Life of late...

I have been blogging for ThinkChange-India for a while now and my role in NGOpost has changed from that of contributing to more of monitoring and quality maintainance. I don't know if I blame only this, but for some reason or the other, I have been forced to betray my own personal blogs.

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One of the most worrying developments after wedding is developments in my stomach! No am not pregrent! :0) But I have put on about 5Kg, thanks to all the relatives who invited home the new couple for a feast. Now, I feel like a model - constantly uncomfortable and worried about body shape that is. I have started biking, doing surya namaskaram and finding opportunities to walk! Lets see if they make any difference at all!

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The last week of July was harrwing to say the least. My passport was up for renewal and I had an official visit to the US scheduled during the last week. I caught the potential problem early enough and applied for the renewal through the "expedited" scheme (locally called "tatkal"). But the passport despatch was lethargic. There was a small clarification required for which the intimation was typed 3 days after the supposed despatch date, posted 2 days later and reached my about a week within my travel date. By then I had paid a visit to the passport office twice and sorted out the issue. But that didn't help. There was unexplained delay, with no tell-tale signs of a need to for bribe. Finally I got the passport - the unknown reason for delay resovled for unknown reason - exactly a day after my scheduled date of travel. - Jai hind!

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Six-months after wedding, life is slowly settling down with Sriramya (my wife) finally getting an internal transfer to Hyderabad. But the current rented apartment - though judged by my friends as better than normal for the rent I pay - sucks big time! Today's rain brought a lot of water seeping right through the walls in the hallway. If it seeps through the wall within my apartment, it is well worth considering a resettlement, no matter how horrible the transition!

Together forever!

Finally one snap wher both of up look normal

Sleep july 25!

The sight of sun setting is one of the few things that make travel by train memorable!

Places in TN and its specialities

A few months ago, I have been travelling from Karaikkudi, a place in Tamil Nadu and my wife's native to Rameshwaram, via quite a few places that were familiar. Familiar not because I just knew about them, but because they were always associated with something special. So tightly associated that just mentioning the name of the places without following them up with the speicality made it sound incomplete. For example, just saying Kaangeyam, without mentioning "kaalai" (Bull) made me feel as if I am leaving something incomplete. Simiarly, Thiribuvanam "pattu" (silk) and silk brought to my mind the famous Kacheepuram.... then a series of other names and specialities! Then I began to wonder how far can one go with this. So, I sent an email to friends from Tamil Nadu and at the time of writing this blog post, the list is 35 entries long and it is at http://bit.ly/eSx3U. If you are familiar of a place in Tamil Nadu which is traditionally known for a speciality and if this list doesn't have it, go ahead and add a feather to TN's cap. But no cynical or comical entries please! I love them too, but lets create another list for that! :)

Gulmohar at Karaikudi

This Gulmohar now fully blossomed, is planted by Sriramya in front of her home when she was a child. Five of her friends decided about planting a tree and now each of their homes has such a bright tree. :)

Fool or trouble seeker?

This evening I leave chennai with profound distaste. A few times now I have been ripped off by the tricky auto walas, in chennai or elsewhere. This time i thought of standing my ground. But that gave me a day full of bad mood, in addition to the official branding that I am short tempered. Now I wonder if feeling foolish gives less of a distaste than being called an immature trouble-seeker by my own loved ones. Either way I have decided to stay away from those criminals who take the city hostage with their three wheelers even if it means walking a couple of kilometers or missing a train. But I wonder how long that would last or if that would remove the tag I have on my forehead. But if thats the only way to keep myself at peace amidst these goons, I suppose its worth the try.

Passport to passport

Standing at the queue at passport office for reissue of passport I realize how the gandhi capped freedom fighters would have felt during dhandi march. Waiting in line to face the inevitable blow. The checking officers here are no less arrogant than the british imperial police. :)

Deemed universities demystified!

Have you ever wondered how so many deemed universities have mushroomed, that too out of colleges with no reputation? The latest copy of Frontline provides answers and outlines how it all started with a politically motivated move by Murli Manohar Joshi that soon opened a can of worms.

Happy Birthday, young man!

Today is unique in the history of our family tree, at least the extent to which I know and consider. My grandfather (Shri S. Jcelebrates his 91st birthday. The first person that I know in my family to do so!

Like anyone belonging to the pre-independence era, he has been through a lot of hardships in stabilizing his family and bringing up his children. An immensely spiritual man, he has always believed that an unknown force always leads one to his or her destiny. That must have made him fearless, for I have never seen him afraid. He is a very rigid believer in consistency and regularity, not just in education, but also in games and fitness. When I was a child, ye used to say

"You have to play one hour everyday! Poet Bharati told 'Malai muzhudum vilaiyattu' (Play though the evening""

But he would allow the evening play no longer than that! He would call me back exactly after an hour, make my chant the evening prayers and get me started off with my homework. I honestly wish he had spent a bit more time staying with us (then he was at Trichy and would visit us only occasionally.) so I could have used a bit more of his regularity! :)

I have also noticed that he has been very balanced in digesting joy and sadness. Be it the death of his beloved and eldest son (who I hear was exceptional in college, before he died suddenly of unknown reasons) or the more recent convocation of my cousin Priya (who is the first Ph.D of our family and an early pupil of my grandfather), he always attributed it to God's will and took the feeling into heart in. Which explains why the young man is so young.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Thatha! :)

Photo

The picture to the right is my brother as is the one on top left. To the left is his son shashank! I know! You could tell! :)

Shradda

My niece can barely walk. But she sure wants to ensure that she knows the nooks and corners. Quite an explorer!

Reaction to new education bill

Optional 10th exam is a bad move. The schools will internally assess poorly performing students allowing them to pass on to ensure better pass percentage.

Comment on WSJ's observation on NREGA

From ThinkChange India I read an article on Wall Street Journal about India's poverty and specifically about NREGA. I commented in TC-I about the article which I am reproducing here.

