All Of Bihar Is One Big City

English: Map showing location of Nalanda district in Bihar in India हिन्दी: भारत के बिहार राज्य के नक़्शे पर नालंदा ज़िले की स्थिति (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bihar is the biggest city in the world. The entire state is one super duper megacity. That is how you have to think about it. When futurists talk about the city of the far future, they talk about a city that is self sufficient in food. Well, Bihar is food sufficient. खुदका सब्जी खाते हैं बिहारी। नीतिश का जिस जात में जन्म हुवा वो जात ही है सब्जी उगाने वाला जात। वैसे वो सब्जी नहीं उगाते है, वो राजनीतिक उठापटक करते हैं, वो अलग बात है।

Agriculture तो है ही और रहेगा भी, industrialization भी होगा, क्यों नहीं होगा? But what Bihar is most suited for is the service sector. और उसके लिए you need a super educated population: 100% high school educated, 50% college educated. नालंदा विश्वविद्यालय को हार्वर्ड ऑक्सफ़ोर्ड कैंब्रिज के लेवल पर ले जाना होगा। जब दुनिया में कहीं कोइ हार्वर्ड ऑक्सफ़ोर्ड कैंब्रिज नहीं थी तभी नालंदा विश्वविद्यालय का दुनिया में डंका बजता था। फिर से बजाना होगा। अमर्त्य सेन कैंब्रिज में क्या कर रहे हैं, उनके लिए कुर्सी बनाओ नालंदा में। मैं चाहुँगा मैं billionaire बनु और नालंदा विश्वविद्यालय को बिलियन डॉलर का endowment दूँ। मेरे को बस थोड़ा वक्त दो।

The city of the far future does not look like Manhattan, all concrete and very little green. It looks like Bihar, in tune with nature, growing its own food. अमरिका बोस्टन से वाशिंगटन तक एक ही शहर बनाने के सपने देखती है, बिहार तो उससे बड़ा अभी से है।

Agriculture + Education + Service Sector + Completely Clean/Green/Smart Industrialization (Based On Hydroelectricity From Nepal) + Universal Gigabit Broadband = Bihar As One Super Duper Megacity

गुजरात तो मरुभुमि है --- तो वहाँ industrialization नहीं होगा तो क्या होगा? लेकिन बिहार हराभरा है। सारे भारत के इतिहास में आधे महत्वपुर्ण घटनाएँ बिहार में घटी। गांधी का आंदोलन का पहला कदम बिहारमें। सब तो मेरे को मालुम भी नहीं। राजेंद्र प्रसाद बिहार के। बुद्ध को मोक्ष प्राप्ति बिहार में। पाटलिपुत्र। चाणक्य। अमिताभ भी बिहार निकट के हैं। आस परोस। पहले पहले इलाहाबाद बिहार में ही हुवा करता था। फिर अंग्रेजो ने बदमाशी कर दी।

जिस तरह गुजरात के व्यापारी दुनिया भर में फैले हैं उसी तरह बिहार के मास्टरों को दुनिया भर जाना होगा। 12 years of schooling ke master बन जाओ।

बिहार के कस्बे कस्बे तक गीगाबिट ब्रॉडबैंड पहुँचा दो तो there is no need to improve on mud huts. ये नहीं कि बिहार की विकास होगी तो माटी के घर के जगह पे कंक्रीट का महल बनाया जाएगा --- ऐसा नहीं है। When you think of the entire state as one big city, the mud huts can stay. They do not stand in the way of modernity. They are modernity. ये बात आपने याद किया है? फुसके झोपड़ी में air conditioner की जरुरत ही नहीं पड़ती ---- हमारे पुरखाओं ने बहुत सोंच समझ के फुसकी झोपड़ी बनाई। लेकिन malnutrition को बिल्कुल ख़त्म करना होगा --- that stands in the way of modernity. बिहार जब समृद्ध था तो लोग फलाहार किया करते थे। Balanced, healthy diet. अभी देखो गरीबी के मारे ये हाल है एक ही आम के पेड़ पर तीन तीन मुख मंत्री लटक जाते हैं।

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बिहार के लिए फोर्मुला

The Tamils Of Sri Lanka And Me

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Percentage of Sri Lankan Tamils per district based on 2001 or 1981 (cursive) census. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in all of New York City. I identify with the blacks in America because I grew up Indian in Nepal. It is hard to explain. How can India be such a big country, and Nepal such a small country, and how can Indians in Nepal be having a hard time?

