A few days ago a friend told me about a site where a report is being sold for $67. This report is claimed to have contained the secret of getting #1 ranking on MSN search engine for any keywords. For all of you who are not very tech savvy , let me tell you that MSN is the search engine of Microsoft and is the third most popular search engine in the world after Google and Yahoo.

It is also known as Live.com

So this guy is claiming to have known the ultimate secret to rank number one on Live.com for any keyword.

He is also showing his result in a Youtube video. See for yourself :

By the time this video first appear on Youtube (2nd November I think), this guy was ranking number one on MSN organic search results for the following keywords:

• Online Credit  (online-credit.org, now nowhere in the results)
• get rid of debt  (get-rid-of-debt.org, now at number 6)
• poor credit rating (poor-credit-rating.com, now nowhere in the results)
• reducing debt (reducing-debt.net, still number one)
• low mortgage (low-mortgage.org, now at number 3)
• bicycle accessories (bicycle-accessories.org, now nowhere in the results)
• debt assistance (debt-assistance.net, now at number 7)

You can check for your self by conducting a search in Live.com for the above keywords.

As you can see within a span of 10 days, most of his keywords have fallen from their number one position. However, this report is selling like hot cakes on Clickbank.com and has become the number one product in the Marketing & Ads category.

Just why on earth people are going crazy on a technique which can’t even withstand a period of 10 days ?

There are two answers for this question : Greed and frustration.

Greed because everybody wants to get the elusive number one spot on his desired keyword and make huge pile of cash. If you can secure a #3 spot out of 35,400,000 results for the keyword ‘low mortgage’, you can monetized this position in any way you want.

Frustration because it is becoming more and more difficult to rank on the first page of Google. The entire Search Engine industry revolves around getting top position in Google and it is difficult to get a top ranking in Google without following an intense  and systematic plan of link building and content creation. In such a scenario , if someone gives a recipe to rank in top 10 results of world’s third most popular search engine, it is going to create massive interest among people. No wonder this product is selling hot.

Now let us come to the report itself. I have read this report and I must say that it does contain some very unique method for attaining top position in MSN. However, I don’t think that the creator of the report can explain why some of his sites completely disappeared from the search engine result.

Second important thing about this report is that contrary to what has been claimed by the author, you can not rank your existing website for the desired keyword. One of the most important prerequisite of this technique is to have your domain name exactly the same as your keywords. For example see the above list, all keywords and their domain names are identical (reducing debt :  reducing-debt.net etc)

Apart from the above, there is a powerful link rotating suggestion in the report which keeps creating new links for your desired domain. I shall not reveal about this method as it will be disclosing too much info.

However, I think that this report is highly overpriced for the info it provides. All of you who have some experience of SEO must know that MSN’s search results are heavily favored towards domains name containing exact keywords in them. Let me show you this with an example.

Every month the keyword ‘Make money on internet’ is searched 1900 times (as exact search), 4400 time (as phrase search)  and 49500 times (as broad search) on Google.  Though most of this search are conducted on Google, assuming that some percentage of search on this keyword also comes to MSN, we should assume that there must be some competitive sites in the top 10 search results of MSN for this keyword.

However, if you search the keyword ‘make money on internet’ (without quotes), you will find that out of a total 154,000,000 results, the number 9 position is occupied by a website where not even a single article is written !!

Here is this site. Just a freshly installed WordPress blog !

So this is the situation of MSN. No wonder a guy finds a loophole to control MSN’s search engine results.

For all those who are interested in clicking that MSN loophole report click here

It will be a real shock if true i.e. if really comes from Google.

Recently I came across a small pdf file (download link in the end) which is being circulated as a leak document from Google internal training manual for ‘Quality Rater’. (The above is a screenshot from that report and the last line is underlined by me). It is not known whether it is a fake report or a real one. However, if it is a real report then it reveals interesting (and a bit shocking information) on the methodology being adopted by Google to rate the quality of its search results.

It appears that in its bid to outperform itself in search quality (there is no serious search competitor actually ) and to constantly improve the relevance of its search results Google is applying many innovative ways. Recruitment of Quality Raters, who are being trained to manually assess the quality of webpages that appears in search results for billions of queries generated everyday, is one such important step. Yes. they are actually recruiting Quality Raters.

