DELHI SIGHTSEEING

We had an announcement on 30th July-2010 that Sat day and Sunday will be off from in house training sessions and all the teams would have educational and historical sightseeing.

The day begun with heavy rain in Faridabad and Delhi peripheries, however the bus headed towards Lal Qilah slowly.
We all came to Lal Fort and had quick visit of this historical place.
The Red Fort in urdu: لال قلعہ , usually transcribed into English as Lal Qil'ah or Lal Qila) is a 17th century fort complex constructed by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the walled city of Old Delhi (in present day Delhi, India). It served as the capital of the Mughals until 1857, when Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled by the British Indian government. The British used it as a military camp until India was made independent in 1947. It is now a popular tourist site, as well as a powerful symbol of India's sovereignty: the Prime Minister of India raises the flag of India on the ramparts of the Lahori Gate of the fort complex every year on Independence Day.





Having finished the visit at Lal Qila, the team was divided in some groups so that sightseeing could be prioritized with consensus.
We in a team Mr. Shafqat Chaudhary and I headed towards a holy place of Sultan-ul-Mashaikh, Mehboob-e-Ilahi, Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya (1238 - 3 April 1325) (Urdu: حضرت شیخ خواجة سیّد محمد نظام الدّین اولیاء) shrine, also known as Hazrat Nizamuddin, who was a famous Sufi saint of the Chishti order in South Asia, an order that believed in drawing close to God through renunciation of the world and service to humanity. He is one of the great saints of the Chishti order in India. His predecessors were Moinuddin Chishti, Bakhtiyar Kaki and Fariduddin Ganjshakar. In that sequence, they constitute the initial spiritual chain or silsila of the Chisti order, which is widely prevalent in India and Pakistan.
Nizamuddin Auliya like his predecessors stressed upon the element of love as a means of realisation of God. For him his love of God implied a love of humanity. His vision of the world was marked by a highly evolved sense of secularity and kindness. It is claimed by the 14th century historiographer Ziauddin Barani that his influence on the Muslims of Delhi was such that a paradigm shift was effected in their outlook towards worldly matters. People began to be inclined towards mysticism and prayers and remaining aloof from the world.
Then we both moved towards the shrine of Ameer Khusrau Dehlavi (1253-1325 AD), a prolific classical poet associated with royal courts of more than seven rulers of Delhi Sultanate, is also a household name in much of North India and Pakistan, through hundreds of playful riddles, songs and legends attributed to him. Through his enormous literary output and the legendary folk personality, Khusrau represents one of the first (recorded) Indian personages with a true multi-cultural or pluralistic identity.







Without loosing time, we both rushed to visit Mirza Ghalib's Tomb in Delhi whose real name is Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, the legendary Urdu poet of Delhi, buried under it. The tomb in Delhi was designed by the famous architect of Hyderabad, Nawab Jang Bahadur. Located in Nizamuddin area, this tomb lies next to Hazrat Nizamuddin's Mazaar and north of the enclosure of Chaunsath Khamba. An academy was established nearby later in 1969 to perpetuate his memory and works. The greatest Urdu poet of the nineteenth century, he was a great writer of ghazals and a friend of the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah 'Zafar' . He was also appointed as the teacher of Bahadur Shah II.
The grave in Mirza Ghalib's Tomb in Delhi is covered by a small marble structure and enclosed within a compound wall.
The courtyard, which surrounds the grave in Mirza Ghalib's Tomb in Delhi, is always locked. Guess why? So that gate-crashers and intruders can be kept away from the serene and pure ambience of the place.








After visiting the tomb of Mirza Ghalib we both Shafqat and I planned to have food some where nearby to Delhi Jamia Masjid preferably Al Karim Hotel. Finally we were able to reach at AlKarim Hotel and had delicious food and then headed towards red temple called as Shri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir which is an oldest and best known Jain temple in Delhi India. It is directly across from the Laal Quila in the historical Chandni Chowk area.
It is known for an avian veterinary hospital (bird hospital) in a second building behind the main temple.
Located just opposite the massive Red Fort at the intersection of Netaji Subhas Marg and Chandni Chowk, Digambar, Jain Temple is the oldest temple of the Jain religion in the capital, originally built in 1656. An impressive red sandstone temple today (the temple has undergone many alterations and additions in the past and was enlarged in the early 19th century), the Digambar Jain Temple is popularly known as Lal Mandir.
After visiting Lal Mandir we both came back to Meadow, Global school of management hostel.

