Computer centers in the Syangja district of Nepal are facing a connectivity crisis. Entire villages get email and browse the internet through the equivalent of the cellular phone you carry in your pocket.

Cellular internet bandwidth is billed by the minute. As NRIDS information centers become increasingly popular costs are rising to prohibitive levels. Often, shared connections at cellular speeds are not fast enough to support today’s high bandwidth internet.

Stuck on slow connections, many rural Nepali communities are being cut off from the electronic resources the western world takes for granted.


NRIDS has a plan to solve the connectivity crisis. Using the same inexpensive wi-fi hardware installed in homes and coffeshops throughout the western world, NRIDS hopes to build a wireless repeater on a high ridge-top at Kharsuko Lake.

NRIDS has technically skilled volunteers willing to implement this project for free, but has no funds to purchase the necessary radios and antennas. All it takes to make this network possible is USD $8000. Please donate now by clicking the button to the right of this page and help connect residents of Syanjga with each other and the rest of the world.

With minimal financial resources and by relying on the support of its dedicated volunteers, NRIDS has succeeded in establishing five community information centers (CICs) throughout the Syanjga district in central Nepal. Syangja’s CICs are based on a model carefully tailored to local needs, and are able to remain sustainable while offering computer training, business services, and information access to Syangja’s residents.

Unfortunately, Syanjga’s CICs face a connectivity crisis. These CICs are linked to the internet through Nepal’s CDMA cellular data network. Essentially, this means entire villages of rural Nepalis get email and browse the internet through the equivalent of the cellular phone you carry in your pocket.

Cellular reception throughout Syangja is often poor. CDMA bandwidth is billed by the minute, and as CICs become increasingly popular costs are rising to prohibitive levels. Often, shared connections at CDMA speeds are not fast enough to support today’s high bandwidth internet. Stuck on slow connections, many Nepali communities are being cut off from the electronic resources they need.

NRIDS has a plan to solve this connectivity crisis. Using the same inexpensive wi-fi hardware installed in homes and coffeshops throughout the western world, NRIDS hopes to build a wireless repeater on a high ridge-top at Kharsuko Lake. This wireless network will link Syangja’s CICs with each other, and with a high-speed internet connection in the major city of Pokhara only 50 km away.

A wireless network would enable Syangja’s CICs to offer new services to improve the lives of local citizens:

* Faster, more stable internet access at a fraction of the cost
* Free voice and video calls from one networked village to another
* Affordable international calls to family working abroad, allowing conversations on a weekly instead of monthly basis
* Telemedicine programs to connect doctors in Pokhara’s hospitals with rural clinics in Syangja
* Centrally hosted services to give businesses and communities a presence on the internet

NRIDS has technically skilled volunteers willing to implement this project for free, but has no funds to purchase the necessary radios and antennas. All it takes to make this network possible is USD $8000. Please donate now by clicking the button to the right of this page and help connect residents of Syanjga with each other and the rest of the world.

Please visit our website http://nridsnepal.org.np for details information about the projects of NRIDS.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE : http://nridsnepal.org.np

sometimes u dream for simple things in life. u wish for dignity and respect. uwish for beign able to do ur work on time. ur spous eis upportive but his family create chaos.
u r denied even basic facility of beign able to cook food as per ur convienence.
u cannot doanything.simply sit and face the insult handed on a platter.
no matter how hard u try u face the same thing. u try to solve it and u face a stiff wall. nobody is ready to listen.
u are ill .insted of helping you ,you r told to back off kicten .u have adaily routine .u have evn fixe dthe timeings when uwill cook. yet daily u r troubled.at that time only others have to cook or else they will die out of hunger.
u cant complain.u can only cry. but that is something cowards do.

www.benbikes.org.za/namibia

I attended a speaker event tonight at the community market. The market hosts bicycle repairs and sends them to Africa as part of the Bicycle Exchange Network. This is a great way to recycle cycles while provided support to Namibian cities and communities.

One in five people in Namibia are living with HIV/AIDS. Most people need to walk 20km/day to get to where they are going, whether it be school, grocery shopping, or to the doctor. The bicycles cut their travel time into 1/4 the amount of time that it takes to walk.

