Equal Education for All Odyssey (contd.)EducationWorld‚s special correspondent Srinidhi Raghavendra is on a five-month, 25,000 km motorcycle odyssey to highlight the importance of equal access to quality education. In January he traversed the Hindi heartland states of north IndiaEducationworld‚s special correspondent Srinidhi Raghavendra together with Kishore Patwardhan under the aegis of Borderless Bikers, Bangalore is on a South Asian Motorcycle Odyssey to spread the message that the people of India and neighbouring nations need to demand Equal Quality Education for All. The duo has traversed 15,500 km during the past four months vrooming through India (22 states), Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, and were on the Bangladesh border when this despatch was filed (March). The expedition is being supported by EducationWorld; TVS Motor Company, manufacturers of India‚s first fully indigenous motorcycle; Intel, the world‚s leading computer chip manufacturer, and Cramster, Bangalore, India‚s sole motorcycle panniers manufacturer.Given below is an account of their journey through the Hindi heartland states of north India.January 2-5, Delhi. The first day of our stay in Delhi was spent on routine administrative work including leaving our 150cc TVS Apache motor cycles for servicing at CPL TVS and filling up visa application forms for Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand etc. More importantly we were informed by Intel‚s Ajit Singh that we could collect the Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) from their office in Delhi. Intel, the transnational technology giant (annual sales: Rs.135,000 crore) wanted us to test their yet-to-be-launched UMPC in the field and provide feedback on modifications if any, for Indian conditions. The Intel team in Bangalore and Delhi were confident that this PC would fulfill all our communication technology needs during the tour. As I opened the package and examined the UMPC, I was thrilled to bits. This compact 9″x5″x1″ mobile computer offers all the features of a fully loaded desktop PC with a 60 GB hard disk which can store several thousand hi-resolution digital pictures, and ample text data. The UMPC features a built-in finger print security, stylus pen, web camera, stereo speakers, microphone, wireless, bluetooth and LAN networking capabilities, and a geographical positioning system in addition to several useful accessories including a compact foldable keyboard, mouse and a host of other connectivity options. UMPC also incorporates a unique handwriting recognition software program which can read matter written with the stylus pen and convert it into text. Even bad handwriting such as mine is read accurately. A wonderful gadget indeed for an individual on the move. For three days until January 5, we were obliged to stay put in Delhi arguing with the obstinate diplomats of the Myanmar embassy and Pakistan high commission who rejected our visa applications on flimsy grounds. “You can visit Myanmar only by air. Road entry from Indian side is not possible,” pronounced the visa officer at the Myanmar embassy. Despite the widely proclaimed Indo-Pak bonhomie, Pakistan high commission officials were equally unhelpful. “Even if you have a letter of invitation from Intel, Islamabad, we will take at least six months to process the…
