Soupçon III, In Memoriam Series, IV.iv

                            Soupçon III                                                          In Memoriam Series                                                         IV.iv                                    International Year of the Woman Farmer  

As the issue of women farmers is related to the concept of inclusive growth, how about looking at some facts? In IV. iii, we mentioned the percentage of land holding when it comes to women farmers. 

It is indeed a sad ratio because in India, women form forty percent of the agricultural workforce, while they undertake minimum eighty per cent of the farm related labour!

The situation is now much worse because of the huge explosion of men's migration, given the rapid rise in urbanisation. As a result, there is a feminisation of the agricultural sector. That is to say, women, often elderly, even senior citizens, look after agriculture which gets reduced to non-paid family work! 

Even as farm hands, there is, despite the scarcity, huge disparity in wages when it comes to women and agriculture. Women as farm hands get at least thirty per cent less than their make counterparts! 

In IV.v of our series, we shall look at a few more problems women face in the agricultural sector. We shall also look at some schemes floated by the State Government.

Pratima Agnihotri 

The most meaningless day!

 Here is an acrostic that captures the most meaningless, the meanest, the maddest day in the world history so far. 

Horror!Horror!Horror!                                                Is how feels the terror. In response                  rose from the earth beneath flames                  ousting all human(e) n non human(e).              Shone it like thousand suns!                                    It killed alive, the horrid furnace,                      many innocents, for generations.                      Attack indecent on all that is go(o)dly!        Dastardly dungeon, the scientist's soul                  awakened it could not any conscience         yearly yet scorches the sky, that menace! 

Pratima@ How to remember the Hiroshima Day? The darkest date in history is August 6!

Quote of the day:                                                            Grieves Danny DeVite, "I shall tell you one thing, it is a cruel, cruel world." 

Word of the day: destruction                                      Destruction means the act of causing so much damage to something that it is completely ruined, no longer exists, or cannot be fixed. Like the Hiroshima horror! 

Soupçon III, In Memoriam Series, IV.iii

                         Soupçon III                                                          In Memoriam Series                                                         IV.iii                                    International Year of the Woman Farmer  

Why is there any need of discussing women farmers? Well, like every other area, in this field, too, women suffer discrimination. Let us understand how. 

To begin with, there is unequal access to land ownership. In India, for instance, the woman as farmer is the plinth of this sector. Yet it is a fact that only 8.3, tops 14, per cent women farmers own the land.

As a result, there is zilch access to institutional credit systems. As it is, even educated, urban women are not exactly  aware of financial tools. Imagine the plight of the rural woman, especially a widow so far never ever even allowed to participate in any financial decisions!

Nor do they know modern technological advances in agricultural technology. Most often, they might not know even the ABC of the distribution process of the agricultural produce, forget issues like branding and/or patenting. 

Hence the need for women in agriculture as an aspect of the current paradigm of inclusive growth! 

Pratima Agnihotri

Wo gayak kuch ajeeb tha

 Kishore Kumar! People have extreme opinions about him. Based on gossip, many call him cranky n whimsical. Personally, I do not care about such ridiculous rumour mongering. In my opinion, it is a vicious attempt at ruining reputations to suit the mean agenda of a jealous, vicious camp. 

Instead to celebrate his birth anniversary, I would like to discuss a unique song sung by him. Yes, it is classical. Now, why should that matter? Well, Kishore Kumar never trained as a classical music disciple. Yet he has sung exceptionally well many songs based on classical music.

Today let us discuss " pag ghungru baandh Meera nachi re." I find it unique because it starts as a comic gimmick. Well, i have not watched "Namak Halal." Yet the available videos make the comic context amply clear. 

Bhappi Lahiri's music arrangement as the music director is not exactly raag oriented either. Yet, wonder of wonders, Kishore Kumar sings absolutely fantastically the "bol" of 'Raag Maalkans', its 'aroh-awaroh' in the second half  of the song as if he has trained classically for years. Simultaneously, he manages to maintain the comic spirit. Hence this tribute to his genius!

Pratima@ Kishore Kumar's forte was his emoting through the songs. The feelings behind the words and the notes came alive when he sang. No wonder, he continues to be the darling of millions, whichever might be the generation they may belong to! Hence the title of our blog, a word play on his superb song "wo sham kuch ajeeb thi." 