There are also perks such as competitive bike teams and HIV/AIDS awareness outreach by local volunteers. They promote healthy lifestyles and carry medical supplies such as soap which may save a life because of reduction of infection for those living with AIDS.

So far, 10 000 bikes have been donated to Namibia through this project-funded organization who are based in Australia and Canada. In a place where employment is 36%, street youth are trained in bike maintenance and gain employment skills. They receive the money to pay for their own bike repairs, as many only make $2 per month volunteering. The bike shop is created in the communities.

varun gandhi has started his political career with a big bang. he has arrive don the politoical scence with blowing trumpets. quiet a contrast with Rahul Gandhi.
Sanjay Gandhi won congress single handedly the powerful state of Uttar Pradesh. Varun has chosen Uttar Pradesh for his political baptism.BJP is hoping that it can reap varun effect in many nearby seats of the region called Rohillakhad (it is area adjoining to philibhit-varun's Constituency).
The general obersavations about Sanjay Gandhi often reflected that Sanjay had great political brain just like Chanakaya.lets see whether Varun is able to replicate that charisma and wield such unparlled power as commanded by his late father Sanjay Gandhi.
Hope varun also has a vision for modern india which even sanjay Gandhi had.Sanjay started the township of NOIDA,approved Gurgoan ,started Maruti car company ,worked on national family planning policy (though he adopted very strict measures for that)and modernisation of industry.
very few now remember that people like R.K.Dhawan ,Jagdish Tytler ,Jagmohan(in DDA and GOVERNOR OF jAMMU AND kaSHMIR,arjun singh were brought into limelight by Sanjay Gandhi.
This nation was a mute spectator to Sanja's tirade during emergencey in 1975-77.yet his son has chosen the very same path.perhaps he is a bit sober than his afther whose court trials resulted in rampage and manhayem in delhi.
Varun is trying his best to prove himself very radical ,different form his cousin Rahul Gandhi.He is using fanatic Hindusim as a ladder to galvanise to great political heights in minimal time.Ever since he has been jaile d,he is keeping quiet instead his mother and party members are going the whole hog on his behalf. let see how far varun will able to baer the huge responsibilty of beign a hard core hindu leader or in future he also adds the tag of development and economic modernisation to his beliefs.
Varun and his motehr Maneka Gandhi have long beign denied their place in the political powerhouse .Mother -son duo seem to be in hurry to recalim their position under the sun that was very smartly taken away from them by Indira Gandhi and Congress party.
This eems to be their real motive and Hindusim is just a platform that has given them ready audience in short span of time.let see how much can they garner from all this.
i would like to sit and watch the rise of other Gandhi.
hope he learns his political ways sson and his political carrer is not cut short as was of his father

Varun Gandhi is a shrewd, calculating politician, whose ideology was shaped by his intense dislike of the Congress party, shared with his mother. His discovery that his great-grandfather defined the core values and vision of the Congress impelled him to reject the Nehruvian paradigm, comprising the four pillars of democracy, secularism, socialism and nonalignment. He has long been ideologically inclined towards Hindutva and illiberal right-wing ideas. For him, these are a foil against the Congress and 'the other Gandhis' -- Rahul and Priyanka.

He probably also calculated that vile anti-Muslim rhetoric would help polarise opinion along communal lines in Pilibhit, which has a large population of Muslims and Sikhs. If this doesn't help in the election, he could claim martyrdom as a Hindu nationalist.

Above all, he knew that the best shortcut to prominence within the BJP doesn't pass through the terrain of moderation, but through extremist territory. It's far easier to fit into the far-right niche within the BJP expanded by Narendra Modi than to compete hard for space within the crowded centre-right marketplace where the bulk of the party's leaders vie with one another for political mileage.

A Westernised, English-speaking young man in a Fabindia kurta would face no challenge if he tries to enter the hardline niche -- especially if he talks like a lumpenised Hindu chauvinist fanatic, and pleases those in the Sangh Parivar who admire uncouth behaviour and relish crude macho-militarist abuse.

The hate speech script rehearsed since early March wasn't written by the BJP or RSS. It was drafted by Varun Gandhi in the knowledge that the BJP wouldn't be able to disown it; nor would it deny him the Pilibhit ticket. After all, what he said about Muslims is exactly what many in the Sangh Parivar think, but dare not say in public. They admire Gandhi's speeches, but hypocritically claim that the CD recording them was doctored. The BJP's statements dissociating itself from his pronouncements lack sincerity.

