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In
last few months everybody including me gave lots
of advice to Nitish Kumar. Many of us also gave
suggestions and detailed guidelines for
achieving various large objectives like law and
order, road, electricity, industry.
And I think we did and doing what we could have
done in this regard. Most of us here small time
professional are not in a position to build
road, Generate electricity or control law and
order in Bihar.
In two of my articles in PatnaDaily "Propaganda
for Improving the Image of Bihar " dated Jan
11,2002 and "Ask Not What the 'State' Can Do for
You " dated Jan 7, 2002 I have outlined some of
the less concrete but doable work that we Bihari
can do to help Bihar. Not everyone will agree
with everything but naturally they are my views
However in this article I am listing some of the
concrete steps, which I believe every NRI Bihari
or professional Bihari will be able to do and
must do to help Bihar. Time and again I have
found that neither money nor resource is problem
for doing work rather a will to do something
concrete and very heavy inertia to even start
thinking about doing something which was very
well articulated by Vipin ji in one of debate.
Also it is my personal experience that this
inertia is not only restricted to unemployed
rural youth most of us professional NRBs are
suffering from this as well.
1. Nitish went Hyderabad in NRI meet. I think he
was well aware that he is not going to get lots
of NRI investment. Few predicted that it would
be a total failure. We disagreed. Few said it is
a farce; a drama and we got offended. We argued,
debated, fought. Now can we do something to
prove that these doom predictors were actually
wrong? How about sending a $1000, $500, $200,
$100 or even $50 checks to Nitish Kumar? Can 100
check of $100 each a total of $10,000 (4 lakhs)
convince all doom predictors that they were
wrong. I know this will not be sufficient for
anything but at least will it convince our Hon
Chief minister and our former Chief Minister
both that we are not "Picknickia". Will our
advice and message along with this check will
carry more weight? Will Nitish be more confident
next time in NRI meet by this gesture ?
If yes then is this sufficient ground for us to
sacrifice one of our long weekend or buying a 2"
smaller TV or not buying few of those video
games. Well the choice is yours.
I don't know address of chief minister but
unless somebody sends me different address I am
planning to send my contribution to "Chief
Ministers Fund"
Nitish Kumar
Chief Minister
Patna, Bihar, India
Will this address work? Please help me if
anybody knows a better way of sending money to
Nitish Kumar.
2. Charity begins at home. Please stop all your
cash donations, which you do to Salvation Army,
Red Cross, and United Way and instead give that
to either Government of Bihar or an organization
of your choice in Bihar. While your donations to
these mega corp can hardly make any ripple here
it may bring dramatic change back home.
3. Take your old Laptop computer with you and
give it to a suitable organization in Bihar when
you visit home (Even oldest computer here can be
used in Government school for teaching
Word-Processing, Windows etc. Even places where
electricity is not there Generators are becoming
popular and laptop will be useful)
4. Next time when you visit India try to do all
your shopping in Bihar even if it is slightly
inconvenient for you compare to Mumbai or Delhi.
This will boost the local economy and merchant.
If you bring gift to American friends please buy
Mithila or Madhubani paintings.
5. If you know any of your friend or relative
who is pulling hand rickshaw try to work a deal
and see if you can help him in buying a powered
rickshaw instead. You can give as help, as a
loan or as an investment Also if he already has
powered rickshaw you can try for Taxi.
6. If you are planning to open a IT company or
call center in India Please consider Patna,
Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur also as choice. Also
if there is a talk around you about outsourcing
and you have a say please bring a point about
opening it in Patna, Danapur or Ara. While your
effort might not bring result now it will at
least put these unfortunate places away from
crime map and close to be on IT map. Did you
know anything about Hyderabad except Charminar
15 years back?
7. Next time when you visit home Please try to
visit some of the tourist places in Bihar. I am
hoping law and order will be far better by then.
8. Can you keep some of your money in bank
account in Bihar? Try if possible. Do you know
keeping money in bank is almost identical to
creating job? One of my relative who after
completing bank probationary was very keen to
work in Bihar was sent to Gujarat because most
of the bank in Bihar did not have enough cash
flow to support his position.