Coming back to guidelines being imparted to these Quality Raters at Google, it seems that Google is very serious about filtering low quality content from its results and the guidelines provided to the Raters demonstrate it very clearly. There is a full detailed chapter on what Google perceives as Webspam. Explained with many real life examples, it clearly shows what in Google’s view a spam is. I have provided a link at the end of the post where you can download this whole report, but here for your convenience here is a list of web content considered as spam by Google :

• PPC Pages
• Parker Domains
• Thin Affiliates
• Hidden Text and Hidden Links
• JavaScript Redirects
• Keyword Stuffing
• 100% Frame
• Sneaky Redirects

If you are into some kind of web business on net, you can easily understand what the above methods are and how they are being used by black hat marketers to promote their sites. However, I am a bit shocked to find that the ‘Thin Affilaites’ has also been considered as a part of webspam by Google.

The ‘Thin affiliate’ is nothing but the traditional method of promoting products of other merchants using your affiliate links. It is a very normal thing and has become a part of web life. Anybody wanting to make money using affiliate programs will have to use the links/banners provided by the merchant to promote the products.

If this is considered a spam by Google then I think a huge majority of webmasters is at the mercy of Google’s Quality Raters who may stamp a page as spam just because of the presence of an affiliate link on it. In fact affiliate from ebay & Amazon have also come under the category of spammers (See screenshot above, page 42 of the report)

However, while considering affiliate links as webspam, Google has also given additional instruction to the Quality Raters that if a particular webpage offers some value (by means of original content, price comparison, product review etc) it should not be considered as spam.

What is the message for webmasters in it ?

Simple speaking : Please don’t build a webpage which is a collection of scrapped content, PPC ads and affiliate links. Sooner or later it will catch the attention of a Google Quality Rater who will stamp it as a webspam thus removing it from the search results.

Instead, build a quality rich, informative and original webpage which enhance the perception of your affiliate products to visitors. Do it by providing a honest review, a price comparison or any other piece of original content which make that webpage rich in quality. Once you do this, you can be assured of a place in Google Search result.

This also means that the days of copy/pasting just one text link/banner code of an affiliate product on your webpages are over. Now you need to get involve in the selling process by pre-selling the product. This is the only way to ensure the quality of your links. It is also indicative of a trend (which may start soon) of directly linking to the order page of a product by completely bypassing the merchant page. This method will ensure that the product appears to be your own product instead of belonging to some other party. This is a tricky issue though and many merchant will not be comfortable with it. However, if Google’s perception of considering an affiliate link as a webspam do not change, this will be the only way to save affiliate marketing industry.

As promised here is the direct download link for that leaked report on ‘Google’s guidelines for Quality Raters’. It is a pdf direct download. And let me clarify once again its authenticity is yet to be verified.

Google’s guidelines for Quality Raters’

Yes, you can call it the mother of all ‘I should not be alive‘ series of Discovery channel. This incident happened a few days ago in Western India. A seven-month old fetus which fell through the toilet bowl of a running train when the mother went to ease herself still lives on!

This incredible story of a tiny newborn, weighing just 1.4Kg, which slipped from the womb into the toilet tube and crashed on rocks between two steel tracks, is sure to find a place in the top survival tales of the world.

The child’s mother, Bhuri Kalbi, 33, a resident of Swaroopganj – a village between Sirohi and Abu Road in Rajashthan – was travelling on an overnight train to Ahmedabad with relatives for a medical checkup. When she went to the bathroom shortly before midnight she felt weak on the toilet seat and fell unconscious. In an unconscious state she gave birth to a baby girl and passed out from the pain. Toilets that open directly on to the tracks are a common feature of Indian trains. The baby fell through the toilet on the tracks. The train kept moving and two stations later, her relatives knocked at the door to find why she is taking so long in the toilet. Shockingly they found her covered in blood in a semi conscious state. She realized an emptiness in her stomach and found that her child was gone.

After realizing with shock what had happened, the relatives of Bhuri pulled the train’s emergency brake at Kalol, two station from where the child had slipped off and alerted the guard.

When all these things were happening in trains, what the new born baby was doing ?

