers to get readership now). But it is not at all interesting for an outsider to read about the family history of a blogger. When the subject relates to personal life of the blogger in all likelihood it falls into an uninteresting meaninglessness and it can not offer anything that may lie beyond the blogger’s private mind. It’s immaterial to know where the blogger lives and with whom. It’s just like information as to what is the brand of tooth-paste the blogger uses. The brand may rise to importance if it is known that it is used by Julia Roberts or George Bush. But the importance lies with the movie-star or the President of the US, not with the brand she or he uses. Still sometimes the very personal may link us to impersonal –when it is able to be caught in the impulse of general life force. But what is a life if it is not silently personal –in the known terms of the word? The course of a life of a person is hidden to others. The external events are mere phenomenon of some truth realized only within by the owner of the life. At the end of his tale in the prison of Agra Fort it was Shahjahan, and not the historian, who was aware of the course of the deity in his life. So was Napoleon in St Helena- who knew it more than anyone in this world what in him was moved in victory, in the betrayal of his wife, in his capture by the English and his ultimate destiny in solitary life in the prison; all of these created the essence of a life that was Napoleon’s own, hidden to the world outside his physical existence. Shakespeare knew this inner course of life in King Lear. But for all a Shakespeare lives within. But notwithstanding its content the following writing is not an episode of my personal life.It's a depiction of a life through a time -now long lost. Let me retrieve very little of it for a reading in the light of modern time. There is no recorded history of the early Bengali settlement in Ranchi and none knows today Jatindranath who contributed much to organize the Bengalis in the name of Sri Ramakrishna. Ranchi was dear place to Jyotirindranath Tagore –the elder brother of Rabindranath Tagore. But to establish it as a Bengali settlement Jatindranath and his friends were pioneers. In his death bed the last words of Jatindranath were that ‘It was a flower of the forest. It blossomed and withered in the forest without anyone’s knowledge of it’. It’s a tribute to that unknown blossoming. I was born in Ranchi which at that time was in the state of Bihar and not as the capital city of Jharkhand –a newly formed state with a part of Bihar. If anything of my life I remember of as most happy experience –then it was my childhood days in Ranchi. I’ll never like to visit Ranchi as it is not there not on the earth now. What now stands with the name of Ranchi is a different place with all the nuisance of modern and vulgar Indian cities. Like a sweet dream when it vanishes after waking from a sleep, Ranchi also has long vanished from my known world. Ranchi was on the southern part of the Chotanagpur which forms the eastern edge of the Deccan plateau system. The area surrounding Ranchi was endowed with immense natural bounty and it was fondly mentioned as the “City of Waterfalls”. The most popular waterfalls were Dasham, Hundru,Jonha Falls, Hirni and Panchghat- which were all active perennially. The beautiful place of Ranchi amazed me with its scenic splendour and salubrious climate while sitting comfortably at an altitude of 2140 feet above the sea level. The Tagore Hill, Ranchi Hill and the spectacular Ranchi Lake were some places in the city which took one to a world of tranquility and serenity where one seemed to get a chance to romance with the nature. My grandfather was Jatindranath Ghosh, who was born in Khulna district of East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) in a prosperous village –Maheswarpasha in 1880. They were three brothers-eldest of them was Shashadhar Ghosh. Their parents were Jahnavi Charan and Muktakeshi. Jatindranath was an enlightened person and a good student. So after passing his Entrance exam he found that he could not pursue higher education –which was only possible in Daulatpur. But there was none to bear expenses for his education there in Daulatpur. At the same time he did not like to live in a village and engage himself in managing agriculture with the lands which the brothers owned. He always felt to live in a wider world outside his village-Maheswarpasha. So he took a job in the Accountant General’s Office in Shilong. At that time the Office of the Accountant General had two other branches –one in Dacca (now the capital of Bangladesh) and other in Shilong in the north-east India under the head office in Ranchi. Jatindranath had to work also in Dacca branch of the office. Before being settled in Ranchi Jatindranath married Indubala. Indubala was the daughter of Khirodasundari, the third wife of Prabal Chandra Ray Choudhury. Prabal Chandra lived in Norail in the district of Jessore (now also in Bangladesh). Indubala was born in 1896 and so she was sixteen years younger than Jatindranath. At the age of eleven she was married to Jatindranath in 1905. Jatindranath fell in love with Ranchi. Ranchi was the native place of the tribals-mainly-Mundas. Though Mundas were the majority, there were other tribal races like Oraon , Murmu, Kol etc. But very few Biharis were found in Ranchi at that time though it was under the state of Bihar. The majority (why not almost) educated gentlemen were Bengalis. They all migrated from various places of undivided Bengal to