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Thursday,
June 14, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Supersonic
development Dream
pipeline Badal’s
welcome about-turn |
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A tale
of two elections
Now a
media-shy CEC from North-East
Sounds,
silence and the sublime
Death
amidst a glare of publicity
They
marry soul mates, not moneybags
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Supersonic development It is rather unusual for the test flight of as advanced and path-breaking a missile as the supersonic PJ-10 to be undertaken in the kind of secrecy that marked the Pokhran explosions. But the confidentiality was perhaps justified, considering that the cruise missile marks a quantum jump in India's defence capabilities. It is the first one with India that travels faster than the speed of sound (in fact, twice the speed of sound) and has a high level of accuracy. It can beat most of the modern ship defence systems. In fact, it is believed to be the first of its kind in the world and will be simultaneously inducted into the Indian and Russian arsenals. With propulsion from Russia and the guidance system from India, the 6.9-metre "fire and forget" missile can be on the enemy in a matter of minutes from a distance of 280 km and hardly gives any time to the adversary to counter its challenge. It can be fitted on submarines, ships or even aircraft. China already has such supersonic anti-ship missiles. India has been underlining the fact that its strategic interests extend in the Indian Ocean from the Persian Gulf to the Malacca Straits and the induction of the state-of-the-art missile will help in safeguarding these interests. It goes without saying that it will come in handy against any evil designs of Pakistan as well. Significantly, India is acquiring missiles from Israel also. At the same time, there is need for the induction of an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). What needs to be noted is that the range has been deliberately confined to 280 km to steer clear of the Missile Technology Control Regime. Still, the reaction of the USA and other western countries will have to be watched carefully. It will be no surprise if it is argued that it is going to be part of the country's nuclear weapons delivery system. It does have that capability and there is no need to be coy about it. What is now clear is that whenever nuclear weapons are actually inducted, these will be made available to the Navy as well as the Air Force. In any case, deterrent capability is not the only plus-point of the joint venture. Once the flight tests are over, an attempt will made to find a market for them, which may be as big as $10 billion during the next 10 years. The Indo-Russian joint venture company Brahmos (which is Brahmaputra-Moscow in a short form) may indeed have a winner on its hands. That is good news for an ailing DRDO that represents India on the Brahmos. |
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Dream pipeline It is safe to say that the planned Indo-Iranian gas pipeline will be landbased and will pass through Pakistan, yes Pakistan. Both countries had deep reservations about the wisdom of laying a costly delivery system through a country that is often at war with itself and where nursing anti-India feeling is an obsessive pastime. Any hothead may decide to proclaim his patriotic dislike for India by blasting the pipeline at a secluded stretch. Why, militants in the North-East often damage the pipeline between Bongaigaon and Barauni in Assam; of course the Indian one is to carry crude. But there should not be any basic difference between the two. Pakistan saboteurs can be banked on to acquire the needed expertise to execute their pet project. It was this clear and justified apprehension that made India and Iran reject the land route and opt for a submarine alternative. But reality helped change their mind. One, an underwater pipeline is prohibitively costly and in the long run, the returns may not be commensurate with the huge investment. This is important since neither India nor Iran has that kind of money to undertake the job singly or jointly. Capital has to come from outside and it will not come if the project looks unviable at the very planning stage. This is one reason, the deciding one, for the preference for a land-based pipeline. Shifting political position also helped in rethinking. India has changed the nature of the bilateral commercial relationship. It now says that it is a buyer and its needs must be delivered from where it can lift it. In other words, Iran must supply gas at Indian border and not at its own border. The effect of this semantic skullduggery is dramatic. It means that the stretch of pipeline in Pakistan is a matter between that country and Iran and not between Pakistan and India. All those ultra nationalists have lost the only motivation to blow off the gas line. Two, in all pan-Islamic councils Iran has enough clout to punish Pakistan if it fails to protect the pipeline. India stands to gain two economic and one diplomatic advantages. It will get plenty of gas and at a lower price than now. Gas imports are by ships which is a costly proposition. More interestingly, giving the green signal to a land-based pipeline through Pakistan is a massive vote of confidence in that country. And that too just before the summit. Additionally, Pakistan which is hardpressed for foreign exchange, will earn a small fortune as transit fee. This and the global desire for Indo-Pakistan amity should keep the pipeline out of reach of militants. |