Two things about WSJ's observation on NREGA

1. About moving beyond NREGA in the next 5 years (which helps survive but not escape poverty).

The author is correct about making NREGA less prominent and making training, infrastructure investment, more prominent. But given the imperfections in implementing NREGA (corruption), it would be too soon to expect the transition in the next 5 years. I suspect, it would leave a void that would be occupied by more corruption. "But is the government thinking about skill enhancement?" is the real question to face!

2. Transparency.

Well, there are concrete measures for transparency that are already delivering. For example, the wage payment are increasingly made as bank transfers to the worker rather than cash. Another example is making NREGA, RTI compliant. This empowers independent monitors like RTI activists. The Hindu Publication has followed NREGA very well. Links

The Hindu Magazine:

The Frontline survey in Jan 2009 edition: Go to "cover story" to the left of the page

My servent maid

My servent maid had an attack of fits....again! This is the second time in two months. She had her first attack in her life early last month for the first time. She hasn't showed up for work for more than a week now.

She has two kids of her own, a boy and a girl both in their primary school. She takes care of her sister's daughter too. She would have been in her secondary had she gone to school. Every time my servent couldn't show up for work, she send this girl as a replacement. I usually refuse to discourage child labour in my own small way. My servent maid talks a lot about her three kids, but never does about her husband. I don't know if he is even there. I wonder who takes care of the kids. For my part, to avoid a double whammy for her family, I pay her the full month's wage.

Drive safe lovable morons

I hate the hyderabadi driving culture. Especially the bikers who inspirationally 'pave their own way'. But now I owe them some benign words. Being a bus commuter, I frequently find myself chasing a bus only to miss it by a whisker. But almost always I find a biker stopping to give me a lift till the next bus stop. All the love i have for chennai considered, I must say hyd seems to beat my home town in this one. But you should drive more carefully you lovable morons!

Homemade sweet homemade

I would not buy a mango that looks like this from market. How would i know such an ugly mango can turn out to be so luscious? Combine that with the knowledge that it came from your own backyard as a result of absolutely no effort and it just gets sweeter! Really! What did i do two deserve this? Sow.. and reap. Thats all? :)

Yesteryear hits remind me of my past!

When I listen to yester-year hits, I inevitably remember all the incidents around when I was listening to them when the where still latest-hits.

I listen to Rang De Basanti, I still remember myself sleeping early in the only dark room of the apartment in Begumpet when I just joined my first job, when Aish played the song before going off for his CAT classes. I listen to Jeans, I remember the Engineering Drawing assignment during my first year of Engineering Bachelors' degree, and the graphite ridden chart that was supposed to have a need diagram of a cylinder!

Those good old days! Does that happen to you, or is it just me?

My verdict on the election

Now that the dust around the elections are beginning to settle after a surprise result at virtually every corner of the country, what has really come of it? A UPA government without the "support" of the nagging communist party. So, how is it going to be this time around? Better or worse?

CPI's absence should allow the UPA to be more decisive without getting into a big and often useless argument with an ally. But that may also make a big citizen activism only possible force to stop them from doing something that the society considers detrimental, and I believe the current UPA governemt has as lot of potential for that considering that there are a handful of incompetant and not-so-society-minded individuals and leadership qualities, like Azhagiri and A.Raja looking at cabinet ministries, that too ministries like IT - a sector that is almost unique selling point for India.

While I am glad that the openly non-secular BJP especially led by Advani is decisively routed out, I am simultaneously cautious about over-estimating the competence of current government. As almost in anything that has to do with India. We have to wait know what really is going to happen

Visits to temples of Kumbakonam and Thiruvelliaynkudi

I visited Oppiliyappan temple along with family and wife to pay respects to our ancestral god for a great wedding without any untoward incident. A tight travel schedule from hyderabad through chennai to Kumbakonam and then all the way back within a span of three days was made a little convenient by a well maintained air-conditioned Qualis.

I have been to Oppiliyappan temple half-a-dozen times earlier. But the visit this time was refreshing since the temple was recently renovated and the murals repainted. The temple elephant has grown up into a dignified adult from a playful adolescent he was during my earlier visit.

A short note about Oppiliyappan. It is one among the 108 vishnu's divyadesams (temples sung by at least one of the 12 aazhvars). This particular temple was sung by nam aazhvar, poigai aazhvar, paei azhwar and tirumangai azhvar. Oppiliyappan is considered Tirupathi Lord venkateshwara's elder brother and is also called Lord Srinivasa.

He marries rishi Markandeya's daughter, a reincarnation of Bhoodevi (mother earth) in this place when she was still young. So young and naive that she cooks for Lord Oppiliyappan without salt So, all the prasadams distributed to devotees here have no salt till date.

In the sanctum sanctorum he appears in a standing with rishi Markandeya seated to his left and Bhoodevi seated to his right. In one of his right hands palm is written "maam ekam saranam vraja"

After the visit, my mom suggested that we go to a nearby place called Tiruvelliayngudi, about 10 km from Kumbakonam. It was a very small village with serpentine, narrow yet relatively well-laid roads. It was as typical a village as any other in Tamil Nadu, with lush green paddy fields with fresh water gushing out of electric pumps, and with tall coconut trees bordering them. I had visited the temple in the evenings, contrary to the burning afternoon, have enjoyed the village atmosphere more fully.

The temple was ancient, and evidently very rarely visited by devotees travelling from outside the village. But was not yet in a dilapidated condition. But for a temple that is forgotten to the outside world in these modern times, it has a lot of historical and mythological significance.

The stories has that Lord Vishnu married Maragadhavalli Thayar in this place and transferred his conch and chakra to Garuda for doing so. As a result, in this place it is the Garuda who has the conch and chakra instead of the Vishnu - the only such temple in the whole world. The Lord appears in the sanctum sanctorum as blue-skinned Lord Rama, in a sleeping posture. There are only three temples among the 108 divya desams in which Lord Rama appears in a sleeping posture in different colours. The other ones are in other lesser known village temple called Tiruppullani (Dharba sayana Ramar) and in in Aadanur (Valvil Ramar).

