E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Only Uncle Sam’s prerogative
THE USA has finally said in so many words what it has been practising all along. According to its fantastic policy formulation, pre-emptive attacks are permissible for the USA against Iraq, but the same logic does not hold for India, even if it is having to fight Pakistan-sponsored terrorism for decades.

NDA’s performance record
THE National Democratic Alliance government, headed by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, is no doubt, justified in highlighting its achievements after its completion of three years on October 13. The survival of the NDA experiment with the participation of nearly two dozen parties in itself is a major plus point.

Expansion politics in UP
UTTAR PRADESH Chief Minister Mayawati is presiding over an opportunistic alliance comprising the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. To stay in power, the only option available to her is to keep increasing the size of the ministry every time a group of MLAs threatens to walk out of the fragile coalition.

OPINION

Multiple messages of recent events
Kashmir & Pak polls, three years of NDA
Inder Malhotra
HOW exciting have recent days been! First there were the historic Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir that have been applauded by the international community as free, fair and transparent. These had the additional merit of having ousted from power the long ruling and increasingly unpopular Abdullah dynasty.

Advani’s handpicked man as Home Secretary
AT a time when the world’s attention is focused on fighting global terrorism and India is trying to blunt Pakistan’s protracted proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr N. Gopalaswamy, a hand -picked man of Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister L.K. Advani has taken over as Union Home Secretary.

• Indian women in business

‘Fateless’ film gets Nobel award boost
Andras Muller
LAJOS KOLTAI, a Hungarian Oscar-nominated cinematographer, has been trying for years to raise money to shoot a film based on a Holocaust book by his friend Imre Kertesz. On Thursday, Kertesz became the first Hungarian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and Koltai now hopes the money will come rolling in.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Woman’s life costs half of man’s
IRANIAN women began talks with Islamic clerics on Tuesday to demand that “blood money” compensation for a murdered woman should equal that of a man. Under Iran’s strict Shi’ite interpretation of Islam, compensation for the loss of a woman’s life is half of that paid for a murdered man.

• Too much bicycling leads to impotence?

• Criminals want to sweeten victims’ lives

OF LIFE SUBLIME

Anger is lethal: let’s be forgiving
Firoz Bakht Ahmed
IN today’s hectic times, anyone can hurt us anytime — and that too without any rhyme or reason or fault of ours! We always look for a healing touch after someone has hurt, humiliated or insulted us. A wise man will make haste to forgive because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Only Uncle Sam’s prerogative

THE USA has finally said in so many words what it has been practising all along. According to its fantastic policy formulation, pre-emptive attacks are permissible for the USA against Iraq, but the same logic does not hold for India, even if it is having to fight Pakistan-sponsored terrorism for decades. Lest there is a feeling in India that it is being singled out and a grave injustice done to it, it has been added in good measure that it is not lawful for Russia or China either to adopt the US administration’s policy. The inference is loud and clear. What was wrong for Russia while dealing with Chechnya and what is wrong for China vis-à-vis Taiwan is fully justified in the case of the USA. The irrationality of it all is too shocking for words. It has been known all along that two sets of rules are applied in international diplomacy by Washington, but this is too brazen an application of that Janus-faced policy. A lot of linguistic sophistry has been used to defend the indefensible. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer says: “What is different is the unique history of Iraq. Different policies work in different parts of the world, and different doctrines work at different times and in different regions because of the local circumstances”. In other words, what is sauce for the American goose is not at all sauce but arsenic for the gander.

US policy planners seem to be so taken in by their own brilliance that they refuse to accept that this line of action will be self-defeating. One, countries like India will not be able to back its “global” fight against terrorism whole-heartedly. The end result could be that these whole coalition might break down. Two, it must be understood that the USA can never be free of the scourge of terrorism if it allows the terrorists to find a safe haven in other countries. Just as such vermin know no religion, they know no geographical boundaries either. It is just not possible to classify some terrorists as good because they happen to be on your side of the fence. Three, the decidedly partial policy will spread a wave of indignation through the countries which do not come under the US rubber-stamp category and may even bring together disparate forces that may not be supportive of terrorism as such but may find the US action inexcusable. Clearly, that will be a remedy worse than the cure. The USA needs to rethink the pros and cons dispassionately in its own larger interest.