9.If any of your relative students is
struggling, please try to support him even if it
means giving loan and signing a proper contract.
Stop asking million questions before and forget
your all skepticism. Also if you know some
bright students who have M. Sc. Physics or Math
or similar degree then you can either help him
in getting a computer course or providing
guidance to clear GRE / GMAT. It is my personal
feeling that a student who can clear Bank Clerk
examination or Railway Recruitment Board
examination if given chance will score at least
2000 in GRE (old score) which will be sufficient
to get him one of moderate US university.
Well I think I will stop now but I will keep
thinking. I know some of you are laughing. Your
skepticism is valid. Even if you do believe,
still it takes lot to implement it but I can
tell you it works. Not all of these but some of
these I tried personally and belying everybody's
belief I had more success than failure.
We might be a successful person, we might be a
international level professional some of us
might have designed microchip, some of us might
have designed complete insurance software of a
MNC but unless we do something concrete
something for our community, something for our
extended home, something for our state which is
in dire need how are we any better than a lazy
clerk or babu working in secretariat? What is
our value? What is our worth?
"App sun rahe hain?"
"Kaan main tel dal ke sone se kaam nahin chalega"
"Sab balem Lalooye pe madh dijiyega to ussse
Bihar ka bikas nahiye na hoga"
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Comments: |
I
think Raviji is just a tad quicker
to present his ideas before I did.
Kudos to you for taking such an
altruistic initiative for our state.
I had something similar to propose
that could benefit our state in any
way possible. Like John F Kennedy
once remarked – “Do not ask what
your country can do for you but ask
yourself what you can do for your
country”. In this regard our state
warrants our immediate attention. I
have been actively involved in
promoting an organization called
SMILE that we created here with a
bunch of NRIs who have donned the
mantle of educating at least one
Tsunami victim for the entire year.
I am involved in similar efforts to
fund “Ekal vidyalayas” to educate
extremely poor kids from
rural/tribal villages who don’t know
how to read and write. These
vidyalayas don’t provide formal
education but the very basics of
reading and writing, weight
measurements, basic accounting,
farming essentials. This will
definitely help these kids to carve
out a respectable living if they
continue to stay in villages or move
to the cities. And the cost of
running this is unbelievably low. A
dollar per day per head and that
makes it 365 USD an year to run an
ekal vidyalaya where anywhere from
30-40 people show up. For people
living in US you can directly send
your money to this organization in
Houston, Texas that ensures your
money is siphoned into right hands.
I think the education at the grass
roots needs a gargantuan push if our
state has to make any kind of
landslide progress. I was thinking
we have our NRE savings accounts at
ICICI or other banks and we have
someone or the other designated as
mandate holders who have their own
ATM and check books. We can also use
remit2india or Citigroup NRE saving
accounts. Rather than sending money
to NitishJi directly if we ask our
dear ones to approach NitishJi or if
they can find a way to approach
Nitishji directly we will have the
peace of mind that our efforts are
not being embezzled away in
“bureaucratic pockets” that have big
holes. We can officially form a NRB
organization dedicated to the
welfare of our state. I have the
impression quite a few of us are in
States and we can get in touch here
through Phone or Email or if we are
in the neighborhood plan for an
informal meet. I have seen the
Telugu and the Tamil Sansthas doing
their bit for their states and trust
me they are BIG on this. They
organize seminars, hold debates, and
discuss means to channelize their
efforts in a more constructive way.
It need not be a physical body that
needs some maintenance to run it. It
could be an E thing but more like an
organization that operates through
Internet. If this NRB organization
see the light of the day in times to
come we might have the courage to
invite NitishJi to States and
personally hear us.