Well, Nepal is no exception. Indians are having a hard time in every South Asian country, the most glorious example perhaps is Sri Lanka, the most literate South Asian nation. Sri Lanka's high literacy rate is proof political discrimination and persecution is not something on the Human Development Index. Political problems have political solutions, and Sri Lanka's democracy has not delivered for its minority Tamils.

I have never believed in political violence, but when I started my full time work into Nepal's peace process early in 2005, I tried very, very hard to understand the political motives of the armed Maoists. I abstained from demonizing them. I believe in democracy, in human rights. In many ways I am more American than Americans. I believe in a total spread of democracy across the world. And I believe it is possible through peaceful means. And I don't suffer from America's original sin - race - like some white Americans sometimes do. That helps make my thinking on democracy much clearer. My gospel of democracy has no hint of white supremacy in it.

Somethings are political, somethings are personal, some are both. I am a Madhesi in Nepal. When Hridayesh Tripathy, a Nepali politician I admire, first showed up in Kathmandu as a Member Of Parliament, his house was attacked. In the aftermath he threatened to turn Nepal into a Sri Lanka. We Madhesis in Nepal identify with the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The word Tamil exists in Delhi. The word Madhesi does not yet exist in Patna, or Lucknow or Delhi. Power brokers in Delhi do business with the power brokers in Kathmandu who suppress the Madhesis, all the time. It is a terrible blind spot to be in.

At the geopolitical level, China can come in and help the Sri Lankan elite enact genocide on the Tamils, and India has not much to say. A Chinese border incursion in Ladakh is much less offensive.

Tamils should be able to achieve equality in Sri Lanka through democracy, otherwise democracy itself is the wrong tool. Tamils should be able to achieve equality in Sri Lanka through peaceful means, otherwise peaceful methods are suspect. But I don't think democracy is suspect, I don't think peaceful methods are suspect. The right to self determination is a fundamental human right, it is like free speech, it is like freedom of religion.

Sri Lanka is going to go for fedaralism in which there is a Tamil state, and each state in that federal Sri Lanka has a right to self determination, the kind that Scotland and Quebec itch with. And Sri Lanka is going to do that because that is the right thing to do, because that is Sri Lanka's obligation as a signatory to the Universal  Declaration Of Human Rights. Sri Lanka is going to do that because India is a big country and Sri Lanka is a small country, and it can not afford not to. Sri Lanka is going to do that because, if necessary, China itself will be taught a lesson or two in democracy, federalism and human rights. That is why the Tamils are going to be given federalism with the right to self determination. The right to self determination is not a debate, any more than free speech is. It is a right. Every Tamil in Sri Lanka was born with it.

The right to self determination is not a one way road to secession. It is an opportunity for Sri Lanka to become an inclusive state where minorities like Tamils and Muslims get their due share in national life. Sri Lanka is not just for Sinhalas. And if Sinhalas want a country just for them, they should be granted that.

Massive atrocities were committed when Rajapaksha ("Ravana") militarily eliminated the LTTE. Tens of thousands of innocent, civilian Tamils were killed, maimed, violated, scarred for life. Like Stalin said, one death is a tragedy, a million deaths? Statistics. This was Rajapaksha statistics. That was not a democratic act by a democratic leader. And I am glad he has been ousted at the ballot box. I hope some day he is served justice.

A friend of mine, CK Raut, a Cambridge University PhD in Computer Science, was jailed a few months ago, and recently released by orders of the court. His ways are non-violent, and he seeks to create a new country called Madhesh.

My immigration lawyer for the past few years has been a Tamil, a Harvard Law School graduate like Barack Obama: Rudrakumaran Visuvanathan.