Ranchi. In such a situation it was very natural that they became friends themselves. They purchased lands near their office, the office of the Accountant General-which was popularly called AG Office. Jatindranath purchased 15 cottahs of land (I can not tell how much it is in sq feet). Meanwhile nine children were born to Indubala and Jatindranath. They were four sons and five daughters. According to seniority they were as follows: Brajodulal, Sarama, Sushama, Mrinalkanti, Manorama, Madhusudan, Uma, Narayan and Mala. Only Manorama and Mala are surviving from those of the above. It is horrible to think of so many sons and daughters born to parents today. But it was not unusual then. But it’s difficult to raise so many children properly. But all of them grew healthy except Brajo Dulal –their eldest son. But I would have lost much of the warmth and charm of my childhood had my grandfather liked a small family. Ranchi was a town, and not a city at all in those days. The AG office was in Dorunda –which was where Jatindranath built two houses one beside the other on the land he had purchased. It was opposite to Loreto School of Ranchi. He rented one to Mr Morgan and his family and lived in the other building with his family. His neighbours, as I had said, were his friends who also built their own houses there. I was then too little to remember everything. I remember my grandfather-Jatindranath when he was already a retired person. After Mr. Morgan had left for Sheffield we shifted to the house where Mr. Morgan had stayed. It was better of the two. It was at this time- life of this family started to begin for a new chapter. The aunts were getting married one after another and settled in various places in India with their husbands. I have forgotten to tell that my father had married much earlier in 1940 when the houses had been under construction. Jatindranath and his family had lived in rented quarters then. But I was born in the house beside where Mr. Morgan lived. After the departure of Mr. Morgan the family turned to be a centre for all the aunts and their husbands and their children, who were by then started living in their own places. Whenever there were occasions like Puja festival, summer vacations etc all gathered in Ranchi. They all felt that it was their home and not the places where they were settled. Once come they did not like to return. The centre of attraction was Indubala-my grandmother. Everyone on every place of the widespread ramification of the family of Jatindranath and Indubala felt Ranchi as their home. It was delightfully queer. The ramification was so widespread that it was actually impossible for a grandchild of a daughter to be known to the grandchild of another daughter or a brother. Even the families of their in-laws, who were remotely related to the mainstream family felt Ranchi as their home. The bond with Ranchi was not ceased after the death of Jatindranath. Every year the new branches sprouted from the tree leading to a bigger Ranchi family. I called Indubala –‘thamma’. The other grandchildren both from daughters’and sons’ sides called her by different names. She loved all. And everyone reared a conviction that he or she was the dearest to Indubala amongst the others. I have never seen and read about so charming influence of a woman on her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and all those related in between. I never saw Indubala speaking harshly to anyone. In the night there was competition amongst us as to who would lie beside her. Alas there can not be more than two sides! Jatindranath was a very serious and pious person. He had a deep seeking for spiritual life (but his creator wanted something else). After sometime of his marriage he went to Bagbazar in north Calcutta and got initiated by Sri Sarada-Devi –the wife of Sri Ramakrishna. Later he went with Indubala to Sarada-ma. Sarada-ma then initiated Indubala also. Jatindranath was always in conflict with his spiritual life and that of the ordinary worldly life. Once he went to Ma and requested her to initiate him in sannyas. He was determined to leave the family (sansar) and become a sannayasin. But Sarada-ma told him that his fulfillment lied in the familial and so called worldly life. Some of the friends of Jatindranath also became disciples of Sri Sarada-ma. Jatindranath and his friends collaborated with Ramakrishna Mission to found a branch of the Mission in Ranchi. Our house was a home for many sadhus and sannyasins. Jatindranath loved to serve them in all possible ways. An author once wrote that whenever three Bengalis live outside Bengal they invariably build a temple of the goddess Kali. But surprisingly –my grandfather and his Bengali friends did not build a Kali-temple notwithstanding their religious bend of mind. Perhaps it was the vibrant hours of Sri Ramakrishna and the family was caught in the fire. Gradually the whole family turned into a home of Sri Ramakrishna's religious teachings. Many of the family were initiated by different sanyasins of the Ramakrishna clan. Brajo Dulal and his sister Manorama became disciples of Swami Subodhananda (Khoka-Maharaj) –himself a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Actually there was a presence of Sri Ramakrishna in the family. I still feel the atmosphere that surrounded me in my childhood in Ranchi. I woke up early in the morning because it was a delight to face a new day. I had a book which my father bought me and asked me to read in the morning. The name of that book was ‘Sathi’-it was in Bengali. It was a book