NDA’s performance record

THE National Democratic Alliance government, headed by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, is no doubt, justified in highlighting its achievements after its completion of three years on October 13. The survival of the NDA experiment with the participation of nearly two dozen parties in itself is a major plus point. No other such government has lasted this much. That it has carried on with the new economic policy of privatisation-globalisation, contrary to the expectations, is worth appreciation. On the industrial and agricultural front, the government has not done poorly. The inflation rate is within comfortable limits. Foreign exchange reserves have doubled from $32 billion to $62 billion. Mr Vajpayee demonstrated that India under his leadership was very keen on developing friendly relations with its neighbours when he undertook the Lahore bus yatra. That the Indo-Pak bus service had to be discontinued later on is a different matter. He made it a point to take the Opposition into confidence whenever there was a serious national crisis like the one during the 1999 Kargil war or the military standoff on the border with Pakistan on the issue of cross-border terrorism. The latest creditable achievement is the transparently fair Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, appreciated the world over.

There may be some more points worth recording on the success side of the Vajpayee ministry’s track record, but the list of failures is lengthier and greatly disturbing. The NDA government has shown serious weaknesses in taking decisions on economic issues in particular. After the presentation of almost every budget it has reversed some of its own decisions, earning the sobriquet of a rollback government. The government seems to be in no hurry in pushing up the second generation economic reforms. There has been much talk of reforms with a human face. But instead of doing anything in this respect, it has sent wrong signals to the industry within the country and the world community at large by messing up the disinvestment programme. Serious differences within the government over the matter came up when three senior ministers----Mr George Fernandes, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi and Mr Ram Naik----opposed the sale of oil PSUs. The Sangh Parivar too showed its approval of the stand taken by the dissenting leaders. For the time being, the controversy has disappeared with the declaration by the Prime Minister that the disinvestment process will continue unhindered. The most serious damage to the nation’s reputation as a peace-loving secular democracy came when Gujarat, the industrial hub of India, was rocked by large-scale communal riots. The government failed to rise beyond electoral compulsions. It has also been guided mainly by power arithmetic while handling some troublesome coalition partners. Allowing them to blackmail the Central Government was unfortunate, to say the least. In the case of regional issues like the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Vajpayee government has been unable to play the role of a facilitator. The Prime Minister should not only be a friend, philosopher and guide for coalition partners but also a tough task master. Certain problems are inbuilt in coalition politics, but under no circumstances should the head of the government allow things to drift. Nothing is above the interests of the nation. Gloating over the continuity factor is not a sign of maturity. Continuity can be considered meaningful only if it is accompanied by good governance. The Tehelka scandal, the UTI scam, allowing the head of an enemy country (remember the Indo-Pak Agra fiasco) to come to India and steal the limelight do not speak well of a government. However, it goes to the credit of Mr Vajpayee that he has successfully withstood the debilitating pressures from international and national quarters, including the Sangh Parivar.

Expansion politics in UP

UTTAR PRADESH Chief Minister Mayawati is presiding over an opportunistic alliance comprising the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. To stay in power, the only option available to her is to keep increasing the size of the ministry every time a group of MLAs threatens to walk out of the fragile coalition. Last week she added 57 new faces to buy short-term peace. Of course, she has still some distance to travel before she crosses Mr Kalyan Singh's record of heading a team of 95 plus ministers. Portfolios were broken up into small pieces not with the intention of giving work to every member of the jumbo-sized ministry, but to justify the official perks allowed to them. Ms Mayawati is already facing revolt from those who have been inducted as also from those who are waiting outside for the door to open again. Political pundits believe that the door at some point may be left ajar for every Mayawati supporter, in the BSP and the BJP plus independents to come in and get a chance to be called mantriji. After all when Mr Kalyan Singh introduced the policy of survival he knew that the money for the luxury of putting into place a mammoth ministry would come from the helpless tax payers. And Indian tax payers are among the most docile in the world. They seldom complain. But members of coalition governments do. The murmurs of protests from them are part of the game of give and take in coalition politics. The funny thing is that the giver doesn't lose a paisa while the taker stands a chance of taking the shortest possible route to becoming a millionaire.

