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Iranian Tank Girls

pg 31

pg 11

iPhone v/s Android

Ramanuja & Ramayana

pg 15

Mahatma Metamorphosis
pg 22

Sonia to revive party with rally

campaigns in a bid to revive the Congress that h a s b e e n complaining of flagging morale in the face of s e v e r a l corruption charges and the illness of their leader. As per sources, Uttarakhand goes to the polls in February 2012. Although the occasion is a government function, the inauguration of a rail line, political issues are also on the agenda. "She will lay the foundation stone for a rail link between Rishikesh and Karnprayag that has been expedited by the railway ministry. Soniaji has given her consent for a rally and meeting with party workers at Gochar. The location was chosen as there is an airfield there," said a Congress source. This will be Mrs Gandhi's first election rally after her return from the United States where she reportedly underwent surgery for cancer, but the party, which has kept silent over the nature of her illness, did not confirm this. Of late, however, Congress leaders have been hopeful that Gandhi will campaign in the states that are going for the Assembly elections early next year. The Congress that managed to emerge out of the woods in the last Lok Sabha elections is hopeful of improving its score in the forthcoming Assembly polls. At present, the party has 20 of the 70 Assembly seats in the state. "The expectation in Uttarakhand is to win between 40 and 45 seats. For the first time in 25 years, we were able to win five seats in the last Lok Sabha polls. The ill-will garnered by former BJP Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will help the electorate swing towards the Congress," said a party leader. However, all's not well with Uttarakhand Congress, with a serious tug-of-war on between different quarters for the leadership of the party in the state. Senior leader Harish Rawat, who is seen as a chief ministerial contender, faces stiff competition from certain quarters in the party. AICC in charge for Uttarakhand, Chaudhry Birender Singh Sheokand scotched rumours about any kind of infighting within the party, but asserted that a chief ministerial candidate would only be chosen by Sonia Gandhi. "We never go to elections projecting anybody as the chief ministerial candidate," Sheokand told The Sunday Guardian, speaking on phone from Ram Nagar.

ew Delhi - Congress president Sonia Gandhi will spearhead the Congress campaign for revival with a series of public rallies, beginning with a rally in Uttarakhand on 5 November at Gochar village in Chamoli district. Gandhi, whose health has now improved considerably will lead election

J&K gets second spot in national Thang-Ta contest

Naidu Cricket Tournament. The tournament, which is being held at the S.K. Cricket Stadium, Srinagar is being organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association under the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The Omar Abdullah-led Jammu and Kashmir government is trying its best to revive sports in the state. Every day dozens of tournaments are held across the state 832 players from 23 states participated and even Union Sports Minister Ajay in this tournament where the team from Maken recently visited Kashmir and J&K got 17 gold, 31 silver and 14 bronze acknowledged the efforts being made. medals. However, the J&K cricket team faced defeat at the hands of Haryana in the first four-day match in the C.K. Jammu and Kashmir is surging ahead in the field of sports, as became evident from the state team securing the second position in the 18th National Thang-Ta Championship. The tournament was organised by the Jharkhand Thang-Ta Association in collaboration with Thang-Ta Federation of India and the Doon Public School, Dhanbad in Jharkhand.

Dont end AFSPA in J&K: Advani

Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Saturday opposed any move to withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Jammu and Kashmir, saying nothing should be done that weakens the armed forces' position. He, however, said there is a case for withdrawal of the Act in Manipur, which c o u l d b e examined.Speaking to c o r r e s p o n d e n t s a t Thiruvananthapuram, Advani said: "I don't think there is a need to withdraw AFSPA in so far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned. Nothing should be done that weakens the armed forces' position." Attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Advani took strong objection to the position that coalition dharma often came in the way of acting s t r o n g l y against corruption. "Coalition dharma matters only in matters of policy and not in matters of integrity," he said.

Maoist bandh flops, Didi readies for clash

The bandh called on Saturday by Maoists had little impact in Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura, the three Jangalmahal districts in West Bengal. Trinamool Congress workers set up a Jan Jagran Manch in Jhargram in West Midnapore and moved around on bikes daring the Maoists to
limiting themselves to area domination as they were doing in the past four months ever since the TMC has come to power, the joint forces will now restart combing operations, house to house searches. They will also force anyone seen moving around with arms to surrender. West Midnapore MP Subhendu Adhikari are expected to limit civilian casualties said, We will throw out the Maoists if by encircling rebel bases on the basis of they try to disrupt normal life. intelligence tip-offs. They are likely to force them to open fire first. Instead of

attack them for violating their bandh call. The deadline given to the Maoists by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to surrender arms expired on Saturday. The joint forces, which have been given a free hand to tackle the Maoists,

INVESTIGATIONS

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Swiss far-right poised to win poll

The far-right Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) appears poised to win a record margin of victory in Sundays general elections. And they intend to celebrate it by banning immigration. Polls indicate that the SVP may reach a historic 30% of the vote, which, under Switzerlands system of consensus government by a seven-member Cabinet, made up of members from at least three parties, would give it a decisive three cabinet posts. Best known for its strident antiimmigration position, in p r e v i o u s e l e c t i o n campaigns, an SVP poster showed three white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag. In a subsequent referendum campaign, another SVP poster showed a woman wearing a burqa a burka against a background of minaret-like missiles jutting out of the Swiss flag. The SVP was also reportedly instrumental prompting the recent vote in the lower chamber of parliament to ban the Muslim veil, as well as being behind a Swiss referendum last year which banned minarets. But the SVPs shrill anti-Muslim rhetoric has also translated into a general movement against immigration in general. The EU is concerned by the SVPs announcement that it has already gathered the requisite 100,000 signatures to call a referendum, under Swiss direct democracy laws, on withdrawing from freedom of travel arrangements with the European Union. If adopted, EU citizens would lose the automatic right to freely work and reside in Switzerland. Just before campaigning ended, the SVP flooded the Alpine state with p o s t e r s depicting the legs of men trampling over the Swiss flag with the slogan Thats enough. Stop mass immigration! It also took out newspaper advertisements recounting alleged crimes committed by foreigners. According to official data, over one in 22.9 % Swiss inhabitants is a foreigner. But perhaps not for much longer.

Bangalore gets legal helpline manned by lawyers

Bangalore | Report by Our Correspondent - The Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA) has set up a 24-hour toll-free helpline to provide free legal advice to callers from all over India. The toll free number 1800425-90900 is manned by advocates. If the caller is from Karnataka, free legal services will be provided on request. For callers from other states, the KSLSA will try to arrange for legal representation through the legal service authority of the caller's state. The advocates will answer doubts about what to do in case of assault, how to file an FIR, how to file criminal cases and so on. It will also give legal advice on executing wills, granting power of attorney, property registration, property disputes etc.

Rivals target Yadav with rumours

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's political opponents are spreading the rumour that he is suffering from dementia. Yadav's family members and his party colleagues have noticed that he often forgets to use his hearing aid while talking to people. As a result of this, his replies tend to get incoherent. With Assembly elections around the corner, SP rivals are taking advantage of the situation by saying that Yadav will not become Chief Minister if his party comes to power. They say it is because of his ill health that he is projecting his son Akhilesh as his successor. His family members have told Mulayam Singh Yadav to keep his hearing aid on always. They have asked his bodyguards to keep an eye on this.

Ministers like mobiles more than meetings

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has started noticing that after every Cabinet meeting his ministers get busy with their mobile phones passing on information about decisions taken to their friends in various TV channels. All Cabinet decisions, thus, hit the headlines much before they are announced officially. The PM has now warned his ministers against leaking information to the media and asked them to concentrate more on the deliberations rather than their mobile phones.

PM sidelines media adviser Khare

Dr Manmohan Singh's media adviser Harish Khare may be on his way out now that his mentor, T.K.A. Nair, has left the Prime Minister's Office. With Pulok Chatterjee taking over as principal secretary to the PM from Nair, Khare has been sidelined. Last week the Prime Minister did not take him to Pretoria. Khare, is however, saying that he decided at the last moment not to accompany the PM. But the truth is, the Prime Minister asked him to stay back and help National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon handle the controversy surrounding the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. Khare is, however, lobbying hard to join the PM on his next foreign trip. He is also said to be in touch with his godfathers in the Congress to help him survive the crisis.

A huge Type 8 house for Mr Chatterjee

Pulok Chatterjee has got a new address after taking over as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's principal secretary. He has been allotted a huge Type 8 bungalow at 4 New Moti Bagh. On the other hand, his predecessor, the once high-flying T.K.A. Nair has been shifted to a much smaller accommodation.

Sheikh Hasina visited the Teen Bigha corridor last week, it was Jairam Ramesh who was supposed to meet her. But it was Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who met her. Ramesh, who was told by the Prime Minister's Office to receive Hasina in T e e n B i g h a , cancelled his appointments and got his ticket for the next day's flight. He even called on Pranab Mukherjee to discuss what he should say at the meeting. But by evening the PMO had decided that Ramesh was too junior to revitalise India-Bangla ties, particularly after the Teesta river water fiasco. It started searching for a senior minister. Home Minister P. Chidambaram was contacted

Clueless PMO leaves ministers in Mamata angry with Dinesh over the dark on Teen Bigha trip treatment of railway officer When Bangladesh Prime Minister but he was not in town. The PMO then
decided on Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the senior most Congress ministers in the UPA. He is also the party's Muslim face and has a good rapport with Sheikh Hasina. Azad was told about next day's meeting at 11.30 p.m. It was after this that the Bangladesh wing of the Ministry of External Affairs started to write his speech. The speech was delivered to him at 1.30 a.m. Azad was to leave for abroad the next day, but he had to cancel that trip. Interestingly, all this while, Jairam was clueless that the plans had changed. He got to know an hour before he was to board his flight. Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi has ceased to be Mamata Banerjee's most trusted minister in Delhi. There was a time when Banerjee trusted Trivedi so much that she chose him, a non-Bengali, as her successor in the Ministry of Railways over her Bengali colleagues. But now she is upset that Trivedi is treating her key man in the ministry, J.K. Saha so shabbily that the Indian Railway Service officer wants a transfer out of Rail Bhawan. Trivedi snubbed Saha, his executive director, at a meeting in front of his colleagues. Saha was ED to Mamata as well. She depended on him

totally while preparing the Railway Budget. Relations are so strained between the West Bengal Chief Minister and the new Railway Minister that Mamata has instructed the Writers Building in Kolkata, the state secretariat, that all answers to Railways queries should be given only after taking her permission. T r i v e d i , meanwhile, has become a popular t o p i c o f discussion in his ministry. He recently went off to Gujarat for two days and no one in the ministry knew anything about his whereabouts.

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POLITICS 3

Arunachal CM, state Congress chief quits

runachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jarbom Gamlin and his rival, state Congress chief Nabam Tuki, resigned from their posts on Saturday. Congress leaders, however, said that a final decision could be arrived at only by party chief Sonia Gandhi. "The Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister and the Pradesh Congress Committee chief have offered to submit their resignations. As of now, no decision has been taken. It is under consideration," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi Manu Singhvi said. Saturday. The AICC in-charge for A ru n a c h a l P r a d e s h , D h a n i ra m Shandil, former Union minister B.K. Handique and Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde were part of the committee. The three members reported their observations to Mrs Gandhi.

Mamata makes Sudip take a very long walk

Mamata Banerjee took Trinamool walking around. But she needed Congress MP Sudip someone to keep her Bandopadhyay on a really company. So she told Sudip long walk last week. She was Bandopadhyay who was on her way back to Kolkata accompanying her, after the National "SudipDa, you have gained a Development Council lot of weight. You are meeting in New Delhi. Her becoming fat, so you should flight was supposed to take walk with me." Poor off at 5.30 p.m., but the West Bandopadhyay was seen Bengal Chief Minister huffing and puffing for the reached the airport early, next one and half hours around 4 p.m. She decided trying to catch up with his that she would spend the time by party leader who walks very fast.

Mrs Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel and party leader Oscar Fernandez were present in the meeting, which was held to discuss the Arunachal situation and to look for other options of leadership. Earlier, the BJP had demanded the imposition of The Congress has been President's Rule in the witnessing turmoil in state. BJP national Arunachal for a while general secretary Tapir over Gamlin's choice as G a o , i n a Chief Minister, with a memorandum sent to section of party men led Prime Minister by Tuki rallying against him. Manmohan Singh, urged him to invoke Article 356 (1) to promulgate Gamlin took over as Chief Minister on 5 President's Rule to bring an end to the May following the death of then CM ongoing political crisis in the state. Dorjee Khandu in a helicopter crash. "The prolonged indecisiveness to A t h re e - me mb e r t e a m o f AIC C resolve the prevailing leadership crisis observers, who had visited the state for is an anti-people attitude and a taking stock of the situation, submitted mockery of democracy," Gao said. its report to the Congress president on

Ktaka BJP in tatters, Cong clueless

When Yeddyurappa was facing political rebellion from Janardhan and Karunakar Reddy, the Congress had taken out a massive padayatra to the Reddy brothers' home district, protesting against illegal mining and staged sit-ins in the Legislative Assembly. But after the crows came home to roost for the BJP corruptionwise, Congress leaders have inexplicably confined themselves to press conferences and the floor of the A senior Congress leader, speaking on House. condition of anonymity, said that the state Congress leadership is paralysed Another Congress insider said that the and has failed to seize the initiative. "The party believes that it is better to let the Congress has failed to turn the issue of disarray in the BJP fester rather than BJP's corruption into anti-BJP launching an-all out attack. "If we sentiment in the state. With the UPA attack them directly now, they might leadership under a cloud due to the 2G unite and consolidate the party." The and Commonwealth Games scams, the Congress leader felt that the Congress people do not see much difference is in a better position in Karnataka now between the Congress and the BJP. The and that the booth-level work the party party has to act in a united and organised was engaging in would pay dividends manner and evolve a plan of political in the election. "But there is no action," he said. doubting that we could have done a better job. The party needs to be far With Advani's anti-corruption "Jan more organised if we have to get a Chetna Yatra" set to reach Bangalore on majority in the Assembly elections." Sunday, the BJP might put the ball back in Congress' court. With the Karnataka High Court squashing proceedings against its state "The state is facing a severe drought as party president Kumaraswamy in an well as a power crisis, and except for a alleged land scam, the JD(S) is all handful, the senior leaders in the ready to up the ante on corruption. But Karnataka Congress have not initiated the going against the BJP is bound to any mass action. With the political be tough as the BJP has started making setback which Yeddyurappa has i n - r o a d s i n t o t h e V o k k a l i g a s u f f e r e d , t h e C o n g r e s s h a s a n community, the JD(S)'s traditional opportunity to reverse the erosion of its vote bank. This was apparent in the vote bank in Karnataka by actively recently concluded by-elections where wooing the Lingayat votes as well as J D ( S ) l o s t i t s s t r o n g h o l d winning back sections of the backward Chennapatana as well as Koppal to the class votes that has switched to the BJP. BJP. For that we will have to select the right candidates, but there has been no move But the greatest stumbling block for in that direction so far," said the the JD(S) may well turn out to be the Congress leader. fact that it is a family-run party. In contrast with BJP, apart from party The state Congress has been plagued by national president and former Prime in-fighting between its leaders when Minister Deve Gowda and son R.V. Deshpande was the KPCC Kumaraswamy, JD(S) lacks leaders president. After G. Parameshwar took who have a mass appeal. For now, charge as the new president in October corruption or no corruption, the BJP last year, public spats between leaders can afford to breathe easy. have come down, but the new party Report by Govind Krishna - he BJP's house is in disarray in Karnataka, with four ministers of the last Cabinet in jail on various corruption charges, including former Chief Minister Yeddyurappa. With visible public emotion against corruption in the state, the Opposition should be sharpening its knives. But while the JD(S) and Congress has had great success in bringing to light illegal mining deals and land scams involving BJP leaders, the Opposition parties are far less confident of translating it into an electoral victory. president is widely perceived as more ineffective than his predecessor.

Team Anna core committee will not expand

eam Anna held a meeting of its core committee on Saturday. It was decided by the members, including Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi that they will not expand the core committee, as demanded by other members like Kumar Vishwas and Medha Patkar. Anna Hazare, who has taken a vow of silence, did not attend the m e e t i n g i n Ghaziabad. T h e B J P i s continuing to extend its support to the anti-corruption movement. "We want the movement to stay united and continue the anticorruption crusade. Team Anna has been supplementing what the BJP has been doing in this regard," said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, spokesperson BJP. However, the BJP distanced itself from the controversies surrounding Team Anna. "Team Anna will have to explain these allegations itself. They have our support for their overall agenda against corruption," said Ravi Shankar Prasad, another BJP spokesperson. Rudy expressed hope that Team Anna would be able to get over the allegations of financial irregularities and other matters. "These are mostly allegations. They can handle that. I believe they can come clean soon," he said.

Team Anna has also been beset with disagreements within its key members. Patkar and Santosh Hegde did not participate in Saturday's meeting. Prashant Bhushan's remarks over plebiscite in Kashmir The core committee was held in the wake were refuted by Anna himself who is o f a l l e g a t i o n s o f f i n a n c i a l now on a maun vrat (vow of silence). misdemeanours on the part of Kiran Bedi. The father-son duo Shanti Rajendra Singh and P. V. Rajagopal Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan have have quit the movement stating that also been accused of trying to fix judges they were unhappy with the "political for favourable judgments in the past. hue being acquired by the campaign".

WORLD

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Gaddafi son open to surrender

NTC officials told Reuters earlier this week that monitoring of satellite calls and other intelligence indicated Saif alIslam was considering turning himself in to the ICC, and trying to arrange an The ICC has warned the 39-year-old, aircraft to get him there and out of apparently anxious not to be captured by reach of NTC fighters. Libyan interim government forces in whose hands his father Muammar However, surrender is only one option. Gaddafi was killed last week, that it could The Gaddafis made friends with desert order a mid-air interception if he tried to tribes in Niger, Mali and other poor flee by plane from his Sahara desert former French hideout for a safe colonies in West haven. Africa, as well as farther afield in The ICC's comments countries like offered some Zimbabwe and corroboration of Sudan, some of reports from Tripoli's t h e m a l s o new National recipients of Transitional Council largesse during (NTC) leaders and the 42-year rule African neighbours of Muammar that he has taken Gaddafi, a selfrefuge with Tuareg styled African nomads in the "king of kings." borderlands between Libya and Niger. France, a key b a c k e r o f "There are some February's revolt, people connected r e m i n d e d with him that are in Africans of touch with people obligations to connected with us ... hand over the it's through intermediaries," ICC surviving ICC indictees - former Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi Reuters in an interview during a visit to and Saif al-Islam. Beijing. "We don't care whether he goes on foot, "We have some information that there is by plane, by boat, by car or on a camel, a mercenary group trying to help him to the only thing that matters is that he move to a different country, so we are belongs in the ICC," said Foreign trying to prevent this activity," said Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero. Moreno-Ocampo. Niger, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, a swathe of arid states to the south of "We are also working with some states to Libya, are all signatories to the treaty see if we can disrupt this attempt. Some that set up the ICC, established to of them are South Africans allegedly." give a permanent international Moreno-Ocampo said the ICC was not tribunal for crimes against humanity making any deal with Saif al-Islam but after ad hoc bodies set up for Rwanda, was explaining through the contacts that the former Yugoslavia and Sierra he had to face trial because he had been Leone. The Hague (Reuters) he International Criminal Court said on Saturday that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was in contact through intermediaries about surrendering for trial, but it also had information mercenaries were trying to spirit him to a friendly African nation. indicted for war crimes. "He says he is innocent," said the prosecutor.

Murder plot sharpens Saudi, Iran tensions

Riyad -The traditional confrontation between Sunni-Arab Saudi Arabia and Shia-Persian Iran, one of the great strategic conflicts of the Middle East, which acquired a sharper dimension since the US invasion of Iraq, burst into a new dimension this week with the revelation that Iranian agents were plotting to kill Saudi ambassador to Washington Adel Al-Jubeir. Saudi Arabia has decided to take the gloves off. The US Justice Department on Tuesday charged two men with conspiring with Iranian government factions to blow up Saudi Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir on US soil. A criminal complaint named Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, a naturalised US citizen holding Iranian a n d U S passports, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of the Quds Force, a unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Dickens was a womaniser, heavy drinker

Author Charles Dickens was a heavy drinker with a violent temper, and he cheated constantly behind his wife's back, a new book has revealed. As an impoverished youngster living in London, he walked the city's seedy streets which overflowed with crooks and drunken floozies rolling in the gutter. his in new book, Charles Dickens: A Life. Londoner Claire has spent the past 15 years studying the literary figure famed for novels such as A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist and A Tale Of Two Cities.

She said Dickens had more than one personality And the high-flying c a p a b l e o f author loved nothing extraordinary more than getting down kindness towards and dirty with the capital's low-life. strangers but shocking cruelty to those The darker side of the gifted novelist was closest to him. revealed by biographer Claire Tomalin

"There were always problems with Iran and Saudi Arabia, (but) the fact that The secretaryt h e S a u d i general of the ambassador was the Gulf Cooperation target in the United Council, which States, I believe this included all will mean Saudi major Gulf states, Arabia and the also condemned United States will the alleged Iran take a joint decision plot, saying they together," said would severely Abdullah Al-Shammari, a government harm relations. official based in the Saudi capital. The United States and its European An ambassador of the level of Adel Al- allies warned that Iran may face Jubeir, who is an adviser to the Royal retaliation. Court (and who is particularly close to King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud), The United States, through Secretary that is a great provocation for Saudi of State Hillary Clinton and Vice Arabia," Al-Shammari said. "After this President Joe Biden, said Tehran must incident, Riyadh is definitely expected to be held accountable and urged take measures, the least of which will be international condemnation. to pull the Saudi ambassador from Iran," said Al-Shammari. "This situation is not The plot is "a flagrant violation of going to pass easily. international and US law and a dangerous escalation of the Iranian The Saudi government condemned the government's long-standing use of assassination attempt as "sinful and political violence and sponsorship of abhorrent". terrorism," Clinton said. "Iran must be held accountable for its actions." "The Saudi government appreciates the efforts exerted by the American "It is an outrageous act, where the authorities ... in uncovering the sinful Iranians will have to be held and abhorrent plot," the government- accountable," Biden told ABC run Saudi Press Agency quoted an television's Good Morning America official source as saying. programme. "We're in the process of uniting world Former chief of public opinion Saudi intelligence continuing to Prince Turki Alisolate and Faisal said there was condemn their overwhelming behaviour," evidence that Iran Biden added. was behind a plot and must pay the But the Pentagon price. "The burden of played down the p r o o f i s prospect of overwhelming ... and military action, clearly shows official saying the alleged I r a n i a n plot required a responsibility for diplomatic and this. Somebody in legal response. Iran will have to pay the price, whatever "The US military the level of these has longstanding persons is," he said. concerns about Iran's malign Prince Turki, who has also served as influence in the region. But with Saudi ambassador to the United States respect to this case, it is a judicial and and Britain, said the alleged plan to kill d i p l o m a t i c i s s u e , " P e n t a g o n the Kingdom's current ambassador in spokesman Capt. John Kirby told Washington was "so criminal, it's reporters. beyond description."

