Innamburan at football stadium

நெருப்பும் இ சாரின் தெய்வீக சிரிப்பும்

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Tamil and Hindi

South India, particularly TamilNadu is the bastion of opposing imposition of Hindi.This Hindi opposition movement has a long tradition and history in Tamilnadu(TN).

Some History:
In 1937, Hindhi was made a compulsory subject in TN schools by C.Rajagopalachari,then CM of TN.Tamilians under the stewardship of periyar and Maraimalai adigal broke that attempt.Two tamilians thalamuthu and natarajan, died in that epic struggle.

After Independence Hindi and english were made the national languages of India.In 1965, after a 15 year gap, english was removed from that list and only hindi was declared as the solitary national language of India.This led to violent protests in TN and so many deaths of tamilians.To end this struggle, Jawaharlal Nehru promised that Hindhi will not be forced on tamilians, as long as they dont want it. DMK came to power in 1967 because of this epic struggle.

In 1980’s central government started navodaya schools all over the country.But in these schools, Hindi was a compulsory language.MGR,then CM of TN,asked that this should be scrapped.But central government refused to do so.So MGR denied permission for navodaya schools to be started in TN.Till now we dont have navodaya schools in TN.Till now central government has not removed this descriminatory rule.

TN opposed All India radio, being renamed as akash vani.After protests,akash vani is still called( in TN only) as AIR( All India radio).This protest of TN was a sign of of protest for naming all institutions of central government only in Hindi.

But still indirect attempts are made to force Hindi on tamils.I will talk about it as I proceed to the next sections of my article.

TN’s stand on Hindi:

1. Tamilians are proud to call themselves as Indians.Tamils are no less patriots than any Indian in any other part of India.we have given patriots and freedom fighters to our nation like Kamaraj, Abdul kalam and Rajaji.In rest of India,a misconception prevails that tamils dont accept hindi because they are unpatriotic.I would like to call that as baseless premise.Among tamilians,some extreme fringe elements who ask for seperate TN still exist,but they don’t even command 0.5% of public support.

2. Tamils don’t oppose Hindi, but we only oppose imposition of Hindi. This opposition is based on our freedom of speech. Our mother tongue is Tamil. We don’t have any aversion to a person learning any language,be it spanish, French, english, Hindi, maratha, oriya etc. We dont discourage anybody from learning any language. But we totally detest a language being forced on us.How will north Indians feel if Tamil is made compulsary language in schools?How will they feel if doordarshan is called as pothigai channel and runs its program’s in tamil? It is the same feeling which we get when we see doordarshan and when Hindi is made compulsory in schools.

What are our demands:

1.Tamils should not be forced to learn Hindi.Now in many competitive exams run by central government, knowing hindi is made a necessary qualification. In some exams,you can take them only in Hindi or english.This puts rural tamils in a disadvantage,just like how competitive exams being conducted only in english puts rural north indians in disadvantage.

2.In central government banks in TN, officers are ordered that they should sign only in Hindi.Why should a tamilian employee, working in Tamilnadu forced to sign in Hindi , in an Indian government bank? Is this fair?At times central government gives orders like “All banks must buy only hindi newspapers”.This certainly irritates us.

3.Tamil employees of banks are forced to learn hindi, because they might be transferred to North India.But north indian employees of banks, who come to work in TN are not forced to learn tamil.They speak in Hindi and english, which is not understood by rural tamils.If tamil employees speak only tamil and english in North India, they are frowned.But here in TN, North indian employees expect Tamil customers to know hindi.This double standards should stop.

Further different ministries of central government slowly and steadily shift all their work to Hindi from English.This happens year by year.Many ministries and departments now are functioning entirely in Hindi.

If the reason for all this is that Hindi is our national language,then we expect tamil also to be made the national language of India.Either revert back to english or tamil.Not Hindi.

Instead of making tamils to learn english, hindi and tamil, it would be better if we all learn english and our mother tongue.

I hope that people across India will agree to our right to freedom of speech in the language of our choice.We dont hate any language.But we love or language.

vande matharam.