As she lay on the track, fortunately close to the Amblisayan railway station, some members of the Gram Rakshak Dal (a village Self-help group) alerted station master KK Rai that a newborn child was lying on the track. While rushing to the spot on foot, Rai said he could hear the cries of the baby. On coming closer, he could not believe what he saw. The baby was lying dangerously close to the left track with the umbilical cord hanging by the side. She had turned blue due to the midnight chill. The railwaymen wrapped her in a cloth and called a local doctor. While the baby was being examined, a call came that the parents had been traced. The baby’s mother, Bhuri could not believe her eyes when she was reunited with the baby two hours later at the Kalol Civil Hospital. And she hasn’t taken eyes off her daughter ever since.

Call it a miracle or the will of God, it is one of those rarest of the rare case when somebody survives against all odds. The girl is now recuperating in the neonatal intensive care unit of Rajashthan Hospitals, where she lies without a scratch after that miraculous escape. See the girl with her mother in the the picture.

“She was on the rail track for almost 1-1/2 to two hours,” Dr. Gautam Jain, a pediatrician at Rajasthan Hospital in Ahmadabad, in the western state of Gujarat, where the baby and mother were taken, told the press. The baby, who weighed just 3.22 pounds, had a low heart rate and body temperature. “We do not expect such children to survive,” Jain added. But so far she has.

I hope the baby will survives the battle of life and will be a living example of God’s miracle.

Are the human beings loosing their innocence ? I was hoping that at least our children are living in a age of innocence and they are the last lot of carefree people on earth. However, today I read a shocking (at least for me it’s really shocking) question being asked by a 12 year old girl who was inquiring about having safe sex with her 12 year old boyfriend ! They already had sex earlier (though not very successfully) and are planning to have it again on the boy’s birthday. The girl want to know about appropriate condom size for the brat.

My goodness ! What is happening to this world ? Where are the parents ?

Read this question here : Yahoo Answers

The only respite is the people who answered this question. They admonished the girl and told her about the risks involved in having sex in such younger age.

I hope such things do not become trends and at least our children remain innocent for some more time.

Do you know which is the most dangerous city of America ?

Recently I found an amazing website which releases ranking of various states and cities of US depending upon various factors of human life such as education, crime, health, livelihood etc. The site is http://www.morganquitno.com.

Recently this website issued a list of most dangerous cities in America which itself is a very interesting read. I wonder whether in India we can also have such annual list of states/cities. In view of the increasing danger of terrorism, I think the whole of India is a dangerous place to live in. However, probably we Indians have become accustomed to such a living

Anyhow, here is the list of most dangerous cities of US.

Rank City

1. St. Louis, Mo.
2. Detroit, Mich.
3. Flint, Mich.
4. Compton, Calif.
5. Camden, N.J.
6. Birmingham, Ala.
7. Cleveland, Ohio
8. Oakland, Calif.
9. Youngstown, Ohio
10. Gary, Ind.
11. Richmond, Calif.
12. Baltimore, Md.
13. Memphis, Tenn.
14. Trenton, N.J.
15. Richmond, Va.
16. Kansas City, Mo.
17. Atlanta, Ga.
18. Cincinnati, Ohio
19. Washington, D.C.
20. North Charleston, S.C.
21. Reading, Penn.
22. Newark, N.J.
23. Little Rock, Ark.
24. San Bernardino, Calif.
25. Orlando, Fla.

For your kind information let me tell you that this list is based on a city’s rate for six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All cities of 75,000+ populations that reported crime data to the FBI for the six crime categories were included in the rankings.”

Well Detroit is at second place in the the list.

Well I think thanks to extreme security arrangements in US, the ‘terrorist attack’ was not considered a crime category. An abridged version of this detailed report (pdf format, 24 pages) is available for download on the website and alternatively can be bought from the site for $5 only.

What do you think is the most dangerous Indian city ?

Can you believe it ? People who have defaulted on their home loan in America are making Indian economy stronger. Can there be any relation between a guy who could not pay his loan on time in US and the booming stock markets of India?

Indeed it’s true no matter how incredible it seems. Read on..

In just 4 working days the Sensex (Sensitive Index of Indian Stock Market) achieved it’s fastest 1000 points run and gone from 18,000 to 19,000. Over the last month, it has gained 3,500 points. And during this period, four of its five all-time highs were achieved.

