India Demographics

The demographics  of India is briefly given below

Population	1,220,800,359 (July 2013 est.)
Age structure	0-14 years: 28.9% (male 187,236,677/female 165,219,615) 15-24 years: 18.2% (male 117,385,009/female 104,516,448) 25-54 years: 40.4% (male 253,642,261/female 239,219,931) 55-64 years: 6.9% (male 42,307,170/female 41,785,413) 65 years and over: 5.7% (male 32,992,850/female 36,494,985) (2013 est.)
Dependency ratios	total dependency ratio: 52.4 % youth dependency ratio: 44.3 % elderly dependency ratio: 8 % potential support ratio: 12.4 (2013)
Median age	total: 26.7 years male: 26.1 years female: 27.4 years (2013 est.)
Population growth rate	1.28% (2013 est.)
Birth rate	20.24 births/1,000 population (2013 est.)
Death rate	7.39 deaths/1,000 population (2013 est.)
Net migration rate	-0.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2013 est.)
Urbanization	urban population: 31.3% of total population (2011) rate of urbanization: 2.47% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)
Major cities - population	NEW DELHI (capital) 21.72 million; Mumbai 19.695 million; Kolkata 15.294 million; Chennai 7.416 million; Bangalore 7.079 million (2009)
Sex ratio	at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.13 male(s)/female 15-24 years: 1.12 male(s)/female 25-54 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 55-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female total population: 1.08 male(s)/female (2013 est.)
Mother's mean age at first birth	19.9 (2006 est.)
Infant mortality rate	total: 44.6 deaths/1,000 live births male: 43.28 deaths/1,000 live births female: 46.08 deaths/1,000 live births (2013 est.)
Life expectancy at birth	total population: 67.48 years male: 66.38 years female: 68.7 years (2013 est.)
Total fertility rate	2.55 children born/woman (2013 est.)
Contraceptive prevalence rate	54.8% (2007/08)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate	0.3% (2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS	2.4 million (2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths	170,000 (2009 est.)
Drinking water source	improved:  urban: 97% of population rural: 90% of population total: 92% of population unimproved: urban: 3% of population rural: 10% of population total: 8% of population (2010 est.)
Sanitation facility access	improved:  urban: 58% of population rural: 23% of population total: 34% of population unimproved: urban: 42% of population rural: 77% of population total: 66% of population (2010 est.)
Major infectious diseases	degree of risk: very high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and malaria water contact disease: leptospirosis animal contact disease: rabies note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2013)
Nationality	noun: Indian(s) adjective: Indian
Ethnic groups	Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)
Religions	Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)
Languages	Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9% note: English enjoys the status of subsidiary official language but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the most widely spoken language and primary tongue of 41% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language (2001 census)
Literacy	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 62.8% male: 75.2% female: 50.8% (2006 est.)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)	total: 11 years male: 11 years female: 10 years (2010)
Child labor - children ages 5-14	total number: 26,965,074 percentage: 12 % (2006 est.)
Education expenditures	3.3% of GDP (2010)
Maternal mortality rate	200 deaths/100,000 live births (2010)
Children under the age of 5 years underweight	43.5% (2006)
Health expenditures	3.9% of GDP (2011)
Physicians density	0.65 physicians/1,000 population (2009)
Hospital bed density	0.9 beds/1,000 population (2005)
Obesity - adult prevalence rate	1.9% (2008)

                                      

Unemployment Figures in India :

1. India has 40 Million Unemployed people

2. Current unemployment rate is 9.4%

3. Unemployment rate is 10.3% in rural and 7.3% in urban areas

4. Agriculture is the predominant occupation employing more than 50% of the population. Service sector            accounts for more than 25% while industrial sector employs more than 10%

5. Per capita income is touching Rs 54,835 per annum in 2010-11

6. Towns and cities make more than two thirds of the Indian GDP, even though less than a third of the        population live in them.

7. In 2010, Indian emigrants are estimated to be sending home remittances totaling $55 billion, the most of    any country, constituting about 4.5% of GDP.

8. Various sectors falling under the India GDP includes food processing, transportation equipment,      petroleum, textiles, software, agriculture, mining, machinery,chemicals, steel, cement & many others

9. The share of services in India's GDP is 58.5% in 2011. The share of agriculture and industry are 13.5%      and 28% respectively.

The Right Road

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Robert Frost

This is the famous poem by Robert Frost, which has influenced many people including me. But I would like to lead my life on a different principle - That of choosing the right path, the correct path, always - to see how this turns out, or if at all there is such a thing as the right path. Till now I have tried to walk the right path & do the right thing by everybody near and dear to me. I may have slipped once or twice & punished more than enough for it as far as I could judge.

        I read an interesting article in today's times of india by Gurcharan Das 'Modern marriages arn't made in heaven'. Superb insight into the psyche of men. The movie Waitress with Nathan Fillion was also good. Learnt about the Johari  window from Sum. He attributed my qualities as 'quiet', 'introvert', 'independent', 'organised' & 'logical'. I would have preferred 'kind' , 'loving', 'warm', 'witty' & 'spontaneous'. I will now make spontaneous efforts to change myself .