Training sessions and sightseeing in Delhi

The day started with a lecture program of Mr. Najmul Hassan (Assistant Professor) NIILM-Centre for management studies Dehli Fareedabad India, on Islamic Microfinance.
Mr. Hassan said that, the concept of Islamic microfinance emerged in late 1990 after Islamic banking system across Islamic countries of south Asia.
Religion influences on development, hence all the bankers thought to have complete economic code of Islamic microfinance to support the Muslim marginalized communities.
Mr. Hassan, quoted the example of village banking in Seria which happened to be the successful model, whereas in Yaman this concept couldn’t work, because in microfinance, an idea of giving back the credit money (capital) with an agreed interest is an illegitimate/Haram in Islam.
In India there are some examples of microfinance that has helped some people to upgrade the cooperative standards i.e Amul dairy products is one of the tangible instances.
In charity, the recipient of (Khairat) never thinks that the money received by him/her is non returnable, as it is legitimate in Islam for certain poor class. While Zakat can be given to those even if they are not Muslims.
In Iran an example of Karze Hasna is some thing that can be taken by some one who deserves and registered recipient with bank.
Mr. Hassan clarified that Ulmas the (Scholars) of Islam are seriously thinking about the microfinance structure and its very basic concept of helping poor, however risk analysis in this concept is very important before disbursing microfinance.


After tea break the other session was facilitated by Dr. Alka Srivastava (Micro Finance consultant), She is the one who has worked very hard to organize women groups in Andhra Pardesh, in which some (Women Empowerment Models) can be the example for other countries too; as some women groups launched quite wonderful and effective wine quit movements for their male counter parts and they succeed it. In some villages where teachers were not coming to attend schools, these women groups helped support the process of participation and had some meaningful protests for the restoration of closed schools and finally the Government people in power accepted their concerns and transferred the teachers to those schools where the teacher was desperately needed. Dr. Srivastava, firmly believes that until unless civil society is not going to help the Government in the process of fact finding and issue identification, we as nation can’t achieve our stipulated results for the holistic development process of any country in the world.
She emphasized on the fair and transparent process of credit disbursement so that, from the day one community should start thinking that the money they get is not meant for charity purpose but this is some thing through which an idea of earning and enterprise is achieved meticulously. Dr. Srivastava, shared her experiences of life that there is a huge difference in consumption and production characteristics hence one has to catalyze the whole idea of enterprise development, so as to achieve an ultimate social empowerment of women through micro finance practicalities as this is one of the tools for social empowerment of women who are deep rooted in society.





The second half of the day was planned to visit Jamia Masjid Delhi where all the males had to perform Juma prayers and to eat food at Al Karim Hotel near by Jamia Masjid.
The Masjid-i Jahān-Numā (Persian: مسجد جھان نما, the 'World-reflecting Mosque'), commonly known as the Jama Masjid of Delhi, is the principal mosque of Old Delhi in India. Commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, and completed in the year 1656 AD, it is the largest and best-known mosque in India. It lies at the origin of a very busy central street of Old Delhi, Chandni Chowk.
The later name, Jama Masjid, is a reference to the weekly Friday noon congregation prayers of Muslims, Jummah, which are usually done at a mosque, the "congregational mosque" or "jāmi' masjid". The courtyard of the mosque can hold up to twenty-five thousand worshippers. The mosque also houses several relics in a closet in the north gate, including an antique copy of the Qur'an written on deer skin.
Having visited and performed Namaz, we in team of four people Mr. Shafqat Chaudhary, Mr. Mohsin, Mr. Arshad and I, left for another historical place of worship by Sikhs since last many centuries known as GURUDWARA SISGANG which is hardly 2 kilometres away from Jamia Majid. This is place where one can imagine a religious unity and strength of Sikhs.

