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Author : Nona Walia ; The Times of India
Article Date : 04/10/2016 Link-  http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/index.aspx?EID=31813&dt=20160410#

Has our excessively photographed and filtered lives stopped us from making real memories and connections?
You meet an old friend at a coffee shop, click pictures, have a great time, and share it on social media. At a restaurant, as soon as the food is served, out comes your camera for the droolworthy shot that's going to make people on your timeline go green. Did you get to have that heart to heart with your friend, savour the food served on the table? No.

Why? Because...
...IF YOU DON'T CLICK IT, YOU DON'T FEEL IT
Says photographer Anusha Yadav of The Indian Memory Project, “Earlier, a photograph in a family album triggered a memory; the photograph itself wasn't the memory. We aren't making memories
anymore. The photograph that you take with your smartphone shows only the mood of the moment, and is forgotten in 10 minutes; memories are something you remember, and if you don't remember, then it's not a memory. In 15 years' time, you won't go through 25 lakh pictures to see what you ate on a particular day."

EVERY-DAY VISUAL VALIDATION
Nobel Prizewinner and renowned psychologist professor Daniel Kahneman who extensively studies the elusive happiness quotient has talked about people essentially having two selves: the experiencing self and the remembering self. To put it simply, the experiencing self lives in the present and makes minutetominute
memories, and the remembering self retains what's important, what touches the heart, what eventually becomes longterm memory. The remembering self is what nostalgia is made of. It's those few
moments you can cherish years later. Our experiencing self, on the contrary, keeps track of our everyday memories which are impossible to retain on the whole by any human brain.
        Now imagine what would happen if this experiencing self overtakes the remembering self... That's what's happening right now. Internet expert Chetan Deshpande says, “Life wouldn't be complete without your shared post being acknowledged. We need visual validation on a daily basis. What matters is what's happening right now and capturing it on camera."

CURATED MEMORIES
Even before you dress, you think about what would look good on camera, and which filters to use. A cool coffee mug with a book at a cafe, with your favourite filter, will get you a lot of `likes'. So, before you have taken the picture, you have anticipated the moment of acknowledgement; you have curated the memory instead of living in the moment, and then having a memory of it later. Psychologist Kahneman calls this `anticipated memory', where “we've become accustomed to categorising moments as memories
even before they cease to be experiences".
           Deshpande adds, “In the quest of anticipated memory, the real connection is lost. For eg., just to `capture' the perfect moment, lovers lose an intimate moment that could have been a lifelong
memory in their minds. In this Culture of Cool, people don't have the patience to wait for a moment that would actually be
worthy of remembrance they'd rather create it.“ But can you really call these perfect moments memory?
          Student Aishwarya Nangia, 17, explains, “This generation believes it's only as attractive as the last uploaded picture. There's immense pressure to create a conceited selfimage through our favourite filters. This keeps us from knowing our true selves or experiencing a real moment of connection."

WHY THE BRAIN CAN'T RETAIN MEMORIES ANYMORE...
There is a neurological fallout of the addiction to click and store. Neurologist Dr Shirish M Hastak believes digital storage has limited our mind's capacity to retain memories. “Our brain normally processes 120 bits of information per second.Hence, we frequently cannot register information beyond a certain limit. The dilemma of the present times is that the information overload quickly goes over this limit (120 bits per sec), and with multiple information and visual bombardment, the brain has a diminished capacity to register, and hence cannot recall, thus leading to memory problems from an early age."
       Imagine the irony. On a daily basis, we are desperately trying to capture a moment for posterity all the while forgetting to live in it. On the other hand, we are forgetting half the things anyway as our brain doesn't register information beyond a point. We do not have any scope left to create any real memories, do we?

In 66 years, only six women judges in SC out of 229 ­Times of India 4/8/2016

In 66 years, only six women judges in SC out of 229 ­

Times of India 4/8/2016

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/In­66­years­only­six­women­judges­in­SC­out­of­229/articleshowprint/51676297.cms 1/3

In 66 years, only six women judges in SC out of 229 TNN | Apr 4, 2016, 03.36 AM IST Printed from S hani Shingnapur village in Maharashtra is the latest battlefield for women's equality. Several attempts by women to enter the Shani temple to break the custom that bars their entry have met with resistance. Ironically, the ancient temple is dedicated to Saturn, a planet that astrologically governs the character and well-being of people without discriminating between man and woman.

 It is difficult to say whether women's entry into a temple will usher in equality in a country that has for centuries discriminated among human beings on the basis of gender, caste, colour, creed, lineage and money. For example, will it force khaps to respect a woman's right to choose a life partner?