that children read in their pre-school days in those times. The word Sathi means in Bengali -a friend. Like that book Ranchi and its ambience was my 'sathi' My father bought me another book-Robinson Crusoe. It was my first book in English. I would come out in the verandah in the early morning and sitt on a cot and read the books happily. After an hour –my grandfather would return from his morning walk. I went on reading till my mother brought me a glass of milk for my breakfast. At about 10 am I went out to play near a big pond and a slender brook that was behind our house. I had –most of the times none to play with. I wander, jump and ran just like a little animal. So far the eye went –there was no house; only a hill was there in the far. I felt delight everywhere and existence was nothing but delight. We had some ducks that stayed in a little covered place under the stair in the backyard. After finishing the glass of milk I entered the house and sought for eggs if there was any in there place. I remember, I became as delighted as someone, who by chance, discovered a hidden treasure, when my hand felt a smooth and warm touch of something which I instantaneously knew an egg. That was my first discovery. I still feel the warm touch of the egg even now in my old age. A fortune in getting a just laid egg can diminish the fortune of getting a whole world of treasure. I was so excited that I ran for an hour in the paddy-field only to realize the unexpected booty- the egg –which had been there inside the duck. Sometime Amit would come to our house in the very early morning. Amit was much senior to me and lived in a two-storied building (there was only one two-storied building in the locality) near our house. As there was none of his age he was alone. So he befriended me. I liked him and he also loved me. We two went out for the places where we could not be allowed in a broad day-light. It was full of nature. He climbed trees and dropped raw mangoes or guavas which I caught standing beneath. There were snakes and hyenas in those places. But we were never afraid of them as we were always in a spirit of discovering new places. The fresh morning air filled us with that spirit. Amit died after some years in tuberculosis like his two elder brothers had died earlier of the same disease. In the night it was like nights of the fairy tales. I was very much afraid of those who could not be seen in the day but they seemed to appear from every corner of darkness. In the chilly winter my grandmother burned pieces of dry woods in a vat in her room. We sat around the vat for warmth with grand-ma who told us such stories which made the air chillier and we were at once landed in fairy-tale worlds. In those times Ranchi was very cold in winter. Sometime the temperature dipped below zero degrees Celsius. One morning we found heaps of snows before the doors of the toilet (which was outside in the backyard) and it was impossible to enter it. It took one hour to remove the snows. I loved my uncles and aunts and none can now imagine these days how delightful it is to simply get related. But the centre of this was Indubala-my grandmother. Jatindranath was a learned man and he liked to write in Bengali and in Sanskrit. Long after he was dead and gone I discovered his manuscripts. He became unhappy when my father left a job in the AG office for trying his fate in some business-the thing which he understood little. However my father joined a bank in its Ranchi office after the natural death of his business. But what hurt Jatindranath much when my father left Ranchi after being transferred to Calcutta. We started living in Baranagar in a rented house which had an asbestos roof. It was in a typically dingy lane and peopled by those who were alien to me. I wept in the night month after month and prayed to Sri Ramakrishna for our return to Ranchi. Sometimes in summer vacations I went to Ranchi alone by Ranchi Express( Now it is Ranchi-Hatia Express). In the morning when the train chugged through the dense forest flanked by hills on both sides I smelt the burnt coal of the engine and felt the fragrance of Ranchi. As soon as I reached our house I touched the walls of the house and tears rolled down from my eyes. Indubala calmly touched me and told that it was my house. There was no personal address in Ranchi which received as many letters and articles as did the following address. Jatindranth Ghosh, “Saradalaya”, North Office Para, Dorunda, PO: Hinoo, Ranchi I believe in rebirth after death. So when I was compelled to live in Baranagar, in Calcutta, I found myself living in another world. Calcutta was a contrast to Ranchi. Calcutta appeared to me ugly and rough and if the city lacked the one most important thing of life, it was delight of mere existence.Perhaps I had to experience two lives in a single birth. I could never compromise with my life after coming from Ranchi. I felt myself most unfortunate man –a man who had lost his birth place-his motherland. Long-long after this when I began to gather myself I met the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. And I again felt the delight in a person. He was Sachindranath Chatterjee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He belongs to another tale. So from Sri Ramakrishna to Sri Aurobindo I have had the experiences of more than one birth. But it is a single being and all is merged as a single feeling as the innumerable stars in the sky above and the chirping of the crickets below are caught in the single experience of silence. I am unmoved in it.