The BJP rejected the Election Commission's advice to deny a ticket to Gandhi; it participated in the sordid arrest-courting drama. Its UP chief Kalraj Mishra attended it amidst raucous chants of Jai Shri Ram and stone-throwing.

L K Advani has invited ridicule by comparing Varun to Jayaprakash Narayan. Varun frankly depicts himself as a reincarnation of his father's post-Emergency period persona. The slogan in Pilibhit is: 'Varun nahin yeh andhi hain, doosra Sanjay Gandhi hai. (This isn't Varun, but a hurricane; it's Sanjay Gandhi reborn.)'

Like Sanjay, he has brazenly defied the law, torn civility and political decency to shreds, and used goon power to challenge the government.

When Sanjay was legally charged for his excesses, he responded with a mailed fist. He defied court summons and asked his supporters to whip up hysteria and unleash violence. Sanjay made it a point to adopt a 'in-your-face' posture, offend public morality, and spread fear and loathing. After he was held guilty of destroying a film (Kissa Kursi Ka) which criticised the Emergency, his Youth Congress supporters unleashed merry hell in Delhi. The day's headlines read: 'Free-for-all at Sanjay's court appearance.'

Varun Gandhi has emulated his father's smash-and-grab methods in violating the Representation of the People Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 153A, which concerns inciting enmity against particular communities/classes. He would have instigated even more violence had he not been detained under the National Security Act, 1980 by the Mayawati government.

It's simply indisputable that he had to be stopped from running his incendiary campaign, calculated to intimidate the minorities and create fear. Regrettably, he couldn't have been debarred from the election by the Election Commission despite strong evidence that he was in breach of the RPA and the Model Code of Conduct.

According to most legal interpretations, the Commission cannot disqualify a candidate until after a court holds him/her guilty. It doesn't stand to reason that we must watch helplessly while a candidate wreaks communal havoc and poisons the political climate. But our system has failed to plug this huge loophole.

Varun Gandhi now stands booked under the draconian NSA, which allows detention for up to a year without bail, subject to approval by an advisory board. The case must be referred to the board within three weeks and decided within another seven weeks. If the detention is approved, Gandhi won't be able to campaign although he can contest the election.

This makes up for the flaw in the RPA, but at the risk of committing an excess and without reforming the election law. The NSA is a much-abused law. It's meant to be used with great caution, but often isn't. It has been routinely applied in numerous states to make preventive arrests of hardened criminals and inciters of communal violence, and used even against agitations. Its objective is defined in blanket terms as preventing a person from acting 'in any manner prejudicial to the security of the state or... to the maintenance of public order...'

Incitement to communal violence falls within this category. The UP government can claim that it patiently filed two FIRs and tried to stop Gandhi's provocative campaign, but he proved recklessly intransigent. Granted, Mayawati probably had a political motive too: countering the Samajwadi Party's charge that she's soft on the BJP. But Varun Gandhi's political agenda is much more vile.

The NSA has been used by many governments, including BJP-led ones, for acts that don't remotely threaten public order. It was used by the BJP in Rajasthan in 2007 against Gujjar pro-reservation agitators. Last December, a BSP MLA was detained under it in UP for killing an engineer. In the 1990s, the BJP used it in UP to detain uncooperative traders. Few people protested then. Yet, the BJP hypocritically calls Varun Gandhi's detention 'political vendetta.'

The BJP has stooped to a new low in endorsing his toxic campaign. Many people had some sympathy for the BJP because it opposed the Emergency. But with its celebration of the Sanjay Gandhi cult, it has forfeited that sympathy and further lost credibility.

Varun Gandhi has only made explicit the virulent anti-Muslim bias that marked Sanjay Gandhi's authoritarian smash-and-grab politics. That may endear him to the BJP, but it has caused revulsion among the larger public, which could impact the election.

Today, I attended a Youth Forum put on by the Urban Aboriginal Youth Strategy in Thunder Bay. I want to reflect on some of the things I learned at the day's event because the pride was inspiring.