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WORLD

Mademoiselle is sexist for French feminists

London (Our Correspondent) - For centuries, gallant Frenchmen have flattered women by addressing them as "Mademoiselle", thereby suggesting to older (and possibly plainer) women that they are both young and attractive. But now, French feminists have taken umbrage at the Gallic equivalent of "Miss", condemning its usage as sexist, misogynistic and patronising, and have demanded that it be banned from official language. Most administrative forms in France require applicants to tick one of three boxes: "Monsieur", "Madame" or "Mademoiselle". Last week, two prominent feminist groups, "Osez le Feinisme" (Dare Feminism) and "Les Chiennes de Garde" (Guard Bitches) launched a campaign to have the term "Mademoiselle" struck off state and corporate forms. limits of language mean the limits of my world". They have taken this maxim to mean that since language shapes the way people understand the world, the terms people use on an everyday basis, such as this one, may, however unintentionally, reinforce sexism and sexual discrimination. Other feminists have delved into the origins of the word "Mademoiselle" and have discovered, to their ire, that it stems from an old word for "virgin", a physical condition that may be considered most virtuous by the pious French clergy, but one which does not play well with young, adult French women.

Moonwalker Aldrins divorce buzz

London (Lakshman Menon) - Buzz Aldrin, who famously became the second man to walk on the moon, has taken another giant leap, if not for mankind, than for himself. The 81-year-old is divorcing his wife and has begun dating a woman 30 years his junior, it has been reported. The former astronaut, who h a s b e e n married three t i m e s , reportedly started seeing former Borders bookstore e x e c u t i v e M i c h e l l e Sucillon, 51, after walking out on his wife of 23 years, Lois. control of "Starbuzz", the company that manages and promotes Aldrin's image, appearances and endorsements. Aldrin's lawyer said that the legendary astronaut's goal is "simply to conclude a dignified divorce". But divorce, apparently, is n o t altogether on Mrs Aldrin's radar. She said, "I still love him. I would hope we get back together." T h e i r divorce, which is still working its way through the courts, has taken an acrimonious turn, with multiple law suits being filed over the ownership and control of "Starbuzz", the company that manages and promotes Aldrin's image, appearances and endorsements.

Some critics have called the campaign for all women, married or not, to be called "Madame" a stunt, contending that it would be better to devote attention to combating sexual harassment. But even they concede The campaigners are reported to have that the one merit of the word b e e n i n s p i r e d b y t h e A u s t r i a n "Madame" is that, unlike, "Ms", it can philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's actually be pronounced. characteristically opaque dictum: "The

Obama support plummets: Poll

months, there have been Democrats who voiced concerns and nervousness about, well, in this kind of economy, isn't this just - aren't these just huge headwinds in terms of your reelection? Here's one thing I know for certain: "The odds of me being reThe latest New York Times/CBS News elected are much higher than the odds poll released on Friday suggested that a of me being elected in the first place," yearlong effort by the President O b a m a t o s a i d . recapture the Meanwhile, political centre another poll has failed to suggested over a t t r a c t a third of independent Americans voters. The poll believe the US found a 12-point would be jump since late better off now June, to 43 if Hillary percent, in the Clinton were number of President. Americans who say the economy T h e is getting worse. Bloomberg And for the first s u r v e y time since taking released on office, his Friday showed disapproval 34 percent of rating has t h o s e reached 50 questioned percent in the said America Times and CBS would be News polls. superior under a Hillary The poll found a 43 percent approval Clinton administration, while 47 rating for Obama. It is significantly percent said it would be about the same higher than Jimmy Carter, who had an and 13 percent said it would be worse. approval rating of 31% at a similar time in his presidency, according to the Times Clinton remains the most popular and CBS News poll, which showed American political figure with nearly Ronald Reagan with an approval of 46 two-thirds of Americans holding a percent and the elder George Bush at 70 favourable view of the former first percent. But at a small campaign lady. fundraiser in Washington on Thursday night, Obama sought to reassure donors Half of the respondents felt the same and play down concerns of his weakness way about Obama, who received the in the 2012 presidential race. lowest job approval rating of his presidency, at 45 percent. "Now, I know that, over the last couple of s new polls suggested that President Barack Obama's support is eroding among elements of his base, he claimed that his odds of being re-elected in 2012 are "much higher" than they were in 2008.

The pair met at a book signing for his autobiography, Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, and were recently spotted "making out like teenagers". But Mrs Aldrin told the New York Post that she is not happy about her husband's new romance: "He's not [officially] divorced yet. It is kind of Aldrin's lawyer said that the legendary scandalous," she said, adding: "He's 81 astronaut's goal is "simply to conclude and having kind of a midlife crisis in old a dignified divorce". age". But divorce, apparently, is not Their divorce, which is still working its altogether on Mrs Aldrin's radar. She way through the courts, has taken an said, "I still love him. I would hope we acrimonious turn, with multiple law get back together." suits being filed over the ownership and

10-yr after 9/11, NY moves on

The memorial plaza is ready and the neighborhood has enjoyed a revival making it a trendy Manhattan place to live.Some of those most devastated by Police heightened security in New York the attacks no longer wish to be defined on Friday in response to a credible but by it. Among them is Kristen unconfirmed threat of an al Qaeda plot Breitweiser, who became a widow, to attack the city again activist and author on the anniversary of the after her husband downing of the World d i e d w h e n Trade Centre towers by hijacked planes hijaked airplanes. slammed into the World Trade In Manhattan, police set Centre. up impromptu check points and searched "I don't identify vehicles, but New myself as a widow Yorkers took the anymore. I'm a security alerts in their single mom," stride as a normal part of Breitweiser, their life. author of the 2006 book "Wake-Up Ahead of Sunday's Call: The Political c o m m e r a t i v e Education of a 9/11 ceremonies at Ground Widow," told Zero, there are signs that some New Reuters. Yorkers are tired of it all. Sunday's ceremony includes moments Don't call it Ground Zero, don't use the of silence marking when hijacked term 9/11 widow and don't read the passenger planes hit the Twin Towers names of the dead, they say. as well as when they collapsed. Progress helps that argument. The new One World Trade Centre skyscraper towers more than 80 stories above ground as it inches to its planned 1,776 Research shows that Americans accept a more dangerous world with plots such as the one being investigated on Friday. New York - The attacks of 11 September 2001 changed life in the United States forever, but 10 years after the devastating hit, New Yorkers have learned to live in a more dangerous world and are ready to move on. foot height symbolic of the date of America's independence.

COMMUNITIES

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Rao writes to Clinton; seeks fair treatment of Indian students

Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao has written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to view the cases of over 1,000 Indian students affected by the sham Tri Valley University with understanding and in a fair manner. Rao also took up the case of the students, who had enrolled at the California university, with Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute on October 24. I n h e r communication to Clinton, Rao reiterated that the Indian students of TriValley University have undergone hardship since the closure of the University and their cases be viewed in their totality with understanding and in a fair and reasonable manner, Indian embassy spokesperson Virander Paul said in a statement. by authorities earlier this year on charges of a massive immigration fraud. US officials had informed that of more than 1000 students who were being considered for transfer to other universities, 435 transfers were approved, 145 were denied and about an equal number were issued Notices of Intention to Deny (NOIDs). The remaining transfer cases are still under examination.

Guinness decline to ratify 100-yr-old Faujas marathon

Fauja Singh, a 100-year-old runner who attracted worldwide attention when he completed a Marathon in over eight hours, wont be recognised as the worlds oldest marathoner because he cant show a birth certificate. Guinness World Records said it wont recognise Singh, a Briton of Indian-origin, as the worlds oldest marathoner because he cant show a birth certificate from 1911. were kept in 1911, and a statement from a former neighbour in India, have also been passed to Guinness World Records. But the organisation says these are not considered sufficient proof of age. It took Singh over eight hours to cross the finish line, more than six hours after Kenyas Kenneth Mungara won the Scotiabank Toronto W a t e r f r o n t Marathon on October 16.

US officials had told Indian Embassy officials that cases of students have been examined individually after evaluating all information provided by the them. Susan Xiao-Ping Su, the president of the Tri-Valley University, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in May on the allegations of visa fraud and money laundering that The Embassy of India is continuing its affected Indian students. efforts with US authorities for addressing the concerns of the TVU 41-year-old Su, who also served as the students, it said. schools chief executive officer, is accused of engaging in a two-year Officials of the Department of Homeland scheme to defraud the Department of Security, Department of State, US Homeland Security by submitting Immigration and Customs Enforcement phony documents in support of Triand US Citizenship and Immigration Valley Universitys applications to Services had met representatives of the admit foreign nationals on student Indian Embassy in Washington on visas. October 21 and discussed several issues relating to the Indian students at the TriValley University. The university was raided and shut down

Singh, who only speaks Punjabi, was Wed love to say the last competitor this is a true to complete a fullGuinness World distance 42Record, but the k i l o m e t r e problem is there is marathon. He just no evidence received worldwide We can only accept publicity celebrating official birth his position as the documents created in the year of the oldest man to complete a marathon birth, the editor-in-chief of Guinness n u m e r o u s m e d i a g r o u p s , World Records, Craig Glenday, was including the BBC, announced he quoted as saying by BBC. had made it into Guinness World Records. Singhs British passport, showing his date of birth as being 1 April 1911, as It was Singhs eighth marathon. He well as a letter from the Queen ran his first at the tender age of 89. In congratulating him on his 100th the 2003 Toronto event, he set the birthday, have been shown to the mark in the 90-plus category, organisation, the BBC reported. A finishing the race in five hours 40 letter from Indian government minutes and one second. officials stating that no birth records

Indian-American Sikh wins $295,000 for job denial

An Indian-American Sikh has won a sixyear fight to be hired as a state correctional officer without having to shave off his beard as a condition of employment and $295,000 in damages. The dispute led to a series of bureaucratic and legal fights that culminated earlier this month in a settlement agreement that will allow Oberoi to begin work Nov 1, his San Francisco attorney, Harmeet K. Dhillon, said in a news release.

Ravan Uncle? Its all about keeping it in the family

For those who belong to the preFacebook and pre-iPhone era, Dusshera brings back fond memories of watching the Ramlila, swishing cheap bamboo bows and arrows in the air and donning Hanuman mukhautas. Delhi-based Abhinav Chauhan, though, has very different memories of the festive season. I remember getting made up for Sri Rams vanar sena or as Luv-Kush, recalls Chauhan. Today, at 28, Chauhan has graduated from those walkin roles to that of Raavan, a legacy passed on from his father Tejveer Singh Chauhan, who played the mythological baddie for so long that people fondly referred to him as Raavan Uncle. My father played the role of Raavan for 28 years and was the star attraction at the Ashok Vihar Ramlila until his death in 2008. So when the Committee offered me Raavans role, I simply couldnt refuse, he says. I know my father would have been happy, says the man who, at 26, became the youngest Raavan. Recalling his fathers interest in the Ramayana, Chauhan says the epic was discussed extensively at home. Over the years, my father felt deeply connected with his character. He would often say to us that just as white cannot exist without black, Ram cannot exist without Raavan. Such was the veterans on-stage presence that once, while p l a y i n g Meghnath, Chauhan was so mesmerised by his fathers performance that he forgot his lines. He chuckles remembering this and adds frankly, I still watch his recorded performances and I know it will take me a while to be able to perform like my father. Todays crass commercialisation of the Ramlila pains Chauhan. He feels that earlier, even though the productions were trite, the viewers appreciated the art inherent in the performances.

Trilochan Singh Oberoi applied for a job with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in T h e 2 0 0 5 a n d settlement progressed also calls for through the the state to hiring process pay $295,000 until the final to Oberoi and stages, when he his attorney, was required to Dhillon said. be fitted for a tight-fitting Fighting the respirator mask, according to his lawyer. case has generated more than $500,000 in legal costs to Oberoi, Oberoi, who maintains a full beard most of which were donated, Dhillon mandated by his religion, was told he said. would have to shave the beard off to take the test.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

BUSINESS & ECONOMY 7

Jindals start ore export from Bolivia

Soon after a Bolivian minister threatened to cancel contracts with Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL), the company clarified the issue has been sorted out. A company official said that the company has started exporting iron ore from the country. projects. The school will have capacity for 210 students in three shifts and it will have three areas of study welding, electrical and mechanical.

Apples lead over rivals could narrow without Steve Jobs

you get this incredible pressure from low-cost entrants, its very tough to maintain market share and margins, said Crouch. South Korean conglomerate Samsung is one of the best placed companies to deliver something fresh and exciting to rival Apple, analysts said. It already makes the closest competitor by sales to Apples iPad tablet and the two companies are scrapping for top s p o t i n t h e smartphone market, having overtaken Nokia, the market leader for the past decade, earlier this year. Apple is also Samsungs biggest customer through the sale of mobile chips and display screens. The relationship and rivalry has helped Samsung become a top global brand over the past decade with a stock market value of $115 billion, a third of Apples. But the two are also involved in a bitter dispute over mobile devices, suing each other in 10 countries involving more than 20 cases since April.

We have commenced exporting iron ore from Bolivia. The first shipment of iron ore was flagged off by Jindal Steel Bolivia (JSB) president Vikrant Gujral from Puerto Aguirre on 3 October. This is for the first time that JSB is exporting iron ore from El Mutun mine of the country, said a JSPL spokesperson. The official said that the logistics of the dispatch of the iron The ore will be ore has been a u s e d f o r major challenge for producing hot the JSBs project as metal which the El Mutun mine w i l l b e is located 2000 Km converted into away from the steel. ocean from Chile, Brazil or Argentina We have sides. explained our seriousness JSB had signed a about the contract with the project to the Bolivian authorities and Bolivian government in 2007 to mine now the issue has been solved, the 20 billion tonnes of iron ore from El official said. Mutun mines, one of the worlds single biggest iron-ore deposits. Bolivias energy minister Jose Louis Gutierrez had said earlier this month The 40-year contract which gave the that JSB had deceived the country by not company the right to mine the iron ore honouring its commitment to invest reserves also includes setting up an there. He also threatened to cancel its integrated 1.7 MTPA Steel Plant, a 6 contract with the company. MTPA sponge iron and 10 MTPA iron ore pellet plant in Bolivia with an The official claimed that as part of the investment of $2.1 billion. This will be commitment, the company has started the largest investment by an Indian the construction of a technical training company in South America and also centre at Puerto Suarez, near Santa Cruz. the largest investment by a foreign The training centre, which is in company on a single project in Bolivia. agreement with Infocol, aims to train human capital, linked to both the Mutn

If the death of Apples inspirational leader means a slowdown in the companys blistering pace of innovation, it could give breathless rivals like Microsoft and Samsung a chance to JSB is transporting the ores to catch up. different destinations through the Parana Paraguay Hidrovia riverway. The extinguishing of the creative force The company is exporting iron ore, behind the iPod, iPhone and iPad means mainly to China, Middle-East, a host of competitors already closing European and South American the gap in some markets will redouble countries. The Bolivian government efforts to counter the domination of has provided 4,000 acre land for the Apple Inc in consumer electronics. project. No question, competitors like Microsoft will try and capitalise on any weakness, stumble or oversight to shift the publics attention away from Apple and toward their own offerings, said Todd Lowenstein, portfolio manager at HighMark Capital Management.

Luminaries of the tech world paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs after his death on Wednesday, from Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates and Google Inc chief Larry Page to Samsung Electronics CEO G.S. Choi and Sony head Howard Stringer. But investors said emotion will not take any edge off fierce competition with Apple. Samsungs Galaxy range of smartphones and tablet computers run The downturn in the economy will on Googles Android operating system, likely spur more and more competitors which Jobs believed to be a blatant with more and more mimicry products, copy of Apples mobile interface. said Stanley Crouch, chief investment officer at fund manager Aegis, pointing S t e v e J o b s w a s p a r t i c u l a r l y to Amazon.coms new low-cost tablet passionate about the enforcement of computer as a recent example. When Apples intellectual property, said

WALL ST. PROTESTS GO GLOBAL

Demonstrators worldwide shouted their rage on Saturday against bankers and politicians they accuse of ruining economies and condemning millions to hardship through greed and bad government. Galvanised by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the protests began in New Zealand, rippled round the world to Europe and were expected to return to their starting point in New York. Most rallies were however small and barely held up traffic. The biggest anticipated was in Rome, where organisers said they believed 1,00,000 would take part. unemployed, students and pensioners, planned to march through the centre, past the Colosseum and finish in Piazza San Giovanni. Some 2,000 police were on hand to keep the Rome demonstrators, who c a l l themselves the indignant o n e s , peaceful and to avoid a repeat of the violence last year when students protesting o v e r education policy clashed with police. As some 750 buses bearing protesters converged on the capital, students at Rome university warmed up with their own mini-demo on Saturday morning. is Our Money, and Yes We Camp, an echo of the slogan Yes We Can used by US President Barack Obama. In imitation of the occupation of Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in Manhattan, some protesters have been camped out across the street from the headquarters o f t h e Bank of It al y f or several days. The worldwide protests were a response in part to calls by the New Y o r k demonstr ators for more people to join them. Their example has prompted calls for similar occupations in dozens of US cities from Saturday. their criticism of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and angry at his victory in a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday. The government has passed a 60 billion-euro austerity package that has raised taxes and will make public health care more expensive. On Friday students stormed Goldman Sachss offices in Milan and daubed red graffiti. Others hurled eggs at the headquarters of UniCredit, Italys biggest bank. New Zealand and Australia got the ball rolling on Saturday. Several hundred people marched up the main street in Auckland, New Zealands biggest city, joining a rally at which 3,000 chanted and banged drums, denouncing corporate greed. About 200 gathered in the capital Wellington and 50 in a park in the earthquake-hit southern city of Christchurch.

At the global level, we cant carry on any more with public debt that wasnt created by us but by thieving governments, corrupt banks and speculators who dont give a damn about us, said Nicla Crippa, 49, who wore a Tshirt saying enough as she arrived at the Rome protest. The Rome protesters, including the The carried signs reading Your Money Demonstrators in Italy were united in

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Slowdown a concern: PM
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh The approach paper proposes a questioned on Saturday whether Asias growth target of 9% per year. third-largest economy will meet an It is relevant to ask whether this is average growth target of 9% annually feasible since the economy is currently over the next five years, slowing down, he given economic said. volatility around the globe. The current slowdown is a India has been forced matter of concern. to pare growth But it should seem forecasts this year as a short-term high inflation and phenomenon, interest rates hit reflecting highly industry, adding to u n s e t t l e d chill winds from the conditions in the euro zone and the world economy, United States. The he said. All major government now expects growth of close economies were reducing their growth to 8% this fiscal year. In a speech expectations given the debt problems discussing preparations for Indias next in Europe and the United States, he five-year economic plan, which runs said. Singh added that the country had from 2012, Singh said long-term not done enough to bring the benefits economic prospects remained good. of growth to the poor.

UPA is weakening us: Jaya, Modi

Non-UPA ruled states on Saturday criticized the Centre for its policies towards them with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi, launching scathing attacks by accusing it of weakening the federal structure. "I am not sure that the government recognizes the states as partners," Jayalalithaa said in her speech at the National Development Council (NDC) meeting. "There are attempts by the Centre to weaken the states with interference thereby reducing them to the status of glorified municipal corporations," she said. Modi was equally bitter as he accused the Centre of "tinkering" with the federal structure and advised the UPA to follow the "federal dharma".

Trade unions predict more strikes, blame poor labor laws

Close to the heels of Maruti Suzuki worker unrest, Moser Baer workers called for a strike at the Greater Noida plant on Monday. And even though the problem was resolved by Friday, trade unions believe the Gurgaon-RewariNoida region may witness further labour unrest due to Harayana government's failure to implement labour laws in letter and spirit. All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary Anil Kumar said that faulty implementation of labour laws that led to unrest in Maruti plant is now spreading to other neighbouring areas of Uttar Pradesh as well. On Monday, about 150 workers of the packaging section of Moser Baer halted work early, for higher wages and bonus. After five days of trouble, however, Moser Baer has managed to resolve the issue. "All issues have been amicably resolved, all issues concerning a very small group of our associates at the Greater Noida plant. All 150 unhappy associates have come back and have joined their respective duties. Our plant operations are running as normal," said Bhaskar Sharma, CEO, Black Optical Media and Consumer Electronics. Four months back, more than 20,000 workers supported the AITUC bandh for two hour in industrial units at places surrounding the national capital. Explaining the wave of labour unrest in the Gurgaon-Rewari-Noida region, Kumar said: "It is because of the anti-worker approach of the Haryana government. In case of Maruti, some of the workers wanted to form a union, but the state government, instead of processing their application, passed on the name of applicants to the company's management, which led to their termination. That became the reason for unrest in the plant. The workers are becoming aware of their rights. Successful agitation at Manesar has probably motivated workers in the neighbouring areas to unite against the management."

Swap-your-drive campaign gains popularity

ord's new advertising campaign, "swap your drive" is getting praise from the advertising industry. The campaign allows potential customers to test drive any Ford model including the Endeavour, Fiesta Classic, and the Figo for seven days in exchange for their car. After seven days, the consumer shares his experience w i t h t h e company. According to Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults, " T h e advertisement is compelling. The campaign has given the image of the car as a compelling product. The USP of the advertisement is that the customer does not want to part with the car." Nigel E Wark, executive director, marketing, sales and service, Ford India said: "Swap your drive justifies Ford India's attempt to bring customers to the core of our marketing campaigns to drive real, credible and honest experiences. We aim to usher in a new era of marketing communications where we are co-creating content and building advocates." The Ford India advertising campaign is an extension of Ford's global "feel the difference" campaign. "We are aware that the single largest source of information before buying a vehicle is word-of-mouth advertising. Customers bring across a better response and clearer communication. They also help us understand better who our target is and what it wants," said Hari Krishnan, senior vice president and head, global team Ford. "We needed to build credibility and authenticity for our products, so rather than c h o o s e a "storytelling through the voice of the company" approach, we took a demonstrative route narrated by consumer," he added. However, Bijoor also feels that the ads failed to differentiate between the brands. "The only problem is that the brands get mixed up," he said. The campaign is based on a seven-day long test drive by the potential customers. Ford India hired the services of Synovate, a global market research company, to shortlist candidates for the campaign. The criteria for selecting the participant was that the person should have had purchased a competitor car in the last one-two years, and was willing to be interviewed. A total of nine participants were chosen from three cities Delhi, Mumbai and Ludhiana. The participants then swapped their cars with Endeavour, Fiesta Classic, and the Figo. Some of the cars swapped include Maruti Suzuki's Swift and Desire, Hyundai's i10, Tata Motors' Manza and Toyota's Fortuner.