The common investors in India are a bit confused. The question, whether they should sell their stocks or wait for it’s further appreciation, is making the confused. If you are one of them, then before taking a decision you should understand what exactly is driving this boom.

A major portion of all the money, being pumped into Indian Share market, is coming from FIIs(Foreign Institutional Investors). These FIIs are very big investment groups, which keep studying the world markets to identify the best markets with potential of maximum returns. They are not ordinary investors, but very big corporates with trillions of dollars in their kitty and a huge army of experts to advice them on emerging world markets. In the eyes of these FIIs, India has become one of the hottest destination for investment and so there is a frenzy among these FIIs to brought as much stocks of Indian companies as they can.

Now why India has become such a hot favorite of these FIIs ?

The first reason is that returns from India remain among the best in the world; and there is a very positive expectation that in future also, the Indian economy and corporates will continue to do well. As you may be aware, the Nuclear deal with US is off for the present, but it has ensured that the Government will not fall soon. So a better environment of trust is there.

However, the second and most immediate reason for this huge rush for Indian Stocks actually started on 19th September after Ben Bernanke, chief of the US Federal Reserve, cut key interest rates in an attempt to save the world’s largest economy from dipping into a recession.

He cut interest rates due to the sub-prime mortgage mess in the US. Let me explain what this is all about.

In US there are people who are rich, not so rich and those who come under low-income groups. The people from low-income group are not given priority while sanctioning loans. As their income is neither high nor steady, they comes under the category of potential defaulters. So, lending institutions are not much interested in giving loans to them for the fear of default. These people collectively constitutes what is known as sub-prime markets . In recent years, however, a trend of providing loans to sub-prime markets was going on in the US.

Sub-prime loans were extended to these people with low income and high default risk. Despite their having a bad credit history, they were granted loans by lending institution on the premise that economy was quite strong and it was assumed that with a certain degree of controls, they wouldn’t default. Further these lending institutions were brimming with huge surplus of dollars and it was a good calculated move to invest them in the sub-prime markets. However, it didn’t turn out to be that way. High interest rates in the US started pushing up the numbers of people who couldn’t repay the loans. Slowly but consistently the numbers of defaulters started piling up. Soon it comes out that this situation was not limited only to these local defaulters and their lending institutions. These sub-prime loans were already resold by these lending institutions to other big investors as part of various investment products. As these major investments products have a huge customer base, the entire profit from them became quite vulnerable and risky.

As it turned out, American banks had a huge exposure to this segment of borrowers (of sub-prime markets) and many started reeling under the weight of defaults. The problem had reached proportions that threatened to derail the American economy in view of the inclusion of these local loans with big investment products. US Federal Reserve reckoned that if it cut interest rates, it would be easier for people (who are on the verge of defaulting) to service their loans and the financial services sector could withstand this storm.

However, most things in life have two facets – good and bad. A reduction in interest rate, though has made the repayment of loan easy for the defaulters, it has also made the investment scenario in US a bit unattractive. People, who were getting good return on their investment in US, will now get lesser returns as the interest rate has been lowered. From an individual’s perspective, this lesser return may not be a significant amount, however, for big Institutional investors, this lowering of interest rate can mean a huge loss on their expected rate of return. It made sense, therefore, to look at safer markets that offered better returns. Like India.

So, as of now, all investment fund managers are heading for India. There is a rush among them and almost every fund manager wants India to be in his investment portfolio. As a result the stock market is booming here. In the last month itself, a $7.2 billion of net inflows have been pumped into the Indian Share market by these FIIs. If you think this figure is not very large, let me tell you that in the entire 2006, the total investment from them was $8 billions. As a result the share market is booming. Apart from FIIs, who are here for long term investments, there are many hedge funds also which are investing money in the market for a short period to make quick profit. They may sell their shares in the days to come. However, for the time being they are in a buying frenzy and are helping the market touch new heights everyday.