Youth discussed some priorities:
Community action
Civic engagment
Positive cultural events/gatherings/activities/ceremonies
Gaining job skills
Completing school
Reclaiming language/culture/identity
More positive Aboriginal media
Resourcing youth

Youth discussed mental health:
Encourage youth to be active in culture
Positive reinforcements
Accessing someone to talk to about problems
Create support groups on anger, depression, family issues, and financial
School counsellors could be elders
Counsellors and teachers collaborating with parents and youth
Issues of stress, lonliness, depression, suicide, ingergenerational effects of family violence
Culture shock
Collaboration with youth workers

Youth discussed some challenges:
Teen pregnancy
Foster care
Substances
Teen pregnancy
Gangs/abuse
Violence

Youth discussed some solutions:
Awareness/Sensitivity
Healing with laughter
Youth groups to attend
Expression through artwork
Speaking up
Learning from elders
Communication and understanding
Keeping a positive lifestyle
Safe sex promotion
Create a club
Cultural sensitivity training in all workplaces
Education/awareness

Who we can get help from in the community are:
neighbours, friends, relatives, teachers, counsellors, police

The pieces that stood out most for achieving healthy communities were mental health, culture/art, safety, diversity, action, and healthy lifestyles.

Over lunch, there was a presentation from Photovoice. Alice Sabourin, who leads the project, recommended youth who were inspired to participate check out Nadya Kwandibens. She has a fabulous video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MMsdl9-k1s

The motivational speaker was from Turtle Concepts www.turtleconcepts.com. He taught me that I can change the way people see me by changing what I do and how.

Putting the puzzle pieces together:
Get uncomfortable
Change it up
There are 525600 minutes in a year
Do it now
Do what youth steps to change are trying to create

Why Varun and why not Geelani?

T V R Shenoy | April 01, 2009 | 16:45 IST


In August 2008, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the Hurriyat Conference leader from Jammu & Kashmir, gave an interview that has not received the attention it deserved. He said, among other things, "The question of imposing an Islamic rule is different. Why do people object to it? If America and India can have democratic rule, others can have Communism, why object to Islamic rule?"

Presumably to avoid any misunderstanding, Geelani also said, "The creed of socialism and secularism should not touch our lives and we must be totally governed by the Quran and the Sunnat."

[Varun Gandhi has been gaoled for reportedly making provocative statements. Would any ministry, either in Delhi or in Srinagar, ever dare apply the same draconian laws against the Hurriyat Conference chairman?]

Of course, elections were held in Jammu & Kashmir within months of Geelani's incendiary statements. But the polls have scarcely dampened militant activity in the state, nor do they seem to have notably reduced Geelani-like sentiments. We are now told that the assembly elections were about jobs and the trinity of 'bijli-sadak-pani', not about issues of identity.

The Hurriyat Conference leader's sentiments are shared by others across the world. Shortly after engineering the Taliban's ascent to power in the Swat Valley, Mullah Sufi Muhammad gleefully howled, ''We hate democracy. We want the occupation of Islam in the entire world. Islam does not permit democracy or elections.''

It is for Islamic scholars to take up the challenge implicit in that last statement. But if we look at the history of elections in Muslim-dominated nations it is hard to see how voting has led to more 'secular', more pluralistic societies.

How many times has Pakistan gone through the ritual of elections? Yet the Pakistan of today is notably less liberal, more hostile to the world at large than Ayub Khan's Pakistan of the 1960s.

Observers applauded when Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won the last election in Bangladesh. But the most notable event of her tenure to date has been the revolt of the Bangladesh Rifles, not confined to?Dhaka but spread across a dozen cities. One of Sheikh Hasina's cabinet ministers, Faruk Khan, has admitted that the rebels were linked to the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a Muslim fundamentalist outfit. They obviously have as little respect for elections as Mullah Sufi Muhammad on the other end of the subcontinent.

We in India tend to think of Pakistan and Bangladesh only as smaller neighbours. In actuality they happen to be two of the four countries with the largest Muslim citizenry -- India and Indonesia being the other two. And "tiny" Afghanistan, as we think of it, is actually home to the eleventh largest Muslim population. (It is also larger in area than Iraq.)

Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan are certainly no advertisement for elections being a shield against Muslim fundamentalism. How do other nations with a large Muslim population fare?