Manesar woes make Maruti look to Gujarat

Auto giant Maruti Suzuki announced on Saturday that it will acquire land for setting up new manufacturing facilities in Gujarat. The company board has approved the purchase of land in the district of Mehsana for future expansion o f manufactu r i n g facilities. T h e decision was taken in the wake of the huge loss that t h e company had to incur because of labour unrest followed by the subsequent strikes at its Manesar plant. The collective capacity of the Gurgaon and Manesar plants is 1.2 million units annually. With Maruti, the pace will accelerate," Modi said on Twitter. "It's Gujarat's New Year and this is Maruti's gift to Gujarat on this occasion," he said. Osamu Suzuki, chairman, Suzuki M o t o r Corporation had met Modi in September. G u j a r a t already houses Tata Nano's p l a n t i n Ahmedabad.

The company also registered a decline of 59.81% in its net profit for quarter ended 30 September as compared to the same period last year. The profit posted for quarter ending September 30 is Rs240.44 crore over Rs 598.24 crore in September last year. The weak profit is being attributed to labour unrest at Manesar plant, sluggish growth in the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi auto sector and high fuel and interest "welcomed" the move. "Gujarat is rates. moving ahead fast as Asia's auto hub.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

SPORTS

Indian men thumped 4-1 by Oz, out of final contention

Pakistans sixth-minute goal by Shafqat Rasool was cancelled out six minutes later by Joel Baker. The draw was enough for the Kiwis, who thrashed India on the opening day, to make the cut. India were left to do the chasing act quite early in the match when twice FIH Player of the year Jamie Dwyer put his side ahead in the second minute itself leaving Indian goalie PR Sreejesh flummoxed. Australia widened the gap I n d i a four minutes later, through Russell needed a Ford. win today to make it to the final but fell short in all The Indians got their act together to departments of the game. Australia set some extent after conceding the lead. the pace early on and went on a scoring Midfielder-turned-attacker Sardar spree, while India could reply only reduced the margin after Gurbaj Singh once through Sardar Singh. With just a set him up after sending in a grounder draw and two loses India finished last that whistled past the legs of rival goalie in the four-nation event, while with Tristan Clemons. The Australians did winning all its matches, Australia entered the finals majestical ly and will battle it o u t against N e w Zealand in the final on Sunday. two draws Pakistan came third. Earlier, Pakistan too failed in its endeavour to make the final. It needed an outright win, but the Kiwis denied the side holding it to a 1-1 draw. not let the momentum slip in the second half even as India played sluggish in this phase of the match. Desmond Abbott all but ended Indias chances with an immaculate push towards the goal and then a minute from close, Dwyer scored his second goal. PR Sreejesh, who guarded the cage for the entire match, did well in the first half with neat clearances but he was let down by forwards who did not score. Young star Yuvraj Walmiki twice missed out on sitters, both supplied by the hard-working Danish Mujtaba. There was some misunderstanding in our defence line today, and it proved costly, said Sreejesh. Indian forward Tushar Khandekar lamented missing many chances. We missed some, and it happens in such a fast game. We played a good first half, and it was not so in the second, he said.

The Indian mens hockey teams hopes of reaching the final of the Lanco International Super Series 9' s went up in smoke after Australia handed it a 4-1 drubbing in their last league match on Saturday. India will now face Pakistan for the bronze medal on Sunday. By

India look to maintain stranglehold over visitors

The series may be in their grasp, but India are unlikely to take their foot off the pedal when they take on a hapless England in the fourth ODI to push for a whitewash in the five-match ODI series at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Having outplayed England in the first three encounters, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men have returned to the scene of Indias greatest triumph just over six months after sending the billonstrong nation to delirium by clinching crickets biggest prize, the World Cup. Memories of that glorious April 2 night a n d t h e w i l d celebrations that followed might be distant for Dhoni especially after his squad was swamped by England at home in all three formats soon after that historic triumph. The 3-0 unassailable lead going into the penultimate clash on a wicket that is expected to be a slow turner may not be redemption, but it must have assuaged some bad feelings the Indian captain might have carried since his return home from the disastrous tour of England. What should be more pleasing to him and coach Duncan Fletcher is that the triumphant run in the current series has been achieved without the presence of several key members of the World Cupwinning squad, indicating the strong bench strength, albeit in home conditions. But Dhoni knows that a momentary easing of the pressure applied by his men on England could be counterproductive. He would be keen to keep the winning momentum going to stay in the hunt for a memorable clean sweep, with the last game being scheduled at Kolkata on October 25. Team India has done everything right thus far and taken the insurmountable lead with the same eleven players turning out in the first three matches and the batting order too remaining constant. The home team has batted well, both while chasing the target or setting one, with skipper Dhoni himself taking up the challenge when the innings had gone into a slight wobble on occasions. Among the most pleasing aspects of the five-wicket victory in Mohali was the form shown by young opener Ajinkya Rahane, who would be playing his first international encounter in front of his home crowd. With Gautam Gambhir also showing good form with a half century, the stiff target was reached with five wickets to spare. Add to this mixture, the explosive potentials of Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina and the batting in ideal conditions looks formidable. The largely inexperienced Indian bowling attack has done enough to keep the English batsmen under the

Newcastle stay unbeaten, Wolves stage late comeback

Newcastle United maintained their unbeaten start to the season, sending Wigan Athletic to the bottom of the Premier League with a 1-0 victory at St James Park after a l a t e winner f r o m Y o h a n Cabaye on Saturday. Newcastle are fourth o n 1 9 points, level with t h i r d placed Chelsea, a f t e r Cabaye curled home a shot in the 81st minute to hand Wigan their sixth successive league defeat. In the days early game Wolverhampton Wanderers scored twice in the last five minutes through Kevin Doyle and Jamie OHara to end a run of five successive defeats and force a 2-2 draw with Swansea City. Sunderland won 2-0 at lowly Bolton Wanderers, Stephane Sessegnon and Nicklas Bendtner earning the visitors their first away win of the season. Swanse a, in total control f o r almost t h e entire match a n d seemin gly on their way to a f i r s t a w a y w i n since being promoted, collapsed in the dying minutes as Kevin Doyle scored after 85 minutes and then Jamie OHara smashed in the equaliser. The Welsh side led with first half goals from Danny Graham and Joe Allen and squandered a number of other chances in the second half before Wolvess unexpected fightback.

West Bromwich Albion won in the league at Midlands rivals Aston Villa for Swansea are 11th in the 20-team table the first time since 1979 in an eventful with nine points from as many games match. Villa defender Chris Herd was while Wolves are 14th on eight points. sent off and West Broms Chris Brunt missed a penalty after 36 minutes. Paul Scharner scored Albions winner in the second half. In the days other match

11

TECHNOLOGY

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

The iPhone is your slick NRI, Android your desi engineer

only fair that they help u s choo s e betw een Appl representation of a human beings ego and all its attendant cohorts, jealousy, greed and selfishness. What the Yagna tells us is that in order to bring our ego under control, its important to let it run wild, see the harm it does (soliders pillaging in its wake etc) and then slaughter it once and for all. I can imagine the number of poor white horses that wouldve went Hey no, youre getting this all wrongaaaaaah but then Id be digressing. Lets get back to smartphones. After soap serials, reality shows and SMS-voting based song and dance contests, what are Indians typically obsessed about? Yes, procreation. We arent a billion+ without some serious interest in this umactivity, but as conservative people, we mostly dont do procreation without marriage. So I figured that if I have to come up with a user friendly analogy for smartphone platform choice, marriage must be the analogy of choice. But then instead of putting myself in the feet of a young boy looking for a prospective bride (a process Im mostly unfamiliar with because I didnt go through the arranged marriage charade), I am going to put myself in the position of a girl looking for a suitable bridegroom. looking groom who gets his shaadi.com profile shot by his professional photographer friend and uses a lot of software filters to remove every last facial blemish. He is one of those homogenous NRI-MBA types and theres not much variety. The iPhone comes in pretty much one variety (no, the earlier versions dont count) and there isnt really much of a choice. While its easy to be wowed by his good looks, luxury sedan and 6figure dollar salary, the iceberg beneath the surface is the really nasty conservative mother-in-law that comes with this package, one that will restrict you from doing whatever you want to do, much like how iTunes is the only way to get apps and in most cases, phones come locked with a carrier.

In todays world, one of the most difficult decisions to make is how to choose between Apple and Android smartphones. I wrote earlier about the kind of technology perspectives a techsavvy person must consider before buying a smartphone, but some of the feedback I got for that piece was that it was too complicated and nerdy for layperson use. So I decided to extend my tribute to Steve Jobs and simplify the process of making this choice, improve its user experience, so to speak. In order to do that, I am going to use an analogy. Analogies have been a crucial tool in mankinds history. They have powered myths, religions and philosophies, so its

e and Android.

One of the oldest analogies Indians are An Android device, on the other hand, familiar with is the horse sacrifice, the is a sruffy looking, generally unfit, Ashwamedha Yagna. Furthermore, it geeky, but yet occasionally charming is estimated that buying a smartphone MS (engineer types) who has never today costs the same as it cost to spoken to a girl in his entire life. His perform this yagna back in the day. general lack of fitness can sometimes Unfortunately, most people still require you to keep recharging him but believe that the key to a successful he comes in quite a few varieties. Hes kingship is a white horse that runs free generally hard to like at first glance, with a contingent of soldiers doing but if one looks deeply enough, hes a pillaging and looting behind it, and at nice chap, much more open minded the end of the day, everyone enjoys than the MBA dude. But before you some fine Steak dCheval (horsesteak). take the plunge, do check their Heck no! The horse is a metaphor. A white horse that runs wild is a symbolic An Apple device is that suave, good- horoscopes.

Siri so popular its jamming networks

First online fair provides Indian art virtual platform

In an effort to guide the countrys art industry into the virtual sphere and make the works available to the masses, Burgundy Art Pvt. Ltd. is organising the countrys first online art fair called the India Art Collective (IAC). The fair will provide galleries a platform to showcase art and allow buyers and collectors easy and convenient access to quality Indian art. prices while exploring the unlimited potential of the online medium. Emulating the traditional art fair experience is not a requisite for this medium. The cornerstone of our model is simplicity and I believe that browsing this fair may, in fact, be way simpler than attending a traditional art fair, Kar told Guardian20. The site opens up to three exhibition halls, sorted by price, which allows buyers with fixed budgets to visit the hall that fits their pocket. Buyers can also browse the fair by artist; for instance, if a buyer is exclusively looking for a Husain work, they can see all the works of that artist displayed by each gallery in the fair. The fair also lets buyers browse by genres, like sculptures or paper work, giving it a personalised touch.

Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant that comes with the new iPhone 4S, is drawing rave reviews as consumers take to Twitter and the blogosphere to express their delight. Some have taken to posting the questions they ask and showing Siris responses, such as this one from @mattgemmell: Me: Whats the best mobile phone? Siri: The one youre holding. However, its popularity has already become a problem. As consumers flooded stores this weekend, to the tune of more than 4 million devices sold in three days, their desire to test out Siri has resulted in connectivity problems. Tech

experts believe Apples servers have been overwhelmed by the number of users trying to use Siri. However, there is one thing that those who have used the device agree on Siri is quite impressive. Even in a noisy environment inside a car going 60 miles an hour, it can still understand most of what youre saying if you hold the iPhone up to your ear, Charlie White wrote for Mashable. Meanwhile, blogger Johnny Evans over at Computer World thinks that Siri will be a game changer in the field of search.

A very limited number of people appreciate and buy art in India. We lack a museum culture, which is why art does not reach the larger public. We hope to enhance the consumption of Indian art by providing easy access and increasing awareness. An online art fair like India Art Collective, where anyone can browse and appreciate a large inventory of good Indian art, is a step in that direction, says Sapna Kar, co-founder and IAC fair director. The incredible reach of the online medium can no longer be ignored by Scheduled to be held from 19-26 the Indian art industry. Sapna Kar November, the fair is mainly targeted at serious collectors and art lovers, and It is a great initiative as it is costgives them an opportunity to view, effective and reaches out to a wider appreciate and purchase without leaving audience. Though a majority of the the premises. Diffusing geography and buyers still like to look at the works negating all logistical nightmares, IAC before buying them, this is a good hopes to build up the consumption of platform for seasoned buyers and Indian art in the country and across the buyers abroad who are used to buying world. works after browsing them online, says Bhavna Kakar, director, Latitude IAC is an effort to showcase an exquisite 28. collection of Indian art at transparent

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ARTS & LITERATURE

11

Ramanujan & the Ramayana

Delhi University is home to a literary battle that has turned political. Ragini Bhuyan reports
inquiry and a student's private individual belief. The central premise of their argument is that a student exposed to alternate ways of thinking will necessarily adopt them, instead of doing what is actually expected of students, which is to evaluate the information you are presented with. At the press conference, Chahal argued that the world erupted in protest when cartoons of Prophet Muhammad were published by a Danish newspaper. Christian organisations also protested against the portrayal of the Vatican in Dan Brown's worldwide bestselling thriller, The Da Vinci Code. Chahal went on to cite the example of the professor in Kerala who wrote a question in an exam paper referring to Prophet Muhammad, and who sufferred the horrific fate of having his hands cut off. The inference was clear: other religions don't tolerate it, so why should Hindus? he press conference also brought to light some undercurrents in this battle. The NDTF and the ABVP's press release says, "It is a well-known tactic of the Leftists to attack deep-rooted religious beliefs of Hindus." Dr Awasthy claimed at the press conference that "these historians are all Left wing. The Nehru Memorial Museum, the ICSSR and Delhi University are full of Left historians. This is a conspiracy by the Left. Even the expert committee was, after all, full of historians. If they are so eager to defend academic freedom in the face of religious sentiments, then why didn't they protest when Professor Joseph's hands were cut off in Kerala?" When this journalist asked them for the names of historians they were unhappy with, they responded with at least three names Romila Thapar, R.S. Sharma and D.N. Jha. Their press release also asks "Whether the same historians will recommend a narrative by Salman Rushdie as a compulsory text for the study of the Quran or Islam?" Chahal argued that when it came to the Rama Setu controversy, the same historians said that Rama was not a historical subject, but now felt free to teach stories about Rama in a history course. He said they would make sure the essay that replaces Ramanujan's does not contain anything offensive to Hindus, indication that this brand of academic vigilanteism will only intensify. Two ideas underprin the discontent that the syllabus of Delhi University is hostage to a Leftist conspiracy and that the students who read this essay will be brainwashed into believing all the things the author says. Forgotten in this debate is the role of academics itself. The purpose of higher education is to inculcate critical faculties in the student. Critical analysis of texts is an integral part of humanities and social sciences education. Ramanujan's word is not gospel and a student or teacher is free to agree or disagree with his essay. Renu Bala, one of the nine Academic Council members who voted in favour of retaining the essay, says, "Ramanujan has not concocted these stories but merely presented his findings. If 18year-olds have the right to vote in India, then can we not consider second-year B.A. students mature enough to judge the essay for themselves?" But the controversy over the Ramanujan essay is merely a chapter in a larger political battle. Censorship and attacks on freedom of speech have become de rigueur in this new atmosphere. This has, in turn, given rise to the culture of intolerance and a purported right to 'take offense'. Journalist Nilanjana Roy, who has written extensively on censorship of texts and banning of books in India, says, "The function of a university is not only to hand out degrees, it's to encourage students to a life of independent thinking, to introduce them to the many ways of understanding the world rather than just one narrow view." She feels that India does not have a culture of protecting free expression, "nor do we have a political understanding of why freedom of expression is such a fundamental part of having a functioning democracy. The erosion of free speech in India has happened over a period of time, as one institution after another has chosen to give in to the demands of extremist sections or to the threat of violence. If you can edit out inconvenient truths or inconvenient ways of seeing India's history from university syllabi, or ensure that there is silence around many subjects a discussion of religion, a discussion of Shivaji's life or the lives of key players in the National Movement you come one step closer to ensuring that it is only your narrow view of history and India that will gain ground. The aim is also to shut down discussion and debate; to threaten or bully people into turning away from active, independent inquiry".

n 9 October, Delhi University's Academic Council decided to drop A.K. Ramanujan's essay 300 Ramayanas from the Delhi University B.A. syllabus, largely due to pressure from right-wing organisations. The Council, which deals primarily with administrative affairs, saw fit to intervene in this case and dismiss the essay, despite recommendation to the contrary by the expert committee. The essay has been the subject of controversy since 2008, when these groups first objected to some of the findings presented by Ramanujan. On Monday, 24 October, hundreds of professors and students across DU marched in solidarity, protesting against the removal of this essay from the syllabus. Slogans like "Historical inquiry pe attack nahi sahenge" rent the air, while various placards called for people to resist the saffronisation of higher education and to oppose the policing of academia. Immediately after this, the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP) and another organisation called the National Democratic Teacher's Front (NDTF) held a press conference to explain their position. Those against the essay are bothered by the examples cited from other Ramayanas. Ramanujan studies some of the myriad 'tellings' of the essay throughout South and South East Asia. Many of these tellings vary from, or even contrast with, the Valmiki Ramayana most Indians are familiar with. For example, in a South Indian folk account of the Ramayana, it is Ravana who becomes pregnant with Sita and gives birth to her when he sneezes.

Ramanujan says that in Kannada, the word sita means 'he sneezed', and thus Sita's name is given its Kannada etymology in this version. At the ABVP and NDTF press conference, this example came under much fire. "Is this scientific, can this be true that a man can get pregnant and give birth to a daughter by sneezing? How can this be taught at the college level?," asked Dr Avnijesh Awasthy, NDTF President and a professor of Hindi at PGDAV College. This had many people at the press conference perplexed, wondering whether Dr Awasthy was arguing that the version of events presented in the Valmiki Ramayana could be scientifically verified. On the Thai Ramakien, Ramanujan writes, "The focus in the Ramakien is not on family values and spirituality. Thai audiences like Hanuman more than Rama. Neither celibate nor devout, as in the Hindu Ramayana, here Hanuman is quite a ladies' man, who doesn't mind looking into the bedrooms of Lanka and doesn't consider watching another man's wife while she sleeps to be immoral, as Valmiki's or Kampan's Hanuman would." Although Ramanujan is merely drawing out the differences in the various narratives, for the ABVP and the NDTF, the reference to the Thai Hanuman as a voyeur is an insult to Hindu sentiments. At the press conference, ABVP State President Rohit Chahal said, "We worship Hanuman in our daily life. But a student who reads this will be led to believe that this was Hanuman's character!" These groups seek to unite two quite separate spheres academic

The battle rages on. 24 October saw more than 500 students and professors walking across the DU campus, their voices resonating in college halls and doorways. One of the placards at the protest said, "Read the world: stop censorship of texts." An admirable sentiment in these narrowed times.

12 ART & LITERATURE

Dinesh Singh: Eye of the Storm
At the centre of the controversy is the university's Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dinesh Singh. Singh is a well-respected academic from the Maths Department, who took on the unenviable task of stepping in after his predecessor, Deepak Pental, had steamrolled in the semester system, ignoring widespread protests across University. Singh's father, U.N. Singh, was a pro-Vice Chancellor of Delhi University.. Prof. Sheo Dutt, an expert on Ancient History and Academic Council member, laments the way in which the Vice Chancellor has relinquished his authority. "Prof. Dinesh Singh comes from a very educated and progressive family. I think he is being pressurised because this is very unlike him. He is a sad person these days. He is not facing journalists. Though I feel bad for him, I also hold him responsible for allowing saffronisatio n of this course and for allowing fundamental ists to rule. He should not have allowed a decision to be reached on the work of a scholar like Ramanujan based on the voice of people who a r e n o t experts on this subject. T h e Academic C o u n c i l u s u a l l y leaves it to t h e department to decide the academic merit, and it accepts the expert's recommendations. But in this case, because of political pressure, it entertained complaints which were not based on academic merit. Also, the VC set such a serious matter as a supplementary agenda at the meeting and circulated the copies of the essay amongst the members at the last minute." However, Singh still has some defenders amongst his erstwhile colleagues. Prof. Ajay Kumar, currently Dean of Research at Delhi University, has known him as a colleague and friend in the Maths department for 15 years, and says that he doesn't think that the VC has any political affiliations of his own. "He is a wonderful and easy going man", he says. Singh has earned the favour of the ABVP, which has openly praised the VC for dropping the essay. But it will not be easy to override the immense anger and opposition from the history department and other students. At Monday's protest, the anger against the VC was palpable, as slogans of 'Dinesh Singh sharm karo' and 'Vice Chancellor jawab do' continued throughout the protest march. Study in Shame? 300 Ramayanas, one of the seminal essays in Indian literary theory, deconstructs the various versions of the Ramayana story as it exists across South and South East Asia. A.K. Ramanujan, the Padma Shree winning scholar, prefers to call them "tellings", as the word 'version' seems to suggest that there is an original master narrative and all other forms of the story have deviated from it. It recounts the different ways in which the Ramayana story survives today amidst different cultures and draws connections between various tellings. There are more than 25 different tellings of the Ramayana in Sanskrit alone. Many later versions of the Ramayana take inspiration and draw from previous versions. Ramanujan narrates one of his favourite passages from the sixteenth century Adhyatma Ramayana "When Rama is exiled, he does not want Sita to go with him into the forest. Sita argues with him. At first she uses the usual arguments: she is his wife, she should share h i s sufferings, exile herself in his exile and so on. When he still resists the idea, she is furious. She bursts out, 'Countless Ramayanas have been composed before this. Do you know of one where Sita doesn't g o w i t h Rama to the forest?'". Ramanujan' s essay also discusses Jain tellings of the Ramayana. Here Ravana is a tragic figure and his virtues are extolled. In some Jain tellings, the story has shades of what psychoanalysts refer to as the Elektracomplex, where Sita is his daughter, though Ravana is not aware of this. Jain Ramayanas are full of Jain homilies and legends, and presents Rama as an evolved Jain man who does not even kill Ravana. On the other hand, the Thai Ramakien regards Rama as a human figure. Hanuman is portrayed as quite a ladies man, and Thai audiences are more fond of him than Rama. Also, though Valmiki's telling focuses on Rama, other tellings focus on different characters. In some later extensions like the Adbhuta Ramayana and the Tamil story of Satakantharavana it is Sita who goes to war and slays Ravana. In Santhal oral tellings, Sita is even portrayed as an unfaithful wife and is seduced by both Ravana and Lakhshmana.