This is truly the magic of globalization. The economies of various countries have become so much inter-dependent that a little change in the local economic scenario of one country can deeply impact the economy of a distant country. The present boom in India is a classical example of this. Some guys took loans and failed to repay it in time. Since the repayment of their loans was connected with the profit margin of big players, the entire economy panicked thus triggering the reduction in interest rate. This reduction made return on investment less attractive and the money starts moving to a better investment destination. Wow ! Truly the world is becoming a global village.

In my next article I will write about what can be the effect of this stock market boom in India.

Today is 2^nd October the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation or Bapu as he was lovingly called in India. This day is the third and the last national holiday in India (the 26^th January – the Republic day and 15^th August- the Independence day are the other two).

A debate on the relevancy of Gandhi in today’s time has become a routine affair on every 2^nd October. For some people Gandhi is still relevant today whereas some think that India (& the world at large) has changed so drastically that there is no role of Gandhi in it.

No matter what exactly the truth is, the biggest truth of all is that if you go to any corner of earth and ask any stranger to name two Indians he has heard of in his lifetime; the answer in all likelihood will be (1) Gautam Buddha and (2) Mahatma Gandhi.

Among all Indians born during the span of last 2600 years, these two mans are the most popular, most loved and worshiped by millions. There is some kind of charisma in them which simply fails to fade.

I reserve my thoughts on Buddha for one of my future posts. Today, on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, I would like to share some little known facts about him which most of us don’t know.

(1) He had a set of false teeth, which he carried in a fold of his loin cloth. He put them in his mouth only when he wanted to eat. After his meal, he took them out, washed them and put them back in his loin cloth again.

(2) Mahatma Gandhi spoke English with an Irish accent, for one of his first teachers was an Irishman.

(3) During the freedom struggle, he wore nothing but a loin cloth , but for years he lived in London and used to wear a silk hat and spats and carried a cane.

(4) He was educated at London University and became an attorney. But the first time he attempted to make a speech in court, his knees trembled, and he was so frightened that he had to sit down in confusion and defeat.

(5) As a lawyer in London, he got nowhere at all. He was practically a failure there. Years before, when he first came to England, his Irish teacher made him copy the Sermon on the Mount, over and over again, purely as an exercise in English. Hour after hour, Gandhi wrote “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. . . . Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God,” and these words made a profound impression on him.

(6) Later, he was sent to South Africa to collect some huge debts; and he tried to apply there the philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount. And it worked. Clients flocked to Gandhi because he settled their claims peacefully out of court and saved them time and expense.

(7) His income during those days in South Africa touched fifteen thousand dollars a year! Something still a dream for most Indians !

(8) However, despite this worldly success he was not happy. On seeing the untold misery of millions of his fellow countrymen; on seeing thousand of them dying of starvation; the worldly success seemed cheap and unimportant to him. He gave up all his money and ‘took the vow of poverty, and since that time, he consecrated his life to helping the poor and the downtrodden.

(9) On seeing the hopeless condition of one tenth of India which was living in a hungry and half-starved state, Mahatma Gandhi pleaded with them to cease bringing children into a world filled with so much misery and want.

(10) Mahatma Gandhi experimented with diets to see how cheaply he could live and remain healthy. He started living principally on fruit and goats’ milk and olive oil.

(11) Mahatma Gandhi got inspiration of Civil Disobedience by reading a book of an American ! He had been greatly influenced by the teachings of an American by the name of David Thoreau. Thoreau was graduated from Harvard University ninety years ago, and then spent twenty-eight dollars building a cabin for himself on the lonely shores of Walden Pond, in Massachusetts. He lived there like a hermit, and refused to pay taxes; so he was thrown into jail. He then wrote a book on Civil Disobedience, saying that no one ought to pay taxes. People didn’t pay the slightest attention to his book then; but, seventy-five years later, Gandhi read that book, away out in India, and decided to use Thoreau’s tactics. He felt that England had not kept her promise to give India self-government; so, in order to punish England, Gandhi urged the people of India to go to jail rather than pay taxes, and he also urged his followers to boycott English goods. When the British placed a tax on salt, Gandhi led his follower to the sea and they made their own salt.

(12) Mahatma Gandhi never visited the US, but he had many American fans and followers. One of his more unusual admirers was Henry Ford. Gandhi sent him an autographed charkha (spinning wheel) through a journalist emissary. During the darkest days of the Second World War, Ford, who was struck by the charkha’s “mechanical simplicity and high moral purpose,” would often spin on “the symbol of economic independence that Gandhi had sent.