So by that way the day ended up with great learning, joy and fun by all the team members.

Training session at an international Business School - Meadows (IBSM) in Delhi

Micro Finance can be one of the sustainable solutions to the gross roots financial problems, if is done through participatory manners and with an effective financial system in place articulated by Dr. Subhash Datta Director, NIILM Centre for Management Studies at International Business School - Meadows (IBSM) in Delhi during his session on providing urban amenities in rural areas. He delivered his presentation through a very interactive session that included some important pieces to mention.
Mr. Datta said that, many different types of methodologies were used for sustainable development of developing countries such as, land reforms, food security, basic minimum needs of people, growth centre theory area approach and infrastructure development but these methods have had very limited success
It has long been recognized that the problems can be resolved by the methodologies of Management Science.
He further added that development is a process that ensures utilisation of the resources of a country including manpower resources to increase the economic growth and advancement of the welfare of the community as a whole - essential condition of this process is a fair and equitable distribution of gains of economic growth.
During Dr. Datta’s session some following concepts were also came into discussion among speaker and the participants.
Participation:
Meaningful participation presupposes that participants understand various aspects involved in the suggested development strategy, only then they can suggest constructive modifications. This process in actual practice was significantly improved through GIS based computerized maps. These maps are used o clear participants’ doubts and answer their queries. Looking at the impact of alternative strategies in the maps, they were able to understand the implications better.
Participatory process helped the following:
Creation of awareness of the issues related to development sector, generation of participative evaluation of technological feasibilities of improving productivity of land and optimizing the use of resources, ceation of awareness of need for sustainability and understanding the utility of assessing land, water, bio-mass / energy balance etc.

The next step in the participation process was concerned with understanding of sustainability, external inputs required to attain and maintain a specific level of primary productivity should decrease over the long term, to achieve the above, nutrient balance should be maintained by progressive improvement in the recycling of all kind resources and waste and sustainability also implies that the external energy required to maintain the target level of production and quality of services do not unduly increase in the long run.


The participants of the workshop concluded the session on the following aspects:

The possibility of future transformation of the society through continuous interactions and result oriented methodologies based on connectivity

Once the common people see the benefits in terms of more production, distribution and employment potentials they have no hesitations in implementing the required changes.

Soon after tea break, the second session was led by Mr. Arshad Jamal (Senior Manager) Alkhair Foundation India.
Mr. Jamal explained the Microfinance and how micro credit works:
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to those who are excluded from conventional commercial financial services since most are too poor to offer much or anything - in the way of collateral. It presents a series of exciting possibilities for extending markets, reducing poverty and fostering social change.

The concept of microfinance originated in the mid-1970s in Bangladesh through a pioneering experiment by Dr Muhammad Yunus, then a Professor of Economics. His aim was to offer poor people:
• financial services
• entrepreneurship opportunities
• an end to mistreatment by money lenders
• a system where they could produce, manage and maintain their own finances

The most common form of microfinance is micro credit - the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for conventional bank loans. This is where the Micro Loan Foundation comes in.

Microfinance and micro credit have two distinct advantages over charitable giving. Firstly, it is sustainable and creates independence from aid, not dependence on it. By giving a small loan to an individual, it is hoped that it would give ability to poor to work their own way out of poverty. Micro Loan lends to groups of about 10 to 15 women, allowing individuals to support, encourage, and provide assistance to each other if things go wrong.

Secondly, it means that the money goes directly to the people who need it - bypassing the bureaucracy and corruption that can compromise traditional methods of charitable giving.

Moreover, MicroLoan never lends to individuals without first providing them with the expertise and training to build a business plan that is likely to succeed.

Mr. Jamal concluded his session having taken the reactions of participants then the day concluded with next day’s assignment.

