Stairway to heaven!

Yeah, I'm hooked upon this LedZepp number thesedays! The song can be found here. Lets see the lyrics first.

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven.
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for.
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven.

There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings,
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it makes me wonder.

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,
And the voices of those who stand looking.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.
And it makes me wonder.

Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know,
The piper's calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she's buying a stairway to heaven.

The lyrics ofcourse contain a message, about money and buying stairway to heaven with it. There are many interesting facts associated with the song. Robert and Jimmy wrote this in an old mansion called Headley Grange in Worcestershire, England, where they recorded most of their 4th album. It was a huge, old, dusty mansion with no electricity but great acoustics. Bands would go there to get some privacy and focus on songwriting. One night, in front of a roaring fire, Page strummed the chords to this for Robert. Plant wrote 90% of the lyrics right there in front of the fire.
But it made biggest news when it was claimed that when played backwards, its a song for satanic worship. Supporting this theory is the fact that Jimmy Page bought Aleister Crowley's house in Scotland, which had become a well known Satanic church and was known as "The Toolhouse." In his books, Crowley advocated that his followers learn to read and speak backwards. The backward clip can be found at this page.
Robert Plant addressed the issue in an interview with Musician magazine: "'Stairway To Heaven' was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music. It's really sad. the first time I heard it was early in the morning when I was living at home, and I heard it on a news program. I was absolutely drained all day. I walked around, and I couldn't actually believe, I couldn't take people seriously who could come up with sketches like that. There are a lot of people who are making money there, and if that's the way they need to do it, then do it without my lyrics. I cherish them far too much."
All said and done, the song is really a great one, certainly among the best of rock!

Zafar : Victory, Triumph

Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hoon, na kisi ke dil ka qaraar hoon
Jo kisi ke kaam na aa sake main wo ek musht-e-Gubaar hoon

Na to main kisi ka habib hoon, no to main kisi ka raqeeb hoon
Jo bigad gaya wo naseeb hoon, jo ujaad gaya wo dayaar hoon

Mera rang-roop bigad gaya, mera yaar mujh se bichhad gaya
Jo chaman fizaan mein ujad gaya main usi ki fasl-e-bahaar hoon

Paye faatehaa koi aaye kyun, koi chaar phool chadhaaye kyun
Koi aake shammaa jalaye kyun, main wo bekasi ka mazaar hoon

- Bahadur Shah 'Zafar'

Bahadur Shah 'Zafar' was last among the mighty mughals. During the 200 years of
Mughal rule, India saw it all, the pyramid of Rajput skulls made by Babar, lucky
Humayun to get back the thorne from Sher Shah Sur, the golden era of Akbar,
Din-e-elahi, the passion of Jahangir for Anarkali, the devotion of Shahjahan for
Noorjahan, the iron hand rule of Aurangzeb. When it came to Zafar mughals were
reduced to mere pensioners of Maratha. The great empire was reduced to only Delhi. It was said:

Jahanpanah shah alam
Az Delhi tu Palam

Palam is about 7 miles from Delhi.

Zafar's took the thorne at the ripen age of 60. His golden time came when he was declared the Baadshaah-e-hind by mutineers in 1857 mutiny. Soon after Brits took the control back, he was sacked and sent to Rungoon (Yangoon in Myanmaar).

During his time the urdu poetry florished a lot. He himself was a prolific poet. His shayari is often laden with sadness and disappointment. One very nice example is given above. For more go here.

Do I know you?

The other day I bought History of India - Phalaksha from Blossoms. Blossoms is a old book store. So people basically sell their old books there and people interested in old (read cheap) books, like me, hog the place searching for books of their likings. I must say, the collection is excellent there. Many might suggest that prices are bit on the higher side for such old books, others will say you'll get cheaper books from road side vendors, but I go there mainly for the collection! Much to my roommate's, Jha, irritation I go there quite often just to browse through.

The book, History of India, was not quite helpful (it has many contradictory statements like: Harappa had big public baths located near temples....No temples were found in the ruins!). But it looked like it was used as textbook by some college for BA 1st year. I saw the names written on the book, presumably of its earlier(or first) owner. It read Rajini B. S. It reminded me of Faraaz's famous sher:
Ab ke bicchade to fir shayad hum khwabon mein milein,
Jaise sukhe huye phool kitaabon mein milein.

It also reminded me of Amelie. French entry for 2001 Oscar for best foreign film. The "adventures" of Amelie start when she finds out that behind her apartment's bathroom tiles, some one (some kid perhaps) has stored his toys! With the help of newspaper cutting with the toys she finds the date and ultimately with the apartment register she finds out who it could be. Very ingeniously, she returned the toys to the original owner, now a wrinkled old man. This incident inspires her to bring happiness to others' lives. The story is in fact very feel-good!

