Cutting off a Lifeline - Saraswati Kavula

Every one must be his own scavenger.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Crisp, skillfully crafted, soul stirring and shaming the foundations of neo-liberal establishments, "Cutting off a Lifeline", a film by Saraswati Kavula explains how we have destroyed the lifeline of Hyderabad, by destroying the Musi River.

The screenplay and script of the movie prods us to question our fundamentals and the mad rush we are chasing in our day to day lives.

It showcases the lopsided vision of our leaders and 'lets make a quick buck' corporation. 
It slams the present day silo-ed approach to solving problems.

The fate of Musi River is similar to the fate of most of the Rivers in other mega-cities of our country.

We have still not learnt our lessons. We in our cities are living off the resources from surrounding villages. It is bad debt model of growth.

Do watch this film, if you are re-thinking for long to change the very nature of living.

Do watch it, if you are looking to solve a fairly large problem through technology and people at its core.
The film essentially is a waking call to re-look, re-think and unlearn some of our daily habits in favor of building a better future not just for ourselves but also for everyone who is a part of this fabric called Earth.

Mahatma Gandhi keeps coming back to teach his lessons time and again.

Net Neutrality

Twitter and some of the popular sites are flooding with calling each other's support for Internet's freedom, popularly known as Net Neutrality.

The fundamental principle on which Internet was designed and functions to this day is, that there is no partiality to any kind of data or users or any specific kind of content or section of human beings.

It is the open standard of the Internet that allowed some of the most popular websites like Reddit, Amazon, Google, Facebook to continue to exist and flourish.

All these companies were companies that started small and could reach to their consumers only because of the open standards of the Internet.

Imagine if Internet was a Road with two lanes and each one of us had to pay extra to go on a faster lane, assuming hypothetically that there exists a faster lane than the current one.

What is a faster lane anyway?

Internet Service Providers like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner are lobbying In the US to allow for a law to pass to allow charging content providers for access to the hypothetical fast lane.

That is mockery! 

Large number of companies are against passing this legislation.

Now, this may not seem a big deal for Indian web companies, but since most of the Indian web companies are either having their content served from US or are having consumers in US and around the globe, the effect would be as evident the Lehman Brothers debacle in 2009.

So, lets stop being Ostrich and come out and support.

Here's how you can do it: https://www.battleforthenet.com/sept10th/

Here's a simpler and hilarious explanation from the witty Brit and my favorite Internet newsreader John Oliver

True Independence

Every 15th August has been waking up early morning, and being forced by dad to watch the National Celebrations and ceremonies.

Waking up early on a holiday every year on this day was also a reminder to wake up from the slumber.

Now more than any other time, I am enjoying my freedom.

Freedom to think and act and influence.

Freedom to choose and focus time and energy and pursue my choice.

I am overwhelmed to see and feel the problems around me. So i choose to act in my own small way.
To take a step in empowering  a fellow Indian and support his choice.

I have chosen not to ignore the problems, the zillion dollar corruptions and scams, the mindless slaughtering and sheer lack of empathy in administration.

but
To act , take baby steps and create meaning.

I have chosen to contribute towards the progress of a fellow entrepreneurial Indian with Rang De.

Our true independence would be when each one of us would be free to pursue his choice with head held high.

Poverty in Museums

There are few times when an idea comes and sweeps you away by the sheer force of its propensity and impact. As much as poverty is a complicated subject to understand, equally complex is its eradication.

So, without having experienced poverty even remotely, without having seen poverty from close ends, am i a person to comment about poverty. No.period.