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Uneven but important study of human body parts trade

Scott Carneys investigation into the worldwide trade in human body parts raises important questions about the ethical responsibilities of medical professionals.
The Red Market Scott Carney Hachette India Pages: 254 Rs. 550
After investigations into black market bones for Buddhists in Bhutan, transplant kidneys of dubious legality in Tamil Nadu, don't ask, don't tell' adoptions in the American Midwest, ova for sale in Cyprus, surrogacy for hire in Gujarat, blood farming in Gorakhpur, and hiring himself out for clinical testing of Levitra in Wisconsin ('I am the Chuck Yeager of erectile dysfunction.'), Scott Carney finally arrives, on page 194, at this truth: 'There's a double standard when it comes to valuing human bodies.' The Red Market is a necessary book, if only to shake awake some concern in a society too comfortable with avoiding inconvenient questions about matters of individual conveniences. Our dilemma is moral, and it is pathetic what manner of immorality invests our quest for health and immortality. Altruism is the faade concealing First World exploitation of the impoverished Third World. Any man's death diminishes me no longer, as someone somewhere is always more equal than others.Having supp'd full of horrors by the end of the book, I still found one, perhaps the most necessary, unexplored. It's not the sleazy nexus of medicine and the flesh trade, but the stratospheric motive force that drives this market. If there were no buyers, there would be no red market. It isn't correct to say that both strata are made up of desperate people: buyers, to save their loved ones; and donors, fraught to find a meal. The exploitative force is the buyer with the money. He sees nothing wrong in buying if somebody is willing to sell. Naturally then, the market works first by keeping a large donor farm of people so desperate they always want to sell, and then, and only then, by hiking up prices. Those who have studied the mechanics of famine know how finetuned this skill can be. Carney overlooks an artificial evolutionin-the-making: a super-species that cannibalises a subordinate group. Soon countries like ours may become organ farms for the west. We're almost there with the mindless boosting of medical tourism at the cost of basic healthcare for millions of poor Indians. Montek Singh Ahluwalia dithers over the definition of poverty as food prices climb, but medical tourism promises India Shining. There is salacity to this brand of gonzo journalism, a voyeuristic glee that leaves the reader feeling unclean. Its heroics embed the writer in the premise. Mary Roach, the author of Bonk!, copulated with her husband while being imaged in an MRI scanner, and yet, that hardly qualifies. The prurience comes more from the author's visceral xenophobic rejection of the locale he's describing: it's face is always something less than human. This book opens with such a chapter. A young American girl on a meditation retreat in Bodh Gaya kills herself. Carney narrates his travails in sending the body back to her family in the US. It is a stepping stone to the book because it defines the writer's perspective. It has nothing to do with loss, or the dead girl. It is about the impossibility of getting anything done decently in a corrupt and inefficient country. The language a wobbly juxtaposition of fact and sentiment, the choice of descriptives sets the tenor: The doctors have split her down the middle with crude tools opening her wide from the base of her neck to her pelvis. They broke her ribs to see her heart. That, the world over, is standard autopsy incision, and instruments that lack an electrical hum aren't necessarily crude tools. I returned to this chapter after I finished the book with a question: Why such rage at this assault on the dead when the book entire is about unimaginable assaults on the living? There comes a point in every doctor's professional life when he makes the decision to determine what he'll be a healer or a merchant of flesh; he either draws a lakshman rekha for himself or joins the flow on Easy St. The ethical burden on surgical skill is specially high. Can what was invented to repair and heal be subverted as commercial procedure? Surgery is much more than technique, and I'm not talking mystique here either. Surgeons deal with patients, and technicians with body partsthat's the difference. Every surgeon has to decide between good science and good commerce. It never works both ways. I strongly recommend Carney's book to every medical undergraduate. It is necessary for doctors to discover early that the realm of Hippocrates' 'Do no harm' extends well beyond the treatment of a sick organ. It includes, also, many healthy organs jostling for sale. It includes, also, the lives those healthy organs belong to. Kalpish Ratna is the nom de plume of Bombay surgeons Ishrat Syed and Kalpana Swaminathan. Their most recent novel is The Quarantine Papers.

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

YOUTH 13

Circus in the City: F1 weekend is always a really rocking ride

becomes more expensive (obviously) and there is a s e a o f entrepreneurs (read crooks) who think it is their solemn birth right to make a quick million when 'it's so easy'. My advice? Stay home or at work. Keep all the errands and shopping for Monday onwards. Unless you like seeing hapless foreigners being taken for a ride (literally a n d figuratively) or locals fighting it out over a series of 'oneupmanship' competitions. If you feel like going for the free practise and qualifiers, head to the track with four hours to spare, at least. There are always people who think that stalking the drivers or pit crew is an easy way to get race tickets. Where they will tail, there is jail. Tihar should be ready! F1 weekend nights are all about the fun of spending power. The more power you have, the stupider you behave in front of others. Thankfully, the opposite is not true. If there is one weekend in a year when you can show off those shady 'contacts' that you keep hidden, it's this week. Never again will an acquaintance become a 'chaddi buddy' overnight, nor will you gather so many 'new' family members (do you know how many 6th cousins you have?). People will do anything to get their grubby paws on a Paddock Pass or invites to the famed after-parties. If you have any work that you need to get done by certain people, now is the time. Leverage your extra passes and you'll be surprised at the results. This weekend boasts of the most exclusive parties held across the globe and it usually costs more than an arm, a leg, two kidneys and a liver to get in. Networked contacts will help, you say? Good luck. The hundreds of people at these parties are an eclectic mix of wannabes, has-beens, has-been wannabes, and maybe 6-7 actual race and party fans. Be it from films, sports, entertainment, or business, they all want to be seen and heard, dressed in obscure designer attire and speaking in up to four different accents every night. The F1 weekend is actually a circus-inthe-city, but it is fun all the same. The energy, madness, and adrenaline are unmatched. Everyone in the city contributes to the show in some way or the other, with some putting on a show the entire 72 hours. It's a great experience to live, so go ahead and enjoy it. For me, this will be my 9th live race and the first in my hometown. I'm really looking forward to the oozing attitude, the blasphemed banter and a brand new style of name-dropping. See you at the track.

For any city hosting an F1 race, the entire weekend is basically a super-charged, electrifying experience for its dwellers, transforming even the most nonautomotive personality into an ardent race fan. It all starts with the influx of people from all over the world, usually on the Wednesday and Thursday before the race. Hotels and motels are full, guest houses suddenly charge more than a five-star property does, and all available extra bedrooms in the city are converted into eager Bed & Breakfast lodgings. Every restaurant and eatery worth its salt and chillies tries to cash in on the

speed fever. There are food specials, car and F1 decorations, and even menus that are 'supposedly' what the drivers themselves eat during the weekends. Sightseeing suddenly becomes a craze since a vast majority of the people are travelling to the city for the first time and intend on seeing and doing everything they possibly can. From 8am right up till 6pm, the days see a plethora of activities that can actually be very irritating for a city local. Traffic becomes horrendous, with snarls at even the remotest of locations. Everything automatically

Ambiguities of a fertile mind

nomenclature makes for fascinating be more specific, in terms of medium telling and speaks of the ambiguity that and concept. these images try to capture. Another interesting feature of the "Expressing the sentiments behind show is the hand tufted rugs that have these works into words is a difficult been co-designed by Roohi and Ron task. For example, Mr Here and Mrs Now is about being in the moment, depicted through the images of a couple looking at each other," says Kapoor. She has attended various experimental courses in Europe that focus on creative painting and these techniques find considerable expression in her artistic oeuvre. "I recently attended a course in Florence that focused on the 'sight size technique' which is heavily methodological. I draw most of my Brinkers, the curator of Mindscapes. anatomical drawing tools from there," "It's a whole new medium. Ron, who is a rug designer, and I have taken adds Kapoor. simpler variations of some of my works T h i s i s K a p o o r ' s s e c o n d s o l o and used them to design the rugs," says exhibition. The previous show last year Kapoor. Mindscapes is showing on the dealt with wider themes and different 5 and 6 November between 11am and mediums. This time she has chosen to 7pm.

or Delhi-based artist Roohi Kapoor, art is an expression of what has transpired in her life and what is due to come. Her upcoming art exhibition Mindscapes at the Stainless Gallery is a delicate depiction of what she has felt at various stages of her life. "It is broadly a body of work that speaks about my myriad feelings and moods," says Kapoor.

The collection largely comprises oils and acrylics on canvas, along with a few charcoals on paper. The Dreamer is a powerful neon green figurine resting, Purple haze features four female figurines reclining and Mr Here and Mrs Now shows a male and a female face facing each other. The

14 ENVIRONMENT

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Scientists find underground river Happy Bhutan alarmed by beneath Amazon Himalayan climate change
A team of scientists led by Elizabeth Pimentel came t o t h e conclusion from studying 241 wells drilled by the state oil giant Petrobras in the Amazon region. Even though the two rivers cover a similar path they have differences. The underground river flows at a far slower pace and empties into the ocean deep underground. been carried, with the air too thin to use helicopters. To reach the spot on foot every man had to pass a 5,000metre peak. Its literally spades and shovels, said Karma Tshiteem, the secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission, a state agency that vets and proposes policy, who Bhutans prime minister has issued a recently inspected the work. dire warning about the impact of Himalayan climate change, saying it This is a stark example that climate could wreck the tiny kingdoms change is not some theoretical thing ambitious plans to be a world leader in that is still to be debated. We are facing hydropower. The isolated, mountainous it and having to do mitigation efforts, nation sandwiched between India and he told AFP in an interview. China is famed for pursuing happiness for its citizens instead of orthodox On November 19, Bhutan will host a economic growth, with environmental conference bringing together India, protection central to its development Nepal and Bangladesh to discuss ways model. to lessen the impact of global warming on the mountains, which are a source Bhutan, home to 700,000 people, is of water for 1.3 billion people already a carbon-neutral electricity downstream. producer, with almost all of its power generated at plants that capture energy It is a follow-up to a similar meeting in from the cascading streams that crissKathmandu in 2009 and an attempt to cross its spectacular landscape. put climate change back on the international agenda, which has been But Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley told dominated by concerns about debt and AFP the country was powerless to recession in developed countries. prevent changes caused by shifting weather patterns which threaten For Bhutan, the change in river water regional water supplies and plans to flows caused by colder, drier winters harness the energy of the Himalayan and warmer, wetter summers is snowmelt. particularly alarming. The glaciers are retreating very rapidly, some are even disappearing. The flow of The shift may jeopardise ambitious water in our river system is fluctuating in hydroelectric power plans to raise ways that are very worrying, he said in capacity seven-fold from a current an interview in his office in the capital peak of about 1,500 megawatts (MW) Thimphu. from four plants, to 10,000 MW by adding another 10 projects by 2020. In the summer they overflow their banks in a way that used to never happen By selling electricity to energy-starved in the past and in the winter they shrivel neighbour India, the aid-dependent and almost dry up. country had hoped to become economically self-sufficient by 2018. The climate is changing, global warming is real and the impact on our But Thinley said the government was hydrology is very severe. having to reconsider the assumption that rivers would be a boundless source The increase in meltwater caused by of energy and income. The total warmer summers has also led to the potential for hydropower in Bhutan creation of lakes high in the mountains had been estimated at 30,000 MW. that threaten people in the valleys below. Hydropower may not be the sort of The government is building an early exponential source that we considered warning system to alert authorities to it to be, he said. any possible breach of the natural dams that hold back the water. The flow during the winter and summer used to be regulated, the In 1994, Lake Lugge in northern Bhutan variation was not so much. Now it is so burst and killed 21 people. much that in the winter, we are importing electricity from India. Currently, a team of 200 to 300 labourers and engineers are working in The UNs top panel on climate change the same area to lower the level of the warned in a landmark 2007 report that largest glacial lake in the country, called widespread mass losses from glaciers Thorthormi in Lunana district. and reductions in snow cover over recent decades are projected to The workers, active during the summer accelerate throughout the 21st months when work is possible in the icy century. and inhospitable area, are digging a drainage canal that will reduce the lake level by five metres (16 feet). All the equipment for the task had to

Brazilian scientists have discovered an underground river some 4,000 meters (13,000) feet deep, which flows from west to east like the countrys famous waterway.

It is likely that this river is responsible A statement this week from Brazils for the low level of salinity in the waters National Observatory named the around the mouth of the Amazon, the underground river Hamza and said it statement said. represents one of two different draining systems for the large rainforest region.

New study shows that Floridas reefs cannot endure a cold snap
August 2011 issue of the journal PLoS One. The study found coral tissue mortality reached over 40percent for several important reef-building species and that large colonies in shallow and near-shore reefs were hardest hit. This is in contrast to a less than one-percent tissue mortality caused by warm-water events since 2005. Coral species that had previously proven tolerant to higher-than-normal ocean temperatures were most affected by the cold-water event. This was undoubtedly the single worst event on record for Florida corals, said Lirman.

Remember frozen iguanas falling from trees during Floridas 2010 recordbreaking cold snap? Well, a new study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science shows that Floridas corals also dropped in numbers due to the cold conditions. It was a major setback, said Diego Lirman, associate professor at the UM Rosenstiel School and lead author of the study. Centuries-old coral colonies were lost in a matter of days.

Ice-cold Arctic air swept into Florida in early January 2010, plummeting air The chilly January temperatures caused temperatures to an all-time low of the most catastrophic loss of corals 30F (1C) and dropping ocean within the Florida Reef Tract, which temperatures to a chilly 51F (11C). spans 160 miles (260 kilometers) from Miami to the Dry Tortugas and is the The 2010 cold-water anomaly not only living barrier reef in the continental o n l y c a u s e d w i d e s p r e a d c o r a l mortality but also reversed prior U.S. resistance and resilience patterns that Members of the Florida Reef Resilience will take decades to recover, the Program, a group comprised of Florida studys authors conclude. scientists and resource managers, conducted a month-long survey of 76 Floridas reefs are located in a reefs sites from Martin County to Key m a r g i n a l e n v i r o n m e n t a t t h e West, both during and shortly after the n o r t h e r n m o s t l i m i t f o r c o r a l development. Corals have adapted to a unusually cold weather. specific temperature range and are The research team compared the typically not found in areas where mortality rates of corals from the cold water temperatures drop below 60F event to warm-water events, such as the (16C). highly publicized bleaching event in 2005, and concluded that the cold-water Provided by University of Miami event cause even more widespread Rosenstiel School of Marine & morality than previous warm-water Atmospheric Science events. The results were published in the

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HERITAGE 15

A walk with the Khwaja

As you walk through the quaint lanes of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah, an omnipresent calm envelops you. RAHUL DEVRANI takes you to one such spiritual journey
Khusrau was the most anniversary of Amir Khusrau, called favourite disciple of the t h e S a t r a h v i n S h a r i f ( h o l y seventeenth). Hundreds of thousands Sufi saint. of people come to offer their nazrana Constructed in 1605, (flowers, sweets, chadars) at the twin Khusraus marbled tomb tombs of Nizamuddin Auliya and is just steps away from Khusrau. Nizamuddin Auliyas and is considered to be highly Urs has been taken from the Arabic sacred. Just opposite the word uroos which literally means opening of Khusraus wedding. So, in Sufism, someones tomb is the Hujra-e- death is considered to be a wedding Qadeem (the ancient with the divine, says Saeed. room), believed to have been built in the 13th- It is believed that Khusrau learnt of 14th century. On the wall Nizamuddin Auliyas death while he at the entrance to the w a s a w a y i n B e n g a l , b u t h e room has an engraved immediately rushed back to Delhi. p o e m i n p r a i s e o f When he saw Nizamuddin Auliyas Nizamuddin Auliya by grave, he immediately uttered the following lines The fair maiden rests/ Urdu poet Allama Iqbal. On a Bed of roses,/ Her face covered/ Iqbal wished if he could With a lock of hair;/ Let us oh Khusrau, be Nizamuddin Auliyas return home now,/ The dark dusk servant and he requested settles in four corners of the world. that his poem be engraved in his praise, Six months later, Khusrau died. says Saeed. Today, the entire dargah adopts an ambience that is a mlange of a massive celebration and unmistakable sacredness. Qawwalis are sung in the evening and for centuries they begin by a recitation of the above quoted lines. People consider Khusrau no less than Nizamuddin Auliya and pray to them for their well-being and request the two to become a mediator between them and God. In fact, a little ahead of Nizamuddin Auliyas tomb, a dark passage, with adjacent sieved walls, leads to Nizamuddin Baoli the only step well in Delhi that is still fed by underwater springs. It is considered to be highly sacred. According to popular belief, water in the step well is a mixture of different types of water and has healing powers. Till sometime ago, there were houses made on the roof of ancient structures around the well. Although the well, which was built in the form of circular stairs converging at the bottom, has lost much of the originality as a result of renovations and man-made pollution, it still charms people and is sacred not only to the locals but also devotees all around. Even as you read this piece, there sits a man near the dargah, who is dumb and is yet playing harmonium. Hes been sitting there for years, hoping that his prayers would be heard and he would be able to speak someday.

Even though the streets are buzzing with activity as hundreds of people walk briskly towards their destinations and vendors pester you to buy traditional clothes or jewellery, an accompanying sense of calm and innocence makes you wonder: What separates these streets from other parts of the city? They are crowded but they cannot be compared with old Delhi; its a market area and yet it cannot be called one.

THE LEGACY
Not many people would know, but the entire stretch of Mathura Road from Humayuns tomb right up to Faridabad is like a graveyard with kings, philosophers, poets and men of eminence buried underneath. Be it the famous historian Ziauddin Barani or Mughal prince Mirza Babur and Mirza Jehangir, all were buried here. However, out of all these people, 13th century Sufi saint of the Chishtiyyah order, Nizamuddin Auliya, Allahs favourite one, has always had a special significance among the masses. So much so that even after centuries, people would want to be buried near his tomb. Nizamuddin Auliya has been immortalised for his generosity and humanitarianism. His advice first greet, then eat, then talk is still followed heartily with people often saying Bismillah ar-Rahman arRahim before opening their meals.

This has never been a residential area; people used to live in areas around Mehrauli and old Delhi. It was only after LEGENDARY Partition that people started to reside here. But interestingly, everyone wanted COMPANIONSHIP to be buried here, says Yousuf Saeed, an independent filmmaker and researcher. There may be several celebrated friendships in history but none can The shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya is match the fabled relationship across the road from Humayuns tomb, Nizamuddin Auliya had with Amir and as we know from historical records, Khusrau. According to historians,

Born in 1253 to a Turk-Indian family, Khusrau was a renowned poet of his time who served as many as seven rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. Even today, his poetry and prose, which are considered the best in Persian, serve as a casket containing invaluable historical information. Nizamuddin Auliya settled near the Yamuna, about a km east of the p r e s e n t - d a y d a r g a h , b e h i n d Being a court poet, Khusrau enjoyed all Humayuns tomb. This is where he sorts of materialistic privileges but he prayed, meditated and met hundreds felt at home only in Nizamuddin Auliyas of people. Even today, devotees from khaneqah (monastery). As the legend across the world come in numbers to goes, Nizamuddin Auliya could get get the spiritual feel. Nizamuddin annoyed and angry with anyone but Auliya was the most well-known of Sufi Khusrau. saints. Sufism as an ideology or a course of conduct has enchanted Saeed mentions that there is a fable that many. It says that God is best when he was eight-year-old, Khusraus worshipped through humanity. This is mother pushed him to visit Nizamuddin what Nizamuddin Auliya did and in the Auliyas khaneqah. As he reached there, process became the most celebrated of Khusrau waited at the entrance and saints, says Saeed, adding, One thing c o m p o s e d t h e f o l l o w i n g l i n e s that makes Sufi saints special is the fact impromptu: You are a king at the gate of that they are and have always been whose palace/ even a pigeon becomes a with us. The ritual of burying the hawk./ A poor traveller has come to your deceased, in fact, brings this place alive gate,/ should he enter, or should he as you feel all the more connected to return? the past. It is said that Nizamuddin Auliya at once Towards the west of Nizamuddin asked one of his servants to go out at the Auliyas tomb is the Jamaat-Khana gate and narrate the following lines to (prayer hall), supposedly constructed the boy: Oh you the man of reality, come by Feroz Shah Tughlaq a few years inside/ so you become for a while my after Nizamuddin Auliyas death. confidant/ but if the one who enters is Indeed, the very thought that one is foolish/ then he should return the way he breathing the same air in the ancient came. locale, makes for an ecstatic experience.

was earlier a village called Ghayaspur when young Mohammed Nizamuddin migrated to Delhi from Badayun (Uttar Pradesh) in the early 13th century along with his mother to become a qazi (Muslim priest). Later, he became a disciple of Baba Farid and was appointed his spiritual emissary for Delhi.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

To many, the custom of celebrating someones death might sound eccentric, but for a Sufi it is only a transition phase the penultimate stage for unison with God. So, every year about 16 days after Eid-ul-fitr, people take part in another festive occasion, the urs or death