Rudra pushes for ICC trial on Lanka

Launching a signature campaign to press for a trial by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils, Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Prime Minister V Rudrakumaran on Wednesday said active support of the people of Tamil Nadu was crucial for generating international opinion to render justice to the Sri Lankan Tamils ...... Inaugurating the campaign in Chennai through skype, he urged the United Nations to refer the genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils to the ICC or establish a similar credible international judicial mechanism for investigation and prosecution of the war crimes and genocide. ...... Citing the UN Internal Review Report on Sri Lanka, he said there were 70,000 casualties in the first six months of the war and quoted former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton who had listed Sri Lanka along with Bosnia, Burma, Congo and Sudan where rape was used a tactic of war. ..... the new Lankan government’s call for a domestic or hybrid mechanism to replace any international judicial process was an attempt to deflect the call for referral to the ICC and to delay other meaningful actions on accountability. Efforts to establish a domestic truth and reconciliation commission, he said would be another diversionary tactic to protect those who committed serious crimes against Tamils. ...... Listing out the reasons for an international investigation, the TGTE Prime Minister said “Even though the President has changed, the political environment vis-a-vis Tamils has not changed. Several former military personnel, including the military commander at the end of the war General Sarath Fonseka are in senior positions in the current government. The fact that the military apparatus is still intact and the militarisation of the north east continues to perpetuate fear among Tamils and had a deep impact on day to day activities. Therefore, it is unlikely that victims and witnesses will be truly independent before a domestic or hybrid tribunal”. ....... Besides, President Sirisena has served as Defence Minister during the end of the war, when large number of Tamils were killed and Sri Lanka did not have criminal provisions for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. ...... The unitary Lankan State and judiciary were not ethnically neutral and most of the crimes were perpetrated by the State apparatus. The island judiciary was always subservient to political leadership when it came to abuses against Tamils. Even under a Tamil Chief Justice, no prosecution was ever brought against anyone for the mass killings of Tamils in 1983, he added.

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Janakpur Patna Kolkata Industrial Corridor

काठमाण्डु पर मधेसीयों का शासन स्थापित करो।

• नेपालका जल विद्युत (40,000 MW)
• झारखण्ड का Mineral Resources 
• गंगा का Waterway 
• कोलकता का विश्व बंदरगाह 

तब तो पुर्वी भारत भी पश्चिम भारत के मुकाबले आ गयी। 

Berea College Died For Me During Five Minutes With Virgil Burnside

English: This is the Official Berea College Logo. It is used in the article on Berea college, so that users can instantly identify that they have come to the correct article. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I attended a high school in Kathmandu that was not designed for people like me. We Madhesis are almost 40% of Nepal, but not even 1% of the Nepal Army, less than 5% of the Nepal Police, of the Nepal bureaucracy. Had not the British given the southern plains to Nepal in two parcels in 1816 and 1860, we would have been part of India today, and since 1947. Bhutan does not have southern plains.

Budhanilkantha School is the national school of Nepal, and the ethnic composition of its student population was and is like the ethnic composition of the Nepal Army. The Terai faces internal colonization and that fact is reflected in all state machineries of the Nepali state.

We are the Indian origin people in Nepal. I am half Indian by birth. It is a sorry state a population as big, right next to the regional power India would be in some kind of a political blind spot.

I went through hell and high water to get to college in America. And I had a very happy freshman year. I got myself elected student body president within six months of landing as an international student in the Bible Belt Deep South. A few weeks into office, Berea College died for me during five minutes with Virgil Burnside. 

Family, Internet, New York City

English: Saraswoti temple at Budhanilkantha School (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 74th Street portion in Jackson Heights is the most famous Indian strip in all of North America. But then Wall Street - the world famous Wall Street - is not all that impressive either. It is but a pavement. It is not even a proper street.

I am an Indian who grew up in Nepal. I identify with the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan. I identify with the blacks in America because I grew up Indian in Nepal. That sums it up nice.

The DaMaJaMa equation in Nepal’s context can be seen in the head count of Nepalis in New York City. The smallest population is that of the Dalits. Madhesis are the second smallest group. Janajatis are sizeable, but they are dwarfed by even the Bahun Chhetri women. Bahun Chhetry men swarm the city’s Nepali holdings. You can’t say you will hold your breath until there is proportionate representation. At a micro level you reach out to people based on basic decency, courtesy, good behavior, bonhomie. It is not political. But then during the course of things you also pick up hate speech against Madhesis which is not a call to arms locally - you are not going to pick political fights with Indians a shouting distance from 74th Street - but rather a suggestion the fight is not over yet in Nepal.

I have little time for politics anymore, if any. But if I had, I would purchase a few phone cards, and start dialing up the leading Madhesi politicians in Nepal, most of whom I know. But instead I send out blog posts here and now. They pick it up in their Facebook inboxes.

When Ratan Jha launched ANTA years ago, I was the only Madhesi he knew in NYC. He reached out to me offering to make me Vice President. I said I can not be part of an organization that is non political. It gets in the way of the hard core political work I am doing. But I will help launch it in the city, which I did. That is why I don’t see me seeking any officer position with the NRNA, not now, not five years from now, not 10 years from now. If I had time, I’d instead express interest in the US presidential politics, or the city’s mayoral politics. But then we all watch the sports of our choice. My sport of choice right now is Indian politics. I watch it closely. I need it.