(12) Mahatma Gandhi inspired millions of people world over to take the path of non-violence and civil disobedience. 5 world leaders who got Noble Peace prize viz. Martin Luther King Jr. (USA), Dalai Lama (Tibet), Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar), Nelson Mandela (S. Africa) and Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina) have acknowledged the fact that they were influenced by the philosophy of Gandhi. Yet, Mahatma Gandhi; the man who inspired these Nobel Peace Prize winners, never got a Noble Prize !

I think it is a loss for the Noble – the prize; not for Gandhi – the man who is above all prizes.

(13) The great Scientist Albert Einstein once said about Gandhi :

“Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this (Gandhi) walked the earth in flesh and blood.”

He also once said,

” I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.”

The more I read about Gandhi, the more I become humble to the greatness of this man who was seeking nothing for himself but was willing to die in order that others may live.

Sources of my article : Little known facts about well known people; by Dale Carnegie, The Times of India, some article on Internet and some books from my collection.

Hi to all,

It’s after 6 days that I got a chance to post. For a blogger, it is really disappointing not to find time for blogging..especially when your blog is quite new and requires constant updating. Right now I am facing this situation and don’t know when this problem will end. I was busy in reading various forums, researching some important information online and making strategy for future. All these things take time. Often I become nostalgic about those golden days of bachelor life when I used to have so much time.. But there was no internet then .  Anyhow I’ll try to update this blog as much as I can.

Regarding India (the theme of my blog) many interesting things are happening here. A few of them are

(1) The Central Govt of India is in direct confrontation with it’s coalition partner – the Leftist Parties (CPM etc) on the issue of Nuclear Deal (the famous 123 Pact) with US. The CPM wants the deal to be scrapped as they feel the deal would jeopardize India’s national interest and make India a submissive ally of US (which in their opinion is the most corrupt imperialist power today). On the other hand, the Govt lead by Dr. Manmohan Singh is determined to go ahead with the deal as they think that it contains the key to future energy problems of India. Moreover it’ll open the hitherto unavailable market of Nuclear Supply Groups (NSG) of 45 countries to India.

In view of the situations which is emerging, confrontation may lead to downfall of the Government resulting into a fresh election. . In a recent TV Poll ,it is found that more than 80% people in India do not know what this deal is all about. Yet they may face a midterm election !

In my opinion the deal should go on. I have read it in detail and India has nothing to lose from this deal. The gains, on the other hand will be manifold.

(2) The Setu-Samundram Project and controversy : Setu (means bridge) Samundram (Ocean) is an ambitious project in the southern coast of India to make a waterwaythat will go between Sri Lanka and India. This project is just like the famous Suez Canal Project which connects the Asia and Europe without the need of circumnavigating Africa.

Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) is about developing an offshore shipping channel in the Palk Bay, intended to cut short the distance for ships navigating between the west and east coasts of India, by avoiding the circumnavigation of Sri Lanka.

However, there are many concerns about the viability of this project which includes mythological as well as Scientific ones. The project requires breaking the Adams Bridge
(now submersible in water) which is considered as the ancient mythological bridge built by Lord Rama in the great Indian Epic ‘Ramayana’.

Recently, Indian Govt. submitted an Affidavit in Supreme Court where the Govt said there was no existence of Lord Rama and all other characters of Ramayana, thus there is no question of this bridge being the original Bridge built by Army of Lord Rama during his famous battle with Demon Ravana.

This Affidavit created instant negative reactions from every parts of India. For the highly religious Hindu population of India, nothing can be more offensive than telling them that there beloved Lord Rama never existed ! This is a political blunder which has brought the Govt on backfoot. Now the entire exercise of Sethusamundram Project has been put on hold. The entire Govt machinery is involved in doing a damage control exercise. ..Let us see what happens.

(3) Apart from the above two big news, there are some other tidbits which include- the starting of twenty-20 word Cup cricket (the hot discussions on the probable winner have already started), the fake sting operation on a Delhi School Teacher by a news Channel which ultimately boomranged on the channel and the very recent resignation of Rahul Dravid as captain of Indian Cricket team.

