and this is the mail that started it
Dear Friends,
Myself and a few of my friends are working on effecting social and economic changes at the micro level,especially in villages. We believe that providing a push to economy in villages can have a "big postive impact" on the overall living standards and conditions in these places.
We had recently visited the village of Ettayapuram(the birth pace of MahaKavi Bharathi) in Tamil Nadu. Agriculture and Weaving were the primary occupations of the people. But the consistent failure of the monsson had brought agriculture to a stand still. Weaving too is ailing with only the loss making Co-optex as the only market. We thought we can help here by giving a push to the ailing weaving industry. There still is a huge demand and craze for handloom products amidst the younsters. We just need to show them a this market. We are targetting the students to start with. We thought the souvenirs and memorablia produced in colleges can be garments such as hand woven Kurtas. My Alma Mater, IIIT-B has come forward and placed the first order for thousand Kurtas, which is a significant number for a beginning. There are quite a few hurdles to cross here. We need to have some good designs- simple to produce(The product would be completely done by hand) and catchy. It would be great if we can get some help from fashion technology students on this front. We would greatly appreciate any help on this front. If anybody in your circle can help us on this do ask them to mail me at sanjeeth@gmail.com or sanjeeth.kumar@iiitb.ac.in.
The slump in agriculture and weaving had actually resulted in a exodus.Among all the people affected, children and old people are severely affected. Some years back the macth industry was doing well. Not any more. As long as there was match industry, children would go to school (there are a couple of free scools, one started by the Raajah(Ettappan) and the other by the other community leaders) and work in the evenings! Now, many of them go to Chennai to work in shops. Old aged people are practically orphaned and they sleep in temples before dying a eventual death out of lack of food. If we can give the necessary impetus to weaving, we would be solving a much bigger problem in this region!
Regards,
Sanjeeth
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There is nothing more difficult to take in hand,
more perilious to conduct, or more uncertain in its success
than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
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I wish sanjeeth on his endeavour... and sanjeet,
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand,
more perilious to conduct, or more uncertain in its success
than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
this is what i meant by getting patronising
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7 comments:
Ishwar,
I was wanting to answer a few of the contentions you'd raised on various occasions. I was waiting for the thoughts in my mind to crystalise so that I can post a coherently written blog on that. But, I don't seem to have time to do that. More than your assertions on capitalism, love, social service etc, the thoughts were due to my own doubts.
One thing that I concur regarding these aspects is on the causality. But remember that, what we've found in hormones, selfishness etc is the immediate cause and deducing the complete causal tree is not within our bounds. That apart, my question is, just because we know the cause of some thing, what is the point in discrediting it. I'll agree with you that hypocrisy is the worst form of ignorance. But, none of us here are hypocrats on these issues as you seem to point out (i.e. as if we don't know our real intentions). We, at least I definitely know why I'm doing certain things.
Coming to this social service question, my view is that there can't be anything truly altruistic (Sanjeeth may differ on this). But, altruism, I use in it's broadest definition. According to that, since we derive a mental satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment and sometimes fame with what we do, it can't be altruistic. Man inherently craves for this sense of accomplishment. I've often looked at my contributions to wikipedia or my blogs or my writings with pride. Some times, we also crave for fame (which is different in that there is an expectation for acknowledgemnet from the community). Although, even this is not 'wrong' as long as we know it, I would say quest for fame need not be the motive always for such activities. Many a time it is the former. This need for a sense of accomplishment and positive feed back from the community trace back to, what I think is the fundamental urge to see ourselves non-redundant in any given context. For example, if you put some one to manage something, (s)he will necessarily manage (as in interfere) even when there is no need for management. If you ask for some body to comment on some thing, most often, (s)he will invariably suggest some changes.
I don't see anything wrong with such a motive or rather, when such a thought occurs in Nature, there is no need for judging it. We can't blindly label everything as 'seeking patronage'. I've more thoughts on the reasons for such pseudo-altruisms as against what you call as "capitalism" (not necessarily a correct characterisation). When I say reasons, I mean objective formal causes according to Game Theoretic principles. I'm yet to formalise my thoughts though.
Sundar
P.S. I don't know which question I am trying to answer, but have posted my random thoughts
Minor clarifications:
1. When I say, we are not hypocrats, I mean we are not blatant hypocrats. If we've to take the correct 'definition' of hypocrisy, then most of us are hypocrats, you are more so ;)
2. I want to differentiate what you termed as "capitalism" from what it is or at least what I think it is. In my view, Capitalism rules and should rule!
Sundar
One more clarification:
I would differentiate 'fame and 'sense of accomplishment" thus: the former is the expectation for acknowledgement from the community (which is a super-ego) and the latter is the expectation for acknowledgement from the self (which is the ego). For example, a lone survivor on an island will have a "sense of accomplishment" at his art work, but there is no point in fame there.
Sundar
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand,more perilious to conduct, or more uncertain in its success
than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
This is from Nicolo Machiavelli's book, The Prince.
Sundar,
You are free to start your own space in the web if you already have not.
Comments longer than the original post simply imply just one thing - "Get a Life, Loser".
Nilu,
You didn't even care to click on the link from my name to check if I've a blogspace or not, before giving such a lengthy observation and unsought-for advice.
Any way, thanks for reminding my freedom to own a blogspace ;)
Sundar
Sundar,
" lengthy observation " ??????....ROTFL.
And FYI : Unsolicited advice is my area of expertise.
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