As it happens, some of the largest will be going to the polls this year. Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population on this planet, elects a new parliament on April 9 and a new president on July 8. (There may be runoff elections if nobody comes through with clear majorities in the first round.)

Iran, the principal Shia power and eighth overall in terms of Muslim population, elects a new president on June 12. The West expects little of Iran's polls. The ultimate arbiter is the Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hoseyni Khamenei no matter who sits in the president's chair. There is, however, more than the usual amount of interest in Indonesia -- partly because of President Obama's family links, partly because Indonesia is historically one of the most pluralistic Islamic societies.

Oddly, the influence of the more overtly Islamic, less 'liberal' Indonesian parties seems to be increasing over time as it moves from its history of dictatorship to elected governments. The Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (Justice and Prosperity Party) wants a central role for Islam without specifying what that means. The Partai Amanat Nasional (National Mandate Party) speaks out against the historic Hindu and Buddhist influence. Between them they hold 98 seats in the current lower house of parliament, and are generally expected to hold the balance of power in the next one (which will have a total strength of 560).

Indonesia, to be brutally honest, is not an opinion leader in the Muslim world, certainly not on the scale of a Saudi Arabia, an Iran, or an Egypt. But it is home to the least 'fundamentalist' school of Islam. If even Indonesia, that most liberal of Islamic nations, veers to a more puritanical form of Islam with each election, will other Muslim-majority nations act differently?

I come back to where I started. Are the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mullah Sufi Muhammad correct in holding that Islam and electoral democracy stand at two ends of the spectrum? And if they are wrong -- as I hope they are -- where are the Muslim leaders that are telling them off?

A sweet story for you

A student asks a teacher, "What is love?"
The teacher said, "in order to answer your question, go to the wheat
field and choose the biggest wheat and come back.
But the rule is: you can go through them only once and cannot turn back
to pick."
The student went to the field, go thru first row, he saw one big wheat,
but he wonders....may be there is a bigger one later.
Then he saw another bigger one... but may be there is an even bigger
one waiting for him.
Later, when he finished more than half of the wheat field, he starts to
realise that the wheat is not as big as the previous one he saw, he
knew he has missed the biggest one, and he regretted.
So, he ended up went back to the teacher with empty hand.

The teacher
told him, "...this is love... you keep looking for better ones, but
when later you realise, you have already missed the person

Mental health centres are starting, and it's encouraging.

I have some links to places that seem to be incorporating some the values of working as multidisciplinary teams and being welcoming to those who are starting out and becoming involved in their health care or the health of those they support.

The Canadian Mental Health Association http://www.cmha-tb.on.ca/bins/site_page2.asp?cid=284-1627-1632&lang=1 has a New Foundations Clubhouse, where there is support for people who are in transition and looking for a scheduled work day. There is lifeskills training, socializing, and resources for consumers in a safe, friendly environment.

Youth Net incorporates youth engagment for consumers/supporters in centres across Canada. The idea is that the young adults can be facilitators for the youth because they are closer in age and the programming will make for a fun interaction through art, discussion, and recreational activities.

CHEO http://www.cheo.on.ca/english/1030.shtml is unique because they incorporate family and community into the care of children. This centre is one that can be an example for smaller communities who are starting to realize the importance of involving everyone in the treatment of individuals with special needs and mental health.

The Centre of Excellence for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs recently had a conference and web casted their keynote speakers http://www.lcnorth.ca/?display=home This is a great step towards greater attention paid to mental health and children in Northern Ontario. In the future, there will be opportunities like this for young adults and we are getting there.

There is also a good list of Ottawa-based centres that can be found on this link page http://www.youthnet.on.ca/main_english.php?section=viewresource&category=3

Today's your special day-
the start of both your lives, together.
May it be special in every way
sparked by the love you've treasured
and may all the love you're feeling
still find a way to grow,
sharing joys which have a meaning
that only both of you could know.

Again, today is your day,
with the bond between you strong.
God has shown both of you the way
and placed his love where it belongs
and as you hold on to each other
always keeping your love dear,
know you're blessed both by the Father
and each one of us who's here.

Today two friends start a journey
walking hand in hand, as one
they'll share everything, always
now that their journey has begun
and as they go on together,
blessed by me and you,
may these two friends always treasure
the day they said, "I do."