In this endless game of political survival it is the people who suffer the most. UP has become one of the most backward states because of the politics of survival and populism practised by the group of parties in power. Mr Kalyan Singh's contribution to pushing the state to the brink of bankruptcy is monumental. It is only a matter of time before Ms Mayawati will set new standards in political profligacy. Instead of unfolding a plan for resurrecting the state's economy, Ms Mayawati has announced money-guzzling projects in the name of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. She could borrow a passage from John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech, in which he said "we shall face any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe", for achieving her goal of putting Ambedkar on the highest pedestal in the country. She has usurped land that was earmarked for the Indira Pratishthan by a Congress government for the establishment of an international social justice library and museum in memory of Ambedkar. Leading academics and scholars have no idea how the project will be made to work. The biggest tribute to Ambedkar would be to make optimum utilisation of available funds for raising the educational and economic status of his children. But in Ms Mayawati's myopic world visible symbols of social justice — like installing Ambedkar's statue at every crossroad — make more sense than diverting the crores of rupees spent on meaningless projects to the socio-economic uplift of the Dalits.

OPINION

Multiple messages of recent events
Kashmir & Pak polls, three years of NDA
Inder Malhotra

HOW exciting have recent days been! First there were the historic Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir that have been applauded by the international community as free, fair and transparent. These had the additional merit of having ousted from power the long ruling and increasingly unpopular Abdullah dynasty.

Then came the poll in Pakistan that the official observers of the European Union have described as “seriously flawed” and most Pakistani commentators have dismissed as the “General Election”, not a general election. Since that country’s military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, had been unwise enough to denounce the Kashmir elections, well in advance, as a “farce”, he is clearly cutting a sorry figure now. But that is perhaps the least of his worries.

Election results in his own country would bother him a lot more. For, despite his elaborate manipulations, including utter mutilation of the constitution, he has failed to shape the composition of the National Assembly, as he would have liked it to be. Consequently, the quotient of uncertainty in Pakistan in the coming weeks and months is bound to be uncomfortably high.

Even more troubling to him is going to be the rise to power of Islamic fundamentalists, marching under the banner of the Muttihada Majlis-e-Amal, in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, the two areas that adjoin Afghanistan. In these provinces and the land of Afghans, tribal and ethnic affinities as well as rivalries cut across the international boundary, such as it is. Indeed, the MMA makes no bones about its deep sympathy for and support for the Taliban and Al-Qaida. It has already demanded the termination of the American military presence on Pakistani soil!

The irony of it all is that the surge in the Islamic representation in the legislatures may well be due, partly at least, to General Musharraf’s own Machiavellian policies. He needs visible presence of extremists in his country and its legislative councils to use as a bargaining counter with the Americans who continue to embrace him as a “key ally” in the war of terrorism. The EU delegation has categorically stated that the Musharraf regime used the official machinery to influence the voting in favour of its “preferred candidates”. Some of this dubious advantage has gone to the MMA; it has by no means been confirmed to the “King’s party”, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q).

Incidentally, the letter in parenthesis is supposed to stand for Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. But, as respected columnist Ayaz Amir says, in the eyes of most Pakistanis, it “really denotes Quislings”.

In the midst of all this there is the drumbeat of the celebrations of the third anniversary of the Vajpayee Government in its present avatar, a subject on which we are bound to witness more song and dance in coming days. Let me, therefore, analyse the three major events of much significance in reverse order.

The survival of the 24-party coalition, with the BJP as its core, for full three years is no mean achievement. No earlier non-Congress government in New Delhi has lasted that long. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s earlier government that came to power in 1998 had turned out to be a 13-day wonder. This time around there seems little difficulty in the completion of its full five-year term.

To draw a balance-sheet of the successes and failures of the government is a task that can be left to a future date. For the present it should suffice to say that of the 95,000 viewers of Aajtak TV channel who responded to its poll on the subject, 54 per cent expressed disappointment and disapproval of the government’s performance. This is no surprise, given the shame of Gujarat, the Hindutva shenanigans over Ayodhya, a string of scams, degeneration of governance, rising prices, never mind the 5 per cent rate of growth of the GDP and the soaring of the foreign exchange reserves to nearly $70 billion.