The temple tree is Sevvazhai, a plantain that yield red coloured banana (what is English for that?). The outer wall of the sanctum sanctorum is lined with this tree and it is said that any tree growing in this particular place doesn't survive when transferred else where.

This temple is also considered a very good place of worship for those with any sort of eye-related ailment. As the story goes, Shukran was once blind and after offering prayers unsuccessfully in various temples, he gained his eye sight only after offering prayers here. For this reason, this is a shukra stalam. Further, the sanctum sanctorum has a lamp that is kept lit for 24 hours a day. This temple becomes one among the 108 divya desam because it was sung by Tirumangai Aazhvar.

I recommend this temple not only for the devout, but also for the the mythological inclined.

Going green should be easier to cause desirable impact!

I have come across enthusiastic appeals to contribute towards saving the environment by modifying the way I go about my everyday life. For example, I am piling up dozens of used batteries simply because I am yet to find an environmentally safe way of disposing them, even after actively searching for a recycling plant or safe-disposal facility close to Hyderabad. The same predicament applies to anything that can be connected to electricity from cellphone chargers to television sets. More importantly,

I find it very difficult to avoid using plastics. I buy juice in a tetrapack as against a plastic bottle, only to find that even they use plastic linings to make it waterproof. After little research I come to understand that there is no environmentally safe, affordable water-proofing alternative to plastics available to common man. If such a solution is not available, how is one going to avoid plastics?

Often those who make the transition to the green lifestyle would be forced to spend more on a regular basis!(either as cash or as time trying to figure out a green work-around). As a result, such a community will always be small. Worse, there will always be someone who says, "You know. Its too tough to be green" and will get back to the bad-old ways! (Consider the poor. They generate a lot of waste, but don't participate in waste management in proportion. But is it their fault?)

On the other hand even when solutions are available for an environmental problem, common man is not effectively sensitized. Consider the case of disposing kitchen wastes. Composting them to manure and using them as manure for plants is a tried and tested solution. However, the process of composting or the fact that such small compost bins are available in the market are known only the to environmentally conscious. Good intentions of appeals to be environmental consciousness not withstanding, a tangible impact can be achieved only if proven green alternatives are available and affordable so that common man doesn't really have to subscribe to the green movement to be green

Enroute Rameshwaram...

The railway line connecting Rameshwaram island to indian mainland. As seen from Paampan bridge. The rough rainy weather made it all adventurous B-). Lord Ram crossed over to lanka after building the now controversial Ram sethu in from Rameshwaram!

Karaikudi - A different cosmos.

In Karaikudi where i am right now, its appears like a lost world preserved. A different cosmos altogether. As if SPACE has expanded and TIME has slowed down. Yet it seems to have advanced for our times. It was divided into proper layouts in 1949.

Happy birthday Hari

Its my nephew Srihari's birthday today. He had always been interested in cars and we uncles- my brother and I fueled it thus far with different kinds of cars from hot wheels collection. This time though i wanted to buy him a comic book to shape him into a reader. I found it hard to find that suits his level. Now i have gifted him POGO's book on transportation that includes cars! That should give him some reason to read. Happy birthday Hari!

On train gripe!

It seems the coffee vendors on train are on a mission to wake you up. Once you are up and ready for coffee they say 'its done' and disappear. I wonder if they learnt it from city buses! They pass by the dozens when you want to cross the road. But disappear into thin air if you are at a bus stop.

Bowled by Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk!

I recently saw a series of talks in TED conference after a long interval (last time I saw, I was a bachelor in Japan!). An amazing journey that took me through technological superiority, psychological naivete of humans. But while they fed my cerebrum well, one speech deeply impacted my romantic and moral side.

Elizabeth Gilbert shared her insecurity about surviving success - one that she now shares with any other successful people (some of whom died because of it!) in the creative field, after the of her recently published bestseller "Eat Pray Love" in captivating 20 minute speech. Watch out especially when she talks about a 90+ poet she met and her picturesque narration of how the poem "barreled down at her with earth shaking underneath". Evidently Elizabeth is not just an accomplished writer, but probably an even better speaker.

I have placed an order for her book - and this is the first time when I have bought a book I have never heard of, written by someone who I have never heard of - purely based on her talk. She says in her talk that she wonders if her best is already behind her and if she would ever surpass her first success. I personally wonder if her book would surpass the speech that she gave on TED.

Enjoy the video!

The Alchemy

Middle class apartments in hyderabad are substandard in design. For example, the kitchen platform is so low that a gas cylinder is too tall to get under it. And its not really unheard of in apartments worth the rent Rs 9000 per month. However, we do have something to smile about. Our two balconies open out into a panoramic view. Better still it is likely to remain that way as the adjacent area is the backyard of a government college. So they are not goin to build more than two floors. Tea, biscuit, music and evenings do form quiet an alchemy with balcony!

Its all my wedding!

For shashank - my 2 year old nephew my wedding was the first exposure to the world of weddings. He enjoyed it to the fullest. After his return home, everytime if spots a couple dressed up for an occasion or hears a nathaswaram-thavil music combo. He starts celebrating as it is all 'Badhri chittappa' getting married!

"S" series and Scrabble

I don't know if it happens to others. But sometimes when I encounter something, for about a week or so, that is all I happen to encounter. For example - this will raise a few eyebrows - about a couple of years ago, almost all the girls I meet newly have had their names starting with "S". Swapna, Shweta, Sangeeta, Srujana, Shruti, Shabnam, Swaroopa, Sirsha T, Sirisha G. Sometimes a few of the girls with those names I have come across for the first time. I wonder if that particular series actually has come to an end. I am engaged to Sriramya! I have heard of a Ramya, I have heard of a lot of girls with the prefix "Sri". But Sriramya is a first. :)

While that is still there, now I am beginning to come across scrabble in quick succession. While at office, about a couple of weeks ago I heard someone talk of scrabble while passing by me. Then I thought "may be its a good gift to give for kids!". A week later, my niece who twisted her ankle in my earlier post >[:-D] received a scrabble set as she was celebrating her birthday. Now I have come across an interview of a New Yorker journalist who has wrote an article about Scrabble (registration required. Those beep!), its influence in America and how it has reemerged in its online version. In the audio, I found that India is big in scrabble. Now I am thinking I will take it all in and start off with scrabbling, and am banking on Scrabble's recurring encounter with me.