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Badal’s welcome about-turn Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal might be accused of strengthening his vote-bank when he announced at Patran in Patiala district on Tuesday that there was no proposal to set up a nuclear power plant at Droli, but his about-turn on the issue comes as relief to the Punjabis in general and the agitating villagers of the area in particular. It is extremely risky to have a nuclear power plant in a populated and fertile area. Still riskier is to keep it accident-proof. Its maintenance is cumbersome. Power generated from such a plant is said to be more expensive than hydel power. Besides, the wisdom of locating a nuclear power plant in a border state is itself questionable. For months the residents of the Patran area had been protesting against the move to locate the proposed plant at Droli. While the Punjab Cabinet had not cleared, or even discussed, the nuclear plant issue, Punjab State Electricity Board officials led by the state Power Minister were vigorously pushing it. PSEB officials took a busload of villagers to UP's Narora nuclear power plant to allay their fears. But the villagers were unconvinced. So they raised the issue at Mr Badal's "sangat darshan" function and the "sangat" had its way. It is not clear what calculations were done when Mr Badal himself had pleaded with the Prime Minister for a nuclear power plant for Punjab, but now votes have obviously outweighed them. Punjab desperately needs power, no doubt. Thermal power is unviable. Inadequate rain last year hit hydel power generation. The Ranjit Sagar Dam raised hopes but it could not become fully operational. Why Punjab should give free or highly subsidised power to Jammu and Kashmir when its own supply is inadequate is something that does not make sense. Quite irresponsible is the state government's decision to give farmers not only free but also unmetered power supply. Farmers are still unhappy because of lack of quality power. The state's power reforms are yet to begin. Meanwhile, Punjab along with Haryana can join hands to tap the hydel power potential of Himachal Pradesh and Uttranchal where Governor Surjit Singh Barnala can be helpful. If the State leadership discourages power and water-intensive paddy cultivation, cracks down on power pilferage and streamlines the distribution system by vigorously pushing the reforms, the need for a nuclear power plant will no longer be felt. |
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A tale of two elections In this country’s media Mr Tony Blair’s landslide re-election as Prime Minister of Britain has made much the greater splash. But vastly more important is the simultaneous and highly impressive return to power, in the Iranian general election of President Mohammed Khatami. To be sure, Britain is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a member of the rich nations’ club called G-7, and nominal head of the commonwealth. In its own estimation at least, it also has a “special relationship” with the USA. But in reality it is a declining power. It is losing ground even within the European framework because it is not yet committed fully to the European Union in which power has shifted to Germany and France. By comparison Iran is a rising power in a crucial region that straddles West, Central and South Asia, has great and growing influence within the 55-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and has shown remarkable interest in restoring and strengthening “civilisational links” with countries like India and Egypt. Above all, though holding on to the basic tenets of the 1979 “Islamic Revolution”, Iran has shown a welcome tendency to move towards greater democracy and freedom of expression, largely because of the impetus provided by President Khatami. His re-election, with an even larger proportion of votes polled than four years ago, is thus of profound significance. Most Iranians have hailed it as a “mandate for reform and freedom”. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei’s welcome to the electorate’s verdict must have heartened them. To say this, however, is not to suggest that it is going to be roses, roses all the way for Mr Khatami in Iran or that Mr Blair’s tremendous triumph in Britain means little. To take the second point first, Britain’s place in the pecking order may be slipping but it does remain a country of consequence. India’s links with it, both historical and contemporary, matter to both sides. Of particular interest is the substantial number of Indians or people of Indian origin who live there. Unfortunately, on this score the latest British elections have been a cause for grave concern. For the rise of racism in that multicultural country — reflected as much by the riots that took place at Oldham during the election campaign as by the voting trends — has assumed menacing proportions. The rabid British National Party (BNP) has received an alarming number of votes in several constituencies. As the Tory Party, which made immigration from South Asia and the West Indies an issue during the poll, declines further, the vacant space could be occupied by the BNP. For the rest, the British elections were on largely domestic issues. The Conservative Party’s pathetic plight had made the Labour victory a certainty though everyone knew that Mr Blair’s appeal was partly based on his wholesale adoption of Lady Margaret Thatcher’s policies and programmes. No wonder many are calling him “Tory Blair” rather than “Tony Blair”. His decision to demote the outgoing Foreign Secretary (Minister), Mr Robin Cook, and replace him by Mr Jack Straw, formerly Home Secretary, merits the applause it has evoked, especially in this country. Generally rude and brusque, Mr Cook never spared any effort to give Britain’s policy on Kashmir an anti-India twist. At the time of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to this country during the golden jubilee celebrations of independence, Mr Cook had made vicious remarks on Kashmir. Even so gentle a person as the then Prime Minister, Mr Inder Gujral, was provoked to retort that the ranting of a minister from a “third-rate power” should be ignored. Earlier, as “shadow” Foreign Secretary, during a “get-acquainted” visit to Delhi, Mr Cook had lectured dinner guests at the British High Commissioner’s residence to demand that India must give up nuclear weapons and “roll back” its nuclear programme immediately. So hectoring was his style that an irritated Indian guest asked him: “If nuclear bombs are so bad, why are you preserving yours? To drop them on the Bundesbank in Frankfurt?” For once Mr Cook was silent. Mr Straw, the new Foreign Secretary, is, by comparison, a levelheaded individual, well versed in the subcontinent’s problems, if only because in his constituency there is a concentration of both Indians and Pakistanis. As Home Secretary, he had no hesitation to ban some Pakistani groups that were collecting funds for terrorist organisations operating in Jammu and Kashmir. This should not create any illusion, however, that Mr Cook’s pro-Pakistani “tilt” will be replaced by Mr Straw’s “bias” for India. But we can expect an even-handed treatment at the British Foreign Office. As for Iran, Mr Khatami has his task cut out for him. It is impossible for him, or anyone else, to meet all the aspirations of the people. But failure to meet them substantially, or at least partially, cannot but have disastrous consequences. During Mr Khatami’s first tenure, the right-wing clerics and hard-line judges greatly impeded his efforts to widen the areas of personal freedom and liberal democracy. He has now to press harder because the Iranians, especially the younger ones, are yearning for these reforms, as was amply demonstrated by the TV images from the streets of Teheran throughout the elections, and especially after the President’s re-election with 77 per cent of the votes. The leading Conservative candidate pitched against him, one of nine, ended up a poor second with only 15 per cent of the vote. Even in the holy city of Qoom, the citadel of the clerics, Mr Khatami’s vote was 56 per cent of the total. All this cannot be lost on the Iranian right wing. The economic challenge before Mr Khatami is also acute. Things are currently not bad because of comfortable oil prices. But during the last decade Iran’s population has increased at the high rate of 3.5 per cent a year. Consequently, unemployment has soared. As Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Iran in early May underscored, both India and Iran have high stakes in each other, politically, economically, socially and otherwise. This relationship needs to be strengthened, particularly because Iran is now a partner of India in combating terrorism and opposing the Taliban in Afghanistan. There are some incidental aspects of the two elections under discussion which this country should take note of. The voters’ turnout in Iran, though not as high as in 1997, was still an impressive 83 per cent, as