Presidential Form of Government in India

What if Manmohan Singh had in his cabinet Bhagawati Prasad as his finance minister instead of Chidambaram, P.T. Usha as his sports minister, Narayan Murthy as information and technology minister instead of A. Raja, Debi Shetty as his health minister instead of Anbumani Ramdoss, Shashi Tharoor as his foreign minister in stead of Pranab Mukherjee, etc? These alternative personalities have backgrounds in their respective fields and required knowledge as are essential to guide him in proper and meaningful governance. One may have justified doubt whether Manmohan Singh feels at home with most of his cabinet colleagues and given the freedom to choose persons to assist him in his governance –most of the ministers would not have been there in his cabinet. But Manmohan Singh does not have that freedom to exert his will so far he has to work in the parliamentary set up as it is in India. The party in power (even the parties of the alliance that are not party to governance) determine the portfolio management out of their political conveniences. So an MP who has a dubious and not so clean background is allowed to get a place in the cabinet only because of his acumen to win an electoral battle. An MP who has had no expertise in and no contribution to any field of national, social and political life of this vast country holds important portfolio only because of his proximity to the head of the party which needs him only for the internal interests of the party. The political parties indulge in divisions in casts, religions etc to win electoral battles. In many cases these persons hold links with criminals and employ them to do things for their personal interests detrimental to collective good. The promoters or real estate developers violate norms and rules to grab land illegally or to make constructions not permissible officially by municipal norms with the support of their political masters. The police do not act against a criminal if he is close to a minister. It’s no use of increasing the number of examples to tell about the nexus between the criminals and politicians. Everybody in India knows it. This situation ensues from the very system of parliamentary democracy of India which is a mere copy of Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately there were no visionaries in that wee hours of independence who could determine the right system of polity that could enable the vast poor and uneducated people to seek a government who could deliver what they required. People require to be guided in their potentiality for building a strong nation. But here in India they have been utilized as vote banks for serving the narrow interests of political parties. The founding fathers of our constitution –however worshipped as great persons were not visionaries to foresee the impropriety of this system in the Indian context. They are exaggerated in their images. Nehru was a romantic dreamer and much anglicized and in spite of his renowned book- Discovery of India, he failed to create a native atmosphere wherein India could breathe for a healthy life. Ambedkar was not at all a wise person to grasp India in her totality. He appears to be someone who is expert in matters of law and nothing more. There were no such persons in 1947 as comparable to the great personalities that came in the latter part of the Nineteenth century. India required a Balgangadhar Tilak, a Franklin D Roosevelt, a Lala Rajpat Rai or a George Washington, a de Gaulle to help her taking off for her desired destiny. Unfortunately her fate fell in the hands of some mediocre persons who were not the best sons of this country which gave births extraordinarily wise people. So India did not find her path when she was born after hundreds of years of alien subjugation. The executives who are not at all worthy of being elected find their places in the parliament only because of their maneuvering politics. So we Indians are governed by dishonest and uninformed politicians whose only motive is somehow to get elected in the parliament that can serve better their families and relatives. These executives are not loyal to even to the parties they belong to. It’s not surprising at all as their very ambition is to gain personally. So sometime if prudence bids for a more stable future they do dot hesitate to switch over to a prospective party against which they fought to win the elections. In times of crisis of forming governments when no party gets the absolute majority mark the parliament turns into a horse trading market and millions of Rupees have changed hands for buying the MPs in order to capture the seat in government. In 1984 at the behest of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi an anti defection bill was passed in the parliament. But this floor-crossing or defection can not be checked. Now a sizeable number of MPs –when they feel to get more including ministerial berths in a new formation –they ‘split’ from the original party without attracting the rules of anti-defection. The situation has become worse when any of the two major political parties –The Congress and the BJP could not form government on their own numbers. So an opportunistic and unscrupulous combination is formed to grab power. If a government is formed with allies of disparate policies it becomes impossible to take major political and financial decisions even if that is necessary for the country. In such combination the small and regional parties (and some who are not part of the government, but as members of the alliance that help the majority number) insist on parochial policies and fund allocations that help only a minor community or a regional centre depriving the real beneficiaries. I should make a general example of the lack of motive on the part of the government to improve or develop the condition of some states only because of the bias of executives. The whole north-east part of India have been deprived of proper governmental assistance and again on the other hand for positive support of some political leaders thousands of Bangladeshi people were allowed to settle in these border states for communal and electoral benefits. This has created demographic imbalance leading to serious discontent and combined with economic deprivation the secessionist tendencies have grown up. The honest, efficient and brilliant officers are not allowed to work in accordance to law of this land. It is quite natural that the dishonest MPs can not be at home with the honest officers. The most glaring example of shameless action has been evident when the most honest and efficient police officer –Kiran Bedi –was forced to resign from service. Kiran Bedi was the only police officer who attained a celebrity status both nationally and internationally. Can the Chief Minister of Delhi provide reasons for such injustice? India is now among a few countries which top in terms of corruption, illiteracy and poverty. We frequently boast of our polity and its stability. But it actually suits us in our opportunism and mediocrity. Indians are not upstart and insignificant people to make experiment with. It’s a most distinctive people and the people are rooted in a profound cultural consciousness and among one of the best peoples of the world. But they had to pass through degeneration under foreign rules. For the last two hundred years before they had been ruled not by themselves as they had not found the opportunity to self-rule. So when the opportunity came they were imposed on by a few leaders, with the system of parliamentary democracy. India would have grown much faster than China had she not wasted much of her time in parliamentary democracy. Even Hindu-Muslim conflict would fail to be an issue under a proper political system. Sri Lanka had tried with this system but after a