Taking the plunge

After taking a stab at various way of social intervention it seems that the way ahead seems to get slowly and clearer.

I have a school near my work that is looking for teachers.
I have my idea of doing the teaching with as much demonstration as possible.
I have the rickety infrastructure that the team at my office prepared once and gathering up dust.
I have a new set of 25 DVDs dedicated to physics demonstrations (thanks to the sincere belief in social and educational change of a few executive level managers of Synopsys!) that I have not yet started watching.

May be it is time to set aside an hour of my mornings to start teaching science. This is in a way going back to where it all started. The first of my thoughts on social change was to teach and teach at schools.

For now though, this thought has to remain as just another thought and the extent to which it fructifies over the next year hinges upon how much hit my conviction can take over the next couple of months! All the best to me!

First-aid: Do's and Don'ts

About a month ago, my niece twisted her ankle and it bloated up within like "pulka roti" within minutes. That night I happened to be there. Noticing her twisted ankle and grimacing face, I told her that the next time she twisted her ankle, she must keep keep her feet in a raised position and apply ice immediately to prevent the swelling as much as possible. Thanks to my earlier double-experience, I was fully equipped to provide first-aid treatment for twisted ankle. Pity I couldn't use my skilss in my niece's case. The poor 10-year old was limping for the rest of the week. But the incident quickly demonstrated the handiness of the knowledge of first-aid.

I found the following article on "Do's and Don'ts of First Aid" in LiveMint, which can come in as a handy guide. Recall your college days, brush up your memorizing skills and learn this one by heart! :). This is also a handy guide that should reside along with your first-aid kit!

Ads of the world

Most of the works of creativity that you would have noticed nowadays come from advertisement industry. Ads of the world is one website that seems to track all (at least a lot) the ads throughout the world, categorized into different regions and industry. There are quite a few good ones. Check out a few here!

"Alone we jump, together we soar!"

கேட்போரின் எண்ணம்

[ நூறாவது மின்பதிவைத் தாய் மொழியில் செய்வதில் மகிழ்ச்சி! ]

சில கானங்களில் வரிகள் மனதை வருடுகின்றன....
சிலவற்றில் இராகம் நெஞ்சில் இறங்குகின்றன...
பலவற்றில் பாடகரின் பண்பட்ட குரல் உள்ளத்தை உருக்குகின்றன...
ஆனால் ஒன்றிரண்டு மட்டுமே கேட்போரின் எண்ணத்தைக் கூறுகின்றன..

"நீங்காத பாரம் என் நெஞ்சோடுதான்..
நான் தேடும் சுமைதாங்கி நீயல்லவா?
நான் வாழும் நேரம் உன் மார்போடுதான்..
நீ என்னைத் தாலாட்டும் தாயல்லவா?"

[English translation follows!]

Is targeting the poor alone always efficacious?

With my on and off involvement with centers close to social development, I find one attitude that may have to be changed for better efficacy of social initiatives. Let me have the first stab at defining the attitude.

"A social initiative will produce a better impact when it is targeted towards the economically poorer sections of the society. The richer the beneficiaries are, the lesser social impact it has.."

While in general this point has a validity, it has to be revisited for every specific case. Here is an example. A team of my friends and I conducted a science demo in a private school nearby. When I talked about this, "Don't you think your initiative would be more useful to students of government schools?" was one question that popped up universally. My answer is "In my case doing it in *this* private school is likely to have a higher social impact" . Why?

1. This private school doesn't have a lab infrastructure in spite of the students paying a nominal school fee (Rs. 200/- per month).

2. The students here do have a capability to read, listen to and understand English, Telugu and Hindi which provides us flexibility in our implementation. So, it gets easier for us to get more students to start "thinking and reasoning science" - a better success rate at our initiative. On the other hand, a government school on which we are working on the ability to grasp English is lesser providing us with challenges (lesser number of teachers from our office)

Much more importantly, access to better education sure is relatively much more difficult for the poor. However, schools that fall in the economic category of the one that we are working on also face problems faced by government schools (non-availability of teachers, labs etc.). In addition to that they also suffer the ignorance of NGOs that rush to help poor quality government schools. It is almost as if these students are paying Rs. 200/- per month to be ignored!

Thankfully, in our case, we need to ignite as many minds to think and reason (in science and others..). In our eyes, whether the students have the ability to pay Rs.200/- or not, if their inclination to reason is lacking, they are equally poor! Only the former is equipped with a skill (English language) that offers flexibility for us to make a better impact.

A society, apart from being categorized into economically richer and poorer, can also be categorized into rich and poor based on other criteria. And the economically richer need not be richer (or have better opportunity) in all the other categories. Social upliftment, one must remember, is not only the upliftment of the economically poorest, but the upliftment of the society as a whole.

Reader.goggle.com

Ask my room mate and he will tell you that i read a book at about a page per day before dozing off. Now that I've started off with tamil books its worse. Yesterday i bought a book called 'Katrathum petrathum' (those learnt and those acquired) in which novelist sujatha shared his views and experiences with a sumptuous and proportionate dose of comedy and insightful facts. An engrossing read. But the best part is, i didnt have to fumble with my rusty tamil reading ability. My dad did it adding the much missed flow. Sujatha through my dad's goggles sure looks wiser.

Wood to stone

This is a piece of Wood that got buried for 200000 years and gradually turned to stone!! Showcased in Madras museum. For the historically inclined this place is a treat.

Terrorism in, parochialism out ... for now at least

I am not interested in going deep into the Mumbai terror strikes, which is already over-analyzed in all spheres. But the one silver lining that I see out of this unprecedented and audacious act is that everyone, including the politicians have for once forgot about petty parochialism. Raj Thackrey shut up for sometime now, or if he is still talking, there is none to listen. But it is such a pity that sanity on one issue has to be established only superceding it with a far worse insanity! Pity!