Quote of the day:                                                           Says George Sand, "Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world. It is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius." 

Word of the day: genius                                                A genius is a person who has great and very unusual abilities, especially in a particular subject/field. No wonder, the mean mediocrities around recognise such a person instinctively, and because a genius exposes by contrast their banality, they attack most viciously the genius!

Soupçon, In Memoriam Series, IV. iii

                              Soupçon III                                                          In Memoriam Series                                                         IV.ii                                        International Year of the Woman Farmer                               

Historically, it has been surmised that the nomadic cave man became a settler, once farming was introduced. In the ancient times, it was women who took care of farming. Somehow, it seemed to jell in with the reproductive associations of womanhood,too.

No wonder, in the ancient texts as well as in the the folk tradition, we have female deities galore who are inextricably related to the agrarian production cyclicity. 

Women have been working in the fields since time immemorial, in brief. Even today, they continue to do all the back-breaking work such weeding, for instance. Often there are newspaper stories of how the farmer's wife even pulled the plough  as the family could not afford a bullock. 

Women continued to be the fulcrum of the field work till the feudal era. It was the onset of the Industrial Revolution, which took away men's jobs, that pushed them within the household, reducing them to 'the angel by the hearth' not allowed to cross the threshold. Even then women continue to be central to the farming sector. Hence our Soupçon inputs would look at their unique output. 

Pratima Agnihotri

Stand up for yourself! Please, GenZ!

 Yes, you read the title right. Ah, GenZ, poor, poor, GenZ! Enough of targetting them! Well, that precisely is my argument. Let me explain how n why.

Let us first decide who exactly GenZ is. Prima facie, it is a chronological description. According to the definition provided by the PEW Research Center, Gen Z is short for Generation Z, a group of people born roughly from 1997 to 2012. They come after Millennials and before Generation Alpha. They are also called "Zoomers".

As per this age-bracket, no mean mediocrities are the Indian GenZ.  Let us look at a few representative examples. Let us begin with sports. Not only do we have Gukesh ( Chess) and Anant Singh (Squash), but Sheetal Devi makes us 'para' proud! 

We have a Maithili Thakur, young politician who is a good singer trying to revive the traditional folk music. Manya is an eco-warrior, while Tilak Mehta and Pranjali Awasthi are teen-age AI entrepreneurs  whose start-up's are a success. 

In other words, India's GenZ is by no means just the ugly cuss-words spitting gang up to extremely weird indecent gestures. Insensitively, the real indian GenZ would not party so as to honour the grief of the parents of those NEET aspirants who committed suicide. 

Instead, the Indian GenZ is authentic. It does not need to buy question papers or to pressurise parents for such weird options or for high fund coaching fees. Nor does the GenZ download questions and answers on the 'Telegram' groups! 

Instead, they actually attend the Junior College lectures, care for their teachers whom they do not forget to call up/send a message on either on the Guru Pournima Day or on the Teachers' Day. They study genuinely, do not get discouraged by a failure or two, instead explore new avenues. Hence the appeal to stand up for themselves! Otherwise, the poor show in extremely ugly taste would define them, right? So, GenZ, 'arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached'!

Pratima@ Every generation has its own unique problems, especially because there is no individual control over the massive  social/political/technological changes. Grace indeed lies in assimilating and adapting intelligently, sensitively and creatively. 

Quote of the day:                                                               "Youth is not just an age; it is the courage to imagine a better world." Thus asserts Vedantu General Knowledge, a tuition class site! 

Word of the day: authentic                                           Authentic means real or genuine, true and accurate.

Soupçon: In Memoriam Series, IV. i

                             Soupçon III                                                          In Memoriam Series                                                         IV.i                                     

Let us begin this week with some explanation of the title. The Soupçon began with discussions of literary issues. That was Version Number 1. Next came Soupçon II. It consisted of some hundred mcq's discussed in detail so that the NET aspirants might be provided some support. 

The third version  of the Soupçon is back to literature and related themes. For two weeks, we looked at "Gulliver's Travels", though I would keep on refining these discussions further.

The year 2026 marks the 115th Anniversary of International Women's Day, and the unique declaration of the International Year of the Woman Farmer. 

As the IWD is already much discussed, this week I would explore the woman farmer issue in some detail. Hence the IV.i as a new topic emerges within the third version of the Soupçon!

Pratima Agnihotri