Talking of movies, I have to watch Six degrees of separation. The title refers to the fact that we all know everyone by six people or degrees (on average). This is quite astonishing phenomenon known as Small World Effect. A 1967 small world experiment by psychologist Stanley Milgram which found that two random US citizens were connected by an average of six acquaintances. However, after more than thirty years its status as a description of heterogeneous social networks (such as the aforementioned "everyone in the world") still remains an open question. More on this here.

Agriculture in India: Road to future?

Overview:
The wide ranged reforms launched in 1991 has changed the Indian economy substantially. More sectors are opened to private activity. The license raaj introduced after second five year planning (1956-61) was abolished, thus freeing the economy from the clutches of bureaucracy. Services recorded a boom during 90's mainly due to IT sector. A little more than a decade after, its time to assess and decide our main focus for coming years.
With a 24.2 per cent contribution (triennium ending 2001-02) to the gross domestic product (GDP), agriculture still provides livelihood support to about two-thirds of country's population. The sector provides employment to 56.7 per cent of country's work force and is the single largest private sector occupation. Agriculture accounts for about 14.7 per cent of the total export earnings and provides raw material to a large number of Industries (textiles, silk, sugar, rice, flour mills, milk products). India has 169,700 thousand hectares of arable land (3rd in world), which is 54.35% of total area.
But are we producing to our capabilities? When we talk of yield of principal crops and compare it with various countries, we stand no where close (refer 4). The uncertainity about the contribution of agriculture sector to our GDP is making it mark on the growth rate of nation's GDP. Growth rate of agriculture sector was meagre and constantly on decline during second half of 90's, while Services and Industries were recording increase in growth rates. This was mainly attributed to the draught. So a sector, which employs more than half of the labour force of country, which can boost GDP growth rate from 4.0 to 8.1 in one good season, which holds tremendous potential, should be left at the indeterminate rains?

Problems for Agriculture:
- Uncertainity: The crop yield is heavily dependent on the rains that year.This was the main reason of decline in growth rate of agriculture sector in second half of 1990's. This uncertainity hits worst the small farmers and labourers, which are usually leading a hand to mouth lifestyle. In a country like our's, where people die of draughts AND floods, every year, something must be done to support farmers and supply them enough water. Ditto with electricity.
- Economically Inactive Population: People often are heard saying that population is the root of every single problem India is facing! Errr... I would like to differ. Its not the population, its the economically inactive people, who are adding to India's problems. Try to see the population we have as a resource (reminds me of an old joke: Q. What does India produce most? A. Indians!). We have huge number of idle people, we must find/invent ways to employ them and make the numbers contribute towards the growth! Especially in agriculture, we can notice passive unemployment. That is, say, 10 persons working where only 2 are required. Hence you'll find, output generated by agriculture, per person, would be way below world average.
- Under-utilization: We already talked about under utilization of human resources. But we can also increase the output by providing water to places where its not currently available. For example, before Indira Gandhi canal came to Sri Ganganagar (in Rajasthan) that area was just plain desert. Now, its among most rich districts in India.
- Poor farmers: Since a huge part of (poor) population is engaged in agriculture, unless we increase their living standards, overall growth of India is not possible. If we keep ignoring the poor, this disparity will keep on increasing between classes. Debt traps in Andhra are forcing farmers to suicide. People are migrating towards city hopeing for better livinghood, but only to increase the slum population in cities. Rural population must be given employment in their areas and they should be given chances to prosper and earn living for them and their families. They just aren't getting enough returns for their efforts

Solutions for India:
India is carrying on the label of "developing" country for quite long now, for making the move towards being a "developed" country we must shed this dependency on agriculture sector. This means focussing more on the Industry and Services sectors. More employment opportunities must be created so that we can better utilize the huge human resources we have. This doesn't mean discouraging the agriculture sector. People don't do it for sentimental reasons, they do it for their living. If you will provide them better life, why won't they move from agriculture to other sectors? Aren't labourers in Punjab are from UP and Bihar? Isn't my cook in Bangalore an Oriya? The bottom line is people will move if they find better life! We need to create opportunity in Industry and Services sectors. Focus must be kept on generating employment in Industry and Services sectors. India has been an economy based on agriculture for centuries, but I believe its time to get over it.

Sources:
1. http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2003-04/esmain.htm
2. http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/SAR/sa.nsf/Attachments/dpr/$File/chapter1.pdf
3. http://www.censusindia.net
4. http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/10th/volume2/v2_ch5_1.pdf
5. http://www.nationmaster.com/country/in