Women have periodically stormed many male bastions. I will not cite greats like Lata Mangeshkar or M S Subbulakshmi to drive home the point. But Indra Nooyi, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chanda Kochar, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, Ekta Kapoor, Shahnaz Hussain are only a few among the many successful women who have done exceedingly well in a male-dominated world.

We all know Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest in 1984. We also know Santosh Yadav, the first woman in the world to climb Mount Everest twice. But do we know who Arunima Sinha is?

At the age of 24 in 2011, Sinha preferred to fight a gang of thugs in a moving train than surrender her gold chain. They threw her out of the train. One of her legs was amputated. Three years later, she scaled Mount Everest to become the world's first woman amputee to achieve the feat. Such stories never get eyeballs on social media. Absence of glamour? In the world of Nooyis, Shaws and Kochars, how many of us know Jyoti J Naik.

In 1973, at the age of 12, she joined Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad, an organisation which was started in 1959 by seven women with a modest loan of Rs 80. From storekeeper, she worked hard and gradually climbed the ladder to become the president of the organisation, which is today a symbol of women's empowerment, employing over 30,000 women.

Lijjat Papad, despite providing employment and honour to women, could not compete with the glamour quotient of banking, finance, sports or the celluloid world. We and our inherent notions have created this barrier for women, who now want to notionally break it by storming into the Shani temple. The Shani temple doors will surely open for women. If not today, tomorrow. But despite the doors of the temples of justice — the courts — being open to women for decades, why have so few women entered it as judges?

After striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission, a five-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice J S Khehar was examining the nature of reforms required to be infused into the process of selection of judges.

Women lawyers made a vociferous plea — the collegium which selects judges must shed its inhibition to choose woman lawyers as judges. "Look at their numbers. There are just 62 women judges compared to 611 male judges (in high courts) in the entire country," was their refrain. Justice Khehar replied, "What is the ratio of female advocates to male advocates? Ratio of female judges to male judges must be in the same ratio." Justice Khehar's response made them present statistics and plead that the collegium must not resort to ratio-based selection of woman judges.

They said women were allowed to practice only in 1922. At present, of the 24 high courts, nine do not have a single woman judge. Three have just one. Since 1950, when the Supreme Court was established, only six of its 229 judges have been women.

 In the judgment striking down NJAC, the SC had quoted an exchange between the then President and the Chief Justice of India regarding selection of judges.

President: "I would like to record my views that while recommending the appointment of Supreme Court judges, it would be consonant with constitutional principles and the nation's social objectives if persons belonging to weaker sections of society like SCs and STs, who comprise 25% of the population, and women are given due consideration. Eligible persons from these categories are available and their under-representation or non- representation would not be justifiable."

CJI: "I would like to assert that merit alone has been the criterion for selection of judges and no discrimination has been done while making appointments. All eligible candidates, including those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, are considered by us while recommending names for appointment as Supreme Court judges. Our Constitution envisages that merit alone is the criterion for all appointments to the Supreme Court and high courts. And we are scrupulously adhering to these provisions. An unfilled vacancy may not cause as much harm as a wrongly filled vacancy."

Under no circumstance can only 6 women judges out of the total 229 in 66 years be a fair outcome of any "merit-alone" selection process. If women can climb Everest, head huge banks and financial institutions, run successful business houses, surely they can be good judges. The need of the hour is a change of mindset, both for the collegium headed by the CJI and the tradition bound Shani temple management.

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5 PhD theses on this class III­ dropout 'Padma Shri' poet --­ Times of India

5 PhD theses on this class III­ dropout poet 

Times of India 3/31/2016 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/

 He has barely attended school, but five scholars have based their PhD reserarch on this writer and poet from western Odisha who received the Padma Shri from the President on Monday.

Haldhar Nag, the 66-year-old poet in Kosli language, remembers all the poems and 20 epics that he has penned. Sambalpur University is now coming up with a compilation of his writings - Haldhar Granthabali-2 - which will be a part of the university's syllabus.

"He remembers whatever he writes and has been reciting them. You just need to mention the name or subject. He never misses anything. Now he attends at least three to four programmes every day to recite his poems," said a close associate of the poet. Nag told TOI, "It's great to see the huge interest of young people in poems in Kosli. Everyone is a poet, but only a few have the art of giving them shape."

Nag has never worn any footwear and always dons a white dhoti and a vest. "I feel free in this attire," he said.