SE Session 11: Social accounting and auditing

Today’s session was on an interesting topic called social accounting and auditing. Financial accounting and auditing are tried and tested methods for tracking and verifying the financial status of an organization and finding out if the financial goals are met are violated. Social accounting and auditing is a parallel concept developed on the lines of financial accounting and auditing in order to measure and verify the social goals of a social enterprise.

In case of a business enterprise, when a project is taken up, one sets a financial goal for the project. As the project progresses one tracks certain financial metrics of the project that will help assess the financial performance of the project when financial audit is done.

However a social enterprise has a double bottom line of financial profit and a social impact. So, when a project is taken up in a social enterprise, similar to having a standardized financial accounting procedure that can be used for enterprises catering to different sectors, one may have standard social accounting procedure that can be used be social enterprises irrespective of the sectors they are catering to.

In social accounting, one will set a social objective that complies to the mission of the enterprise, and plan activities that achieve the social objective, while upholding the values of the organization. For each activity planned, social metrics has to be measured that provides feedback about the social impact of the activities when a social audit is conducted. This is the basic idea behind social accounting and auditing. One difference between financial and social accounting is, for the former, quantitative metrics will suffice to accurately assess the financial performance of the enterprise. But for the latter, the both quantitative and qualitative measure has to be captured to assess the social impact.

Social accounting has three steps

1. Getting ready: Social accounting is process that has to be assimilated as an inherent part of the social activity and is effective in giving a measure of social impact only in a long term (3 years). So, it is important for the members of the enterprise and stakeholders to understand the importance of the accounting. Steps have to be taken to get everyone’s approval to adopt social accounting as part of the enterprise’s initiatives.
2. Social, Economic and environmental planning: We went through a case study of a social enterprise called Good Crafts that trains women from a Mumbai slum in employment related skills like making baskets, wall-hangings, soft-toys etc., and procures their products to sell it in overseas markets and shares the profit with the women. From the case study write-up we identified the

1. mission statement of Good Crafts that addresses the purpose for which the organization is formed

Example: Good crafts aims to empower women and thus build sustainable and self-reliant communities in slums of Mumbai.

2. the values it has to uphold in the organization as it strives to achieve its mission

Example: Being non-discriminatory to the beneficiaries (slum women), etc

3. Objectives that are aligned towards the mission statement and the activities that achieve the objectives

Example: To empower women through training and creating of employment by

a) Providing relevant skill training

b) Encouraging and supporting self-employment

c) Providing crèche facilities for the working women’s children

4. Metrics that measure the effectiveness of the activities

a)      Number of courses provided (quantitative)

b)      Number of self-employed women (quantitative) and how satisfactory to the women is the quality of support provided (qualitative)

c)      Number women whose kids are enrolled in the crèche.

During the exercise we learnt that

-         the mission statement should be specific, clear and should remain the same through the completion of the project

-         each activity taken up must  be tied to a specific objective. This is because; the metric that we measure should provide us feedback about the efficacy of the activity in achieving the objective.

3. Social Economic and environmental implementation: This amounts to ensuring that relevant metrics are measured and qualitative data collected during the activity. Standard ways of collecting qualitative metrics are focus group discussions, questionnaires, surveys, and analyzing the minutes-of-meetings and status reports
4. Social, Economic and environmental auditing: Once the data is collected, a social auditor may audit the accounted metrics to analyze the social, economic and environmental impact that the social enterprise has caused and provide feedback on how much the objectives are achieved.  Based on the inputs the implementation strategy may be modified for the better. Then the social audit may be repeated the next cycle to measure the efficacy of the modified strategy. So, the minimum recommended period for the audit is two years.

Benefits:

1.      It’s a standard auditing based on a proven model. It can be applied to all sorts of social enterprise, irrespective of their area of interest

2.      Scalable: Can be applied to a whole organization or just one program of the organization

3.      It is a process. It can accommodate other tools of measurement like “Social return on Investment” within itself to make social auditing complete.

4.      Can  be used as a strategic tool; can sell the results of the audit to stakeholders and to generate more support (money or the like)

Snag:

1. Need to allocate time, finances and resources
2. Inaccuracy of surveys or scanty response to questionnaires
3. Long term project, needs change in business model to accommodate the process

Face-to-Face with Comat technologies

Cross-posted from ThinkChange-India

TC-I Fundwatch has recently reported a Rs. 60-crore investment by Omidyar Network and Unitus Equity Fund (UEF) on Comat technologies, a profitable social enterprise doing business with the rural poor.

The CEO of Comat technologies Sriram Raghavan recently talked to NASSCOM Emerge Blog and offered some good insights into Comat's success in becoming a profitable social business.

Sriram's answer to one question explains the business model of Comat technologies succinctly.

"Q. Your own business is built around the Rural Business Centres. What exactly are these?

SR: It is a very simple concept. The rural business centre is primarily an access point for rural citizens, where we use technology to deliver different kinds of services - only those that help improve the quality of life in villages. We don’t want to sell soaps and consumer goods.

I’ll give you two examples. Take government certificates such as birth, death, land and property related papers. If you have to get one from the taluk or the district office, you have to go to that particular office, wait in a long line and follow cumbersome processes. We deliver it to the village directly – it takes about five minutes for the same cost, i.e., Rs. 15 per certificate. This makes a very big difference to the rural consumer.

The other area we are in is education. There are teachers in rural areas, but the quality of education is very poor. Our centres bring live classes from best teachers in cities who broadcast their lessons online, much like the erstwhile UGC programmes. Except that here, we have two- way interaction and the students and teachers can speak to each other."

Sriram Raghavan also shared a few of his experiences with rural consumers that can come handy to a new social enterprise venturing into the villages.

"In a typical agrarian set up, income generation is a twice-a-year cycle – unlike in urban areas where we earn monthly salaries. It is important to bear this in mind as you have to position your product around this insight."