time she left it for a French Presidential system i.e. combining presidential rule with a parliamentary government headed by a prime minister, which I think, is not suitable in Indian situation. In the French system the head of the government is the Prime Minister, who is nominated by the majority party or coalition in the National Assembly. The Prime Minister recommends Ministers to the President, sets out Ministers' duties and responsibilities, and manages the daily affairs of government. He issues decrees and is responsible for national defense. As per Shashi Tharoor “...given India’s fragmented party system, the prospects for parliamentary chaos distracting the elected president are considerable. An American or Latin American model, with a president serving both as head of state and head of government, might better evade the problem we have experienced with political factionalism.” Indira Gandhi, at one time thought of French Presidential system and as per some press leaks she discussed the matter with the then visiting French President. But nothing further could be heard thereafter. Only Charan Singh divulged it and opined that it was only the American system he was prepared to accept. At that time some journalists and a few veteran politicians were vocal for a change of system. But it was for a short period and then the debate failed the steam for a national issue. But what is an American system at all? In the US the President is not directly elected by the people but direct involvement of the people in general helps the President to be elected. The presidential election takes place every four years. People across the country cast their votes for whichever candidate they believe will do the best job. Votes are counted, and this is called the popular vote, but it is more than a popularity contest. This is where the Electoral College comes in.The Electoral College is a group of people who gather to cast their votes for the various presidential candidates. When the Americans are casting their votes for the presidential candidates, they are actually casting their votes for electors, who will cast their votes for the candidates. So they form an electoral college for electing the president.When all the electoral votes are counted, the president, with the most votes gained by him or her, in this way, wins. In most cases, the candidate who wins the popular vote also wins in the Electoral College. The American President wields wide powers. The President and his or her cabinet, for example, are not members of Congress, unlike the British or Indian Prime Minister and his or her cabinet, who are all members of parliament. The all three institutions –the Congress, President and Supreme Court are so devised in a system where checks and balances in which the three branches of government work separately from each other. Some may argue that an American President may be an authoritarian so far as the powers he/she wields. But no American President has so far been an autocrat. But in India –Indira Gandhi proclaimed emergency even not discussing the matter with all her cabinet colleagues for their approval. Moreover to offset the autocratic tendencies of the president –an executive chief minister or a governor for a state should be directly elected as it is in the US. I think that considering all the aspects of Indian situation the model of American Presidential system is the best available model for India and a change over to this model is urgently necessary. Otherwise the disrespect and loss of faith in the government may lead to anarchy. Indian cities and towns are fast being ghettos of criminals-who act under the secure umbrella of petty politicians on whom the big leaders depend in times of electoral battles.

But why it has not been discussed in national level and what are the main obstacles for a switch over? We Indians have fallen in a trap. For a change of system the matter must get approval from two thirds members of the parliament. Will they –the executives ever agree? Once elected an MP in the parliament –enjoys enormous perks and family pension securities. But apart from this official payments they get access to earn form various sources including businessmen. This evil is two-fold. First this means that joining in politics is lucrative and so the persons who have power –both money and muscle –make it do or die ventures to get somehow elected. And secondly once elected they are after personal privileges. So this is a vicious circle. More so that these people will never allow for a change of system. So this is fait accompli for India unless there is a popular upsurge against the system. ADDENDUM-(Tamil Nadu) I need for an extension with reference to the above as a separate emphasis here to enunciate my basic point in another scenario. This does not run with the same aim as it is specifically related to an Indian state-Tamil Nadu; but it’s an issue not absolutely unrelated to the system of our polity, the theme of my discussion. I have visited Tamil Nadu several times and found the people living in a well organized society. I visited TN first in 1971. The city of Chennai has undergone a huge change in almost half a century now. No city in India is better administered in India than Chennai. Tamils are an ancient race and they are bearer of a very rich culture. Their language is the oldest among the other Indian regional languages. Their contribution to the spiritual tradition of this ancient country is immeasurable. And in no way this race is un-Indian essentially. The language of Gujarat is as alien to Bengalis as Tamils. Even the language spoken in Chattagram (now in Bangladesh) is more near to the Myanmar border area people than the Calcuttans. But both are Bengalis. So I wonder why the people of TN like to feel themselves as separate from the mainstream Indian people. The Vindhyas have long been ceased as north-south divide. The Tamils are found everywhere in Central government offices as efficient and qualified executives. The same is equally true in private sectors. The TN produces the best scientists of international standards. It’s from my own experience I have found that an educated Tamil speaks more fluently in English and even in Hindi in Mumbai than a Bengali generally. But in politics they like to remain close to their regional parties which have no existence in the rest of India. The two main parties are like two individual companies headed by two persons whose only motive is to keep the parties as their personal zamidaries. I can not reconcile how such a great race like to remain as the subjects of two persons. It is because of this parliamentary system. Tamils feel it not comfortable (because of thousands of years of living in other side of Vindhyas) to be ruled by the pre-dominant North Indians. This psychology has been narrowly exploited by the regional parties. As I have told earlier –this could have been avoided under a Presidential system. India as a whole suffers from not having the Tamils in the mainstream politics. Most of the educated and broad minded Tamils, I have no doubt, do not like these parties but they do not find any alternative. The Tamil Nadu Congress is nothing but a bundle of stooges of the north-Indian Congress, especially after Kamraj Nadar. So the genus of Tamils is lost in Indian politics. There must be a balance of powers between the states and the centre; but not such a centre which may be predominantly non-Tamil. We should not fail to make a non-Tamil face of India. This is equally true of other non-Hindi states. Psychologically, men do not object to living under a ruler common to all. So in a family most often there are not so much quarrels amongst the brothers when the father is the head of the family. But in absence of a common head, we like part with from one another.