16 ENVIRONMENT

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

A jeans-clad, highly qualified woman hardly fits the bill for a sarpanch in rural India. There is, however, an exception in Chhavi Rajawat, who has left her corporate job to address the problems of her village in Rajasthan. Eram Agha reports
The Soda residents were already familiar with Rajawat, as she used to spend a lot of her vacation in the village. The unbounded energy of hers found expression in hopping around from one house to another in the village. She would often jump onto Carrying the legacy of her grandfather, someones tractor and visit the Brig Raghubir Singh, Rajawat picked up neighbouring villages. from where he had left the Brigadier had retired from the post of sarpanch 20 I, therefore, formed a strong bonding years prior to Rajawats election. Her with the villagers at a very young age, grandfather had worked hard to provide she says, adding: basic amenities roads, electricity, The team which schools and hospitals to the villagers. came calling upon me with Rajawat was not prepared for a village t h i s p l e a , life, but the locals had already set plans c o m p r i s e d o f for her. I would give full credit for this men older than change of direction in my life to the my father and inhabitants of this village. I had never many as old as planned to fight elections or contest for m y g r a n d p a . such a post and perhaps wouldnt have, These were the had it not been for the persistence of the men who had villagers, Rajawat says. carried me on their shoulders Fifty-odd men went a long way in and pampered convincing Rajawat to contest elections. me when I was a But why were they so convinced to have child. her onboard? There were many reasons that influenced them. This is my So, Rajawat was left with no choice but ancestral village where my grandfather to take up the responsibility. She says, was also elected unanimously as I did not want to let them down sarpanch. He was behind many since I am a great believer of the idiom development activities in the village, charity begins at home I wanted she says. to make a difference by starting work in my own backyard. And, being After his retirement, the village hardly originally from the village, I was aware saw any development activities. After of all the problems. I had the nagging the retirement of my grandfather, the thought that if an insider like me did village did not see any significant not come forward to help, then how development. Primarily, owing to their could an outsider be expected to do the love, faith and respect for my same? grandfather, the villagers decided to get someone from his family to run for the I have seen, observed and become post, Rajawat says. aware of the issues that exist. Also, I have noticed how, over the years, The changing face of rural Rajasthan is a sarpanch in jeans! Chhavi Rajawat took a de tour in her career by leaving a comfortable corporate job to address the problems of the villagers of Soda district, 60 km from Jaipur, Rajasthan. problems have only got aggregated in my water conservation project, which village, says the sarpanch. aimed to dig afresh the villages main reservoir covering an area of 100 acres. Rajawats MBA experience and Lady Shri Ram College education helped her In Soda, the limited groundwater is in her endeavour. Through my unsafe even for agriculture, as it is education I am able to better manage s a l i n e a n d h a s h i g h n a t u r a l projects, prioritise tasks, balance contamination, resulting in high budgets and even create reports for the skeletal and dental fluorosis. Due to village. This, I believe, helps me win the lack of water between mid-March credibility when I meet government and August, life becomes very difficult officials, she says, emphasising the in the village. Conserving rainwater is importance of the only way to have safe drinking an educated water. The project, therefore, aims to leader in rural conserve rainwater. Of 1,000 houses, areas. not even one per cent have toilets. We intend to construct toilets in each and On March 25, every household. For reforestation, 2011, Rajawat approximately 1,200 bighas of forest addressed the and pastureland need to be revived. As 1 1 t h I n f o - for education, the high school here has P o v e r t y Hindi literature, Sanskrit literature W o r l d and Geography available for the 11th Conference at and 12th standard students. Just t h e U n i t e d imagine the future they have in store, N a t i o n s . I she rues. believe I was the only one As a visionary, Rajawat wants there (at the UN) representing the agriculture, animal husbandry and grassroots, she says. There was no h o r t i c u l t u r e t o b e t a u g h t t o clear understanding of the grassroots schoolchildren. These lessons will not issues. But why should we look outside? only provide technical know-how, but Even within our country, most people also equip them with tools to improve living in cities are unaware of what rural the yield. Since agriculture and animal India is all about. There is much to be husbandry are the only source of done, Rajawat says, adding: Rural income for the villagers, the move is development is as important as urban much needed. development. It needs to be understood that if rural areas are neglected, then the Rajawat is not going to take it lying migration to cities will increase, ending down. After all, grassroots service lies up creating chaos in urban centres. in her jeans. Err I mean genes! The battle had just begun for Rajawat after her election victory. Issues like safe drinking water, education and sanitation were lined up for her attention. First and foremost was the

The MBA Sarpanch

Battling monumental neglect

Historical monuments in Jammu & Kashmir have been facing utter neglect for decades now. But SAIMA IQBAL, instead of indulging in blame game, has taken up the task of restoring them to their old, pristine glory. ERAM AGHA recounts her story
There are several Kashmiris influencing the world literary map by telling their stories. Conservation architect Saima Iqbal, too, has a story to tell, but that goes beyond the turmoil of the day. For the past several years, she has been earnestly trying to restore the cultural identity of Jammu & Kashmir. There are about 250 neglected monuments within the threekm area of downtown Srinagar; and, of the 838 listed properties in the State capital, only 18 enjoy legal protection. Despite all the neglect, Saima doesnt indulge in blame game. Why should we blame politicians? The public is as much responsible for the mess, she says. Saima has studied architecture from MSIA Bijapur, and has done her postgraduation from Oxford Brookes University, UK. The overseas exposure has only been of help. It was a tremendous experience, which opened Heritage), and since then the winds of accomplishments, she adds. my mind to an entirely new world. It change have been felt across the State. gave me opportunities to explore and In a short period of seven years, a lot Initially, Saima had a few hurdles like work hands-on. I has been achieved. the size of the team, unavailability of have become more Y e t , m u c h m o r e equipment, space and furniture to m a t u r e a s a remains to be done. work with. Just one borrowed professional. Perhaps the most computer for four of us is how we However, there are i m p o r t a n t began, she recounts. She further some significant achievement is that shares how one day she got lucky. The differences in British c o n s e r v a t i o n h a s narrowest escape we have had when and Asian contexts. become a subject of t h e T o u r i s t R e c e p t i o n C e n t r e So, there is a need to d i s c o u r s e i n t h e (Srinagar) was burnt down (by adapt the Western Valley. Almost all the terrorists) in 2005. Just a few days education to local c o n s e r v a t i o n - l e d before the fire, we were temporarily requirements, and p r o j e c t s t h a t w e lodged in that office. And, it contained that is what I am proposed have either our one of the most important works doing, she says. been implemented or on the Cultural Resource Mapping of are in the process of Srinagar, she says. The day the centre Since 2004, Saima being implemented. was put on fire, we fortunately, with all has been involved in The introduction of the data, were in Delhi for the printing several conservation projects in the Jammu & Kashmir Heritage of the five volume report, she says Kashmir through INTACH (Indian Conservation and Preservation Bill can with a sigh of relief. National Trust for Art and Cultural also be counted as one of our biggest

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

LIVING

17

Knick Knacks
Ending in Splitsville
Couples who live together before they get married are less likely to stay married, according to a report. The UK-based Christian think-tank Jubilee Centre said that living together had become a more fragile state of relationship than ever before. It said that couples who cohabited before marriage were 45 per cent more likely to split than those who waited until after the wedding. It was also discovered that more couples are cohabiting than ever before with the average time living together before tying the knot doubling to three-and-a-half years in the past four decades. The Daily Mail quoted Dr John Hayward and Dr Guy Brandon as saying, in the report, that despite the popularity of cohabitation and its relationship to marriage, it is also the case that marriages that start with a period of prior cohabitation are significantly more prone to divorce than those that do not.

Pet healers
Animals are not only loyal companions but can also provide a therapeutic effect to those who are suffering from disabilities. Sangeeta Yadav brings you a report
What therapists and medicines couldnt started socialising with his peers. of responsibility. do, Casper did and did it quite remarkably. There was nothing Ashwins case bears testimony to the Sunil is a case in point. Handicapped working for eight-year-old Ashwin who fact that canines are not only loyal with a weak left hand and a totally nonwas suffering from Down functional right hand, he stayed syndrome, a birth defect. When confined to his room. But, after his parents had given up all meeting Angel, a seven-year-old hope, Casper, a two-year-old Golden Retriever, he started Golden Retriever who is a laughing. He would throw the therapy dog entered his life and ball to her, play a game of tug of changed it completely. Earlier, war, pet her, brush her, feed her Ashwin could barely move his and give her commands. lips to utter maa and khaana. Today he can speak ball, sit After a couple of sessions. Sunil and come only after a few felt that his left arm had become sessions, Rohini Fernandes, costronger and he could hold the founder of Animal Angels rope for a longer time. Now, he Foundation, an NGO that even tries to use his right hand to provides animal therapy, tells caress Angel. Earlier, Sunil you. would not come out of his room on Saturdays. But, now, when companions but also power healers. Ashwin enjoys watching Casper play Angel visits him on a Saturday Several disabled children, old people, with the ball. So much so, that Ashwin morning, he gets up early and waits for children with learning disabilities et al started speaking out. With the help of her. He plays with her and smiles a lot have benefited from animal assisted Casper, Ashwin has progressed. His while interacting and talking to her. therapy. Experts say that playing with teachers reveal that his movements have an animal in a supervised way reduces become more relaxed. He has also negative behaviour and creates a sense

Reality bites
Girls who regularly watch reality television, expect and accept more bullying and drama in their lives, a just-released study in the United States suggests. They also assign more value to physical appearances, and to view themselves as leaders and role models, according to the survey by the research wing of the Girl Scouts of the United States. Some 1,141 girls aged 11 through 17 took part in the survey. What the survey says: ? 78 per cent girls think that gossiping is normal in relationships ?cent think its in girls 68 per nature to be catty and competitive ? 37 per cent girls think you have to lie in order to get what you want ? 65 per cent say reality TV has exposed them to new perspectives

Honey, lets go
Honeymoon is something which goes a long way in deciding the course of a matrimonial alliance. Thus, it is important to cherish every moment of those days. Rather than spending time in sight-seeing, the couple should try to steal some moments of romance and togetherness, says Nidhi Mittal
Mummy, papa, uncles, aunties, cousins, extended family and the lesser known friends and family of the family members surrounding you 24X7 coupled with shopping madness, gifts, clothes, venues all this and more makes it the big fat Indian wedding. What the girl and boy, who are about to get married, want gets lost in the hustle and bustle by the excitement around. However, after the nuptial knot has been tied and the people around retire to their own zones, all that the exhausted couple craves for is some time away to relax and let the feeling of getting married sink in. away from all the rigorous rituals, huge family and work. Honeymoon gives time to rest and assume a new relationship, says Dr Kamal Khurana, relationship coach, Purple Alley Institute of Relationships. Couples who do not manage to go on a honeymoon or go with family members or friends hardly ever build the bond that a strong marital relationship requires. The time when the two actually start living in, be it a love or arranged match, is a fresh start to an alliance that is supposed to go on for a lifetime sans any hiccups. And at that time it is important to be away from all others. In India, a girl plays many roles. She moves into a big family and everyone has a lot of expectations from her. People also want to spend time with the new couple. There are also judgements made. In all this, honeymoon is a way to escape from everything and celebrate your union, Dr Khurana remarks. were all going haywire as the visa situation was bad. I finally decided to take things in my hands and booked us for a weekend trip. And I did notice a difference in our state of mind and our interaction with each other, she tells you. Even though Poonam got a considerable amount of time with her husband during their courtship period, things were different after marriage. There was a need to know the man better which could not happen while they were surrounded by people. Marriage is like baking a cake. If its well settled right at the beginning, the end product will come out to be good. When a person enters matrimony with a lot of anxieties, mutual support is important. Honeymoon helps in generating a sense of belonging. It should not be on an itinerary and should not be a rigorous affair. The objective of these days is knowing each other and it should not involve sightseeing. More importantly, in the decision-making about the destination, no family or agent should be involved. There are also cases where the boy takes his parents with him on the honeymoon. This is a classic case of marital disaster, says Dr Khurana.

Men are camera shy

Men are grumpier than women, especially when it comes to getting their picture taken. The study of more than 1,000 photographs in student yearbooks found that women are far more likely to smile for the camera than men. Psychologist Dr Nicolas Gueguen, who led the research, believes teenage girls associate smiling with attractiveness from role models such as actresses and female pop stars. But boys, whose role models include rock bands and sport stars, tend to be sulkier. Dr Guegen was quoted as saying that women were more likely than men to smile expansively when photographed.

Getting married in India is a tiring business. Even though there are certain activities that you would want should happen in your wedding, what others want matters more. By the time my wedding ceremonies arrived, I was so tired that I wanted to run away. So, as soon as I got married, all I could think of was to be on our honeymoon. But since our Europe visas got stuck, it got difficult for both of us as we had to be amid a huge family sans any peaceful time together, For Poonam, who had an arranged says 27-year-old Poonam Bansal. match and got married into a big joint family, no honeymoon was a horrifying Honeymoon is one thing that is common idea. She was not able to spend time to all marriages around the world. with her husband and the leaves from Couples know that honeymoon is the work were gradually coming to an end. time that they can spend with each other I wasnt at peace, even though I was only. Honeymoon is as important as all getting all the attention. We were both other rituals of marriage. It has become a hesitant as to how were supposed to status quo and both the girl and the boy behave with each other with so many have huge expectations from it. It people around. Apart from night time, occupies a persons mind space since we were not able to even sit together for teenage. It is one time that you have five minutes. And honeymoon plans

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

AVENUES

18

Get the right skills

Out of a population of 600 million youth below 25 years of age, 320 million are in schools and colleges. Surprisingly less than 25 per cent are employable due to the skills gap. Amit Bhatia tells you more about this gap and what one can do to reduce it
competencies which are a combination of behaviours that lead to superior performance in a job. The two major concerns of employers are finding good workers and training them. The skills-gap, which is the difference between the skills needed on the job and those possessed by applicants, is of real concern to managers and business owners looking to hire competent employees. India currently has 600 Where did all these great heroes like Bill million youth below 25 years of age of Gates and Steve Jobs who had not which 320 million are in schools and completed college get their inspiration colleges. Less than 25 per cent of these from? are employable due to the skills gap! Nearer home, Dhirubhai Ambani, Founder of Reliance Group, Indias most valuable business empire, too evaded school. What makes these people and millions like them successful? It clearly is not academics or degrees. There is some other knowledge, skills and attitude at work. It is not a revelation that we all require some common sense to succeed in life. Yet, it is seldom a course we study. Yes, life evaluates us on parameters out of syllabus. This is the bane of Indian Education. We leave our youth to learn the most critical employability skills by osmosis in real life; while Educational Institutions own this responsibility academically, professionally, and morally! Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration, is the famous lines that Thomas Alva Edison, Worlds greatest inventor, scientist and businessman, said when he founded General Electric. GE as it is known today is the worlds most successful and enviable industrial enterprise. Although Edison had no formal schooling his success is much talked about. speech pathology (for communication skills) backgrounds. The training is mostly role-play or game-based and does not have much theory. It has takeaways from experiences, which are very personalised and become each individuals learning. Consider topics like positive attitude and confidence, time management, conflict management, emotional intelligence, goal setting, communication skills, dealing with How are students trained difficult colleagues, managing expectations, working in teams, Employability skills are not taught. They grooming and etiquettes, etc? You are learnt. At the under-graduate or cant help but train students through post-graduate level, the andragogy (not professional trainers. pedagogy) is experiential training (not t e a c h i n g ) . A d u l t s d o n t c h a n g e Our academicians often fall into the behaviours because they are taught, classic trap of finding a book in these only when they experience its virtues subjects and use traditional teaching and are convinced about the new set of methodology in the classroom! The behavior or attitude. They have to be result: 25 per cent employability. internally inspired, not externally Training is not teaching. motivated. This learning is problemOur education systems emancipation centric, not content-centric. will lie in academias self realisation This training is fundamentally different that we cannot leave employability from academic teaching. India still has skills to accidents. This is exactly what enough to catch up on project-oriented employers want. or activity-based academic learning from blackboard-and-chalk based rote learning that the same teachers are unlikely candidates for training students in an experiential format. This has to be left to expert trainers who often have clinical psychology (for soft skills) or Attitude is receiving and responding to the environment and people; it is the value a person attaches to others, situations or environment. Attitude plays a frontline role and is a major driver for converting ones potential into reality. In short, attitude is how one behaves: for instance motivation, teamwork, confidence, etc. Together, knowledge, skills and attitude provide a platform for a winning and successful career.

Knowledge & Skills

Employability skills can be divided in three areas of learning. Knowledge is theory or technical understanding of a subject, the ability to comprehend, apply, analyse, synthesise and evaluate to arrive at solutions. Knowledge plays an essential role as a foundation, the basic building block supporting Skills and Attitude. Knowledge is what one knows, like technical designs, software languages, statistical programming or financial modeling.

Skills move a person from theory (knowledge) to action. To be skilled one must be able to undertake a task with competence. Skills are learned and repeatable. In short, skills are I n t o d a y s h i g h l y c o m p e t i t i v e what one can do with knowledge, employment market, jobs and roles are e x a m p l e p r e s e n t a t i o n , s a l e s , o f t e n d e s c r i b e d i n t e r m s o f management, communication, etc.

Engineering haven
There are over 5 lakh candidates who will take the upcoming JEE. Deebashree Mohanty chats up Kalyan Kumar, director FIITJEE, about his take on the upcoming test
do those for which they know the Yes. The JEE for instance, a candidate correct answer. It helps them to needs to prepare seriously for at least two years if not more. And it is not just prioritise. the slogging, it is also the mental preparation that candidates Do you see an upsurge in prepares himselfcounts. The challenges. to take on It is going to be a challenging test is all the career opportunities These king of engineering exams trains that I can say at the moment. Although the student so he can for engineering students? placement afterthatstudies. find a good students this year have a huge advantage his and they should make full use of it. This time round they know exactly what the Career opportunities keep changing. cut-off is going to be for each subject as 10 years back, computer science was Do students land up with well as over all. According to the new set the field to be in. But today there are good placements? of rules students need to score at least 10 many opportunities available in other per cent in all the subject papers and an fields as well. For engineering students specially, the sky is the limit. They are Depends on many things like the aggregate of 30 per cent in total. trained such that they are very career condition of the economy, the institute oriented and with the amount of hard that the has passed out How do you think the work that they have put in preparing al. All candidateinstitutes offerfrom et reputed great knowledge of the cutoff for the engineering exams, they are all placement opportunities. set to make a mark in any field that they should benefit students? choose.

What is in store for aspiring students this year?

the better. We had only 1.8 lakh students who had enrolled themselves at that time. And today, we have about 5 lakh candidates who will be taking the test this time.

It is going to benefit them immensely. This is so because now they have a fixed target in front of them. They know that they have to score these many questions to qualify. So they will not try and attempt a lot of questions. They will only

You have been with D o y o u t h i n k t h a t FIITJEE for the past nine preparation for these y e a r s . H a s a n y t h i n g tests prepares a student changed? for a job simultaneously?

If at all anything has changed it has for

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

TRAVEL

19

A modern sufi dairy

Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan has long been a prominent seat of Sufism in the country and, like any other centre of spiritual practice, it helps rejuvenate ones mind and soul. Susmita Mukherjee visits the holy place to get a hands-on experience of the same
my path. I jostled for space and was met with a mob trying to break in and out of the s h r i n e . Fortunately, like every other pilgrim there who refused to give up, I found my way inside and offered prayers. When I emerged, I was overcome by a draining fatigue. I cannot say whether it was for the lack of space inside the shrine or the weight of the many little burdens that I had just shed. I found myself a quiet spot near a jaali (trellis) through which a group of women were looking at Chistis tomb. I sat down and meditated with them. After some time, I felt great peace and the crowd around me did not bother me anymore. serving at the dargah for generations and are always dressed in white with a black cap to cover their heads I would have been lost for certain when a friendly pat on my shoulder made me turn around. Dressed in the traditional green attire with a string of white beads around his neck and a potli (pouch) under his arm, a fakir held out his arm as if beckoning me to follow his lead. He guided me through the crowd and brought me to one of the exits. Would you like to contribute to the deg (vessel) here? The light of the Sahan-e-Chiragh will always guide your way, the fakir said, pointing to the courtyard lamp that I had missed during so many visits. I was aware that on festivals, the food and money donated by the pilgrims into the badi and chhoti degs (said to have been donated by Mughal emperors Akbar and his son Jahangir) were used to prepare a great meal for the public. I didnt realise that it was one of the little joys that the people looked forward to. The smiling fakir looked on as I walked up to the edge of the badi deg and looked with new-found admiration at the amount of foodgrain, money and dried fruits that had been collected for a free kitchen. After making an offering, I headed back to the fakir who then guided me to the lamp he had pointed at earlier. As I bowed my head in gratitude for the simple yet enlightening tour of the dargah, the fakir placed his hand on my head, blessed me and left. My good deeds of the day done, I was content to head back to the materialistic city life.

I could begin by explaining how I ended up in the middle of the hinterland of Rajasthan with a share of hospitality that is the trademark of these quarters but that would be another story. For now, Ill keep the joys of the mighty Aravallis that tower before me as I soak in the flavour of the land, with a generous helping of gatta curry and hot chapatis, in the courtyard of a quaint cottage and take you on a journey through faith.