With a turnover of Rs.55 crore while improving the lives of about 10 million rural inhabitants, there should be little doubt about the success of this unique business model. But the best aspect about the venture is that it has identified one critical handicap of the Indian villages and working successfully towards eliminating it. Better said by the man himself.

"All these years, rural India has been isolated; they have been “informationally disabled”. It is now time for a change and we want to ensure that."

SE session 10: Writing fund-raising proposal

I couldn't attend this class. So, this post owes its credit to my classmate, Manmohan Jain.

1. Most NGOs overseas average about 51% earned income. The percentage for Indian NGOs is much lower. Earned income is income generated by the NGO. It could be either by
- sales of goods (T-shirts, auction of paintings by hearing-impaired children)
- volunteer activities e.g organizing a qawali nite / music concert
- beneficiary created products (hand made carpets or some other handicraft of a particular community)

2. People give to People -
At the end of the day it is a person that you are making the appeal to. It may be a foundation that makes grants, or a government body or a corporate that you are seeking funds from, but eventually the pitch is made to a person - for e.g a trustee or board member.

Similarly when making their decision they are considering you, your credibility etc. You may have a great cause, your NPO may have good track record, but still it does matter in terms who is the person appealing to them.

A fraction of funds raised may be impersonal but any large grants - the "people to people" principle applies.

3. Understand donor - what appeals to them, what is important to them, what is their process for selection.

4. Pareto principle - how 80 % efforts might only give 20% returns and often it is core 20% activities that give most of the Return Of Investments so focus on those.

5. Acronym for sources of income - GGCIE (you can refer to the slide on this)

6. Fund raising cycle - PDCA Plan -> Do -> Check -> Act

Or on similar lines

Need -> Sources -> Method -> Select / Evaluate

with the last step feeding back into the first in each case. For example, you evaluate you results and re assess/replan your needs.

A good question to answer is "How will you sustain the work after the grant runs out?"

Plan: Research sources - who will you target? Refer to GGCIE. If it is Government what schemes and programmes are available?
V K Puri's "Government funding schemes for NGOs/NPOs in India" lists several hundred schemes and can be very useful resource.

7. We went over SSA proposal format and some of the sections in that.

If applying to Companies and CSR departments, they will certainly need metrics/measures

8. A good exercise in planning phase is to project the need over time and match to appropriate sources. For example

- quick or short term needs - selling T-shirts, individual volunteer donations of small amounts

- long term needs - grants from foundations/governments. This will have long lead time and typically be larger amounts.

9. Objectives of CSR:
- branding
- employee motivation and feel good factor
- shared objective e.g KidSmart ?
- good business
- social responsibility

Went through exercise in actual writing of funding proposal. The template used is in slides 10 to 14 The class broke up into 4 groups of 2 each and spent about 30 mins preparing a proposal and then presented to rest of class.

Each was critiqued by Prof Bhargava, pointing out what was good and what needed improvement.

Some key points

- be specific in your title if you can
- have facts, clear breakdown of expenses/projected needs
- shows you have done your homework
- have measures or impact - short term/long term, even can mention associated/corollary impact
e.g rehabilitation of street children addicted to drugs will reduce crime in the locality - in 1 year impact can be seen

After the exercise we saw short video where a trustee/grant making body official talked about how they decide and how it is never a cut and dry Yes/NO answer.

- donors would want to review and evaluate
- they would want to visit and assess
- they are assessing the individual /invidividuals making the application, what is their credibility, integrity, commitment etc
- the decision takes time and combines several factors
So it is not black and white - yes/no.

Caution: Never put any fact or any statistic that is not real or cannot be substantiated

We then saw a real proposal example . Hindi Martin Institute and went over its salient points. It was a real life actual proposal that got funding.

Finally he touched briefly on results versus indicators and the LFA - problem solving technique. (I need to learn more about this).

Sricharan

My nephew

first stab at first aid

A doctor delivering the lecture first aid to school kids during a session we did. Its a first for the kids, first for the doctor and for up too. Not a roaring success. But all of us learnt.

Live accident report: Are we learning anything?

The picture didn't turn out to be clear...but two things

1. it still delivers the message
2. for once I am glad it didn't since the real scene was terrifying and nauceating (literally one more minute and I would have passed out!)

It happened right outside my residence but on the opposite side of the road, as I was walking home. I just heard the loud crash. But as I crossed the road, I knew that the guy passed out the moment he hit the ground. He was injured in the back of his head and, needless to say, it was profusely bleading.

The only thing that went right was that someone immediately called 108, the ambulence service (one good service for the insane hyderabad traffic). But what went wrong?

1. No helmet!
2. His companion, who escaped unhurt, had no clue that the first thing to do is to stop the bleeding, nor did the on-lookers. None seemed to have first few minutes after an injury to a vital organ is crucial. That guy basically racing to his death. ZERO AWARENESS OF FIRST-AID! It took another first-aid dumbo to tell him to stop the bleeding.
3. The on-going traffic dutifuly stopped to catch a glimpse of the accident and pay "homage" to the hapless victim. The called ambulence can reach to about 100-150m from the victim, but no further. The police was on scene regulating the traffic, but the flow was still slow. In this situation, if you are on scene and if you are not helping, your are hurting!

But he is just one in a billion....a piece of statistic...what is the lesson learnt...right? Look at the picture again...

SE-session 9: Project Management

I would like to start off at the last! My take home of the day! (more of a suggestion than a rule of thumb though)

Identify what your beneficiaries need, sensitize the beneficiaries about their need and your solution, involve the beneficiaries of the social initiative to participate and if possible manage the initiative.

Project planning should be approached from a mixture of top-down and a bottom-up approach. Top-down, as in using "from the book" ideas like management and leadership principles, business models etc. Bottom-up as in getting to know what the beneficiaries (or end users) want and forming strategy based on that.

The class started off with some basics about project management. It is not only a science, as it involves rational thinking, data analysis and decision-making, but also an art since it involves getting the job done using your wits.