People are made of flesh and blood and a miracle fibre called courage. – McLaughlin

On Friday, 17^th of August, after prolonged battle with cancer, a man breathed his last in Delhi‘s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was Dashrath Manjhi, the 78 year old legend who has now become the part of folklore in Gaya District of Bihar, India.

The courage and will of this man is one of those rare real life incidents which will continue to inspire mankind for ages to come. This simple man from Gaya had the fortitude and conviction to move mountains and he made it happen by his sheer perseverance and faith in his efforts to move the mountain. He is an inspiration for all us and just when you feel chips are down and the road ahead seems insurmountable, put yourself in his shoes and imagine the courage it would take to move a mountain.

Yes, this man literally moved a mountain! Alone, just by his sheer will and perseverance.

Over four decades ago, a frail, landless Dashrath got hold of a chisel and a hammer and decided to change the face of his village nestled in the rocky hills of Gaya. He almost tore open a 300-feet-high hill to create a one-km passage. Instead of endlessly waiting for the apathetic administration to do something for those formidable hills that virtually cut his village off from civilization, Manjhi, then in his early 20s, took up a chisel and hammered at the rocks for 22 years.

It all started from Manjhi’s love for his wife. For, when she slipped off the rocks while getting food for him as he worked in a field beyond the hill and broke her ankle, it became a burning passion to tame the formidable hills. And he completed this Herculean task — creating a short-cut which reduced a long and arduous journey from his village Gahlor Ghati to Wazirganj to a walkable distance. At that time people called him mad. They ridiculed him. Even his wife and parents were against this “adventure,” especially when he sold his goats to buy a chisel, a hammer and rope.

But, by then, Manjhi was a determined man. He shifted his hut close to the hill so he could work all day and night, chipping away, little by little. May times he did not even bother to eat. With most of the cultivable land and shops across the hill, villagers had to cross it many times a day, braving dangers. It was after 10 years that people began to notice a change in the shape of the hill. Instead of a defiant rockface, the hill seemed to have a depression in the middle. Climbing it became a little easier. All those who had called him mad began to quietly watch him work. Some even chipped in.

Then in 1982, twenty-two years after he had started out, that day came when Manjhi walked through a clear flat passage — about 16-feet wide — to the other side of the hill. But his victory was tinged with sadness. His wife, who inspired him to take on this task, was not by his side. She had died of illness. They could not take her to a hospital on time.

But, the villagers were there to celebrate with him. They got him sweets, fruits and all that they could afford. The young generation in that area had grown up hearing stories of the man who wanted to move a mountain. Now that dream had become a reality and a boon for them.

This formidable task, single handedly performed by Dashrath Manjhi, resulted into a 1.5 kilometer long road through the Gahlaur Mountain thus reducing the distance to cross the mountain from a grueling 50 kilometer to a much-easier 8 kilometer.

This hand-carved passage through the hill still remains the only sustainable change his village has ever chanced upon. Tubewells were installed, but they ran dry. Electric poles were put up, but the cables never came. And a five-acre plot given by former CM Lalu Prasad to Manjhi for a hospital still lies barren.

Septuagenarian Manjhi hadn’t given up though. In a recent interview he had said “I met CM Nitish Kumar recently. He has promised to develop the passage so that even a car can pass and will connect my village to Gaya. And, he told me that I will lay the foundation stone.”

Manjhi died on Friday at AIIMS in Delhi despite top care provided by the nation’s premier health facility. The state government of Bihar, in honor of Manjhi, has announced its decision to name the road built by the mountain man as Dashrath Manjhi Road and that hospital in Atri village in Gaya (which is yet to be built), to be named after him. He will not be there to lay the foundation stone when that passage will be developed fully, however, his story will continue to be the source of inspiration for many in the nation

I pay my humble tribute to Dashrath Manjhi. May his soul rest in peace!

On the 60th independence day of India, the newspapers were filled with the success stories of India. There were talks of how it’s image has changed in the eyes of Western World, how globalization has brought happiness on the million of faces, how our economic reforms have changed our life style totally…and many things like that.