First impression
The reason I chose to stay here was because of the peace I felt at heart, said Roza as we sat sipping a cup of hot tea at the Anjuman Guest House. I couldnt help laughing at the irony of residing at a guest house on the beggar-infested street that led to the entrance of the Dargah Sharif. What peace could one possibly find here? But Roza, a tourist from Dimona in Israel, offered to take me around the dargah as she had come to see it over the past month. After walking through the remaining expanse of the wide street with flowers and souvenir shops flanking both sides and alms-seekers stopping me at every step, we finally reached the Nizam Gate the main entrance to the shrine. When you climb these steps, you leave every worldly possession and clamour behind. You must have nothing but a sound faith, said Roza. The only identity of a true follower is his faith in the divine. Her words calmed me instantly, the sight and sounds of the bustling market didnt seem to bother me anymore as I handed over my footwear and proceeded to climb the steps. At the top, I felt like stepping into a different world, familiar, welcoming and yet so simple in its regularity that we crave for its solace in a mad, hectic world. I walked through the gates and towards the talaab where I stopped to wash my

hands and feet. Everything around here reminds me of home, she said. The marketplace in my hometown was not very different and I often used to go to a dargah in the outskirts with my mother. I grew up seeing every beautiful part of my life falling to bits. Seeing life go on so normally here was startling at first but now I realise that this is how it was meant to be. The Khwajas legacy world was created for human beings like you and me to explore and Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, as the saint is appreciate the Gods great work. fondly referred to by his disciples, holds an important place in the Sufi circuit of We walked across the market, selling the subcontinent. He is hailed as the flowers and chadars (drape for the founder of the Chisti order of Sufis, said saint) to be offered at the dargah. There to be the descendants of Prophet was no haggling over prices. I merely Mohammed. took out the amount I was willing to pay and handed it to the shopkeeper Moinuddin Chisti, as he was named by who asked me if I wanted a chadar as his parents, was born in Iran. After his well. He prepared my tokri (basket) as fathers death, when he was just a I watched Roza look longingly at the teenager, he chanced upon a mystic dargah. She had nothing to offer today walking by his garden. It was with his except prayers. blessings that he embarked on his own journey of soul-searching. His quest I could see the pilgrims in a different took him to faraway lands and he met light now. It was easy to distinguish several scholars of his age. He finally those who had come to ask their came to India after a brief stopover at benevolent benefactor for a favour Lahore. He set up his base in Ajmer, from those who had returned to thank continued his teachings and offered him for his kindness. There were also peace, guidance and solace to anyone quite a few travellers, mainly who came to his door. His shrine is at its foreigners, who wanted to feel the colourful best during the festival of Urs, magic of Sufism, the egoless surrender which marks the day when the Khwaja to the divine as propagated by left his mortal body to be united with the Moinuddin Chisti. divine after living the last six days of his life in isolation. Death is not considered inopportune in Sufism. It is, in fact, The way in celebrated as the union of the soul with the source. Every year, those going for M y t o k r i w a s r e a d y . I t w a s , Haj are expected to visit the shrine at the unfortunately, too large for me to carry time of Urs, which is scheduled in my hand and seeing the crowd according to the lunar calendar. waiting to heave in, I understood the devotees habit of placing it on the head while entering the shrine. I walked Return to reality towards the entrance, silently praying for Rozas safe return, for finding peace within myself and in the world I live in. Having received the Khwajas blessings, I lost sight of her in the crowd. I I headed for the exit. Brushing my way realised that our meeting was over and through the crowd while looking for one that I had to go forth on my own, find of the khadims men who have been

Getting there
By air The nearest airport is at Jaipur, 135 km. The closest international airport is the Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi, 350 km. By rail There are several direct trains plying via Ajmer. Ajmer Junction is well-connected to the major cities of the country. By road Ajmer is connected to New Delhi by the National Highway 8 via Jaipur and makes for a comfortable five-and-a-half-hour drive. The Rajasthan Roadways offers several luxurious and standard coaches for travel within and outside the State. Copyright: Exotica, the wellness and lifestyle magazine from The Pioneer Group, available in all rooms of select five-star hotel chains across the country

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

ADVENTURE

20

My motorcycle diary
Anup Kutty tests his own limits and those of his 350 cc Bullet on a trip from Manali to Kaza
with only the familiar thumping of my 350 cc engine for company. It suddenly dawns upon me that theres no more hurry to get anywhere. Time needs to come to a standstill. There are no phones here. No deadlines. No bosses. No cameras. No friends, folks or foes. No one to share anything with. Only me in the middle of all this vastness. I loosen my grip on the accelerator. From hereon, its easy, rider. We stop at Nako, a village that boasts of a lake the size of a pond and a Gompa with some of the oldest paintings in Tibetan history. With an economy based mostly on the cultivation of peas, Nako shot to limelight when the Dalai Lama visited it in 2000 which explains the helipad and the bunch of homestays and backpackers here. We make Amar Home Stay our home for the night and indulge in the arrack (barley liquor) that the owner gets us. Smoking is strictly prohibited in this that uses watermills (gharats) for village so our sojourns are mostly limited domestic electricity. Jibhi is also where to the great indoors. the motorable road ends and the mad climb begins. The road turns into a 75 Next morning, we reach the Tabo degree mud track and its a first gear monastery founded in 996 by the great drive for about 15 km. I reach the Tibetan translator Rinchen Zangpo and Banjara Camp at Shoja our first stop. where the Dalai Lama had conducted the This camp is a comfortable place for a Kalachakra ceremony to coincide with weekend break albeit slightly t h e m i l l e n n i u m a n n i v e r s a r y expensive promising spectacular celebrations of the monastery. We views of the Banjar Valley and short remain there for a day. trips to the nearby Raghupur Fort and a waterfall. The next stop, on the sixth day, is the Dhankar monastery a spectacular On the third day, incessant rain and structure literally carved out of the rocky dirt welcome us through the Banjar cliff it clings on to. The monastery, built Valley up to Jalori Pass (3,550 m). This at an elevation of 3,894 m, used to be a pass gets heavy snowfall during prison before it was converted into a December and March and connects gompa for around 150 lamas. From here Kullu district with the Seranj area. we witness the confluence of the Spiti Continue downhill and you hit the and Pin rivers. If God exists, Hes hamlet of Khanag a route that winds definitely been here! through rich apple orchards and forests. The roads here are perfect for But there isnt time to lose and we must motoring and within minutes we are at head now to take a detour to Mudh the the crowded bazaar of Ani where we get last village on the road to Pin Valley and some waterproof tarpouline for our the land of the ibex and the extremely luggage. The road from here to Sainj shy snow leopards. The road leads where we meet the NH 22 is a green through tiny villages many with a stretch running parallel to the raging population of not more than 30. After a Sutlej river. picturesque village called Sagnam, the path turns into a bad terrain with Once we hit Sainj, its easy sailing on streams running across and after some the National Highway thats coming time join Sherry and Satish at the Snow from Shimla. Ive driven on this road Valley Restaurant. We soon decide to innumerable times but never on a bike move. About a few kilometres into our and I feel the difference. I am in tune ride, we stop at a meadow that offers a with all the elements the wind, the panoramic view of the icy Bhabha Pass drops of rain, the smell, the occasional flanked by sweeping green mountain pothole on the road and the gravel. slopes on either side. Theres a gurgling mountain stream where we rest and trip On the fourth day, its noon by the time on a frozen carcass of a colt probably we leave Kalpa to get back onto NH 22. from previous winter. From here the landscape changes drastically green gives way to grey. I We get to trek up to Ki another old pass a checkpoint at Sumdo where I monastery set atop a rocky mountain have to sign in my details. Foreigners that offers a mind-altering view of the need to show an Inner Line Permit Spiti Valley. From Ki, about 12 km up here which they can procure from ahead is the village of Khibber, which at either Recong Peo or Kaza. We are now 4,550 m used to be the highest village in climbing higher into the painfully the world till they built a motorable road beautiful Spiti Valley. I begin to feel the to a nearby village of Ghetten. Khibber is altitude effects a feeling of a quiet and stark village with a single pointlessness and despair. The sun, the guest house to stay overnight. dizzying height and the rocky barren lunar landscape are surely playing The next morning, Vikas fixes the bike tricks with my mind. I gasp for breath real soon, and we resumed our journey. The drive from Kaza to Losar is one of the best so far. Its a smooth metal road with occasional straight flat stretches where instead of going high-throttle, you may just be tempted to kill your engine and get awed by the fantastic 360 degree panorama. Losar is a village only 60 km away from Kaza with one phone-booth that doesnt work. We halted here for the night. Kunzum La, at 4,551 m, is one of most impressive, if not highest, motorable passes in the Himalayas. Its a rough track all the way from Losar, but we manage to cross it in less than an hour. After the ritualistic photo session, we descend through melting glaciers to Bathal, known for a little dhaba. We decided to loosen our baggage here and do a bumpy ride up to Chandrataal. This is the last leg of our tour. Satish celebrates it with a bottle of rum he scores at a nearby tent. For me, its a dive into the divine lake something I highly recommend. We all huddle around a table, drinking, listening to Spitian folk songs, talking about our ride so far and Himachali folklore. On the ninth day, we wake up to a few horses grazing around our tents. Ten minutes into my ride, I run into an icy waterfall. Its less than 30-km from Bathala to Chattru, but it takes us almost three hours to get there. There is no road, only tyre marks over stones, streams, ice, gravel, sand and waterfalls. Satish, Sherry and I have to push our bikes through a few of these hurdles while wondering where our tax money goes. By afternoon, we make it atop Rohtang Pass after the worst 50km of our lives. Its a momentous occasion but instead of stopping and taking it all in, we decide to keep going. The road from Rohtang to the next village is literally a road to hell. Theres leftover construction work, smoke, landslides, traffic jams, dirt, horsedung, domestic tourists wearing fur coats and boots At one point I want to stop my bike, stand next to it and weep. My eyes cant digest the ugly sight. Not after all that I have soaked in. I need a lot of motivation to begin again and at one point even contemplate giving it up and getting a cab. And then I remember the grilled trout and beer at Lazy Dog and the prospect of meeting the others there. By 4 pm, I swing in my bike with a confident flair into the New Enfield Motors, jump off it and walk up to Lazy Dog. Satish and Sherry are already waiting for me with beer mugs. Grilled trout it is. Courtesy: Namaskaar, Air Indias inflight magazine. Copyright (C) National Aviation Company of India Limited (Air India)

I am on a throbbing 350 cc single cylinder engine motorbike at a dizzy height of over 13,000 ft above sea level. The dark lunar landscape with rocky towering mountains envelopes me like a carefully constructed abysmally huge cosmic maze with only a winding gravel road as an escape route. In the limitless electric blue sky above, the sun shines mercilessly on the grey slopes. I am in the painfully beautiful Spiti Valley and theres no one around. No phones. No Internet. No girlfriends, folks, friends. No pets. No sound except for the confident rumble of my Enfield Bullet and the eerie wind sweeping down. This is what I call freedom. And this is my motorcycle diary. Satish and I arrive at Manali in a Volvo bus choc-a-bloc with honeymooners. This is no honeymoon for us. This is a test of physical and mental endurance wrought with extreme danger. I havent written a will but Satish has already messaged a couple of his girlfriends to look after his iconic restaurant Gunpowder in the eventuality of his not returning. As planned, we meet Tabasheer (Sherry) a Mumbai-based costume designer and friend at Kalath, seven-km before Manali and well-known for its hot springs. We pack our bags, buy our essentials and walk up to Old Manali where we settle ourselves with a beer and grilled trout at the somewhat recently-opened Lazy Dog run by a former Delhi-based journalist Gautum. We finalise our route and itinerary here. Soon, we hop to a garage next door called New Enfield Motors run by two enterprising Punjabi brothers who rent out Enfield Bullets to enterprising riders. The next day we leave Kalath on our thunder beasts. By the time we reach Kullu, its pouring down. We stop at Bhuntur for a quick chai and wear our army waterproof ponchos. After passing the spooky Aut tunnel, we leave the Manali-Chandigarh highway to take a left towards the Banjar Valley. The drive uphill from Aut to Jalori Pass takes us through Jibhi one of the interesting little villages in Himachal

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

TRAVELOGUE

21

Hidden land of the east

The beauty and the sacredness of the sites, the serene atmosphere of the mountains, the luxuriant flora and the gentleness of the local population can turn Arunachal Pradesh into a tourist paradise, says Claude Arpi
The history of the location of the gompa is interesting: A monk called Mera Lama, born in Kitpi village near Tawang, spent several years in Tibet before returning to his native place. Before leaving Lhasa, he met the Fifth Dalai Lama, who asked him to propagate the Buddhism in Monyul and establish a large monastery with the help of the local population. it became the sign of our civilisation). His hagiography said that he built 58 iron bridges and 118 boats to cross rivers. One of these bridges, Chaksam Bridge, can be seen today across Tawang Chu near Kitpi village towards Mukto. The iron was of such high quality that it is still in use after seven centuries. Thangtong Gyalpo was also the founder of the Tibetan Opera. Another special place is Gorsam Chorten (stupa), which was built in the 18th century by a monk of Tsona monastery (Tibet). He wanted to make a replica of the Bodhnath Stupa in Kathmandu. He is said to have travelled to Nepal and made a perfect model carved in a radish that he managed to conserve and copy once back in Gorsam.

In January 2008, during a visit to Itanagar and Tawang, the Prime Minister announced a Rs 24,000-crore package for the State. Priority was given to connectivity (in particular, the construction of a Trans-Arunachal A high delegation had just arrived from Highway). Lhasa looking for the reincarnation of the Fifth Dalai Lama, who had passed As a result, the road between the plains away a couple of years earlier in Tibet. of Assam and Tawang is the messiest The boy was waiting to be taken back to construction site imaginable. In fact, it has become the butt of a joke among his Potala Palace in Lhasa. local drivers; one can, however, take It is just one of the numerous stories or c o m f o r t i n t h e f a c t t h a t t h e legends in Monyul (the low land), as construction work has finally started. Tawang is known. The Monpas, said to be one of the primitive tribes of Tawang, Reaching the Sela Pass, at 13,700 ft are obviously fond and proud of these above sea level between Tawang and Bomdila (West Kameng district), you legends. feel as if you are entering another Being located near the tri-junction world. But you are first reminded that between India, Tibet and Bhutan, south the area was the theatre of the 1962 of the McMahon Line, Tawang is today Sino-Indian conflict. A memorial one of the most strategic locations in the dedicated to Jaswant Singh, the heroic country. The Government has, however, rifleman who defended the pass and opened it to visitors an Inner Line earned a Maha Vir Chakra in Permit is required for Indians and a November 1962, has turned into a sort of mandir in memory of the brave Protected Area Permit for foreigners. jawan. It is a compulsory stop for all Long ago, the British created an inner Army personnel as well as tourists line, separating these excluded tracks (more than 95 per cent of the visitors from the plains. Though for a long time are currently from West Bengal). considered backward, one soon Looking at the old bunkers, one can discovers a culture dating back several imagine the incredible sufferings and centuries; a first darshan of an imposing bravery of the jawans and officers of gompa (monastery), towering over the the Indian Army, abandoned by an valley in all its majesty, will remove all irresponsible leadership. A visit to the 1962 War Memorial in Tawang is also a doubts about this. must. Tourism has become a key to the economic development and the Two hours later, the first glimpses of integration of these border areas. And, it the Tawang Gompa perched on one will ultimately become a factor for the of the highest hills overlooking the defence of the frontiers once the Tawang Chu Valley (chu is river in infrastructure gets the much needed Tibetan/Monpa language) are breathtaking. For the past three attention. centuries, life in Monyul has been In October 1962, when China entered the centred around the gompa, the Indian territory north of Tawang, the fountainhead of Buddhism for some Army was woefully unprepared and the 30,000 Monpas and other Buddhist infrastructure non-existent. It was a ethnic groups (like the Sherdukpens). watershed event in Indian history as the

Lama Geno, in Monpa language could be translated as the lama knows, or more freely, here we are. It is what Tsangyang Gyaltso, the young Sixth Dalai Lama, wrote in 1688 with his finger on a stone in Urgyeling, a village south of Tawang, the headquarters of the western-most district of Arunachal Pradesh.

policy of keeping a part of the Indian territory excluded proved to be both fatal and humiliating for the nation.

The legend says that it is Mera Lamas horse that discovered the location of the monastery. It became known as Tawang Gompa: In Monpa dialect, ta means horse and wang means blessings. So, Tawang is Another name of the land of the Monpa the place blessed by the is Mon Payul Kyinochung, which horse. means the hidden and blessed land. This brings a familiar concept in the Today 500 monks study in the gompa, Himalayan literature: The esoteric the largest Buddhist monastery in India, meaning of Hidden Land is that a under the dynamic leadership of a young person has to be initiated first to enter lama, Guru Rinpoche. this region. Buddhists believe in the concept of sacred places or pithas. During the 10th century, the great Indian yogi Tilopa said that pithas are to be found inside your own self, though outer pithas are mentioned in the scriptures for the benefit of simple fools who wander about the country. As a tourist, you may be classified as a simple fool by siddhas, but you will tremendously enjoy visiting some other outer places empowered by the Sixth Dalai Lama, Mera Lama or Guru Padmasambhava. Most of the tour operators will tell you to visit Madhuri Lake. After Rakesh Roshan shot Koyla (starring Madhuri Dixit and Shah Rukh Khan), jawans posted in the area began calling it Madhuri Lake; it was a grazing pasture before becoming a lake after the dreadful earthquake of August 1950. Locals say that it is its USP, as there are as many as 108 lakes in the area many of them larger and more stunning, with some having been blessed by great tantric masters and yogis. A few kilometres away is the Tagtsang Gompa (the Tiger Lair monastery), perched at 13,500 ft. It is one of the four pithas that Padmasambhava, the great Indian tantric master who helped establishing Buddhism in Tibet, Bhutan and some other Himalayan regions, established. He is said to have traversed Tagtsang in the form of a tiger and subdued some powerful local spirits hostile to Buddhism. Till recently hidden lands had a literal meaning in Tawang, but with the relaxation of the Inner Line Permit system, the region is today accessible to all (the initiation being the two-day journey on the road from Assam to Tawang). The beauty and the sacredness of the sites, the serene atmosphere of the mountains, the luxuriant flora and the gentleness of the local population of Arunachal Pradesh can make the most tense city-wallah relax. Getting there By Air: The closest airport to Arunachal Pradesh is Lilabari Airport in Assam which is about 67 km from Itanagar. However, there are also some direct air flights from Kolkata to Tezpur. The helicopter services are also available from Guwahati to Tawang. By Rail: The closest railway station to Arunachal Pradesh is Harmuty, about 33 km from Itanagar. But the most convenient rail destination is North Lakhimpur, Assam, which is about 60 km from the State capital, Itanagar.

By Road: There are many bus services provided at regular intervals by the State Transport Corporation of Arunachal Pradesh. There is a direct service from Naharlagun and Itanagar. Some of the main road distances are Guwahati (381 km), Shillong (481 km) Another popular figure in Monyul is the and Imphal (495 km). great Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo. Born in 1385 in central Tibet, he travelled widely across the Himalayas. He is remembered in Buddhist history not only for his teachings, but also for the iron bridges he constructed. He was a remarkable engineer and might be the first Asian to understand the meaning of communication (seven centuries before

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

HISTORY

22

Mahatma Metamorphosis
It is a little known fact that until the end of the First World War Mahatma Gandhi was a strong supporter of both the British Empire and the military. He became the Apostle of Nonviolence only after Tilak died and he became leader of the Congress. N.S. Rajaram find out more
India. Curiously, he didnt start out that way and was once openly supportive of warfare. He served under in two wars in South Africa the Zulu War (1906) and the Boer War, both on the side of the British. The first was against the African tribe known as the Zulus and a purely colonial war. The second was against Dutch settlers in South Africa. He was a non-combatant serving in the Ambulance Corps, attached to the Army (British) Medical Corps. He was a conscientious soldier and was decorated by the British for his war service. One of the important lessons of history is that a nation cannot come into existence much less prosper without a powerful army. While much is made of the nonviolent freedom struggle waged by Mahatma Gandhi, what made the British leave India in 1947 was Subhas Bose through his INA turning the British Indian Army into a nationalist force. The naval mutiny and other disturbances during the INA trials convinced the British that Indian soldiers would fight for India but not to protect British interests. This history has been turned on its head by claiming that Gandhi brought freedom through his non-violent movement. The fact is that the Fall of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942 was far more important than Gandhis Quit India Movement launched the same year, which was a fiasco. The curious thing is that Gandhi himself had strongly advocated Indians join the military. He was himself a decorated soldier. Let us take a look at this hidden chapter of history. doctrine of surrender to justify cowardice in the face of evil. Here we have Gandhis own words on the subject, in the face of the violence at the hands of Muslims. As a man of truth I honestly believe that Hindus should yield up to the Mohammedans whatever the latter desire, and that they should rejoice in so doing. We can expect unity only if such mutual largeheartedness is displayed. As R.C. Majumdar observed (History of the Freedom Movement in India, Volume II, pp 313-14): The first sentence is one of those pro-Muslim sayings which bore the special trademark of Gandhi and did incalculable harm to Hindu-Muslim unity by putting a premium on Muslim intransigence. It was repeated in 1947when Gandhi made the proposal, which astounded even his devout followers, that Jinnah should be the supreme ruler of India, with a cabinet of his own choice, which might consist only of Muslim ministers. The word mutual in the second sentence is meaningless, as Gandhi never dared make similar request to the Muslims, and they never showed the slightest intention of doing any such foolish thing. Gandhis attitude did not change even after the creation of Pakistan. (It is surprising that Gandhi should have been accorded such a high honor as invitation by the Viceroy. Gandhi was still regarded as a war veteran a recruiting sergeant though no longer in uniform. And the invitation was for a war conference.) This was exactly the advice given by Veer Savarkar and followed by Subhas Bose for which they have been excoriated by the supposed followers of Gandhi! As late as 1918, when he was nearly fifty, Gandhi maintained a perfectly sensible position recognizing the importance of military training in the defense of the nation. It is also interesting that the British saw him as their faithful ally, according him the rare honor of meetings with the Viceroy. It is possible to almost pinpoint Gandhis metamorphosis from a sensible nationalist into the Ahimsa Apostle to August 1920, when Bal Gangadhar Tilak died. This allowed Gandhi to fill the resulting vacuum as the undisputed leader of the Congress. That marked the decisive change in direction of the Indian Freedom Movement from total freedom (Purna Swaraj) to nonviolence as the central policy. It led to Gandhis ill-fated Khilafat Movement in support of the restoration of the deposed Turkish Sultan and the horrors of the Moplah Rebellion. Gandhi justified it in the name of ahimsa and from then on imposed nonviolence as a dogma on his Hindu followers but not Muslims. Jinnah and Subhas Bose opposed Gandhis policies but were both forced to leave the Congress. All this is well known. What has not received the attention it deserves is the transformation of Gandhi from a sensible statesman who recognized the importance of the armed forces in national life into an ahimsa fanatic. After Tilaks death, which allowed him to become the unchallenged leader of both the Congress and the freedom movement, freedom or swaraj became subordinate to nonviolence. Those who disagreed with him had no place in his party. Is it mere coincidence that all the movements led by the British favorite Gandhi ended in stalemate if not worse and only delayed freedom? Did the British see Gandhi and his nonviolence as an ally that would help prolong their stay? His beginning as leader was inauspicious enough the disastrous Non-cooperation Movement in support of the Khilafat. Although Gandhi had promised Swaraj within the year, he called it off following a violent attack on a police station in Chauri Chaura. The failure of the Khilafat to deliver the promised Swaraj within the year to the Ali Brothers led to the Moplah Rebellion. Gandhi was helpless; it took the British controlled Indian Army several months to restore order. Here is an intriguing point: was there a tacit understanding that the British would tolerate if not support Gandhis non-violent movements as a counterweight to the militant nationalism of the likes of Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh, Subhas Bose and Bal Gangadhar Tilak? In any event Gandhi and his followers got kid gloves treatment being imprisoned in places like the Aga Khan Palace in Pune while Tilak spent six years in Mandalay, Burma. Savarkar was confined in the infamous cellular jail in the Andamans. Gandhi repaid his dues to the British by remaining an Anglophile to the end. He chose the Anglicized Nehru instead of Patel to be the first prime minister of India. He and Nehru asked Mountbatten to continue as Governor General instead of appointing Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) who had to wait until Mountbatten was gone. Here is another what if of history: would there be a Kashmir problem today had Rajaji-Patel been in charge instead of Mountbatten-Nehru? We know that Patel and Rajaji handled the Hyderabad crisis resolutely defeating Jinnahs attempt to take the case to the United Nations. Indias leaders lack courage and are more interested in protecting themselves than the nation. To such people their personal security is more important than national security. So they will never take a tough decision that they feel may provoke the terrorists. This is not the mindset that can help win the war on terror. This is the sad truth: Indians have allowed leaders to come up who have neither the will nor the intent to defend the country by fighting terrorists. As John Stuart Mill wrote: War is an ugly thing, but it is not the ugliest of things. The ugliest is that man who holding nothing is worth defending or worth fighting for would let better men than himself protect him. This is what has been happening in India in the half century and more since independence. Brave lives are being sacrificed to protect unworthy men and women. Gandhi must bear his share for this tragedy with his perverse U-turn.