We moved on to a brief analysis of the difference between a program and a project.

Program: Long-term or on-going activity, continually funded and has regular allocation of budget. Example: National literacy mission

Project: Usually short-term, one-time funding. Usually a program is made up of a lot of projects that achieve the purpose of a program

Following this, we discussed a questionnaire, answering which one may have planned an entire project well considering all aspects and would be ready to hit the road. This took us all the way up to the break and formed a very important learning session of the class (so, don't skip the link!)

During the second half of the session, the instructor presented the way his initiatives in eliminating rural poverty made an impact in the livelihood of the rural society. He devised and designed various initiatives for the benefit of rural poor in various sectors like agriculture, education, micro-finance, health, income generation.

He talked about the federated model of self-help group (summarized by slide-3 of the PDF doc) in Andhra Pradesh, which was a run-away hit in the whole of the country. The success of the model was summarized by the fact that about 42% of all the money allocated by the Indian government is used by AP, while the repayment rate is 98%, unmatched by any other SHG anywhere else. Delegates from other states and even countries like Vietnam visit AP to study the SHG model.

Since this post is not about singing the praise of AP's SHG models, I move beyond to aspects that are common to all the government projects (including SHGs) that he was involved.

• All project involved formation of Village organizations (VOs) which essentially is a representative body of the village. They were legally registered as co-operatives. All SHGs and VO are composed of women from the village
  
• The relevant govt. representatives train and sensitize them about the need of the co-operative. (If it is agriculture.. training is on retaining profit and eliminating middle-men during procurement... if it is micro-finance, training is on how important savings is etc..)
• Once training is done, the initiative is implemented and the outcomes are measured!

The model of sensitizing and involving the beneficiaries in various levels from management to volunteering has largely produced good results (will be evident from the slides of the session that I will post once they are available to me). But few do fail to scale up after initial success.

The whole session was finally summarized by the discussion titled "Why do projects succeed?"
highlighting the points user involvement as a participant, continuous funding, Clear understanding of goals, effective planning and setting realistic expectations of scope, quality and time involved.

By the then, we were about half-an-hour past time and we didn't even realized it. (I was especially mesmerized by the facts and figures he presented by the success stories of SERP's rural development initiatives). But he left us with a mention that goals should be SMART

Specific: Well-defined and clear to project managers
Measurable in terms of qualitative parameters
Agreed upon by all stakeholders
Realistic, as in set within the availability of resources
Time-based

Brief Profile of Mr B. Ravi Shankar

Mr. B. Ravi Shankar has completed Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Applications and also in Management (Rural development) from Xavier’s Institute, Ranchi.

Earlier he worked as a project officer in the Society for Rural Industrialization, Ranchi, Jharkhand, as a Community Coordinator in Girijan Cooperative Corporation, AP, and as a Project Director of Leather Industries Development Corporation of AP. He also has the experience of working in IT sector for sometime. Presently he is the Project Manager of Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), (IKP-VELUGU project), AP.

Staying awake

Night security guard challenging the house-keeping in chess to survive the night. Night shift is no fun. :(

The Interview with Hugh Herr

BBC has a wide range of mesmerizing and inspiring and unique podcasts. While their documentary series sweeps you away as much by its depth as by its variety, their Interview allows you a sumptuous bite into the life of some of the most inspiring, a few controversial (yet inspiring) figures. But the most likable aspect of the Interview is that most of the time such personalities are not really famous around the world. However, they are always into something that is of importance to the larger sections of society or have always done something from which others find a scope to learn from! It helps you understand that you don't have to look for role-models who are famous

Here is one such interview. In BBC's own words..

"Owen Bennett-Jones meets Hugh Herr who lost both his legs below the knee in a mountaineering accident and set out to design his own artifical legs."

Enjoy!

Courtesy BBC

SE-Session 8: Running a successful social enterprise

Today's session was very less of a presentation and more of a discussion session. The instructor started out by asking each student's objective and encouraged us to think back and identify one instance that caused a "shift" in us towards social entrepreneurship. His belief is that the answer to what social transformation we want to bring lies there (I feel while this may be true, it need not apply universally to all!).

After that elaborated on eSafal, a social enterprise that he conceived to provide an IT enabled, integrated approach to making agriculture. He discussed his initiative as a "case study" to provide an idea of what forms a successful social initiative. As part of implementing his process, he identified different aspects involved in this like

1. Investments (seeds, fertilizers) and people involved there
2. Farming techniques
3. Output (and people involved like consumer companies, middlemen).

He came up with a process to train the farmers on improved farming techniques to save on inputs (fertilizers, water), reduce waster (during transportation etc), improve quality of produce (cotton in this case).

He discussed this idea to drive home the following points (at least these are all what I perceived from his example)

• Identify your target beneficiary group in specific. (It may be kids...but are the school children or are they uneducated kids?)
  
• Identify various aspects involved in your initiative and identify stakeholders in each aspect
• Create a business model which benefits every stakeholder, so that it provides a reason for him/her to invest in it.
• When you identify a problem, track the problem all the way back to its root cause and eliminate the root cause. For example, cotton produced by farmers were contaminated by human and animal hair, threads from dress farmers wear. This costs the cotton buyer a lot of money to improve quality of cotton, he worked to modify the process used for harvesting and transportation of cotton to eliminate contamination at source, which saved a lot of cost to the consumer. This in turn translated to more money for the farmers.
  
• Remember the triple bottom line Profit, People and Environment. Measure the impact of your social initiative in terms of all the three and and in terms of social impact it has caused (improved standard of living, better education, better soil quality etc.)
• Social Return on Investment.

In an email communication to me later, Mr. Ravi summarized the session as follows.

Based on the conversation, the takeaway from the conversations I had with all of you - to start or be with an NGO - in a nutshell are

1. Identify ONE AREA which is your PASSION
   
2. Do complete study on the various aspects of that area chosen and take the best practices already at work in the world…RESEARCH, RESEARCH….
   