The many roles of a person

I was just wondering about the eternal question 'Who am I'? 'I' am defined by my many roles with respect to society and family. In that way I am a woman,a daughter, a wife, a mother, sister, cousin, a working woman, a neighbour, a boss, a subordinate, and so on. In each of these roles others will view me in a particular way which I am unable to perceive myself which may be very important in knowing myself. My child may view me as strict parent, my parents as a dutiful daughter , my boss as a pushover etc. When I reconcile all these viewpoints, then maybe I will be able to form a self image of myself, as I truly am. Moreover at a certain point in life I have to remove all these external impressions - the various roles in which society casts me and therefore I cast myself, to truly understand myself and my motivations. Another dilemma is whether I should act on my motivations? I may be motivated to fall in love with a handsome stranger but my role as a wife and mother holds me back and prevents me from doing so. So these roles may be important in certain ways but to what limit? In my role as a working woman I am often looked down upon in the office, as it is perceived I am not serious enough about my job- taking too many leaves etc, whereas the same problem is not faced by my colleagues. At home too, I am unable to join the gossip and kitty parties of my neighbours who are housewives and I am excluded from this group due to my exalted status as a 'working woman'. I feel to truly live one must explore all the senses to the fullest and try one's hand at different things and occupations, not be boxed in by what society says one must 'be' and 'do'. After all this may be the only life I have and so I need to make the most of it & live to the fullest without hurting anyone so that at the end of the day I can say that I know myself, if only partially.

1st Jan 2014

The first day of the new year went off well. Morning we went for a walk and met Mrs N of 404, and chatted with her for a while. Seems they are coming back from J as they prefer west to the east as she said. In the morning one pigeon got stuck in the balcony net which we had strung outside. S struggled with letting it out for a long time , till at last it flew off after loosing few of its feathers and getting a terrible scare in the process. I made friedrice and chilly paneer for lunch which was quite a change from usual dal rice and vegetables. Got calls from Sidda, dada in the evening. Its raining heavily in Ld and they are really fed up of the bad weather there. Its lovely sunshine here, the weather is really gorgeous. I feel like lazing in the sunshine the whole day long. In the evening we went to Kali temple to ask for divine blessings. We were just exiting the temple after puja when a man offered us prasad- laddos. I ate a whole one and S & Sh shared one. I was really pleased as I had not taken any sweets to the temple and received the prasad there itself. Evening Sona went off to her friends place for dinner to which she alone was invited & it relly annoyed me when I called at 10.30 and she told me that she had not had dinner even then. I told her sharply to come home, so she comes down 5 mins later saying she had some rice and chicken. S went to B Tut and got all the info on admissions- its all good or half of it is.

My sketches of actors

My Sketch of Emraan Hashmi

Thin line between silent acquiescence and protest

Imagine the scenario where a person is being unfairly treated in the office. What are the options open to him. A. He can silently suffer or protest. In both cases there are pros and cons to be considered. If he keeps silent the same treatment may be meted out to him time and again. If he protests then his superiors will always have some excuse to justify their actions. So a thin tightrope walk is necessary to avoid the minefield of office politics. In other cases too there is a tradeoff in every decision we take and the credit lies in choosing one path and sincerely sticking to it no matter what. I believe that sincere actions only help in the long run and there is a gut feeling which one has to go by and not depend on sycophancy or convenience of the moment to choose an action.

Durga Puja 2013

Durga Puja 2013 has arrived. Yesterday I had my first accident (hopefully last) with my new Wagon R car, when I was coming out of the society. I had just come out of the blind turn when a young girl driving a maruti who was also turning to go out, dashed into my car. She should have stopped as I was already ahead of her and going in first gear, but she was driving at a high speed and I was horrified to see that she did not stop at all and DASH! This is what happens when you expect others to break and you don't. She denied that it was her fault at first but people collected there said it was her mistake and then she agreed to pay for the damage to my car. I took down her name and number but now I have to go through the headache of getting the car repaired/insurance etc. Every puja this sort of calamity is happening. Last year before puja, I fractured my toe, and had to suffer for 3 months before it healed. Today I took D for bhog at the pujas and driving in a sari & parking my car and then extricating it was really hassling. But I hope I am getting a grip on my driving now. But my poor car, sob sob..... I am watching two serials on TV - One is Big Boss 7 and the other is Jee Le Zara. I like DV's acting a lot in the serial. He looks very cute when he smiles, not so much when he frowns. I think orange must be his favourite colour, he wears it a lot in the serial. Sanchi's acting is also good, she was looking really pretty in the pearl set in the wedding episode. The pace of the serial is good, not like the awful ekta kapoor saas bahu serials, where they pause the story at every conflict and show the shocked expressions on the actors faces, turn by turn for about five minutes, repeating the same frame a couple of times. Boring! In Big Boss the most hateful character is Armaan Kohli and no doubt he will manage to stik around till the last. The goodies like Ratan , Apurva etc will all be eliminated. Andy is good - funny and open. Among the girls - Kamya is strong, Gauhar is too loud. I can imagine she will be a milder version of Dolly Bindra when she is older.