A Love Worth Waiting For

I wished upon a star one night
Shining brightly above me
I wished upon a four-leaf clover
Growing underneath a tree
Each year in June I wished upon a candle glowing bright
I wished upon each shooting star that passed me in the night
I blew away a fallen lash
I whispered in a prayer
That God would send my true love home
For me to love and care
With eyes the color of the sea
And a smile ear to ear
He’d hold me in his arms
And defend from all I fear
A knight in shining armor is the man he’d try to be
And every evening after work he’d come home to be with me
I wished for someone to grow old with and walk with hand in hand
And today my dreams come true, I can call him my husband.

Family legacy and the Varun effect

Tarun Vijay | March 27, 2009 | 18:24 IST

Those who opposed the Ayodhya temple movement, wore silence over the plight of Kashmiri Hindus, damaged the Ram Sethu and denied Lord Rama ever existed, denied the violence at the Godhra railway station, and embraced the butchers of 1984, are collectively gunning at Varun Gandhi's political life.
Column after column by Padma Shris in the media have created an atmosphere where supporting Varun has become a sin. Why? The simple reason is that the farmhouse of Gandhi-Nehru politics has been broken and a scion of the family chose to speak out as his conscience directed.

More than what Varun said or didn't say, it is the hurt and bewilderment over the loss of a Gandhi to the saffron brigade that has made the media and anti-Hindutva politicos react with such venom and acid. He was not heard, not given a chance to present his case, nor did forensic experts examine the so-called proof in the form of a CD containing his speech.

Varun has suddenly dwarfed the media-supported Rahul.

Nobody has ever heard a dynasty member to say with understandable assertion that he or she is a Hindu. Rather, they have always tried to look differently at things. They banned Hindu organisations, imposed the Emergency, removed basic human rights, never willingly facilitated the Sikh massacre probe, rewarded hardened criminals, made alliance with those who were convicted for murder or were facing scandalous charges, had the Muslim League join the government after Partition. Yet, they are nice, decent, peace-loving, patriotic democrats who love to tell others: 'Go read the Gita.'

When Indian soldiers were fighting Pakistani marauders in 1947, we didn't have enough jeeps. So orders were placed with the British company and supply demanded immediately. Our high commissioner in London V K Krishna Menon, Pandit Nehru's blue-eyed boy, messed it up. The jeeps reached a year late.

That was the first scandal in independent India.

We lost Gilgit, Baltistan and Skardu. We lost Aksai Chin because the government in New Delhi didn't know the exact boundaries and so no patrolling was being done there.

In all we have lost 125,000 square km to the Pakistanis and Chinese during Congress rule.

Plus we had a bad dream called 1962.

At that time our ordnance factories were making coffee machines as Pandit Nehru openly argued against having a well-equipped large army for defence. 'Who is going to attack us?' he would ask.

And people still remember the mysterious death of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who simply wanted Kashmir to be a part of India like Bihar or Bengal and the permit system to enter the valley be abolished. Kashmir had two rulers then, its ruler was called Sadr e Riyasat or 'head of state', and it had a prime minister. Mookerjee's martyrdom compelled the Nehru government to remove the permit system and the two heads of state.

Then we had the Mundhra scandal, the Nagarwala case, the L N Mishra murder. The Jana Sangh's fast-emerging leader Deendayal Upadhyaya was murdered. A Congress leader canvassed openly against the official Presidential candidate and supported her own choice as independent nominee. The original Congress symbol was a pair of oxen. After the official Congress broke up, they got the hand as a temporary symbol till the case is finally settled. It would never be.

Opposing Sonia Gandhi's sudden rise in politics only on the grounds of her foreign origin were leaders like Sharad Pawar and P A Sangma. Old Congressmen still feel sad that they lost dynamic and promising leaders of substance like Rajesh Pilot, Madhavrao Scindia and Jitendra Prasada, who could have steered the Congress on an entirely different and strong nationalist course. And a veteran like Sitaram Kesri was humiliated no end.

The only non-dynasty prime minister to run a Congress government for full five years successfully was insulted even in his death and his body-in-state was not allowed to enter the Congress headquarters in New Delhi. An airport in his home state to be named after him was opposed to by Congressmen although the proposal was put forth by an Opposition leader.