3. Do a pilot with a small target group and – check out all the issues, challenges that are being faced…
   
4. DOCUMENT the processes and brainstorm with similar mind set people
   
5. Create a MODEL which is a sustainable one…slightly bigger than the Pilot and showcase the sustainability and the SROI
   
6. Market the Model with a group of investors and make it work
   
7. Scale the area of operations to check out the challenges and issues being faced…
   
8. Document and fine tune the process and market with funding agencies SCALE it up in new areas.. or locations …

Bottom Line

1. ensure that the community buys in the model,
   
2. train and build capacity in the community that they take over the processes
   
3. The community pays a token amount for the services they get..
4. The other stakeholders get value for the investment they make…
   
5. Have everything transparent
   
6. Publicise it through Word of Mouth, Media, different workshops and events…DON’T be shy of talking about it….

Take-home of the day

Model the social enterprise to benefit each stakeholder, not just the end beneficiary

Calculate the Social Return on Investment

Create a process and document it well. Creating a process will help maintain a quality of implementation (the absence of the person who conceived the idea will not compromise the quality of execution). Documentation keeps every one on the same page

Brief Profile of Mr. Ravi Shankar
Mr. Ravi Shankar is a postgraduate in Operations Research and a graduate in Mathematics from University of Delhi, India. Earlier he as a member of senior Management team in Satyam Computer Services and Nagarjuna Fertilizers ltd., Hyderabad.

He is the Creator of eSafal,(a social enterprise based on application of IT in rural development).. He successfully implemented a pilot project on this enterprise in 2005. This model focused on value creation at all levels by participation and involvement of all stake holders. In 2006, this model was judged as the finalist in Global Social Venture Competition. Presently he is consultant to Government Departments and Rural Development Projects. He is also an Advisor to NGOs like Roshan Vikas.

SE-Session 7: Fund raising is not begging

I was not able to attend the session as I was out in Chennai enjoying a break...having herbal food at a Malayali health restaurant. So, I requested a classmate of mine (incidentally a keralite himself!) to capture a few points out of the session. So, I credit this work to him.

"Fund-raising is not begging...Enjoy fund-raising"

This was the punch line of Michael norton's sesion on fundraising and sustainability. Below are the important aspects of his session apart from the ppt and document provided:

• Money is not in fact never the most important thing.
• Getting too much money is a bigger problem than having no money.
• Streams of income for a sustainable model
• Concentrate on getting money from independent source.
• Vision and mission statement are useless!!! Have a vision of better world and be missionaries!
• Build relationships
• NEVER do fund-raising through email
• NEVER send mail to unknown people
• Rely on telephone/personal meetings
• Parties are effective,invite friends & friends' friends
• Story of Beacon & eggs: involved like the hen and committed like the pig
• Without local support successful org cant survive.involve local people.
• Story of New York beggars.
• Fund-raising is a relief from boredom;helps people to do what they want to do
• www.kivo.org : people helping people
• Convert NO into YES!!!
• Explained some initiatives like dinner@home, hunger banquet
• Individuals & communities as constant source of income.
• Be a donor;he urged SEOP batch to maintain a fund.

Later he went on to explain how to write a proposal and also about budgets. Check out www.365act.com

A BRIEF PROFILE OF MICHAEL NORTON
Michael Norton is the Honorary Director and a Trustee of CIVA (www.civa.org.uk).
He founded the Directory of Social Change in 1975 and was its Director until 1995. DSC is the UK's leading agency providing information, training and support to voluntary organisations. (www.dsc.org.uk). He co-founded UnLtd, the foundation for social entrepreneurs, which received the £100 million Millennium Legacy as an endowment. UnLtd makes awards of up o £20,000 to individuals in the UK who wish to create change in their communities. He chaired the International Year of Volunteers 2001 youth programme for England. He received an OBE in 1998 for services to the voluntary sector.He is the author of numerous books on fund-raising and charitable status including 'Writing Better Fund-raising Applications' , 'The WorldWide Fundraiser's Handbook' , and 'The Complete Fund-raising Handbook' , all published by Directory of Social Change.

Ordinary men to monsters or heroes

Philip Zimbaro (who is he?) talks in TED conference about psychology and the situation that makes ordinary men and women monsters and how to use psychology to make heroes and heroines out of ordinary men and women.

Watch it...its awesome!

From Madness towards Method

Be it your office pantry, or a weekend gathering of friends, when you run out of topics to gossip, all you have to do is drop in a word "traffic" and everyone one will suddenly find a story to say and gripe about the anomaly. A few socially active ones among us will take it a little forward by trying to propose a CSR initiative to regulate traffic in an area near the location of their work. But I personally believe that traffic regulation will be ineffective if the initiative doesn't involve the traffic police. I would be even better, if traffic police initiates and leads the initiative...which is why I was pleasantly surprised this morning as I was walking by the Police lines circle, as I watched the traffic police hard at work.

Standing by the sidewalk with my phone-camera, I could see that the police working with maddened determination to three things right the first time and then repeat it throughout the day, hoping to "train" the beast to comply with the order.

1. At the whistle, stop behind the stop line. Motorists wishing to take a right, stop to the right side of the road.
2. Allow the pedestrians to use the zebra crossing to cross the road
3. At the next whistle, allow the traffic flowing straight to go, while holding the traffic flowing right (or take a U-turn).
4. At the next whistle (when the traffic on the other side of the road is stopped), allow the held traffic to take a right or U-turn.

Repeat it!

Standing there and looking at the constant whistling and frantic gestures of the traffic police, I could realize that this job is so much easier said than done! The police might have chosen today, a holiday due to observance of Id-ul-fitr, to exercise this pilot but the traffic was still huge. Nevertheless, they seemed to have handled the traffic quite well.

But man! it was quite a sight to see vehicles neatly lined up against the stop-line to allow the pedestrians pass without fear of being run over! Finally, one small step towards method in what is the very essence of madness. Hope this pilot doesn't die at infancy, but grows and lives long enough to get into the subconscious mind of the average motorist to prompt him/her to follow the traffic rules.