against just over 50 per cent in Britain. It is encouraging that the Britons are concerned over the voters’ apathy. This looks like becoming a problem in several other democracies, including ours. In Britain, even before the last election results were out, the vanquished leader of the Tory Party, Mr William Hague, resigned and asked his party to elect his successor immediately. Earlier, after Mr Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister in the Israeli election, Mr Ehud Barak, the defeated Prime Minister, had also resigned as the leader of the Labour Party. Such ethos is, of course, alien to this country’s political culture. After the Congress Party’s debacle in the parliamentary elections in 1996, Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao refused to quit either as Congress President or as Leader of the Congress Party in Parliament. He went only after his prosecution in the JMM bribery case. His successor as Congress President, Sitaram Kesri, was thrown out, almost physically, after the 1998 parliamentary poll. In 1999, when the Congress performance was even worse than on the previous two occasions, nobody dared suggest that Mrs Sonia Gandhi needed to make any gesture. After the recent state Assembly elections, Ms Mamata Banerjee, did resign, as she should have, after her party bit the dust in West Bengal. But nobody in her party or outside has taken this seriously. On the contrary, MPs belonging to her party are busy pressurising her to rejoin the National Democratic Alliance she had walked out from. The NDA is, of course, gleefully telling her that she is not exactly welcome. Iran has shown a welcome tendency to move towards greater democracy and freedom of expression, largely because of the impetus provided by President Khatami. His re-election, with an even larger proportion of votes polled than four years ago, is thus of profound significance. Most Iranians have hailed it as a “mandate for reform and freedom”. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenel’s welcome to the electorate’s verdict must have heartened them. To say this, however, is not to suggest that it is going to be roses, roses all the way for Mr Khatami in Iran or that Mr Blair’s tremendous triumph in Britain means little. |
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Now a media-shy CEC from North-East Information available about the country’s North-East is inadequate. So too is the case with the new CEC, James M. Lyngdoh, who hails from the picturesque and sleepy town of Shillong in far-flung Meghalaya or the abode of the clouds. Though he has been in the commission for almost four years, the towering personalities of his predecessors —T.N. Seshan and M.S. Gill — have overshadowed his presence in the three-member Commission. And Lyngdoh appears to be enjoying being out of the limelight. He would rather be left to himself to perform his onerous duties and responsibilities as the numero uno of the Election Commission of India. Lyngdoh is perhaps only the second person to occupy a constitutional position from the North-East. Former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who hailed from Assam, was the other person. The 62-year-old Lyngdoh perhaps carries the cooler climes of his native town in his personality. A Bihar cadre IAS officer of the 1961 batch, Lyngdoh did his schooling from St Edmunds School, a missionary institution of repute in Shillong. A National Defence College graduate, he holds fellowships from the prestigious Ivy League campuses, Princeton and Harvard. In his long and chequered career in the IAS, Lyngdoh held several important positions at the Centre as well as his cadre state of Bihar. He superannuated as a civil servant in February, 1997 and since then occupied the key position of an Election Commissioner in Nirvachan Sadan. Lyngdoh, however, has an unenviable task at hand as he has to carry forward the reformist baton handed by Seshan and Gill. As a hardened professional, Lyngdoh has invariably led from the front and usually shunned the Press. A male bastion falls Ms Nirupama Rao, to whom goes the credit for being the first woman spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, is a senior career diplomat having joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973 after topping the combined services
examination. Married to IAS officer Sudhakar Rao, Nirupama has promoted the country’s cause in various capitals, including Washington, Moscow, Vienna and Lima. Nirupama participated in the unfolding process which led to normalisation of relations with Beijing climaxing with the historic visit of Rajiv Gandhi to China. Before assuming charge of external publicity, which essentially means defending the country before the national as well as international media, Nirupama was heading the economic and multilateral economic relations division of the MEA where she helped in developing and harnessing synergies among countries which have links with India. The Ganga-Mekong Swarnabhoomi project, BIMST-EC and Indian Ocean Rim are some of the initiatives having tremendous potential for creating synergies which can go a long way in helping the people of the region. |