 Born in a poor family of Ghens in Bargarh district of Odisha in 1950, Nag could attend school only up to Class-III. He dropped out after losing his father when he was 10. "Life of a widow's child was tough," Nag said, adding how he had no option but to work as a dishwasher at a local sweet shop.

Two years later, a village head took him to a high school where he worked as a cook for 16 years. "But soon, a number of  schools came up in the area. I approached a banker and got Rs 1,000 loan to start a small shop selling stationeries and eatables for school students," Nag said.

 It's during this period, Nag wrote his first poem 'Dhodo Bargachh' (The Old Banyan Tree) in 1990, which was published in a local magazine. He sent four poems to the magazine and all of them got published. "I was felicitated and that encouraged me to write more. I started touring nearby villages to recite my poems and got huge response," he said.

Known as Lok Kabi Ratna in Odisha, Nag, who draws his themes from the rustic surroundings, writes mostly on nature, society, mythology and religion. He also takes up the cause of the oppressed and social reforms through his writings. "In my view, poetry must have real-life connection and a message for the people," Nag said

Girls as good as boys in maths and better than boys in language: NCERT survey Times of India

3/27/2016 Girls as good as boys in maths: NCERT survey Times

of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/GirlsasgoodasboysinmathsNCERTsurvey/

articleshowprint/51449353.cms 1/3

Girls as good as boys in maths: NCERT survey

TNN | Mar 18, 2016,

N EW DELHI: The notion that girls are not good with numbers and science is just a myth, if data from a nationwide survey of more than 2.7 lakh students is any indicator. The survey conducted on Class X student showed girls performed on an equal footing with boys in mathematics, science and social sciences.

The study, however, upheld another common conception — that girls have better language skills. Girls outperformed boys in English and other languages in the survey conducted in 2015 by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in 7,216 schools following different boards across 33 states and Union territories.

 

The study also highlighted rampant under-performance among students in rural settings, those studying in government schools and hailing from underprivileged backgrounds, such as Dalits and tribals.

Another disturbing trend was the poor showing in science and maths by students in a majority of states. Scores in science were below the national average in 24 states.

In maths, the survey showed 21 states falling below the average. In general, students struggled the most in subjects that involved numerical problems and practicals. The study also showed that a few states were far ahead of the rest.

In mathematics, only four states and UTs performed way above the national average while students from 21 states and UTs were assessed to be significantly below the average. In science, as many as 24 states and UTs were below the national average even while a large variation was found in scores within states.

"The survey revealed that the majority of the states and UTs are performing below the overall average score in all subject areas... Low achievement is largely an outcome of lack of conceptual clarity and understanding," says the report.

On average, just 41% of the questions on English were answered correctly. In mathematics, the percentage was even less (40%). It was slightly better for science (43%) and social sciences (47%). It was only in modern Indian languages (MIL) that

students on average managed to answer more than half the questions correctly (53.5%).

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‘History presents India’s angry young people as dull … don’t make Indian women goddesses …TOI Interview of Sunil Khilnani

‘History presents India’s angry young people as dull … don’t make Indian women goddesses … there are many ideas of India

March 18, 2016,  Srijana Mitra Das in | Edit Page, India, Q&A | TOI

Sunil Khilnani is a leading Indian academic and author of ‘Incarnations: India in 50 Lives’. Khilnani, who’s at the
Penguin Spring Fever Festival, spoke with Srijana Mitra Das about making women invisible or invincible in India,
why India’s been presented with a relatively dull past – and whether biases shape our understanding of the present:

You draw portraits of 50 remarkable Indians – with six women.
I hope everyone will be as outraged as i am at how few women there are in the book. It’s a reflection of deep-set Indian patriarchy. If you go back more than 150 years, you don’t find many primary sources to reconstruct the life of women. One of my criteria was to use primary sources – not spin another mythological or legendary story. The lost treasure of Indian history is the voices of its women. Their portraits themselves are extraordinary. Amrita Shergill, as a young woman trying to make a career in a world so dominated by men, is amazing. The steeliness of her will is admirable. The counterpoint is Subbalakshmi, who suppresses much that’s remarkable about her and pretends her husband makes her career. Our tendency is to make women into goddess figures – Rani Jhansi is an example. You strip away what’s human about them. You undersell their real achievements by not looking at their contradictions.I wanted to demythologise – to rehumanise.

Would you agree with Ashis Nandy that mythologising women leads to real Indian women being punished for not living up to ‘goddess’ standards?
Yes. Inhuman standards emerge – which are used to justify inhuman treatment.

