First of all, **I’m not a Paritrana member** as many of the comments seem to imply/assume. Paritrana first came to my attention because two of my batchmates from IITK are involved in it.

Secondly, someone said (and I agree) that a big deal should not be made out of Paritrana simply because IIT and IIM graduates are involved in it. As others have pointed out, there are/were other such efforts before Paritrana, and all of them should command an equal respect/attention. For instance, there is [[http://www.samudai.org/|Samudai Bharati]] and [[http://bharatudaymission.org/|Bharat Udai Mission]]. However, what //does// distinguish Partirana is that they are already launched and out there.

Third, I want to request the Paritrana founders to kindly put together a decent website. These days its trivial to get a dynamic website up and running (just use WordPress or Drupal). The current website not only doesn’t work properly even in Firefox, it doesn’t even provide the information that most people want. For instance, looking at the comments on my post, it seems that there is a LOT of interest in Paritrana all over India, and if people were able to give feedback and publish their comments on the Paritrana website itself, I think it would have been a huge moral boost for the members as well as give Paritrana greater visibility in the media. Then of course I have minor nitpicks with the Javascript menus and the “Untitled Document” title on every page. I can understand that “putting together a good website” might not be your biggest concern right now, but in the age we’re living in, I think its something you definitely want to seriously consider soon ™.

Finally, if you have questions/comments/suggestions for Paritrana, please direct them at [[info@paritrana.org]] (as their website [[http://paritrana.org/contactus.htm|clearly states]]). They even have a phone number!

I really enjoyed reading this issue for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I don’t follow Indian politics very actively and I’ve never really had a good grasp of how the Indian political scenario evolved in the post-independence era. This issue had a three year concise summary for each year — the highs, the lows, the oomphs, the oops — covering everything from sports to politics. So after this whirlwhind tour of the last 30 years, I atleast had some vaguely consistent picture of what has been going on in the country. For one thing, it made me feel much less guilty for not having a strong opinion (in favor) of any of the politic parties in India.

The second reason why this issue struck a chord with me was that it was a glimpse into the past. A sort of looking glass. So much has happened that we soon forget. And while its not good to live in the past, its not good to forget it altogether either. Reading the issue brought back floods of memories of things I had heard but not understood, seen but not felt. And though none of these events personally affected me, I still somehow felt connected — be it the bhopal gas tragedy, or the Godhra massacre, or the tsunami or the earthquake(s), the demolition of the Babri masjid, the emergency and so on. I just felt that I understood a little more, absorbed a little more of India.

Of course then there was the ego boosting factor: its always good to look at your achievements over 30 years if you pile them up all together. I was inspired by what India had achieved in cinema, in economic terms, in sports, in fashion, in literature etc. The issue had sections on “Living Legends” and “Turning 30″ (some newsmakes who were born in 1975) which made for a very good read — and there were plenty of names in there that I had never even heard before.

Last, but the funniest, was this sarcastic “Whammy Awards” section done by Dilib Bobb that was just hilarious. Here’s a teaser: Manmohan Singh won the “Best Supporting Actor” award, Lalu won the “Milk the Cow” award and Jaya Lalitha won the “Amma Dekh” award. A must read.