The really notable point about the initiation of jubilation over three years in power is that the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Lal Krishan Advani, rather than wait for the Prime Minister’s return home some hours later that night, chose to preside over the festivities by holding a Press conference. One reason for this evidently was the “sanctity” of the date, October 13, on which the third Vajpayee Government was sworn in three years ago. In any case, Mr Advani took care to pay due obeisance to and repeated the statement that the BJP would go to the polls in 2004 under Atalji’s leadership. Even so, such is the atmosphere in political Delhi that several seasoned observers of the scene saw in the whole exercise a continuance of Mr Advani’s projection as the government’s and the party’s more assertive and effective leader. The tone in which he answered sensitive questions on foreign and security policies tended to confirm this impression.

To revert to Pakistan, wisdom lies in not rushing to judgement at a time when things there are fluid. The King’s party will need support from other groups even after its ranks are swollen by Independents who are mandated by an Ordinance to join some party or the other within 72 hours or lose their seats. Ms Benazir Bhutto, evidently bowing to ground realities, also seem to be trying to do a deal with the General so that, in her absence, her party can have a share in the cake of power in Islamabad, however, limited the role of civilian government may be.

At the same time, in his speech in Turkey, General Musharraf, flying in the face of the internationally accepted electoral verdict in Kashmir, has again harped on elections in this Indian state having been a “farce”. In view of this, it is inappropriate to talk an early “de-escalation” along the India-Pakistan border that has been touched off by the Advani Press conference.

And that brings us back to the Kashmir elections, unquestionably a landmark event in 2002. Just as joyous celebrations over the poll’s heady outcome are yielding place to sober reflection on life’s reality and uneasy attempts at the formation of a stable government in the state, the dangers ahead are becoming starkly clear.

To put it bluntly, politicians of all hues across the country in general and in Jammu and Kashmir in particular, have a knack to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Sadly, this pernicious propensity is already in evidence; unless checked firmly and immediately, could play havoc. Ms Mahbooba Mufti, deputy leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), even more than her father, Mufti Sayeed, has blown out of all proportion the issue of the Chief Minister’s choice in the Congress-PDP coalition.

Are personal ambitions going to be allowed to override wider national interests and that, too, in a sensitive state where people have suffered enormous deaths and destruction during 12 years of proxy war? It is vastly more important that the basic principles and the joint programme of the proposed coalition are settled first. While every party in the coalition would naturally have its elected leader, the coalition as a whole ought to choose the Chief Minister by consensus.

Moreover, it is time that, in accordance with the democratic practice, elected MLAs are allowed to take their own decisions instead of being forced to follow the dictates of the so-called High Command. The High Command concept is archaic, dated and undemocratic, even though Ms Mehbooba also boasts of a “PDP High Command”, and so perhaps does Professor Bhim Singh, the leader of the Panthers Party commanding a membership of precisely four in the new Assembly.

A word of advice to the Congress is called for. On the issue of the new Kashmir government’s leadership, it can afford to be generous. Its main concern should be to safeguard national interest, not only from this country’s enemies but also from those friends who are too close to and too soft on the Kashmiri militants and separatists.

As the ruling party, the BJP’s responsibility is much the greater, especially because Kashmir will no longer be ruled by one of its recalcitrant allies but by parties totally opposed to it. A complete understanding between the BJP and the Congress-PDP combine over Kashmir policy, around which national consensus could be easily built up, is, therefore, imperative.

Advani’s handpicked man as Home Secretary

AT a time when the world’s attention is focused on fighting global terrorism and India is trying to blunt Pakistan’s protracted proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr N. Gopalaswamy, a hand -picked man of Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister L.K. Advani has taken over as Union Home Secretary. He succeeds Mr Kamal Pande, who will be taking over as the new Cabinet Secretary on November 1 after acclimatising himself with the duties and responsibilities of being the country’s top civil servant.

Between 1992 and 1996 he served at the Centre in the Department of Electronics and then did a stint as Adviser (Education) in the Planning Commission for the next two years. From September, 1998, to July, 2001, he was Secretary-General of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). He then went on to become Culture Secretary, the position he held till he took over as Home Secretary.