India and a probable recession in the US

In my earlier writing (dated 1st October) I wrote under the topic ‘Towards One World’ that “When a meteorologist says that the atmospheric pressure and the movement of air currents are the cause of a depression leading to sudden heavy downpour, we understand him. But we are yet to believe, let alone know precisely that collective human movements have behind them similar forces. Collective human action is more complicated than weather systems and therefore unpredictable. And for that matter, even the weather is often not all that predictable” I meant that whatever is related to the complexity of collective human behaviour mere mechanical or mathematical tools are not helping to precise predictability. It is the same when we find the economists working with the same data are not in unison in predicting the rate of growth of economy in India. Almost everyday the economic experts tell you in logical ways the future levels of economic variables. And the every ‘logical’ prediction differs with the other and sometimes the predictions are wide off the mark. This is very natural that the economists feel interested in discussing whether a global recession will plague the world in the next year. The question is relevant in a more globalized world now as a ripple or stir here in China or there in the US make its effects in India and other countries. Very often in India and in the world in general the economic growth rate of China is a much discussed subject. China as per some is expected to grow at an annual rate of 8 per cent during the 11th Five Year Plan (2006-10). But from a more elaborate exercise we find the following chart.

So from the above it is evident that in near future the rules and the conventional tools used to determine growth position will compel the economists to rewrite the development economics to explain this unprecedented growth. In India the experience is also good if not admirable. But the America is still the guiding factor for the economy of the world. It is because the economy of the US is the largest in the world. And almost all the countries are crucially related to the US economy. If in the US there is a sharp fall in overall demand it will cause serious concerns to the governments of other countries. The Indian government has all along been boosting exports. But now in the software industries it is not as lucrative as before. But before discussing about the US economy we should know about sub-prime mortgage. Sub-prime lending, also called B-paper, near-prime, or second chance lending, is the practice of making loans to borrowers who do not qualify for the best market interest rates because of their deficient credit history. In clearer terms a sub-prime mortgage is a loan offered by a lender to a borrower with a poor credit history (meaning he has defaulted on his financial commitments in the past) against the security of his house property. Such borrowers are called sub-prime borrowers. Since the risk of default is high, these loans are offered at relatively higher interest rates compared to loans offered to people with an impeccable repayment track record. However these sub-prime mortgage loans are relatively much cheaper than completely unsecured loans to the same profile of borrowers. Some borrowers in the US who have otherwise no access to credit –this has helped them. If the financial institutions exercise required norms for lending it is not going to attract adverse features. But if for uncontrolled and injudicious lending practices in order to make money the financial institutions’ investments go to not credit worthy borrowers the loss is sometimes catastrophic in nature after a certain limit. This is what has happened in the US financial markets. Consequently there has been a severe cut back in credit supply in all the countries whose banking system is linked to the US financial sectors. This has also affected the US business seeking credit for sustenance. The housing sector has been seriously affected in the US as the new buyers find it difficult to get loans for housing which ultimately has led to the fall in prices of houses. Even those who can manage credit are not willing to buy in the apprehension of further fall in prices in near future. Eventually there has been sharp fall in construction sector as it is closely related to housing sector. It is now apprehended that this will have ramifications in other sectors of the US economy. The housing sector in the UK has already been affected and threatened the earlier boom. The Bank of England-(the Central Bank of UK) has reduced the bank rate by 0.25 per cent with the hope of raising liquidity in the British economy. Japan has also been facing the problem. But despite this issue of sub-prime mortgage one can not predict for certain that economic recession is a must in near future. Whatever the problem the US still maintains a positive growth rate along with Japan and the UK, the sliding down of the rate notwithstanding. Now it all depends how the governments step in to liberalise the credit policy. But as the liberalized credit policy leads to expansionary monetary policy and is bound to carry the adverse effect of inflation. So the economists are faced with the perennial problem of untying the knot between inflation and growth. Minor inflationary trend is not unwelcome for a positive index of growth as in the case of the UK where the growth rate is positive despite the inflationary rate of two per cent even when the oil price is in all time high level. But how a probable recession in the West will have its effect in India and China? This will depend on the intensity of inflationary course these countries may have to tread on. The economic market of China is much larger than Indian economy. So the effects of recession in the West will naturally be different in the

se two countries. If there is a recession in the US and its economy will move southward i.e. if the US market will be shrunk it will less accommodate foreign exports. In that case Chinese industry will be in jeopardy and it will have to seek alternative markets or countries for sustenance. But Indian export market is far smaller than China and for that matter she will not have to fall as lower than her neighbour. This can not allay the suffering as Indian software market will definitely be affected in a great way. Indian market is much localized and for that matter it is immune from shock from international tremors in the developed countries. Moreover a recession in developed economies might increase outsourcing work to India which account for over half of economy, continue to grow around 8 to 10 per cent.