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Sounds, silence and the
sublime I have been exploring the nature of the sublime in some of the earlier pieces, and in continuation of the foregoing discourse, I feel drawn to one aspect which remains largely out of our common focus and knowledge. For though, in the final analysis the ultimate mode is the word as such, in certain cases the mere sound of music, instrumental, or that caused by nature — storms, rains and winds, an orchestrated music of feathers in flight etc. — is enough to lift the spirit to a degree of the sublime if the responding ear or heart is so conditioned or susceptible. And often great poets and singers have sought to catch and extend those divine moments through a symphony of sounds created by musical instruments, ragas and certain incantatory forms of paeans and invocations. And beyond and above all these sounds, there’s the mystery and divinity of shunya, silence. Those are “the unheard melodies” of Shelley, and in Sikh theological idiom, anhadnad. It’s these more refined, more inaccessible moments of the sublime which I seek to touch upon. Before I turn to the music of thought in meditation, I would like to draw the reader’s attention to certain soul-stirring, oceanic and cosmic sounds that certain trained human voices can produce. For instance, the long and drawn-out intonation of that primal word Om (which is progression turns to Ohm, now superbly recorded in videos and cassettes, with the sound effects created by high-tech music, has the power to suggest a pervasive ambience of divinity. As the intonation proceeds on a low note and begins to gather a deep hum of sounds, rising to a crescendo — and to a graduated primal note again — the word Om’s divinity become manifest. That the Lord’s word of the Creation, no wonder, its mystery and power overwhelms the spirit of the listener. Similar in import but different in origin, utterance and execution, the Muslim Azan by the muzzien in the small hours of the morning has that deep and rich resonance which rouses the souls of the faithful, and moves the very bowels of their being. Even one not of the faith cannot but be drawn into the magnificent and awesome beauty of sound. I heart the Azan in an Abu Dhabi mosque close to my son’s house for some mornings years ago, and that resonance has still the power to remind me of Allah’s presence in the sands of the Arab Emirates. A somewhat similar effect is created in the Sikh intonation of Ekam-Kar, “God is One”, which is the first word of the mantra or primal invocation initiating Guru Nanak’s superb Japji Sahib, a long hymn of 38 pauris. When that word is intonated by a congregation in the morning when the entire created world of birds and insects sets up its own divine symphony, the enchanted ears, charmed and inebriated, begin to respond to the wires within. For the moment, the categories of space and time are annihilated, and one has a sense of the Ultimate Reality as in a trance. There are echoes deep in the wells of one’s being. Again, organ music as in great Christian Cathedrals, or the sounds, the echoing reverberations in high halls as, for instance, in St. Paul’s London, or in St. Peter’s Rome, bring us close to the sublime and leave us awe-struck, elated and mystified. The glory of God is seen pulsating all around. Long ago when I happened to read Buchnan’s book on the affinity between music and mathematics, an affinity that only God could have created, I did realise the truth of Whitehead’s observation, “The word is but a mathematical idea in the head of God”. And the word came from the Lord, the word “became flesh”. To recall Christendom’s greatest 20th century poet, T.S. Eliot, it’s “the word within the word” that carries the Lord’s message. Even in a long poem of great despair, The Waste Land, a mocking dirge on the “expense of the spirit” in hedonistic pursuits and pleasures — the death of a civilisation — he does not forget to remind his readers of the infinite riches that lie in prayers, in meditative silence, concluding it on the note of “the peace that passeth understanding”. And the Hindu mantra is invoked to create the right effect: Om, Shanti, Shanti But his profoundest utterances in this regard are to be found in his “swan song”, The Four Quartets. Even here, his voyaging soul feels the stings of memory and the experience of “the garlic and the sapphire”, but his questing muses at last, find the point of “stillness” in movement — spiritual equipoise in the midst of moral exertions, the point of peace where silence and stillness are all, the wheel of work still in labour. It’s “the still point of the turning world”. Perhaps the most compelling aspects of sounds and silence — and sublimity — are seen in the face of a babe in the crib. As he’s still close to the primal “home”, God to recall Wordsworth’s “Ode to Immortality”. The little sounds of joy, wonder, enchantment, and the smile draped in tissues of mystery and silence are a kind of experience which borders on the sacred and the ineffable. Thus, the sublime as moments in experience is something always close if “the doors of perception” are not darkened. Sounds then turn into an auditory truth, and silence slides into the Silence — the end of new beginning. |