This is how they treat their party leaders not belonging to the family. They amended, abused and twisted the Constitution, put the entire Opposition behind bars for an undisclosed period and were harsh on the unyielding masses.

Yet, they are the democrats and secular lighthouse of freedom of expression and liberty.

They kept India backward in such a planned manner that even after 62 years of independence we are yet to have a spacious functional airport in the national capital, 70,000 farmers committed suicide in one year, decorated soldiers returned their medals in protest and a movie on our poverty-stricken 'slum dogs' fetches the Oscar. And they loved illegal infiltrators for the sake of their votes -- and still they say they are the inheritors of a freedom struggle that demanded the ouster of aliens.

No electoral reforms, no police reforms or strengthening their morale and weapons, the administration is still run the way it functioned during the Sahebs; and despite having won a well-fought war in 1971 we couldn't settle the Kashmir issue or control the jihadi tail-wagger in the neighbourhood.

Minorities were so well supported in Congress regimes that in the sixth decade after independence they felt a need to provide special crutches for them. Show the 'M' card and get the privilege, became the new secular psalm, further shrinking the space and opportunities for the condemned majority.

More than anything else they tried to wreck the morale of the assertive Hindus who faced the onslaught of invaders for 12 centuries with unparalleled bravery and with invincible spirit to protect their culture and the fragrance of the land. They deserved to be comforted most after a fractured independence and a massacre that was thrust upon them by a weak Congress leadership. Yet, a large section of Hindus today feel cheated and anguished.

They form governments in 12 states, prove they can run the country beautifully with a coalition of 25 parties with diametrically opposed ideologies. And one of their Swayamsewaks unfurled the tricolour six times from the ramparts of the Red Fort as the prime minister, impressed world leaders and the international media with a record of infrastructure-building, communication revolution and women's empowerment, chose a Muslim to be the President and conducted Pokhran II by fooling the CIA's 'eyes', and resisted extraordinary world pressure and sanctions.

Yet, they are called anti-development, anti-women, even anti-social. In not a single so-called mainstream media outlet are their views published, but every news item is scanned to hurl stones on them through editorialising on the front-page.

Still, they are the very objective face of our independent media.

The choicest abuses used by 'decent guarantors of the freedom of expression' columnists and editorial-writers can be collected as a bouquet of India's uncivilised lexicon, yet their films against the very spirit of Hindu nature get widely supported by a regime that survives on Hindu money and votes.

Their love for development and secularism is so deep that they can send dredgers to destroy a million years of faith and marine life because that was Ram Sethu, but won't dare to touch a six feet by six feet dargah in the middle of the road blocking the highway and causing accidents, for fear of annoying a vote-bank.

And then they say, they are the future of India.

Tarun Vijay is Director, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, New Delhi

I have been thinking of some really cool websites about mental health that have really got me excited about the generation who is coming up and forgetting about stigma.

www.MindYourMind.ca is one of these. The interactive nature and the way you can post things for others to see increases communication around mental health.

The group that I am involved with in Thunder Bay, DEAL, is creating www.heresthedeal.ca, where you will be able to post art and writings.

There is also www.toolstolife.com that I stumbled upon, which is primarily a self-help website, but has a social networking community of support.

I am encouraged by www.mobilizingminds.ca, where young adults will be able to find out about methods of getting help and participate in projects around Canada. I am currently on the Young Adult Team for this project.

Children's Mental Health Ontario has come up with many resources including Ready Set Engage, a manual for youth http://www.kidsmentalhealth.ca/documents/Res_Ready_Set_engage.pdf

www.reachout.co.au is from Australia and there is a really neat simulation game where you can actually explore your mental health by using coping strategies. They also have information about many topics and little fax sheets.

www.youthnet.ca is the Canadian version of this and there will be fax sheets up very soon and they are currently being developed.

I'm feeling really hopeful about mental health care over the net. Although websites are not as intrusive, they can accompany anyone struggling with mental health issues.

May your enemies run far away from you.
If you acquire riches, may they remain yours always.
Your beauty will be that of Apsara.
Wherever you may go, many will attend, serve and protect you, surrounding you on all sides.

I am my beloved's
and my beloved is mine,
who browses among the lilies.