The World of Mind

On a foggy winter morning standing on the gate of your house you find some figures are coming along the road that stretches before you. You can not recognize them. They appear to be blurred figures. Even you can not know for certain how many are there and whether if all of them are human beings. The small ones may or may not be animals. Slowly more they come near to you the more they appear clear in their contours. Yes there are two men, one woman, one little boy and a dog. They now stand before you and the elder man says “Hello!” All of them live just beside your house as good neighbours. And you know them for many years since you began living here in this house. They went to the countryside a week ago and now are retuning. There is nothing wrong in you in not recognizing them first at mere a hundred feet from you. It’s a foggy day. The fogs are terrible obstacles for sight. The real –very real becomes hidden. As they have gone past for there house –you find none-none around you anymore. You remain alone as if the world has gone into hiding. But you are not sad as you know that everyth ing is there as it is and as you know them. This sheath of fog has veiled everything before your nose. The same was true for your neighbours when they also failed to identify you from a little far for this veil. So for both for your neighbours and you it is as simple as anything. You know that the fog would vanish under a stronger sun a little after and the world would appear in clear identity. Everything is known to you and this naughty fog can not play such tricks for a long time. But are you sure that you see and conceive your neighbourhood and the neighbours in the right way in normal conditions? Our confidence does not always carry us to realities. But before answering the question I’ll turn the problem in another way. Let me see whether you look as real as you are. You know yourself and know also that you can determine many of your daily routines. But I should first want to know whether you know your tomorrow-how it’ll be like. No –anyone of us knows the exact future movements that beforehand. Whether you’ll brush your hair in the bathroom or in your room is not predetermined. What you will think then- about your next food or your friend’s problem? Are you certain that you will not think of enjoying a movie after your office hours? You may be in a mood to visit a friend whom you have not seen for a long time. Or you may think of returning home soon to complete your unfinished writing. You may be in many moods after your office which you are not aware of now. It’s because you have no control over your mind and for that matter any control over an overall direction of your life also. You do not know what you will think with your own mind the very next moment. Except a very few ones people like you are unknowingly sliding to a destiny obviously not of their choice. You like to name this fact as fate. But if it is that you love to take as your defense then make sure that you have allowed it to step in through your unguarded moments. But I am not here about emphasizing on morality with regard to your nature, least of it, as I see you through your mind. My point is about your mind-the very element you human kind is inclined to depend on more than anything else to know and determine the course and events of your life. You may argue that it is pre-planning that you can form with your mind. But are you sure that your planning will get through? And are you convinced that you are planning rightly or no other planning will replace it with another one in future? Your mind has its limitation because it is not based on all the truths that are there behind your nature and beyond your sight. But before coming to the question of your ability to direct your movements with the help of your mind let me return to the situation where the morning fog blurred the world before your sight. The fog is a temporary external phenomenon to bar a world from your sight. But you are not aware of another fact where you yourself are a blurred existence even to you. You are not what you are actually internally. Your instruments by which you see, know and conceive a reality are not as developed as are able to grasp a totality in which you live. The biologists are not certain whether all the animals feel and see the world in the same way as we do. Some says contrary to the traditional belief that the bulls can not perceive the red colour. Some reptile like snake can not hear according to some. Whatever it may be it is after all interesting to know how the world differs in the perceptions of a dog and a bird. We can not come to a conclusive truth from studying the reactions only. But it’ll be more interesting to know whether you are right in your perception of your own being. You have not been born on your option and the different parts of the organization that you know as you have not been made according to your own plan like that of an engineer making an airplane with his own ideas. Even the external substances you are made of are not of your own making. You have grown and become you like that of a plant growing up into a tree without its own effort. There’s no difference between you and a tree so far as one’s own option in the process of becoming what both of you are now is concerned. Unlike a tree you have something you call mind with which you know that you know ‘all about you’ and explain your existence in terms of your mind and you think that what you think, see, feel, hear etc are in right ways. When you find that you are alone in your room you feel lonely as there is none that appears to your sight. You are convinced that your eyes can see in the right way. And your feeling of loneliness is a real feeling. For all this you get support of your mind. But if I say that all this is mind’s own business and not yours? You will vehemently oppose my proposition because from your own experience you know that the mosquito flying over your head –if it bites, you will feel pain from its sting. You know even more that a disease may follow from its bite. So by knowing it from your experience you are able to apply your mind to prevent it from biting. You know that when there are several persons in your room talking you can hear the noise and it’s caused by people. So noise and the source of noise are very much related to your conception. You know that your very existence will be in jeopardy if your mind