Jai Hind.

Question to fellow bloggers

I am planning to convert to new blogger for this blog.Should I make any changes in blogdesam toolbar for doing so?I couldnt find any instructions in blogdesam portal.If anybody can post a link or anything about this,I will greatly appreciate it

7.Miracles of mass customization

I purchased a cell phone before a month. I got the monthly bill via post and today was the last day to make my payments. Since I was busy with my exams when I got the bill, I forgot to make the payment and suddenly remembered it today. When I saw that today was the last day to make the payments, I thought that I cannot make the payment today, since it will take at least a couple days for the cheque to reach the cell phone company by snail mail. Then I saw that they had an online payment option. I went to the website and made the payments within seconds. I was happy about the entire process and made a point of making future payments online. Then suddenly at 7 PM in evening I got a text message saying that I have missed my payment.

I was baffled and decided to call the mobile phone service. I called up the customer care number and was directed to a recorded message. It asked what my problem was and gave me 5 options. It asked me to speak out my problem among these options. I replied “payments” and then it again gave me 5 options among which I chose “check my payment status” and it informed me that I don’t have any outstanding balance.

It was surprising because earlier when I was directed to automatic help services, I had to press a number in my phone to avail various options. But here I was not required to press any buttons, but instead was asked to speak. I dint know how a computer could understand what I speak.

Then an MIS PhD student told me the secret. When I chose an option among the given options, my voice is recorded and is immediately converted into a text message and it matched with an existing option by word similarity. Then automated message is played based upon my choice. For example my problem was to know the current balance and it informed my balance. He said that it was a complex process and needs integration of technology with customer records.

I asked him how it could understand my accent. He said that it is possible to program it to different English accents. The cell phone company even had a Spanish option.

He said that this might become problematic at times, if the problem is really unique and doesn’t fall under the categories of automatic choices. Then I have to be directed to a human representative. But as days go and as companies know more about their customers need to speak to such human reps will be lowered by expanding the options.

Cell Phone Company saved money by this method. USA saved valuable foreign exchange by preventing outsourcing. Customer saved time by talking to a machine. Many times we won’t even realize that we are talking to a machine. The voice is so human.

Mass customization works....hurrahhh...

6.Lessons from Apple's Indian adventures

.Is the going good for Indian BPO industry?Apple Computer Inc.planned to build a technical support center in Bangalore,but has scrapped the plan.Had that plan seen daylight, India would have got 3000 jobs.One reason cited was the increasing costs of running outsourcing in India.Frequent turnovers plague the industry and banglaore's real estate price seems to be higher than that of san diego's.

Is this a warning sign or just one of those freaky incidents?Business standard reports that Indian BPO industry is facing a mid-life crisis.Business standard also reports that Indian BPO industry is moving out of the low value jobs and is moving towards innovation.Business standard reports that Romi Malhotra, managing director of Dell International Services says that the earlier slogan "Come to India for cost and stay for quality" can now be changed to "Come to India for quality and stay for innovation".

India grew by around 9.3% in last quarter(source businessweek) and is experiencing an unprecedented boom in it's stock market.But I am afraid that much of this development comes from MNC's and software firms.Business standard reports that 60% of business in BPO comes from MNC's.BPO is yielding quick money to India.India made $17.3 billion in outsourcing in last year(source business week)last year through BPO.

Rediff says that apple's move isnt a bad omen and says that it is an one-off freaky incident.But it also points out that Dell has scaled down it's Indian operations.Even though these might be two unrelated incidents and inspite of rediff assuring us that Indian BPO business will enjoy double digit growth rates,I guess it's time to rethink our business model.

Bangalore is not the only city in India.Many sub urbans cities in India like coimbatore have all the facilities to run a BPO.English speaking population,engineers and real estate at real low prices are some advantages in these places.

Nasscom summit gave a different idea citing a shift in strategy of BPO firms.Speakers at Nasscom's annual ITES-BPO summit felt that
Indian BPO sector has to change its business model by offering clients not just process improvement but becoming their transformational partners.