You feel India’s accustomed to ‘exemplary’ histories.
Well, this business of turning real figures into exemplary figures becomes an instruction in virtue – for most people, that’s a turn-off. I found so many venerable, staid old women and men of Indian history were actually rebellious, angry, upstart young people! Guru Nanak was extraordinary with radical ideas about women, food, dress. He was an angry young man! But the history we’re taught drains out the human interest to produce a single-file procession of figures leading to the end-point of the nation. I’m saying, instead of this neat orderly line, what we have is a rabble of critiques, dissent – we’re a nation of rabblerousers! That’s why we had great moments of challenge and reform, because people were reckless enough to say, i’m not going to put up with this now. We underplay that individuality to produce this conformist past. Even with Gandhi, i found what an amazing manager of his image he was, how he does the Dandi March, whom he chooses to accompany him, what they wear, the camera crew he takes along, how he sends people in advance to enthuse villagers – Steve Jobs could learn from him! He’s so human – not just a Great Leader.

So, why this paradox – such fun figures, such dull histories?
I wish i knew! I think they get drawn into stories about the nation. There’s an imposition of different ideological narratives, whether a certain nationalism or religious identity. You smooth out edges – which is a real loss.

You portray Indira Gandhi with several edges voices, from suitcases of cash to self-proclaimed martyr hood.
That’s an extraordinary story. She was in charge of India’s government when Hillary Clinton was in her teens! But she came to be loathed too, particularly for Emergency. However, what she provoked strengthened democracy through civil society that rose against her and renewed its commitment to freedom. There’s an interesting echo of that in how people feel today about dissent being under challenge.

But academic voices, despite Emergency, Punjab, Kashmir, etc., are generally sweeter about Congress while being bitterly anti-BJP – is there an elitist bias against India’s right-wing?
I’m sure there are elitist biases, many of them. I try to move out of standard ideological narratives and say there’s a different picture – which doesn’t fit with either bias. I’m equally critical of a liberal, left position as a right, conservative one. I take heroes of the liberal lineage, like Akbar or Dara Shikoh, and show they are not proto-liberals. Their interests are very much driven by certain religious imperatives. My account doesn’t play to either of these biases – it questions them.

How does this work vibe with your Idea of India?
That was about the political foundations of modern India. This recognises there are many ideas of India – and that’ll always be something to debate about.

Link- http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Doctor-in-the-House/history-presents-indias-angry-young-people-as-dull-dont-make-indian-women-goddesses-there-are-many-ideas-of-india/

Ravi Varma: From canvas through calendar to temples March 16, 2016, Nandita Sengupta | TOI

Ravi Varma: From canvas through calendar to temples

March 16, 2016,  Nandita Sengupta  | TOI

Painter was a radical who gave three-dimensional form to divinity; today that radical iconography is being used in temples.

Next time you visit your neighbourhood temple, take a good look at some of the sculptures on display on the colourful gopuram towers. If you’re interested in India’s artistic heritage, you’ll see the signature of one of its most well-known painters. The artist is Raja Ravi Varma, the man who radically transformed religious iconography with his very human depiction of divinity a century and a half ago. 

Varma did to temple iconography what Renaissance artists did to Christian themes in Europe three centuries before him -give divinity a human face and form. “Pan-India representation of divinity as it existed before Ravi Varma was either two-dimensional or tantric (comprising linear lines). All religious iconography from Tanjore and Mysore school to Pahari miniatures to Tibetan Tankhas were either tantric or two dimensional,”  says Ganesh V Shivaswamy of the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation.

Part of the reason for the humanising effect is Varma’s choice of models. Many of his famous paintings were modelled on his daughter Mahaprabha who is the face of Saraswati, Lakshmi and Damayanti. But Varma also used people around him to depict divine or mythological characters on canvas. He used the physicality of one of the palace workers to bring Ravana to life while Rama was based on a young relative of his. And although his depiction of mythology is stylized -just as it was in the Renaissance for example -his deities are also surprisingly modern.

“His Lakshmi does not wear string upon string of necklace -she looks very traditional but wears elegant jewellery that would not be out of place in a sophisticated contemporary setting,“ says Shivaswamy . “That’s how modern he made this theme.“ Ironically , his fame and pan-India appeal has turned Raja Ravi Varma’s artistic style into a generic form. “ A lot of the stucco work on contemporary temple gopurams is based on or inspired by Raja Ravi Varma,“ says Shivaswamy. Madurai’s Azhagar Koil, for instance, depicts the birth of Shakuntala on its gopuram tower in a manner that’s obviously inspired by Varma’s famous original. “A facade of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple was inspired or rather copied from Raja Ravi Varma’s ‘Vishnu Garuda Vahan’. And the stucco work on the outer parapets of the Nanjangud temple near Mysore draws its inspiration from ‘Shankar’, ” he added.