leaves you. Exactly so. But you do not know where and how your mind exists in you. Even if you are dissected thoroughly no anatomist will find it out. But it is the main sensory element that helps you to perceive everything. Even without it you will not be able to feel a touch on your skin. So what it is? It’s not material but the materiality is conceived through it. It’s something like a link between you and the world. It’s consciousness –not the essential consciousness but a phenomenon of consciousness in mental level. Wherefrom this consciousness has come? You all know that Man did not fall on this planet from some place called heaven. Man evolved through an evolutionary process in Nature as Darwin informed you. But one thing –the very essential thing he did not mention as to what is this driving force that selects and deselects continuously in Nature. He even did not tell us what the aim in Nature is in her evolutionary drive. Is it merely playing with forms that are able to survive as the fittest in natural situations? Then mere survival through those survived is all that Nature should be content of. For that matter Nature should not have created a weakling –the Man, apparently not as fit as a tiger to survive in the adversity of natural situations. There are many unanswered questions in Darwin’s explanation on evolutionary process. Darwin saw only the phenomenon of external Nature. He did not feel the necessity of knowing the inner and conscious motivation latent in Nature. As Man is an evolutionary product with consciousness we must acknowledge that evolution is concerned with the evolution of consciousness in forms also. Man is more conscious than the formidable tiger and for that matter is more powerful than tiger. So if we examine the whole process of evolutionary path of Nature we find that the whole evolution is a process of evolution of consciousness. The Nature herself has been seeking or aspiring to be more and more conscious in her struggle against unconsciousness. In Man she finds a face to look forward. And for the first time she consciously feels her discontent for not being fully liberated. So in Man she puts herself as an aspiring light within him. It is what people call soul. She is the Mother of all the aspirations in Man. I am telling you all this only to inform you that you are not only a physical body but also a vehicle of consciousness. But the consciousness is not a divisible thing existing separately in you. You may find your body as a separate being amongst many others but you can not be separate even in your body because your bodily existence is valid through several links with the nature from which you have come or evolved. As Nature is an indivisible composite all in her is related to one another. Nobody can exist separately here in this universal nature. Yes, you are even related to animals and even all the living beings long extinct before the advent of Man. You are not separate but an individual front of the myriad whole. Do you know that that your thoughts are not yours but enter in a stream in your mind from outside? Many a times you feel sad as there rises in you a filthy or nasty desire. But generally it’s from the vital (the plane of life forces) atmosphere. It’s not yours altogether. Again let us return to the foggy morning. As you have evolved through the evolutionary passage everything of the whole path is imbedded in your deep subconscious (subconscient). You may have let tail fall of your animal body but you can not efface the animal altogether from your subconscious. We are surrounded with various levels and planes of consciousness. I should better say that we are merged in these. Yes-it is for your mind you can not understand it. Has the evolution ended in Man? We have seen that no species have come out from nature after the advent of Man. The answer lies in man himself. Man is not an inanimate stone, an amoeba, a plant, a bird and not an animal. There is a progressive sign in every successive formation in Nature and this progress is defined in terms of higher consciousness. In man the consciousness has been formed as mind. Man is a mental being. But if mind is the highest form of consciousness then we must conclude that the process of evolution has stopped in principle. But the answer –as I have told above lies with Man. Even all the human beings are not still capable of functioning from the highest Mind-the last station of the evolutionary travel so far. If you are capable of rising to the higher mind you did not have problem in seeing persons lost in fog. If you reached the highest mind you could realize that you are not alone. You could see all in you and find you in all. So is it not that you yourself still live in a blurred existence more blurring than the morning fog could do? Now I must tell you that I’m not here to discuss metaphysical matters. I do not know the future. But one thing I have realized that being in limited manhood I can’t expect a better future. I have not been born to consume even given eternity for doing so in a world where death and disease are vanquished forever. If I can be as vast as infinity and everything –every cell in me can feel absolute liberty live always one with all that are possible in the creation I can be free of myself. This is not possible with being in man only. I am convinced in my heart that Man as we see him is a creation of past. The mother who lit a lamp within replacing the nature-tells us in the language of Sri Aurobindo… O Force-compelled, Fate-driven earth-born race, O petty adventurers in an infinite world And prisoners of a dwarf humanity, How long will you tread the circling tracks of mind Around your little self and petty things? But not for a changeless littleness were you meant, Not for vain repetition were you built… Almighty powers are shut in Nature’s cells. A greater destiny waits you in your front… The life you lead conceals the light you are. [Blogger's note: I have written in a superficial way to express my thoughts. If anyone is interested to know more in detail -he or she is requested to read the book SRI AUROBINDO OR THE ADVENTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Satprem. The book can be had at the following places: Institut De Recherches Evolutives, Canada CP 41 Chambly QC J3L 4B1 Canada Institut De Recherches Evolutives 142 boulevard du Montparnasse 7510-Paris, France Mira Aditi Centre 62 'Sriranga', Saraswatipuram Mysore-570 009 India