Bhishma, the wise old pitmaha of the Mahabharata advised Yudhishtira: A king who is always gentle is exploited by all; but the world dreads one who is severe. You must use both to rule properly. Bhishma also told Yudhishtira That king is the greatest in whose kingdom people move about But it was different Gandhi who without fear, like children in their supported the British war effort until he took over as the leader of the fathers home. Congress after Bal Gangadhar Tilak It is not just ancient thinkers who said died in 1920. The national movement that. A hundred years ago Sri Aurobindo which had been militant until then wrote: The sword of the warrior is as suddenly turned soft with Gandhi necessary to the fulfillment of justice and stressing nonviolence more than righteousness as the holiness of the freedom. Did the Jallianwala Bagh saint. Ramdas is not complete without Massacre of April 1919 convince Shivaji. To maintain justice and to Gandhi that the British could never be prevent the strong from despoiling, and defeated by militant activism? Was it the weak from being oppressed is the f o r t h e s a m e r e a s o n t h a t h e function for which the Kshatriya was surrendered to Islamist demands after created. Therefore, says Krishna in the the Khilafat and the Moplah Rebellion Mahabharata, God created battle and of 1921 22? These are questions that armour, the sword, the bow and the need to be raised. dagger. Gandhis flip-flop on war and What it really means is that force (or nonviolence violence) should only be used to protect helpless innocents by suppressing The specter of Mahatma Gandhi, the tyrants. Instead of maintaining peace, supposed Apostle of Nonviolence the Gandhian brand of ahimsa became a looms large over the history of modern

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HISTORY

23

Marco Polo world discovery was big con

The beauty and the sacredness of the sites, the serene atmosphere of the mountains, the luxuriant flora and the gentleness of the local population can turn Arunachal Pradesh into a tourist paradise, says Claude Arpi
East. They returned to Venice 24 years later, having also journeyed to Persia and Japan. Marco Polos account of his travels ignited the imagination of Europeans. It became an instant bestseller and has remained a source of inspiration and wonder to travellers ever since. inconsistencies and inaccuracies in Marco Polos description of Kublai Khans invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281. He confuses the two, mixing up details about the first expedition with those of the second said Petrella. In his account of the first invasion, he describes the fleet leaving Korea and being hit by a typhoon before it reached the Japanese coast. But that happened in 1281 is it really possible that a supposed eyewitness could But now, a team of confuse events which were seven years archaeologists suggest apart? asked Patrella. that Marco Polo probably never went Marco Polos description of the further east than the Mongol fleet is also at odds with the Black Sea. They suspect r e m a i n s o f s h i p s t h a t t h e he picked up second- archaeologists have excavated in hand stories of China, Japan. The Venetian wrote of fiveJapan and the Mongol masted ships, when in fact they had empire from Persian only three masts, said Petrella. The merchants whom he met explorer claimed to have worked as an on the shores of the emissary to the court of Kublai Khan, Black Sea and passed but his name does not crop up in any of them off as his own the surviving Mongol or Chinese a d v e n t u r e s i n T h e records. Travels of Marco Polo, one of the first travel books ever to be written. The professors findings may mean Following research in Japan, Professor that one of the worlds greatest travel Daniele Petrella of the University of books was, sadly, just a gripping work Naples told the Italian history magazine, of fiction. Focus Storia, that there were many

Marco Polo, one ofhistorys greatest explorers, may in fact have been a conman, it has been claimed. The Venetian merchant adventurer claimed to have embarked on his epic journey across Asia and the Middle East in 1271 AD, at the age of 17, accompanied by his

father, Niccolo, and uncle, Matteo. Their travels took them from Europe through Bukhara to China, where the Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan, is said to have made Marco Polo his emissary to the modern day Middle East.

Canines sniff out trouble for security forces in J-K, North East
Dogs with the canine units of the Indian Army have proved to be the best friends of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir and North East, helping detect 35 IEDs planted by terrorists in the two areas.
detect 35 high powered IEDs in J and K the sources said. and North East, Army sources told PTI The Indian Army has been training and here. employing dogs of various different Out of these 35 instances, 19 were breeds such as German Shepherd, reported from militancy-hit areas of Labrador, Doberman, Boxer and Bull Kashmir Valley, they said.Rest of the 16 dogs. cases were reported from North East region where the IEDs were planted Besides the basic obedience training, under thick layers of vegetation making these dogs are trained in various their detection difficult by electronic different traits suiting their capability such as detecting arms and scanners. ammunition, explosives, contrabands Apart from the explosives, the canine and guard duties at vulnerable units were also successful in detecting 24 installations like ammunition depot cases of narcotics being smuggled by and radar stations, aircraft hangers and etc. insurgents in the North East. Some of the IEDs detected by these dogs were planted on the routes used by the Army for moving its convoys for winter stocking and other purposes. To meet the ever-increasing need for such dogs, the Remount and Veterinary Corps (RVC) has been undertaking the task of breeding and rearing of pups.

Trained to detect various combinations detect explosives which may escape of explosives hidden under layers of detection by electronic scanners. The "We can say that these dogs have actually rocks and vegetation, the dogs can also canine units this year managed to helped in averting some big incidents,"

TheSouthAsianTimes.info

NEWS FEATURE

24

Diwali celebration crosses religious divide in village near Godhra

The name Godhra conjures up the images of the 2002 train burning incident and the communal riots which followed, but a village nearby shows the spirit of harmony.
Vejalpur, 12 km from Godhra, in the neighbouring Panchmahal district, has a mixed -- Hindu and Muslim -population of around 15,000, and Diwali is a fun time for both the communities. The celebration not only cuts across the religious divide, but is also unique. For, the villagers stage a mock-fight between two teams, where groups, armed with a locally made the weapon of choice is `Kothi, a cracker, have a fight." locally made crakcer. Kothi is made by the people of local Kumbhar (potter) community. An Mehbub Kadri, a local, said, "We earthen pot is filled with an explosive celebrate Diwali with the mix to make a Kothi, which the two Hindus....The village has a unique groups launch at each other, he said. way of celebrating Diwali. Two "Nobody is injured in this sport," Kadri claimed. Ibhrahim Kathiya, deputy sarpanch of the village, said the celebrations were reciprocal; the Hindus visit Muslim homes on Eid, and partake of festivities.

Statue of Liberty celebrates 125th birthday

The 125th birth anniversary of the iconic Statue of Liberty was celebrated here with events including a gun salute, fireworks and naturalisation ceremony for 125 immigrants organised to commemorate the day.
held yesterday. The theme for the 125th anniversary events is 'Honour History, Envision the Future.' Through the various ceremonies, the National Park Service intended to re-create the actual programme of the day the statue was gifted to the US by France. "She remains an inspiration for people all around the world," Bloomberg said. enduring hope and welcome to the millions of immigrants who have entered the US, 125 immigrants took the oath of allegiance on Liberty Island becoming new US citizens. The iconic green lady, a gift from France to the United States, was dedicated on October 28, 1886 and designated as a National Monument in 1924. More than 1,000 people from both the countries were present on the occasion on Liberty Island in New York Harbour. represents our country's highest ideals," Salazar said. During the ceremony, American and French national anthems were played, followed by Weaver reading "The New Colossus," a poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed under the statue in bronze.

Noted singer and pianist Michael Feinstein, Academy-Award-nominated actress Sigourney Weaver and vocalist Capathia Jenkins were among the celebrities who joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for the ceremony

A small flotilla of government, commercial and private vessels offered a salute to the Statue at the close of the ceremony, evoking the 1886 "water parade" that attended her dedication. "Lady Liberty is an enduring symbol of Honouring her status as a symbol of freedom, tolerance and openness that

The iconic New York symbol will close for a year beginning today, during when a USD 27.25 million renovation will be undertaken to improve the stairway up into Lady Liberty's crown A series of new web cameras have also and to add new safety equipments. been placed around the torch of the Statue of Liberty, providing on However, Liberty Island, where the computers and smart phones live and copper statue is located, will remain unobstructed views of the New York City open during the project and views of skyline, the Hudson River, ships in New Lady Liberty will remain largely York Harbour as well as a wide-angle unobstructed during the year-long interactive view of the famed golden upgrade. torch.

Single-malt Scotch whisky named world's best

A 21-year-old single malt whisky distilled in one of the most remote places in Scotland has won the coveted title of "World Whisky of the Year".
The title has been mentioned in the 2012 edition of writer Jim Murray's guidebook "Whisky Bible". Murray said that during his search for the top-ranked whisky, conducted 1,200 tastes and "many more retastes" over four months. "The Pulteney distillery in Wick, Caithness, scored a record-equalling 97.5 points out of 100 for its 21-yearold Old Pulteney single malt. It is only the third time that a single malt has ever won the prestigious award, and just the second Scottish distillery to do so," Murray said in a statement on his Whisky Bible website. He said he was surprised to find the winner came from "the most northerly distillery on mainland Britain and one of the most remote in all Scotland".

Few remember anti-British Phulaguri uprising 150 years ago

Peasants of remote Phulaguri village in central Assam's Nagaon district had dealt the first blow to the British in the northeast in 1861, but 150 years later there are few in independent India who remember the rebellion.
The revolt, known as 'Phulaguri dhawa', in which a British official was killed and several police officers were injured, was triggered by a ban imposed on opium cultivation and a proposed taxation on betel leaf and nut. The British crushed the rebellion, but the incident shook the foundation of the British rule in the region all the same, a resident of Phulagari and president of a committee, formed to commemorate the 150 years of the revolt, Hari Kanta Das said. "It is sad that the state government has forgotten to commemorate the event and honour the martyrs and even the local Congress MLA who had earlier promised to be present at a small function organised by us, failed to attend it," Das said. The resources with the organising committee were limited and so "we decided to hold only an hour-long function to commemorate Commissioner M Angamathu, however, pointed out that the district administration has decided to form a 25-member committee, comprising historians, intellectuals and Whatever might have been its original prominent citizens, to prepare a objective, the uprising became a symbol detailed history of the uprising. of challenge to the mighty British power in the province and projected the anticolonial character of the Assamese people, Das said. Nagaon Deputy the day on October 18, but now we plan to hold a public meeting on October 30 which will be a part of the celebration," he said.

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I learned intuition in India: Jobs told biographer

The seven months that Steve Jobs spent wandering in India in search of spiritual enlightenment were "not a waste of time", his biographer has said, with the late Apple co-founder telling him his time in India taught him "intuition". In an interview with the CBS, biographer Walter Isaacson says Jobs' design sense was greatly influenced by the "simplicities of Zen Buddhism."
Isaacson's book 'Steve Jobs' will hit bookstores today. In the 1970s, Jobs took a leave from working as a technician at video games manufacturer Atari and spent seven months wandering across India looking for spiritual enlightenment. "The main thing I've learned is intuition, that the people in India are not just pure rational thinkers, that the great spiritual ones also have an intuition." Isaacson says that "the simplicities of Zen Buddhism, really informed his (Jobs') design sense. "That notion that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication," the biographer says in the interview. When asked how Jobs, a hippie college dropout goes to India and comes back deciding he wants to be a businessman, Isaacson says, "Jobs has within him sort of this conflict, but he doesn't quite see it as a conflict between being hippie-ish and anti-materialistic but wanting to sell things like Wozniak's board. Wanting to create a business. And I think that's exactly what Silicon Valley was all about in those days. Let's do a startup in our parents' garage and try to create a business."

After returning from India, Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak founded "And it turned out not to be a waste of Apple computer in his parents' garage time," he says. According to Isaacson, with an initial USD 1,300 investment. when Jobs returned from India he said,

The more the merrier, says Mizo man with 39 wives, 94 kids
Many would consider it an achievement of Biblical proportions! With 39 wives and more than 120 children and grandchildren, all staying together, a tribal Christian cult leader in the northeastern state of Mizoram could perhaps claim to head the world's biggest family.
Zionnghaka's father Challianchana who died in 1997. The cult, f o u n d e d b y Challianchana some time in the early 1930s, is now spread over four generations and boasts of having some 1,700 members. Challianchana was believed to have had 50 wives, with Zionnghaka being the eldest of his many children -- there is no count available of the number of children Challianchana had. Perched at a hilltop, the 100-room fourstoreyed building they live in is as unique as the family - the youngest wife sleeps near to Zionnghaka's bedroom. There is a rotation system among the wives to share his bedroom. Not only that, Zionnghaka Chana, 67, is belong to one single family of 181 still keen to expand his family by members -- 39 wives, 94 children, 14 marrying a few more women. daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren. "I can travel beyond the borders of Mizoram or even India to marry as that "We are all happy and like any other would help me to expand my family," a church we believe in the existence of god but the only distinctive difference beaming Zionnghaka told IANS. is that our denomination allows us to From a playground to a school and a marry more than one wife," said church, the village of Baktawng Nunparliana, one of Zionnghaka's resembles any other tribal village but for sons. The family is part of a Christian the fact that the community members cult called Channa, named after "The Welsh missionaries banned the worship of the Khuang. Upset over this, my grandfather Challianchana and his brother severed ties and founded this sect whom we call either Channa or the Lalpa Kohhran," another community member said. But church leaders, Presbyterian being the dominant denomination, reject the cult's claims to be Christians. "Christianity does not allow polygamy and hence accepting the cult as Christian does not arise at all. Polygamy is very rare in Mizoram," said a Presbyterian Synod leader in Mizoram capital Aizawl. There are an estimated 95 Christian cults in Mizoram with diverse practices -- some of them do not allow their children to mingle with others and attend school, while some of the sect claim their members to be gods. A predominantly Christian tribal state of just over one million people bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, Mizoram is India's third highest literate state, next only to Kerala and Lakshwadeep. Christians account for about 88 percent of the population.

Most of the community members are today known across Mizoram for their The Mizo tribal people were animists skills in carving out wooden furniture until two British Baptist missionaries and pottery items. William Frederick Savidge and J.H. Lorrain first landed in Mizoram some The circumstances leading to the time in 1894. establishment of the cult are as bizarre as the traditions and practices followed by the Channa sect, whose ancestors worshipped a traditional drum called the 'Khuang', until the arrival of the Welsh missionaries.

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Mental illness, not British gas attack, 'blinded Hitler'

It was one of the most notorious stories that Germany's Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler used to say -- his First World War experience ended when he was blinded by a British mustard gas attack. was caused by a mental disorder known as "hysterical blindness" and not the mustard gas attack he alleged. Hitler had claimed numerous times during his lifetime, including in his autobiography 'Mein Kampf', that the British attacked in October 1918 south of Ypres using a "yellow gas unknown to us". And, by morning, his eyes "were like glowing coals, and all was darkness around me", he wrote in his book. But, historian Dr Thomas Now, a new research has exposed Weber of University of Hitler's account of his own Aberdeen, says he has gallantry as a sham, and revealed uncovered a series of that his temporary loss of sight unpublished letters between two American neurologists from 1943, which debunk Hitler's claim, the 'Daily Mail' reported. The correspondence showed that Otfried Foerster, a renowned German neurosurgeon, had inspected Hitler's medical file, and found that he was treated for hysterical amblyopia, a psychiatric disorder that can make sufferers lose sight. military hospital in Germany, was destroyed. "Hitler went to extreme lengths to cover up his First World War medical history," Dr Weber said.

Dr Weber said the letters could help to explain Hitler's radical personality change after the war. "Hitler left First World War an awkward loner who had never commanded a single other soldier, but very quickly became a charismatic leader who took Dr Weber said: "There were over his country," he said. rumours suggesting that his war b l i n d n e s s m a y h a v e b e e n He added: "His mental state psychosomatic, but this is the first could explain this dramatic time we have had any firm change and his obsessive and evidence." extreme behaviour. The evidence also gives a crucial He said discovering the letters insight into Hitler's mental state was "crucial" because Hitler's during his leadership." medical file, at the Pasewalk

Tiny planet has water ice, may have atmosphere too: Scientists
Astronomers have discovered a mysterious little dwarf planet which they believe is covered in ice and may sport the wispy remnants of an atmosphere. for eons. "You get to see this nice picture of what once was an active little world with water volcanoes and an atmosphere, and it's now just frozen, dead, with an atmosphere that's slowly slipping away," lead scientist Mike Brown of California Institute of Technology was quoted as saying by SPACE.Com. methane molecules -- which consist of one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms -- into long hydrocarbon chains, the researchers said.Those chains look red to our instruments, and they sit atop Quaoar's water-ice surface. Snow White's spectrum looks The new findings were published similar to Quaoar's, suggesting in Astrophysical Journal Letters. that similar processes occurred on both dwarf planets, they said. Scientists already knew one dwarf planet that's both red and covered "We're basically looking at the with water ice: Quaoar, which last gasp of Snow White. For Brown and his team discovered in four and a half billion years, 2002. Snow White has been sitting out there, slowly losing its Researchers think Quaoar, which atmosphere, and now there's is slightly smaller than Snow just a little bit left." Brown said. White, once had an atmosphere composed of volatile compounds While Snow White definitely has s u c h a s m e t h a n e , c a r b o n a lot of water ice on its surface, monoxide and nitrogen. But its the evidence for methane is not gravity wasn't strong enough to conclusive, he added.. hold onto these chemicals, and the icy world began losing its atmosphere to space. ice when they used the Magellan Baade Telescope in Chile to take a closer look at Snow White last year. But, spectral data showed that water ice abounded on Snow White's surface. "That was a big shock. Water ice is not red," Brown said.

Over time, everything but some last gasps of an atmosphere that So Brown and his team weren't methane escaped. And radiation has been bleeding off into space expecting to find a lot of water from space has transformed those

At the time of its discovery in 2007, Brown guessed that Snow White had broken off long ago from another dwarf planet, called Haumea -- a weird, football-shaped body, which is Officially known as 2007 OR10, it is actually red, half of its surface is sheathed in water ice. Hence, it's covered by water ice that probably nicknamed Snow White. spewed from ancient cryovolcanoes, researchers said. However, follow-up studies soon showed that Snow White, which is about half the size of It's believed that the dwarf planet's reddish hue likely comes Pluto, is actually quite red like from a thin layer of methane, the many other Kuiper Belt objects.

The planet, nicknamed "Snow White", lies outside Neptune and is orbiting the sun as part of the Kuiper belt -- the ring of icy bodies that orbit the sun beyond Neptune.

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BOLLYWOOD

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Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan turns 38

Bollywood actress and mother-to-be Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, is turning 38 today and will celebrate her birthday with family and close friends. "She will be celebrating her expecting a child. It was birthday with family...Like she reported that the baby is due in always does," a source close to the November. actress said. Aishwarya was to play the There is a buzz that the Bachchan l e a d i n g l a d y i n M a d h u r family is planning a grand party Bhandarkar's upcoming project this evening, where besides, 'Heroine'. However, the film was family members, several B-town put on hold and later it was revealed that Kareena Kapoor personalities would be coming. will play the character instead. Recently, the Bachchans hosted a Having started her career as a grand 'godh bharai' ceremony for model, Aishwarya went on to A i s h w a r y a , w h e r e s e v e r a l win the 1994 Miss World actresses came in to shower their pageant and then turned to Bollywood for a career in acting. blessings. In June this year, Aishwarya's father-in-law and superstar Amitabh Bachchan, had announced, through micro blogging site twitter, that she is In 1997, she entered Bollywood through Rahul Rawail's film 'Aur Pyar Ho Gaya. Though the film failed at the box office, Aishwarya bagged the 'Star Screen' award for the Most Promising Newcomer. She gained attention in Bollywood through Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' (1999), for which, she won the Filmfare Best Actress award.

She was last seen in Bhansali's 'Guzaarish' (2010) opposite Hrithik Roshan. Though, was not a hit at the box office, it was The actress had made a debut in critically acclaimed and won Mani Ratnam's Tamil film awards and nominations at 'Iruvar' in 1997 and had her first several award ceremonies. commercial success with the Tamil movie 'Jeans'(1998).

Nandita Das in IWFs International Hall-of-Fame

For portraying the plight of voiceless women authentically through cinema, critically acclaimed actress-director Nandita Das has become the first Indian to have been inducted into the Hall of Fame by the International Womens Forum (IWF). Known as the thinking mans actress, the 41-year-old was admitted to the elite group at Washington DCs historic National Building Museum last night, a release said here. She was chosen by a selection committee representing women leaders across five continents for her sustained contributions to the arts and to the world as one of the most gripping cinema arts leaders of our time who has shown us what both-feet-on-the-floor authenticity looks like and how keeping your values in focus and applying your talent can fuel women and the world forward. IWF recognises leading global women game-changer women of the chairperson of the by inducting Childrens Film them into the Society of India, International D a s h a s n e ve r Hall of Fame, shied away from which acts as a controversial platform for issues and t h e m t o unconventional connect with roles. the worlds m o s t Considered one of preeminent the most sensitive women of actresses around, significant she is best known and diverse f o r h e r achievements performances in . films like Fire, E a r t h , W e a r i n g Bawander. many hats, including that I have only done what comes naturally to me but I feel a deep sense of gratitude that my choices are being validated by none other than the discerning women, from around the world. I see it as an encouragement to continue the work I do, the actress said after receiving the honour. With her directorial debut, Firaaq (2008), Das brought out poignant and evocative stories of the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat and won a number of awards, including a Filmfare. An advocate of issues of social justice and human rights, she has served as the main jury at the Cannes Film Festival in

We do not have pure rockstars: AR Rahman

Music maestro A R Rahman, who is looking forward to a live concert of his upcoming film Rockstar, feels that India does not have pure rockstars. director Imtiaz Ali, singer Mohit Also, in this film, the character Chauhan and others. that Ranbir plays, does not drink. He does not like alcholol. But, I I have seen IIT people playing like the character, he said. The rock music and then you have song Sadda Haq from the film the usual rock bands. India- has become quite a rage with the wise, we have morals and hence, youth and will be the highlight of we do not see pure rockstars the concert. here, Rahman told reporters the live performance will be lead here at the announcement of the The other songs that will be actors Ranbir and Nargis Fakhri, concert. performed at rhe concert include

The makers of Ranbir Kapoor-starrer film, Rockstar have planned a live concert to promote the movie. Rahman will be performing live at the concert. Joining Rahman for

Jo Bhi Main, Kun Faaya Kun, Katiyan Karun, and Nadaan Parinde. Rockstar, directed by Imtiaz Ali, starring Ranbir and Nargis, will release on November 11.

