Textbook cases

There’s this picture in the Hindu today. Shows some 100 schoolchildren in Andhra Pradesh on a march protesting the inadequate supply of free textbooks from the government.

One may look at this picture and read episodes of government ineptitude and, cynically, political manipulation in equal measure. All that is true.

I look at this picture and find it possible to see an instance of the vocalization, however singular, of the human urge to be educated immediately, now, for free.

Here’s another identical one from Karnataka.

Over 5,000 pirated CDs seized in Vizag

Date:15/03/2008

From The Hindu

Andhra Pradesh

The police conduct raids following tip-off by music industry

HYDERABAD: Police have conducted nine raids in Visakhapatnam and seized a total of 5,024 CDs, following a tip-off given by the Indian music industry’s anti-piracy team.

The CDs comprised 2,507 MP3 players, 2,517 DVDs, seven CD writers and six each mobile chips, PCs and card readers.

A press release issued by the industry here on Friday said the raids followed a successful training programme conducted by it on February 13 here for the law enforcers to raise awareness about protecting the intellectual property rights.

The raids reflected the initiatives taken by the industry towards achieving its objectives.

The programme was the biggest one ever conducted in the country by the industry for police.