“Dilemmas in Agriculture: A Personal Story”

Thanks to the author of the article, "Naren's last testament" featured in Hindu, for letting us know about this committed individual and the inside account of organic farming, that is most authentic.

“Dilemmas in Agriculture: A Personal Story”. We persuaded Uma [Naren's wife]to update the volume, and add a few personal notes. The little book is ready and published by Vasudheva Kutumbukum ( kutumbukum@gmail.com). It is rich with wisdom and gentle insights about the predicaments of rural life in India today, but what makes it significant is that it is based on their own journey. The narrative begins in 1987, when Naren decided to leave his well-paid job in a Bank to return to his ancestral village Venkatramapuram in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, for a ‘life of organic farming and social work' - The author says and adds that it is "a passionate — even desperate — plea to save the Indian farmer from hunger, pauperisation and despair".

Kulsum Sayani

“Each one, teach one”, one of the most effective schemes to promote education today was popularised by a woman few remember, but who was a pioneer in the field of adult literacy in India.

Kulsum Sayani's name might not ring a bell for many but her life and work are truly remarkable ...Her experience made her a part of several committees, ....But it was in spreading the word on education that she is best remembered. ...Her days are a mad rush of dashing to schools to enthuse children into teaching adults and her nights are spent dreaming up new schemes of literacy."...Another literacy initiative she initiated was reading out aloud. School students were encouraged to gather friends and adults and each one had to read out aloud. This, she believed, was necessary to improve the confidence and interest of neo-literates. ..."

- excerpt from Many facets of an activist by
DANISH KHAN Source:http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/08/15/stories/2010081550330500.htm

(I must try this reading aloud technique with agricultural magazines)

Cadambi Minakshi

Hey! This photo looks familiar!...looks like my mother.. rather like her in those college photographs. The same expression!! I looked intently at it ...tears clouding my eyes. As I read further the similarity continued, my mother's subject also being history. The mention of Prof. Nilakanta Sastri in the article brought back the memories of my mother talking about the eminent scholar with great reverence.

"Minakshi was an authority on Pallava history, a respected archaeologist and the first woman to get a doctorate from the University of Madras in 1936. Her scholarship was profound and her accomplishments astonishing. If only death had not come cruelly quick, when she was just 34 years old, Minakshi would have uncovered more of the precious past and be as well remembered as her teacher Prof. Nilakanta Sastri, the doyen of South Indian history" - excerpt from a tribute by A. Srivathsan.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/article571477.ece

I thought that I should send this news clipping to her, but was wondering if the idea was foolish. And then the next paragraph in the article cleared by doubt. It says:
Minakshi maintained a calico covered scrapbook with ‘made in England' inscribed on it. “Mother and daughter collected every piece of paper that had anything to do with the latter; newspaper clippings, letters, manuscripts and invitations,” explained Mahalakshmi Gourishankar, a 75-year-old relative of Minakshi, who generously shared the book.

Just then my husband called saying that he was with my mother and if I had to say something. I asked him to buy and give that day's Hindu to my mother. He did and returned with an article on Stevia in Eenadu Sunday magazine! My mother warning me indirectly to cut down on my sugar intake...?!!