The other part of training aligned with an exposure visit of Indian market place called, Select City Walk Mall, Saket, New Dehli.
The brief findings regarding team’s visit to Select City Walk mall are:
• The mall was really an amazing business initiative of an Indian Government as it has every thing to buy under one roof, but it seems that poor are out of the scene as the whole mall caters to the needs who afford heavy price of goods.
• The imported items were available for sale except china products, it is not worth buying china things because all of them are merely imitation; hence people don’t like things made by China.
• The frequency of foreigners from different countries to this mall was a common thing, upon a question from one of the foreigners ,that how he is feeling to be in India, he replied without having second thought that, India is a peaceful country and the democracy is quite stable here which allows tourism at great length.
• The shopping/pole thane bags in India are prohibited owing to its hazardous effects over the health of all living beings. The alternative source of shopping bags is now having a very thin rather stable fabric bags are commonly used to shop.

The team came back to camps before 9:30pm and had quick debriefing session.

Inaugural session at Rai Foundation Corporate office at New Dehli India

It is good to have an opening and inauguration day of the training program at NIILM Centre for Management of studies (NIILM-CMS) Rai Foundation Dehli India.
The overall objective of this programme is to develop, deliver, and disseminate a training package for the small business entrepreneurs commonly known as micro-enterprises, especially women, in the developing world what are, to help them adapt to the complexity, inevitable modernization, and rapid changes in the global business environment. The programme also focuses on imparting functional skill in the area of product development, working capital management, marketing, customer relationship and civil society management.

Mr. Amod Kanth, Founder Secretary, PRAYS inaugurated the session, Mr. Satyamurthi CEO, AIAMED aired his views about the new paradigm shift in Micro finance enterprises that are pertinent to a women of India. Mr. Satyamurthi said that now Govt. of India is going to institutionalize this sector being one the priorities to empowering women.
In India almost 391 million people are below the poverty line and are in 20% of the whole population.
Most poor people manage to mobilize resources to develop their enterprises and their dwellings slowly over time. Financial services could enable the poor to leverage their initiative, accelerating the process of building incomes, assets and economic security. However, conventional finance institutions seldom lend down-market to serve the needs of low-income families and women-headed households. They are very often denied access to credit for any purpose, making the discussion of the level of interest rate and other terms of finance irrelevant. Therefore the fundamental problem is not so much of unaffordable terms of loan as the lack of access to credit itself.

Mr. Amod K. Kanth Chairperson of Delhi Commission for protection of child rights, Govt. of NCT of Dehli introduced the DCPCR and PRAYAS Social Welfare Society (PRAYAS SWS) in a very précised manner, the PRAYAS Social Welfare Society (PRAYAS SWS) is purely a Non Govt. Social Service Regd. Organization (NGO) having a non political, non religious and non commercial character and is mainly engaged in imparting completely free education to the children from the families belonging to Economically Weaker Section and backward class of the society. Parents of these children are mostly labourers who live in slums, Jhuggis (mud or polythene hutments) and are not able to get their children admitted in public schools or even in Govt. run schools due to poverty and illiteracy. Illiteracy is a curse and the PRAYAS SWS is poised to eliminate it to the best of its capacity and ability.

He said that there are 227 centers are running for deprived and destitute children across the various location of India, out of these centers more than 25000 children are being educated and out of these children there are 7000 are associated with skills enhancement program across the 04 states of India.