I would request PatnaDaily to
approach NitishJi if possible and
apprise him of the efforts we want
to undertake. Patna Daily could
possibly assist us in sending our
word across to the CM and also
finding a way to ensure the funds
reach the CM. Raviji, at least you
have set the ball rolling. Lets see
who can whip those huge “ROGERSQUE
FOREHANDs’ on the courts of “BIHAR
DEVELOPMENT”. Because someday we
will all be GRAND SLAM winners in
our own right. - Siddharth Verma
- Jan. 22, 2006
I
agree with you, Raviji. I am ready
to do what is possible for me for
Bihar. Believe me, I did not laugh
but I was thinking what am I doing
for my family and Bihar? I think, as
you have suggested, I have started
these steps a few years back. In my
home (Bihar), all of my nieces and
nephews are now computer literate.
Every household has either a desktop
or laptop computer. All of my adult
nieces and nephews have email
accounts and they communicate with
me over Internet. I try to educate
them more whenever I go back to my
home state.
Regarding shopping, I did all of my
shopping in Bihar. When I visited
the shop so many times, the
shopkeepers asked me, "Do you have a
small store? You are buying in
bulk." I told them no, I am not a
shopkeeper, but I live in the USA
and I like my country's products, so
whenever I come here, I buy to bring
with me.
All my nephews are getting higher
education: Medical, B Pharma and
Engineering. We have taken the
initiative by supporting them
economically. My brother and I,
along with some other relatives send
them money and stuff they need. My
parents almost always say. "Did you
ask why he needs money?" I tried to
convince them that they are young
and have so many expenses.
I like to visit tourist places but I
do not have much vacation so I stick
with my parents and my other
relatives. Once I went to open a NRE
account and the bank said they do
not have that facility. Another time
I went to exchange dollars and got
the same answer. Our biggest problem
is we have a thousand employees for
a thousand tasks. We need to
overhaul our banks first so do not
have problems sending money directly
there. It became a nightmare for me
to send money to my father last year
during December because only a
couple of banks were accepting
money. - S. M. Khurshid Anwar,
New York, USA - Jan. 23, 2006
Wow! Bravo! Now that's what I call
talking for a purpose. Mr Sid, you
did. While all of us just talked. I
did not know about SMILE so far. I
guess I have a reason to SMILE now.
You are right, it does not require
lot of money. I too learnt from
Telugus and Tamils, what it means to
love your state. I like your idea of
an e-organization. PatnaDaily can
surely help us by creating another
link/forum on this website for NRBs
and residents as well, who would
start working towards our goal. It
will help us to know each other and
track the progress. We can start a
pilot program with a few selected
colleges/schools, in the same forum,
where the experts and successful
NRBs can share their knowledge with
them. I have not started writing on
PatnaDaily to become a journalist. I
am ready to train on software design
and development with whatsoever
little knowledge I have.
I have a long experience of
collecting funds, starting from the
'chanda' for Saraswati Puja to
contributions for Gujarat earthquake
and Tsunami victims. It is my
personal experience that getting
people spend a few Rs for a
benevolent cause is not so easy.
Mutual and group insurance is not so
popular in India yet. Only few would
like the idea of sending money to CM
directly, including myself. People
would like to have more transparency
and ability to track their
contribution. We would need more
involvement from the resident
Biharis also. Let us first try a
pilot program on a small scale, and
if we are successful, we will start
the big project later. Thanks, Mr
Ravi! - Kumod Jha - Jan. 23, 2006
Raviji, I have something to add.
Though the following would be a
small way, but it would certainly be
very helpful:
I am planning to open a savings
account with some bank in Patna, on
my next visit. Every year i will
deposit around Rs. 10,000. The
interest which i earn from this
account, will be given as
scholarship to some bright students
in government run primary school. -
Jayant Kumar Singh - Jan. 23,
2006
Now
this is positive thinking. When I
say we should always be positive I
mean that is the only way forward.
Negativeness takes us backwards.
There will always be bad things
which push us towards being angry
and ultimately negative.
Negativeness has the power to make
you tired even while you relax in
your chair and then you are too
tired and de-motivated to act
positively. We have to keep doing
our bit to improve things without
being cynical or judgmental. There
are people and systems in place to
do their jobs. Let us concentrate on
our work. That was what John F
Kennedy must have meant when he
remarked – “Do not ask what your
country can do for you but ask
yourself what you can do for your
country”. - Raj - Jan. 23, 2006 |
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