While many of these temples are very old, parts of the older structure have now been rebuilt. For instance, the Azhagar Koil gopuram is much more recent than the original temple. Ditto for the archway in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple. “Much of this more recent work is identical to Ravi Varma lithographs,” said Shivaswamy.

The adoption of Varma by temple sculptors is understandable given how widespread and entrenched his appeal is in India. Even those who don’t understand very much of art recognize his paintings and his versions of popular deities like Lakshmi and Saraswati now grace puja rooms and calendars . Given the work done by a whole generation of prolific artists like M V Dhurandhar, M A Joshi and SM Pandit, among others, all of whom emulated him and perpetuated his style -Raja Ravi Varma’s version is now the accepted look of Hindu divinity . From being a radical, the artist has come full circle.

At Your Convenience – Kanti Bajpai TOI

At  Your Convenience – Kanti Bajpai

Times of India 28-2-15  Link- http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/at-your-convenience/

India needs a sanitation policy, not just more toilets

Indians are toilet deprived. Two-thirds of rural Indians have no access to toilets. In some parts of the country, the statistic is even worse. Nationally, only about 50% of the population has toilet access. In the second decade of the 21st century, this is a disgrace, and its physical and social consequences are massive.

Poor sanitation has ensured that Indians have amongst the highest rates of malnutrition, stunting and mental retardation in the world. Hygiene problems lead to almost chronic gastrointestinal infections which cause undernourishment which, in turn, produce stunting and retardation. We are talking about tens of millions of Indians afflicted in this way.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his credit has made improved sanitation a key policy objective of his government. He is the first Indian leader since Mahatma Gandhi to talk repeatedly about this almost taboo subject. He is not just talking about it; he is trying to do something fairly monumental for us. Since Modi’s coming to power, the government has built half a million toilets. It may well build another 100 million in the next few years.

Surely most of the sanitation problem will go away if we provide the majority of Indians with toilet access.

Wrong.

Without a full-blown sanitation policy we won’t make much of a dent in the problem. Of course, providing sufficient toilets is part of the solution. But going by the experience of other countries, including those like Bangladesh and China which have made huge gains in this area, and our own history of toilet provisioning, this is the easiest part of a sanitation campaign.

The most difficult part is getting people to use the toilets.

Indians don’t use toilets for many reasons. Some toilets are too far away to use. Some don’t have a light bulb in it and become inoperative at night. Some are located in places that are not safe for women and children. Many if not most public toilets just don’t work. There are no toilet seats, flushes don’t flush, cubicle doors are broken, there is no water and the smell, filth and insects drive patrons away. Toilets are not cleaned, the cleaning staff doesn’t get cleaning equipment (because someone has stolen it), supervisors are lackadaisical and absentee cleaners go scot free. In short, we have the usual Indian administrative story.

There is another problem. Mihir S Sharma in his book Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy tells us that perhaps 80% of rural Hindus use the fields, while only 50% of Muslims do so. Up to 40% of Hindus who have access to a “working government latrine” won’t use it, whereas only 7% of Muslims who have similar access will defecate outside. Since Hindus make up over 80% of the population, their attitudes and practices are a big part of the challenge ahead.

The problem does not end there, as Singapore realised several decades ago.

You not only have to get people to use toilets; they must use them properly. In public facilities, on Western toilets, they must resist the temptation to squat. They must leave the seat dry. They must wash their hands, even when they urinate. They must flush. Public toilets need soap, disposable paper towels, and, in all likelihood, toilet paper (since otherwise toilet seats cannot be kept dry for the next person).

The prime minister has started a debate and a process. More than building toilets, he must develop and deploy a sanitation policy – which deals with management of human waste all the way from our bodies to sewage disposal in our rivers, lakes and seas. The latter is vital. We will achieve little if we do not attend to where human waste goes and what is done to it after it has been deposited in a toilet bowl or urinal.

Narendra Modi is no fool. He is aware that he has taken on a massive task. However, as Bangladesh and other countries poorer than India have shown, sanitation is achievable relatively quickly. A determined leader and dedicated administration in partnership with civil society and citizens could give us a sanitation revolution.