Budhanilkantha School died for me towards the end of my Class 10 year through an administrative decision people who ran the place took. The Bahuns and the British who ran the place ganged up on me and destroyed the final three and a half years of my high school years. And I was a star student, not only academically, but also because I had given the best year to my house Kanchenjunga as House Captain that any house captain ever in that school’s history had given to any house to date. Precisely because I was a star student they came after me.

Berea College died for me early in my term as student body president there. I got myself elected to the office as a freshman, a school record, within six months of landing as an international student. An administrative decision by the Student Life Department killed that college for me that I tried so hard to get into.

Becoming Barack Obama’s first full time volunteer in NYC was me getting even. But that also asked for its own price, the steepest price I have paid in life to date.

The Nepali identify is being formed as we speak. I have never been a Nepali before. But I might become some day, if the country gets a constitution fair to the DaMaJaMa, if the state is restructured right. In that I don’t have a country right now. But I sure would like to contribute to the creation of that fair Nepali identity. If Charlie Rangel would not have messed up, and if I had been able to give total attention, Nepal would have had its constitution through the first Constituent Assembly itself.

I have my family that I love. I have the Internet. And I have New York City. The institution I most identify with right now is the company I am working to create. I worked full time for Nepal’s democracy in 2005-06. Then I worked full time for the Madhesi Movement. Now my total focus is on Nepal’s economic development. The only Nepali interactions I am truly interested in are business deals I can cut. I have a super network in Kathmandu. I can get all the hydro projects I want, no sweat. But I will get serious on that count later. Right now I am focused on software, especially on the augmented reality mobile game my team is working on. I am also about to do some fundraising for other people’s biotech startups.

The best way for a NYC Nepali to interact with me right now is to angel invest in some of my endeavors. Do it or miss the boat and regret in a few short years.

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Modi: The Politician I Read Most About

Deng Xiaoping (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, being escorted by United States Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld through an honour cordon and into the Pentagon. They met to discuss bilateral security issues including the war on terrorism: see DefenseLINK news photos. US Department of Defense (). Retrieved on . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Narendra Modi has become the politician I read most about these days. Deep inside it is my suspicion that he might be India's Lee Kuan Yew, that he might be India's Deng Xiaoping. I need Modi to give India double digit growth rates, year in, year out, no dips, no recessions. Double digit is not eight per cent, not nine per cent. Double digit is 10% or more.

Culturally speaking I am an Indian. I am an Indian who grew up in Nepal. And I want Modi to succeed. I like his laser focus on the economy. I like his no nonsense attitude of management. I like his decisiveness.

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Bihar: Beyond Agriculture (2)

Bihar School (Photo credit: stevewright316)

Bihar: Beyond Agriculture

The idea would be to largely skip industrialization and focus largely on the knowledge and service sectors. Make Bihar a hub of organic farming. The goal should be to send Bihari vegetables to every kitchen table in India and then beyond. There is margin in green.

You can't have a knowledge economy without 24/7 electricity. And clean energy will come from the mighty rivers upstream in Nepal.

Start out by turning all of Patna into a free WiFi zone. If you can get to Patna from any place in Bihar within six hours, then it makes tremendous sense to turn the capital city into a free WiFi zone city. But you can't stop there. Much road building and bridge building has happened. Next in line is free WiFi, first in the capital city and then in every district headquarter.

You couple free WiFi with cheap Android smartphones. Just like the Chief Minister has been running a bicycle scheme for girl students, he should, after building the free WiFi zones, offer free smartphones to all students who finish high school if they live in free WiFi zones.

Universal primary and secondary education and universal basic health care are key. But then you have to build a string of higher education institutions across the state. You want to launch IITs and IIMs all over Bihar, or their equivalents.

All education and no job creation are no good either. Knowledge workers trained and working in Bihar could be serving companies all over the world. There is software work. There is customer service work. There is back office management work. Those jobs will be created in the private sector, but political guidance helps. You create the right environment, and you sell the vision.

Knowledge workers create more wealth than industrial workers. An emphasis on the service and knowledge sectors might be how Bihar grows from being the poorest Indian state to being a state that compares itself with the leading European economies in a few decades.

And knowledge work is not just about software. Training teachers, professors, health care workers, nurses and doctors is a big win idea. There are huge global opportunities for employment in the education and health sectors all over the world, as in Bihar.

Bihar is well-positioned to compete globally. It has to start imagining a per capital income of $5,000 a year. And the lifelong education concept means even adult Biharis are fair game.

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