The going is good and rosy as of now.But let us not take risks.India cannot lose any more deals like Apple's deal.

5.Solidarity and Sustainability

Do you know about non-profits and/or advocacy groups focused on the social and ecological impacts of religious patriarchies?


CURRENT ISSUE:

Solidarity & Sustainability ~ Volume 2, Number 6, June 2006


This is the third issue in the series, "Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions." Rene Girard's mimetic theory is applied to a relatively recent episode in the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, this case example pertains to the male-only priesthood, and the manner in which the discernment process on the ordination of women was "terminated" (at least temporarily) by the Vatican. The analysis includes the five Girardian phases: mimetic desire, mimetic rivalry, skandalon,scapegoating, and sacred violence.

There is no implication of intentional wrongdoing by anyone at the Vatican or elsewhere. However, a radical renunciation of violence is postulated as indispensable to make progress toward human solidarity and environmental sustainability. Religious institutions must show the way by renouncing the triple patriarchal addiction to wealth accumulation,absolute power, and worldly honors; thereby renouncing violence.If religious institutions really want to be instruments of peace, they better practice non-violence in their own internal affairs.

Any feedback is gratefully received.

P.S. The July 2006 issue is in preparation. Please forward this notice to people who might be interested on the impact of patriarchal religions to global issues of solidarity, sustainability, and gender equity.

4.venture philanthropy

Social entrepreneur offers blueprint
for social change through IT

As the Internet boom was gaining momentum in boardrooms across the
United States, an entirely different technology revolution was quietly taking place on the other side of the world: The “venture philanthropy” movement supported social change through technology in Eastern European countries and others emerging from generations of authoritarian rule.

Author Jonathan Peizer chronicles his years on the front lines of that
revolution in his new book “The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change.” With this book, Peizer offers a blueprint for philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, corporate responsibility programs and academics trying to enact social change through Internet Communications Technology.

In 1993, Peizer joined philanthropist George Soros’ foundation to
create an Internet program for the foundation’s Open Society Institute. Over the next seven years, Peizer helped launch 250 projects in more than 30 countries with the goal of facilitating social change and sustainable economic development through technology.

Using his firsthand experience, Peizer offers strategies for using ICT
to facilitate change in NGOs, understanding the culture of nonprofits, and promoting relationships between nonprofits, foundations, government entities and private companies to achieve a mutual mission. “The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change” is an important resource for understanding program
sustainability, implementation and evaluation, as well as the unique
challenges facing open source methodology in the nonprofit environment and the importance of donor support conferences.

Peizer catalogs the history of venture philanthropy projects — from
Estonia to Albania, from the Czech Republic to Azerbaijan, and from Mongolia to South Africa and Haiti — along with their unique challenges, including civil war, political upheaval and even the threat of NATO bombings. While Americans were just starting to use ponderous dial-up modem service, Peizer was helping
implement alternative Internet service using satellites, spread-spectrum radio modems, ham radios, cable TV, microwaves and asynchronous satellite technology for
nonprofits around the globe.

With more than 20 years of experience in ICT consulting, Peizer directed the Internet program for the Soros Foundation’s Open Society Network from 1993 to 2000 and continued to support and develop projects promoting social change through technology as its Chief Technology Officer from 2001 through 2005. He continues his work in the field of venture philanthropy as founder of Internaut Consulting, Greentealovers.com and capaciteria.org.

Eileen Garvin

3.The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change

The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change” by social entrepreneur Jonathan Peizer.

The book offers a blueprint for venture philanthropists, academics,
social entrepreneurs, nonprofits and government agencies seeking to improve people’s lives through technology.

In this new book, author Jonathan Peizer chronicles the venture
philanthropy projects that took him to more than 30 countries in a seven-year period as director of the Soros Foundation’s Internet program. Peizer helped implement technology for the sake of social change in tumultuous times for Europe, Asia and other parts of the world at a time when the use of the Internet for these
purposes and the concept of venture philanthropy were in their infancy.

Jonathan Peizer lectures frequently on this subject.