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Himesh's A * Is Killed to release on Michael Jackson's death anniversary

It was exactly six months back when Himesh Reshammiya's international film A * Is Killed (where * stands for STAR) was announced. Though the makers hadn't chosen to make a statement on record, those who had a dekko at the film's First Look were convinced that the film was based on the murder of Michael Jackson. members of the killed superstar, all of whom are expressing a sense of disbelief that the man is not amidst them any more.

A * Is Killed is said to be taking on from this point on and seemingly unfolds truth behind this murder. The film also stars celebrity blogger Perez Hilton who was very close to Michael Jackson Well, now it could well be time for the in real life. whole world to be convinced of the same since the makers of the film (producers The announcement of A * Is Killed is Arifilms and director Christophe Lenoir) also special for Himesh since it comes have declared their plans to bring A * Is in the wake of Damadamm turning out Killed on the 25th June 2012, the day to be one of the better received films of which marks the third death anniversary the composer/singer turned actor. of Michael Jackson. While the film managed a sustained run for itself over the weekend, even on Confirms a source close to the film, "Yes, Monday it saw a mere 10% drop in the film is all set to release on June 25 collections when compared to it's next year. The makers felt that it was just opening Thursday with Rs. 45 lakhs an apt release timing for the film which more coming in. tells the story of an Indian musician (Sidharth Patel - played by Himesh Says a source, "Guess Himesh is now Reshammiya) who is mesmerized by a even surer about his acting career, with superstar who gets killed." Damadamm fighting it out despite Ra.One in fray, A * Is Killed also Though the makers continue to be tight confirming it's arrival plans and a colipped about the identity of the production with Akshay Kumar superstar, it doesn't take rocket science (Khiladi 786 - Made In Punjab) where to establish the fact that it is Michael he would also be sharing screen space Jackson's story which is being told. with the actor, Himesh has pretty Moreover the teaser, which is currently much declared that acting would stay available online, has a few shots from the on to be his love for quite some time." film interspersed with quotes/snippets from friends, supporters and family

Nargis Fakhri is certainly the flavour of the season. The gorgeous babe, who makes her debut opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar, has surely made heads turn with her unconventional looks. We bring you some stunning images of

Bipasha Basu dons bikini in Players

Players is an action thriller directed by Abbas-Mustan based on the 2003 American film The Italian Job. The film also stars Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Sonam Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Omi Vaidya and Sikander In the theatrical trailer Players, Bipasha Kher. is apparently seen prancing around a beach in a sizzling red bikini. People who Players will release world wide on have seen the trailer say that Bipasha is January 6, 2011. all set to burn the screens with her red Bipasha Basu will be seen sporting a two piece bikini in her upcoming film Players. This is not the first time the sultry actress will be seen in a bikini, she has earlier sported a multi colored bikini in Dhoom 2, wherein she showed off her fully toned body scampering down the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, leaving all the men spellbound. hot bikini look. The Bong babe is looking extremely gorgeous and enchanting.

Farah Khan to choreograph 3 songs for Joker in 15 days

Farah Khan has a hectic fortnight in progress as she gears up to play a triple role in real life that of a producer, choreographer and of course a mother. Though over the last few weeks she was comfortably placed between taking care of her triplets and also ensuring that production of Joker goes on smoothly, it won't be as easy for next few days to come, what with husband Shirish Kunder summoning her on the sets. "In precisely 15 days, she has to choreograph as many as three songs for Joker", informs a senior member from the production team, "The film is in its last schedule as it gears up for 30th August release next year. Since there were combination dates required from Akshay, Sonakshi, Shreyas and Minissha, there is no way these days could be further split. For Farah as well as Shirish, it is good to have all actors under the roof at the same time. It is a different matter though that being a mother, Farah is now required to slog in a big way to fulfil her responsibilities at home as well as work." Shirish too didn't want any other choreographer to come on board other than Farah and the choreographer turned director made an exception as well. For someone who is picking and choosing projects quite sparsely since she is working on the script of her next film after Tees Maar Khan, Farah is practically going through the drill round the clock. "During the day, she makes sure that her kids are ready for school. She then goes on to work for production related activities and spends time with kids once they return from school", says a close family member, "Once she has spent enough time with them, there are song and dance shoots in the evening and sometimes it gets extended late in the night." Due to such hectic schedule, her leading man Akshay Kumar too has made an exception to shoot late in the night, something that he usually avoids.

Tees Maar Khan to take on pirates

Click above for more movie stills Tees Maar Khan (TMK), 2010's much awaited movie, is all set to take on movie pirates just before its release. Bollywood wants to end the year on a good note and all hopes are on Farah Khan's next release Tees Maar Khan. This is also the reason why the producers are putting immense pressure on the pirates this week. Alliance Against Copyright Theft (AACT) has rendered its full support to the producers of the film. Anybody seen in possession of a TMK pirated CD/DVD will be booked under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957. AACT's enforcement consultants have planned raids at various locations across India to seize pirated goods like inlay cards, DVD writers and other equipment. Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, UTV Motion Pictures who are also the producers of the movie says, "The entire team of TMK is working hard to curb piracy. We are working closely with the authorities to intercept attempts to copy or distribute pirated versions of the movie. It is important for our industry to collaborate with AACT against piracy. We will continue putting pressure on the pirates till the release and post release as well."

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WRITE POINT by Chandan Mitra

Vignettes from a voyage of discovery

As I flew to Raipur last week to join tireless traveller Lal Krishna Advanis sixth yatra in 21 years, I wondered to myself whether he would elicit the same kind of response as some of his previous nationwide road shows. Wouldnt viewer fatigue have set in by now? After all, he is approaching 85 and the novelty of a customised vehicle traversing interior Indias dusty roads has worn off. Prior to every election, whether in the States or for Parliament, various leaders hit the road on similar vehicles to interact with voters. In fact, in April this year I too initiated such a poll-eve yatra in West Bengal, travelling in a rath for several days across the States northern districts along with the State party president. So, I had some doubts whether this method of connecting with people hadnt begun to yield diminishing returns. When I caught up with Mr Advanis motorcade at Azad Chowk in Raipur, it was my turn to be surprised. Several thousand charged-up people had lined the route, patriotic songs blared full blast and being Diwali week crackers burst all around me. So many onlookers thronged the bus to have a closer look at Mr Advani accompanied by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh that I could gain access to the vehicle only after repeated announcements from inside the bus to clear the passage. A little earlier a massive gathering had been addressed by BJP leaders at a large maidan but the enthusiasm of Raipur residents had not dulled although many had already seen the proceedings live on TV. The yatra through the relatively small city took more than two hours to wind its way to the State Guest House. In all meetings and street-corner gatherings, Mr Advanis message was simple. The biggest swindle of public funds had taken place under the Manmohan Singh-led UPA regime. Corruption in high places had crossed all limits and the carpetbaggers had stashed their ill-gotten gains in secret accounts abroad. Unapologetic about describing Manmohan Singh as Indias weakest-ever Prime Minister, Mr Advani particularly emphasised the need to bring back the nations pilfered wealth. He said the Swiss, for example, had amended banking laws after 9/11 and parted with information about account holders; that Germany had obtained more than 2,000 such names which included those of many Indians; and that the Government ought to make these public, besides vigorously pursuing still undisclosed names. He pointed out that international agencies had revealed that the maximum amount of illicit money parked in tax havens belonged to Indians. easily accessible and safe drinking water, quality schools and proper hospital facilities. He repeated this message throughout his journey along narrow, potholed roads masquerading as National Highways as the bus travelled across vast agricultural tracts and pristine forests, connecting with people who had been bypassed by Indias post-liberalisation growth trajectory.

I observed anger, aspiration and determination on the faces of people all along the way. The large congregations in Odisha were an even bigger surprise, for the BJP has only six MLAs and no Lok Sabha MPs in that State. India is waking up to the magnitude of the loot, and if the steely What drew the loudest applause was his look on peoples faces is any indication, pledge that, once the estimated Rs 25 Ms Sonia Gandhi has much to worry lakh crore of such funds were retrieved, about. it should be invested in Indias 600,000 villages to ensure rural India gets good roads, uninterrupted power supply,

COUNTER VOICE by Kanchan Gupta

NaMo proposes, PM disposes

the poverty line. We have our version of the Poor Law, drafted by the Army of the Virtuous also known as the National Advisory Council, headed by Ms Sonia Gandhi, and implemented by a Government which has a surfeit of economists, including one who presides over a decrepit and corrupt regime. Its called the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Its also the latest means of politicians and babus pocketing cash meant for the poor, a fact established in State after State, including Odisha whose allegedly The boys decided that one of them squeaky clean Chief Minister can should try and ask for more a draw of reportedly do no wrong. lots ensued and it fell upon Oliver to be the fall guy. Clutching his bowl, Oliver In this 21st century India, where food stepped forward and uttered the six inflation hovers at nearly 11.5 per cent words which have proved to be the most and vegetables are beyond the reach of memorable of those penned by Charles the common man, the aam admi for Dickens: Please, sir, I want some more. whom the Congress toils night and day, Needless to say, those who were in its only the children of the rich and the charge of the workhouse, well-fed, well- middle-classes who can dare say I groomed and well-empowered, did not want some more when food is served take kindly to Olivers outrageous on the table. Those born into less fortunate families make do with what demand. is available; if theres nothing to eat, In 21st century India we have an they go to bed hungry. Were they to ask expanding underclass, the masses who for food, the beadles in charge of this are wretchedly poor and desperately wondrous land of ours, including our hungry. The rich live in their plush ivory economist Prime Minister and his towers, the middle-classes remain economist Planning Commission cocooned in their tacky drawing rooms, Deputy Chairman, would be mighty the rest languish in abject misery. The displeased. As for the Congress, its rich aspire for the moon, the middle- leaders have either never known classes aspire to become rich, the hunger or have forgotten what miserably impoverished aspire to earn deprivation means. Its doubtful they Rs 26 a day so that they can crawl above would know the prices of vegetables or n 19th century Great Britain the most indigent among the countrys impoverished masses were provided with shelter and food, or what passed for them, under the Poor Law. And so it was that Oliver Twist, his mother dead and father missing, found himself first at a baby farm and then at a workhouse where he was barely able to keep body and soul together. Food for Oliver and his fellow inmates was a dollop of inedible gruel that was carefully rationed by fearsome beadles. There were no second helpings.

milk or fruits, or rice and wheat, for that matter. Such mundane details are not meant for the privileged ruling classes. Their kitchens are taken care of, if not by tax-payers then those who steal on taxes. The Economic Times provides a good analysis of the latest inflation figures, released last Thursday. Food inflation is at a six-month high of 11.43 per cent with vegetables 25 per cent costlier on an annual basis, fruits dearer by 11.96 per cent, milk by 10.85 per cent and eggs, meat and fish by 12.82 per cent. This double-digit inflation comes on top of a very high level of price rise recorded in October last year, when it stood at 14.20 per cent already a high-base comparison. The last time food inflation stood this high was on April 9 when it was recorded at 11.53 per cent. Thankfully, this time we have been spared bogus promises like those made by the Prime Minister earlier. We dont need to live under the illusion that he will rein in prices in two weeks, four weeks or six weeks. He is either blissfully ignorant of what a kilo of potatoes costs or just doesnt care anymore. A Regent has other things to worry about, for example, how to keep the Prince occupied with thoughts other than asking him to vacate the masnad. Nevertheless it would be in order to demand an explanation from the Prime Minister as to what has he done with the report submitted by the Working Group on Consumer Affairs headed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The other members of the committee were

the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The committee was set up in April 2010 to suggest ways and means of holding the price line for essential commodities. By early this year, the report was finalised and it has been gathering dust in some corner of the Prime Ministers Office for the past six months. Its not a voluminous report crammed with senseless data and meaningless jargon. Thats not Mr Modis style. Its a slim report which lists 20 recommendations with 64 detailed actionable points for their expeditious implementation. Here are some of the recommendations: Future Markets: Considering the lack of strong linkages between spot and future markets at present, it has been suggested that for the time being essential commodities should be kept out of the future markets. Price Stabilisation Fund: The setting up of a Price Stabilisa-tion Fund by the Government of India has been suggested to help State Governments in the procurement and distribution of essential commodities in short supply. Nevertheless it would be in order to demand an explanation from the Prime Minister as to what has he done with the report submitted by the Working Group on Consumer Affairs headed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The other members of the committee were the Chief

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BY LINE by MJ Akbar

Through the looking glass ceiling

How much anger do you need to smash a Democracy offered the liberation of greater transparency. Perhaps the glass ceiling? difference between upstairs and A glass ceiling became the symbol of downstairs was more bearable when discrimination during the struggle for the worlds were separated by women's rights in western democracies. impermeable iron curtains. The pain is By the 1970s women had moved out of less when you cannot clearly see what the stereotype steno pool into the you have been denied. When the infested rivulets of middle management, democratic spirit melts this iron into but there was no further room for glass, when you find that the upward mobility. An invisible ceiling b o a r d r o o m i s f u l l o f s m u g prevented them from entering the incompetents, and your talent is being boardroom. No rules prevented entry. It denied its due, the urge to throw stones at the glass ceiling becomes an itch. just did not happen. The relevant part of the simile, it seems to me, is not invisibility, but that you can see through a glass window, or ceiling, into the other side. Class and caste have always been instruments of injustice, but ruling elites have generally taken care to cloak inequity with some pompous code, either of faith or in the name of a law which they write and an order which they impose. Of course he is a brilliant man. You have to be, to become a billionaire on Wall Street. Someone has calculated, I hope competently, that if you were to begin counting now it would take you fifteen odd years to reach a billion. The point is not the stretch, whatever it might be. The issue is: at what point does a man stop counting out his money? Both Raj and Rajat Gupta had made enough money to feed many future generations. Why did Raj need to indulge in insider trading at this point of his life? We are so much in awe of success so we almost refuse to see any flaw in the diamond. But the But this glass does not shatter easily. mightiest can slip on a banana peel. Wealth protects itself with an obduracy honed and perfected over centuries. I have often wondered about the origins Talent can easily make you rich, but and rationale of the phrase "filthy rich". even an abnormally high level of ability Is it mere decorum, or pity, that prevents may not get you membership of the us from saying "filthy poor" with equal exclusive megarich cluster. You need abandon? You have to be mad to prefer IQ plus anger. The establishment poverty to wealth. Or you could be a might sneer at "raging ambition", but it saint. One of the virtues of a sufi or a yogi is also afraid of it. is his total indifference to money. It is not merely the moral strength of abstinence at play. There is also a hint that the path to riches is at least amoral, if not overtly tainted by immorality. Avarice might encourage envy, but rarely true admiration. Men like Raj Rajaratnam know that those at the top have not reached the perch because their behaviour was impeccable. If the predecessor could get away with it, why not the successor? If Rajaratnam had to write up his tragedy he would probably see no further than bad luck. Not so simple. The democracy that opens up glass ceilings also tightens the noose of law. Author is Editor-in-chief of THE SUNDAY GUARDIAN

ETHICS & POWER by Ram Jetmalani

Right to Information is not a gift to be revoked at will

complete openness. A campaign for freedom of information is however on. In India the credit must go not to our politicians and their parties, but to some of our great judges. In the 1975 case of State of UP vs Raj Narain, the Supreme Court had to deal with Raj Narain's claim for production in court of a government document called the Blue Book said to contain the rules and instructions for the protection of the Prime Minister when on tour. The claim was resisted by government on the ground that it was opposed to public interest. The court had to decide on the conflict between public interest, which demands that the sensitive contents of a document should not become public, and public interest in the administration of justice, which One of the important lessons of the requires that the courts should have Second World War was the misuse of the fullest possible access to all information in totalitarian regimes, as relevant evidence. exemplified by the notorious role played by Joseph Goebbels and the National The court directed the high court: Socialist propaganda. In 1971, the "Look at the document and decide British appointed a committee presided whether the whole document or any over by Lord Franks to examine Section part of the document could be made 2 of the British Official Secrets Act of public after resolving the conflict 1911. The Franks Committee received an between the two opposing kinds of enormous amount of evidence. It found public interest." that Section 2 was obscurely drafted and so recommended its repeal. It also Mathew J., one of the greatest judges recommended the passing of a new that India has produced, delivered a statute called the Official Information very learned concurring judgement. Act. The Franks report was debated in This is how he dealt with this question: the House of Commons in June 1973, but "Those who are responsible for because of change of government in national security must be the sole 1974, no action could be taken. It is judges of what national security recognised in Britain that government requires. As the Executive is solely has not yet conducted its affairs with responsible for national security Demands for access to government information are not a recent phenomenon. In India they were made in the 1920s. In 1946 the General Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution which stated, "Freedom of information is a fundamental human right and is the touchstone for all the freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated." This was followed in 1948 by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which included an Article stating, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers." including foreign relations, no other organ could judge so well of such matters. Therefore, documents in relation to these matters might fall into a class which per se might require protection. But the Executive is not the organ solely responsible for public interest. It represents only an important element in it; but there are other elements. One such element is the administration of justice. The claim of the Executive to have exclusive and conclusive power to determine what is in public interest is a claim based on the assumption that the Executive alone knows what is best for the citizen. The claim of the Executive to exclude evidence is more likely to operate to subserve a partial interest, viewed exclusively from a narrow department angle. It is impossible for it to see or give equal weight to another matter, namely, that justice should be done and seen to be done. When there are more aspects of public interest to be considered, the Court will, with reference to the pending litigation, be in a better position to decide where the weight of public interest predominates." In a later paragraph he elaborated on this in words that occupy an immortal place in the jurisprudence of democracy: "In a government of responsibility like ours, where all the agents of the public must be responsible for their conduct, there can be but few secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way, by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearing. The right to know, which is derived from the concept of freedom of speech, though not absolute, is a factor which should make one wary, when secrecy is claimed for transactions which can, at any rate, have no repercussion on public security. To cover with veil of secrecy, the common routine business, is not in the interest of the public. Such secrecy can seldom be legitimately desired. It is generally desired for the purpose of parties and politics or personal self-interest or bureaucratic routine. The responsibility of officials to explain and to justify their acts is the chief safeguard against oppression and corruption." This judgement was followed by another judgement in 1982 in the famous Gupta case. Justice Mathew was fully approved and followed now by seven judges and unanimously. Every honest officer should have the courage of his convictions. For limitation of space I shall quote no more, but a government that thinks of tinkering with freedom of information must be voted out on that ground alone. A government sinking in its scams has no business to repeal or modify statutes designed to empower and protect society from the horrendous scams that are now firmly imprinted on the public mind.

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Iranian Tank Girls

Photo & essay by Jenny Matthews In 1999 I was commissioned by Marie Claire magazine to go to Iraq with writer Christine Aziz. Our assignment was a story on a group of Iranian exiles (the PMOI Peoples Mojahedin Organisation of Iran) who had a military camp of around 3500 people in the desert north of Baghdad. They were practicing for the day when they would launch an attack on Iran and topple the government there. In this army 70% of the officers were women, and a one third of the fighters were also women. Ever since the early nineties, their leader, Mme Maryam Rajavi, has placed women at the forefront of their battle against the Iranian government. The trip was a great adventure, beginning with an eight-hour ride across the desert from Jordan in a red Mercedes. As soon as we arrived at the camp the picture opportunities began thousands of fighters on parade, the women wearing photo friendly red headscarves, then off to a tank battle. A delicious lunch was followed by a demonstration by female commandos. Superficially the story was great beleaguered woman fighters squaring up to the might of Iran ( men appeared to be were very much in support roles dancing for us, making bread, serving food that sort of thing . The story was published, everyone was happy but Ive always felt uncomfortable about my part in glorifying women and weapons, and that all was probably not as upbeat as it seemed. Saddam Hussein was using the PMOI to patrol the long border with Iran. The US government has accused the PMOI of being involved in the suppression of the Kurds, and that the actual order came from the PMOI leader at the time Maryam Rajavi. There is, however, no evidence to prove it. Her photo is everywhere on the base, especially in the womens lockers , the nearest they have to any personal space. The group come over as a cult, and some of those who have managed to escape speak of indoctrination and a stranglehold on their lives. At the same time there was great enthusiasm for the tanks driving, firing and maintaining them. As one young woman, Parveen, explained, Im a gunner on a tank in the past that was unimaginable. At first it was difficult to lift tank shells. The noise in the turret, the smoke it was all very alien and difficult, but eventually the tank became like putty in my hands and it got so my heart started to throb when I heard the tank engine. Now the tanks are gone. During the shock and awe attack on Iraq in 2003 the base came under fire, there were deaths and injuries. The group was asked to disarm. The tanks, including 19 British made Chieftains, were taken away by the Americans who set up a Forward Operating Base, Camp Grizzly, on the edge of the camp. Some of the camp members had knowledge of the Iranian nuclear programme so they became an asset rather than a liability, although the group is still designated terrorist by Iran and the US. The label has been dropped by the European Council.When we went back to visit in 2003 the fighters were reduced to playing battles on Apple Macs and learning karate and holding concerts of classical music in their huge exhibition and conference hall. Despite being held under the protection of the Geneva Convention, 34 people died in clashes with Iraqi security forces that broke into the camp. When a US congressional delegation tried to visit in June this year Maliki (Prime Minister of Iraq) refused them permission. The latest twist in the tale is that now local farmers (encouraged by the Iraqi government) are demanding their land back and the PMOI has been told to leave by the end of this year. Iraqs liberal and more secular sections of society support the PMOI and will be sorry to see them go. It is unclear where members of the former army will go to- certainly not back to Iran. Many of them have already served prison sentences there. Its claims to have a lot of support in Iran, but it is difficult to tell. Its links with Saddam Hussein during the tail end of the devastating Iraq-Iran war are not forgotten Driven by a feminism unique to the region it is despised by the fundamentalist regime it seeks to overthrow. Only time will tell if the PMOI is more than a pawn in the wider politics of the region.

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