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Death amidst a glare of publicity Timothy McVeigh, who masterminded the worst act of domestic terrorism in the history of the USA on April 19, 1995, was a US soldier decorated at
the Gulf war. Truck bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma, killing 169 people including 16 children. Six year later McVeigh has been put to death by lethal injection at the US Federal prison in the quiet university town of Terre Haute, Indiana. His lawyers had exhausted their quota of legal appeals. In fact, the execution had to be postponed because the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found out to its discomfiture that it had not supplied to the defence attorneys several of important papers connected with the case. But it was only a temporary delay. McVeigh could not escape the execution chamber. For the past many weeks, the USA had been gripped with a McVeighmania. As the USA President, George Bush, set out on his first official European visit, he was haunted by the execution. Europe, which had a strong anticapital punishment lobby had urged the USA President, a champion for the death penalty, to save the life of McVeigh. In fact, the Pope himself had joined the appeal. But sentiments in the USA were different. Stunned by the enormity of the crime and his refusal to express any regrets, the USA wanted death for the killer. Nearly 8 out of 10 polled by the CNN-Gallup did not want McVeigh to be saved. In a country which had witnessed its own share of bizarre crimes and
where violence was often publicised on television and the rest of the media, the McVeigh execution was a major media event. Even as the local people remained sullen and uncommunicative, tourists poured into the town. Town shops were ready with T shirts with messages reading, “Die, Die” and “Hangin’ Time”. Hotels, restaurants and parking places were overflowing. Over a thousand journalists ( print, TV) from all over the country had arrived to “report” on one of the most famous executions of all time. The execution followed the familiar pattern outlined by best selling novelist John Grisham in his novel, “The Chamber”. The condemned man was entitled to a meal of his choice (provided it did not cost more than $20), asked to make a final statement, and then led to the death chamber where he was strapped. Unlike hanging, electric chair or cyanide gas, death by injection is swifter and painless. In fact, the victim was put to sleep before he was put to death. The entire action took only a few minutes and was witnessed by chosen relatives of the bombing victims, prison and government officials and around 10 journalists chosen by lots. Another 300 odd relatives of the victims watched the execution on closed circuit TV.
What T-shirts proclaim You could not, even if you wanted to, miss the fact that T-shirts have started to talk. Everywhere you look this summer you will see youngish women with text messages splattered over their T-shirts. And not just any old message, either. Gone are the days of ‘I love New York’ or even a daringly ambiguous ‘Relax’. Depending on how you feel about yourself, you might want to go for ‘Fit Chick, Unbelievable Knockers’ or ‘Frisky Chick, Usually Kops’. Although their awful corniness suggests that these T-shirts are designed to be worn at home, as some kind of private sex-talk between consenting adults, the whole point about them is the very public nature of their utterance. Braver (or more exhibitionist?) souls wear them to work. Antonia Dart, 25, a PR executive who has 47 sloganned T-shirts, thinks nothing of spending a day at the office with ‘Sexy’ written all over her. Do her (male) bosses mind? ‘I don’t care if they do. Provocation is the whole point. If I wore an outrageous T-shirt and then spent the whole time hiding away behind the filing cabinet, that really would be sending an odd message.’ ‘T-shirts are traditionally all about enraging the establishment and trying to upset the status quo. In the sixties, seventies and eighties young people used them to protest against war, the monarchy, nuclear weapons. These days young people aren’t interested in politics any more, but they still want to shock.’