‘The Guardian’, a leading newspaper of England, published a special theme on India and gave this headline about India :

“This is the best place in the world to be born right now. “

After reading all these things, I had to think whether we have really developed so much to deserve such attention for the world over. I did some reality check and found that though, to a great extent India has changed, there are many areas where we are far behind than others. The economic reforms which started in the 1990s have brought some very positive developments like a boom in service sector especially in IT industry, a resurgent share market, the buying spree of Indian companies the world over, a very high growth rate and a very healthy foreign exchange reserves. However, still there are many areas which need our urgent attention. Here is a reality check for the `superpower of future:

Health

Health care Budget of India is just 0.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Average amount a person spends on health care in India – $82

45% of Indian Children under five are malnourished.

Yet it has become a Hub for Medical Tourism : An angioplasty that takes $50,000 in US costs just $11,000 in India. Heart Surgey costs $6000 (as against 30,000 in US) & Bone marrow transplant costs $26,000 (as against $2,50,000 in US).

Politics :

25% Members of Parliament (MPs) have criminal records.

99% MPs were elected despite getting less than 50% vote !

We have one of the lowest voter turn out at 58%.

There are 173 registered political parties in India.

Economy

40 richest Indians are worth $170 Billion

26% of population still lives below official poverty line.

To nearly 70% of country, financial service means nothing more than a saving account !

Before nationalization (which happened in 1969), there were a total of 8,262 Bank branches in India. Now upto March, 06 there were 71,177 Branches

Per Capita Income is Rs. 29,382, it was just Rs. 255 at the time of independence:

A nation comprising many nation :

In village area of Orissa (an Indian State). Poverty rate is 43%.

In village area of Bihar (an Indian State). Poverty rate is 41%.

These rates are below Malavi and Ghana : one of the poorest countries in the world.

Whereas in

Village area of Haryana (an Indian State). Poverty rate is 5.7 %.

Village area of Punjab (an Indian State). Poverty rate is 2.4 %.

These rates are better than Costarica one of the most developed countries of South America.

Some more hard facts about economy

100 millions Indians are unemployed.

We have 50-million child labour.

Our manufacturing sector 1/5th of China and contributes only 17% to GDP.

60% of country is still employed in Agriculture which contribute only 22% to GDP.

Education :

33% of all illiterates of world live in India. In china this figure is just 11%.

There are 200 millions children in India and 50 millions don’t go to School.

80,000 Schools are without Blackboard.

1,44,000 Schools have just one teacher.

Literacy rate is 67% which was just 14% in 1947 (at the time of independence)

Housing :

100 million people live in slums.

30 millions house are required for lower and middle class.

In Human Development Report of 177 nations, India is at 127th place. (China is at 85th and Sri Lanka at 93rd)

Law & order

We have 13 judges per million of population.

There are 3 Crore (30 million) pending cases in our courts – 25.5 millions in District & Sub-district court , 3.36 lakhs in High Court & 39,000 in Supreme Court.

We have one of the lowest conviction rate just 42.4% (in 2005). Japan & Russia have 99% conviction rate.

Pollution

CO2 emission per tonne per capita :

India – 0.9, US- 19.5, China – 2.7 and Russia – 10.7

This is a positive fact. Our contribution to air pollution & global warming is minuscule compare to our population of more than 1 billion.

Yet India generated 29,129 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage out of which only 6190 MLD could be treated. The rest 22,939 MLD was being dumped into rivers etc each day. (Data up to 2005)

Over 50% of Urban India has no access to sanitation.

Telecom:

Over 6 million people are getting connected every months.

Total usage have topped 100 million more than entire population of Germany, thus making India 5th largest cellular market behind China, US, Japan & Russia.

At the time of independence, there are 1.1. Million telephones. Now this number has reached 218 millions.

Power :

A whooping 33% of electricity that is generated is lost or stolen during transmission and distribution. This theft rate is among highest in the world.

The total power production is 12% short of demand.

Only 44% rural household has access to power. The national average is 56%.

Rural household did not have power for 13-17 hours a day.

*******

Indeed India is a land of contradiction. A reality check is sometimes necessary to keep us firmly on the ground. There are many challenges ahead us which we need to face. Let these immortal lines inspire us all :

“Wood are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep.

Miles to go before I sleep…Miles to go before I sleep…” – Robert Frost