Mr.Satyavir Chakrapni, CEO, Shikhar Foundation given the presentation and covered the following details.
He said that Shikhar, the upcoming not for profit Microfinance Institution envisages to leverage the benefits of micro-lending to the marginalized rural and urban communities through sequential lending providing both savings and loan facilities at various levels. Shikhar aims to provide income generating solutions and investment opportunities to the grassroots for their overall social and economic development.
First Milestone
Shikhar initiated its operations through its first disbursement to two women groups on 1 December 2007. The two groups comprising of five women each would be using this amount of Rs. 7000/- each for income generating activities like Extension of existing enterprises like grocery store, vegetable/ fruit vending, snack and beverage vending etc.
Shikhar recognises the efforts of its team who enthusiastically work towards achieving the mission of the organisation and overall development. This time this foundation is believing on this quotation that, the best clue to a nation’s growth and development positional is the status and role of women. (Prof. D.S Landes).
Later these sessions, a walk through program was facilitated by Prayas sws at the down stairs, where the holistic journey towards juvenile justice towards juvenile justice was elaborated:
• 1993-1996 – Holistic care established– Responding to the growing Needs & the basic Rights of Children's Protection, Survival, Development & Participation in terms of United Nations Convention of United Nations Convention of
Rights of Child -1989 & the crystallizing juvenile justice philosophy of Prayas.
• Prays, covers from 500 to 5000 neglected children - Increasing number of Non Increasing number of Non -formal Education formal Education (NFE) & Vocational Training Centers (NFE) & Vocational Training Centers
• Programs for child protection, care & maintenance, development care & maintenance, development, restoration & rehabilitation– Expanding coverage through centers.
• Provision of clothing & shoes, mid provision of clothing & shoes, basic nutrition, mid-day meals & health care, counselling & day meals & health care, counselling & recreation – Each activity being a pre requisites for the fulfilment of the rights of children in terms of their basic needs.
• Issues like child labour, delinquency, traffic issues like child labour, juvenile neglect & delinquency, trafficking, abuse & exploitation of children.

So by that way the session came to an end with next day briefing on other training modalities.

The day started with an orientation of group members by 8:30am, later we had break fast at the hostel of global school of business management in Dehli, where we stay at the moment. The day was split into two types of activities; one, to visit some important places of Dehli whose details are given below. Upon arrival of all the teams back to hostel, then there will be a reflection session at evening time.
Brief account of places visited mentioned here:
India Gate: Proceedings along the central vista straight to the East from Rashtrapati Bhavan, one meets about 40 meters high and 27.5 meters wide, 01st World War Memorial Arch called India Gate. With a war museum on the first floor, it commemorates the Indian soldiers who laid their livers in world war-1, and their names are inscribed on its walls.

Rashtrapati Bhavan: Originally built as Viceregal lodge, it is now the president’s house. It covers 330 acres and has 340 rooms. The building is in H Shape with corridors running into a length of 2.4 kilometers. The Rashtrapati Bhavan Mughal Gardens with velvet lawns set between limpid pools and 37 glittering fountains. These gardens are at their spectacular best in Feb, March when these are thrown open to a common public.

Central Secretariat: Designed by Sir Herbert Baker Houses in its two (North and South) blocks the ministerial offices. Each block is surmounted by 85.35 meters high dome and the corridors of the two together run a length of about 13 Kilometers.

Parliament Houses: Built by Sir Herbert Baker, founded by Duke of Connaught in 1921 A.D and opened by Lord Irwin on Jan. `18, 1927, its circular in design with its central dome of 29.25 meters diameter. Here two houses of the Indian parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) hold their sessions (Budget, Feb-March/Monsoon, Aug-Sept/Winter, Nov-Dec). To witness the session of Lok Sabha (lower house) visitors should obtain permission through the M.P. of their constituency.

Indira Gandhi memorial, this place basically was a house of a great lady Indira Gandhi whose name is still alive in the hearts and minds of those who saw her being the great and bold leader of their times.
The whole house is turned to a memorial (Museum) for common public to experience the history and life style of Indira’s family.
The house seems very organized and managers of that museum say that they have only kept the things in same manner except some chronological things like, news papers of that time, pictorial events attended by Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. These two great leaders were assassinated in their home country. People still follow the foot prints of these leaders and that is the reason of having a mighty democratic government led by Ms. Sonia Gandhi and her party leaders now a days. The team came to hostel and had very pleasant memories to share.