The Observer |
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They marry soul mates, not
moneybags Single Americans in their 20s want to marry someone who shares their innermost thoughts and feelings, rather than someone rich or of the same religion, a survey said on Wednesday. Today’s young Americans are on a quest to find their “soul mate,” compared with past generations that sought spouses with similar religious and social backgrounds, said a new survey from Rutgers University’s National Marriage Project. “Seeking a compatible mate who shares similar values is not new, but what is new and surprising is that the soul mate ideal has become the most desired marital partner characteristic for this age group — surpassing religion, economics and even the ability to be a good mother or father,” said David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project. Among Americans in their 20s who have never been married, 94 per cent said they wanted a soul-mate spouse “first and foremost,” said the survey, which was called “Who Wants to Marry a Soul Mate?.” They were very confident of success. Of those surveyed, 88 per cent agreed there was a “special person, a soul mate, waiting for you somewhere out there,” and 87 per cent thought they would find that person when they were ready to get married. For 80 per cent of the women polled, a husband who could articulate his deepest feelings was a better catch than one who earned a good living. Only 42 per cent of single Americans in their 20s thought it was important for their spouses to have the same religious beliefs, the survey showed. The survey is part of the project’s wider “The State of Our Unions” report on marriage trends in the United States. It was based on telephone interviews with 1,003 married and single men and women age 20 to 29 from January through March this year. “There’s an awful lot about soul mates in popular culture,” Popenoe told Reuters. “It’s the term of the hour. ... It’s a big change from times past when you maybe hoped a spouse would be a soul mate by the end of life but you didn’t start out looking for such a person. You were looking for someone responsible and reliable who would be a helpmate for the tasks of life.” In vogue “The marriage rate hasn’t started to go up; the out-of-wedlock birthrate hasn’t started to go down; single-parent families are still going up slightly and there has been a tremendous increase in nonmarital co-habitation,” he said. According to a recent report from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 43 per cent of first marriages end in separation or divorce within 15 years. Nor does the soul mate quest necessarily produce a happy marriage, experts said. The belief that there is only one perfect mate for a person sets unrealistic expectations for marriages and often can lead to divorce, they said. “Twenty-somethings are still romantic and idealistic, still want to find their soul mate and have the marriage of their dreams, so that’s very good,” said Diane Sollee, the founder and Director of the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education. “The bad news is if we keep operating on that premise, we will keep repeating the current trend of a very high divorce rate.” At the same time, young Americans were more concerned than ever about divorce, Popenoe said. Close to nine out of 10 Americans in their 20s thought the divorce rate was too high, and 47 per cent believed laws should be changed to make it more difficult to divorce, it said. The fear of divorce and the hunt for a soul mate could explain the high rate of young Americans who live together before getting married, the survey said. Among those polled, 44 per cent had lived together, at some time, with a partner of the opposite sex while not married. Marriage was no longer associated with having children the way it once was, the survey said. Only 16 per cent of young Americans saw having children as the main purpose of marriage, while 62 per cent believed it was acceptable — although not ideal — for a woman to have a child on her own if she had not found the right man to marry. The soul-mate relationship also created tension when a couple had children, marriage experts said. “The soul-mate ideal intensifies the natural tension between adult desires and children’s needs,” the survey said.
Reuters |
The Hindus of Ferozepore City at a public meeting held on June 7 under the presidency of L. Mokand Lal, Advocate, adopted the following resolution regarding:- The Hindus of Ferozepore City in a public meeting assembled, place in open record their strong disapproval of the principles underlying the Money-Lenders' Bill and are of opinion that this bill is detrimental to the best interests of the Hindu community in particular and the Province in general and humbly request the Government not to give its support to this Bill.  |
Gentlemanliness is an ornament to prosperity; proper control of speech, to personal valour; calmness, to knowledge; humility to learning; due charity to wealth; absence of anger to religious devotion; forgiveness to power; and candour as well as sincerity of heart to virtue; but good conduct is the best ornament to all because it heightens the worth of all the aforesaid merits. **** (An ordinary person) should never cultivate close relations with the wealthy, since when he visits him he is not honoured and when the rich man visits (the ordinary man) the latter is put to a lot of expense. **** A friend is to be regarded as of four kinds; one's own offspring; one formed by connection; one lineally descended; and one rescued from dangers. **** Great kings generally possess the characteristics (of the five gods) viz. ferocity, majesty, placidity, chastisement and tranquility. **** Good people help others even at the time of suffering an injury at their hands. Does not the tree give its protecting shade even to him who is cutting it down? **** Why do you not get angry against anger if you are indignant against an offender? For it is the great obstacle to the attainment of righteousness, wealth, love and liberation. **** The darkness in the form of wrath should be first removed by intellect by one who aspires to rise; even the sun does not rise without dispelling the darkness caused by night, by his rays. —From Maha-Subhashita Sangraha, Vol IV, 8213, 8214, 8253; Vol. II, 1876, 1879, 1914. |
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