Arrived in Dehli India

In Lahore on 27th July-2010, the departure time to Dehli India was planed 4:00am morning to reach at PTDC, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation Gulbarg, objecting to get our passport and visa verification formalities checked in by the corporation assigned staff. We the 20 people across four provinces of Pakistan gathered at PTDC on time and got all the formalities processed properly, that took more than 2 hrs. Oftenly baggage checking process is quite annoying and tiresome job. The bus left after a little orientation by one of the senior managers Ms. Musarat (PAIMAN Trust) over the next possible security clearance issues, which can birth to a cumbersome process at Waghah boarder.
The bus headed towards Waghah boarder around 7:50am and we reached safely at some where near to Waghah vicinity but little after the boarder of India. There we were invited to have a quick break fast and then to get some custom related formalities finished with our Pakistani officials. That sort of security clearance and custom formalities took more than one and half hr. Later we headed towards Waghah where a quite rigorous security clearance process was noticed, our teams’ baggage was checked by our Indian brothers in a way where a needle type of things were happened to be the point of more exhaustion and explanation up till to a final clearance.
Finally, around 11:00am, the bus headed towards Dehli under the strict security protocol till Dehli’s posh area. The bus had usual stop over at Amratsar, Gordwana and some where in the peripheries of Dehli. Each stop over was full of fun, light refreshment and mix learning from the things around us adding to a flavor of team building, the team managed to interact with locals of these areas who shared some interesting experiences.
• The small and large villages are now just in the priority of a present Indian government, as new roads are being linked with main highways of the country, so that a common farmer could have access to a main mark, the temples are equally respected, no one has great concern over rituals and customs of any community.
• Responding to a question on strikes and processions, no one took it seriously all of them aired their views quite positively that, now India is aware of doing things in well disciplined manners, neither any shutter down strike is observed at great length nor any damage to public or private propriety is carried out by the public because all these things result to a great loss to a nation as a whole. People of any party or having no any relevance with political party can come on roads to raise their issues and voice before the people in governance.

It was really amazed to see the various activities of a present government, like free tool tax roads, CNG auto engines are only allowed to come on roads, stable irrigation systems, proper water treatment plants, huge saline water disposal mechanisms, no or less load shading, new net work of overhead bridges and refinement of metal roads is done with great planning.
It is believed that some primary hurdles will be removed tomorrow, like currency change in Indian rupee; as most of the team members have currency in dollars and in India it is very difficult to get real Indian currency by the money changer. Our past colleagues had not a good experience of having real notes. So the learning says, always get your currency changed from the authorized money changer, who is notified by the government.
At the moment, an entire team is accommodated in one of the good private global business school’s hostel existing in the heart of Dehli, in which all the facilities are simply available which we usually miss within these types of schools in our country.
Skies touching temples are every where, so one can get into the deep ocean of thinking that how these mega structures are/were built with a great zeal and vigor.

Arrived in Lahore

Came to Lahore through Kurakuram Express train by 12:50 noon very lately today, as its arrival schedule in Lahore station was 10:00am (Mostly trains of our country arrive and depart lately).
Any ways, rushed to one of the small guest houses in Gulburg area lahore where I was pleasantly received by the guest house manager who offered me a fruit drink; this sort of hospitality is commonly done by the hotel management with every next guest who comes in.
It was really surprising to me that Lahore’s weather is quite pleasant now days and seems fresh wherein washed and polished grass and trees were exposed of having heavy rains for the last many days.
The organizers of our trip to India have planned each one of our activities in a way where learning, sharing and caring attitude of all the members will be their high priority.
We shall leave by 4:30am by tomorrow morning through waghah boarder by bus, the excitement is on high volume, as every one in this program is so excited, because most of the visiting fellows are going to India for the first time to study new vistas of learning which are pertinent to development sector and I am also one of them.

As per plan, we will be received by the Indian ministry people at Dehli who in later will explain us the program of rest of our days.

Almost ready!

I am so lucky being one of the visiting fellows of the PAIMAN team to India.
The preparation for this trip is underway, hopefully it will be completed soon.
The days in Khairpur district are very hot, so that the dates are ready to be harvested. The sweet mangoes are sold everywhere and half ripen dates are now in bazaar for sale.
On this blog I will document the visit to India, and perhaps also other events in the future. I hope you will enjoy reading about it!

All the best,

Aumir