Indian women in business

Indian business women are moving out of the shadows and surely enhancing their clout by getting recognised internationally. A case in point is that of Chennai-born Indra Nooyi, who has moved several notches up in the space of a year to emerge as the fourth most powerful woman in business. This is the finding of the American business magazine Fortune.

Ms Nooyi joined Pepsico in 1994 and strongly climbed the ladder to become president and chief financial officer of the multinational soft drink company with a pay cheque of US $ 5.5 million in the 2001-02 fiscal. She is a product of IIM-Kolkata.

Two other compatriots figuring in Fortune’s list of 50 most powerful women in business are Ms Vidya Chhabria, chairperson of the Dubai-based Jumbo Group, and Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO and Vice-Chairman of HSBC Securities and Capital Markets. For Ms Chhabria, after her husband Manu Chhabria’s death in April 2002, it is a first time honour. What is even more noteworthy is that she, with no executive responsibilities, has settled into the role smoothly managing 20,000 of her employees spread over 20 countries.

She describes the last few months as a valuable learning experience of quickly developing new insights in the realm of business and commerce.

However, Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, who was on last year’s list also, has since slipped three places and has barely made it at number 50 among the most powerful women business leaders. Her move from JM Morgan Stanley to HSBC might well be the reason for the drop in her worldwide rating.

‘Fateless’ film gets Nobel award boost
Andras Muller

LAJOS KOLTAI, a Hungarian Oscar-nominated cinematographer, has been trying for years to raise money to shoot a film based on a Holocaust book by his friend Imre Kertesz.

On Thursday, Kertesz became the first Hungarian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and Koltai now hopes the money will come rolling in.

Koltai, nominated for the 2000 Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work in Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malena, told Reuters he was overjoyed when he heard his friend, who survived the horrors of both the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during World War II, had won the Nobel award.

“I’m lost for words...my phone’s ringing non-stop, it feels almost like when I received my Oscar nomination”, he said.

Kertesz’s defining first novel, Fateless — a first person story of a boy’s survival in a concentration camp — was written between 1960 and 1973, and published in 1975.

The two men have been working on a film script for two and a half years, and Koltai hopes to start filming late next year.

“Kertesz speaks to his readers in a way that was unknown for me in Hungarian literature,” he said.

“When I gave him my views on Fateless he jumped up and said: ‘That’s exactly what I meant...I want you to make a film of it’.”

He said a book of the film script had been launched in German bookstores only on Wednesday.

“This is the best moment (to win the prize). It’s hard to believe this is happening to us.”

Koltai is trying to raise 6-8 million euros to make the film — high by East European standards.

“I agreed with Kertesz that this story was not worth making into a movie unless it was done under the most perfect conditions.”

He said the best advertisement for the film would be the star quality of Kertesz himself.

“When, the other day, he read some parts of his latest novel, I saw again that not only is he a highly unique thinker but also a great performer.

“Fateless” was written between 1960 and 1973 and was initially rejected for publication. When it was published, it was largely ignored.

It tells the story of a teenage boy who is taken to a concentration camp but survives by treating life at the camp as an everyday existence like any other.

Subsequent books follow up themes from the first. Kertesz’s second novel “Fiasco” (1988) recounts the experience of a writer waiting for the authorities to decide whether to publish his novel about Auschwitz.

In “Kaddish for a Child not Born” (1990), Kaddish — the Jewish prayer for the dead — is said by the protagonist for the child he refuses to beget in a world that allowed Auschwitz to exist.

Other books include “Holocaust as Culture”, a collection of essays and lectures (1993), and “Moments of Silence While the Firing Squad Reloads” (1998).

Kertesz has no college or university diploma. Perhaps ironically, some of his closest ties are with Germany, where he frequently travels and where he has won several awards, including the Brandenburg Literature Award in 1995.

He also has two awards from the Soros Foundation.

Many of Kertesz’s books have been translated into German, and he himself had translated many German-language authors, including Friedrich Nietzsche, whose ideas have been linked to Nazi principles.

Kertesz does not consider himself a religious Jew, but has visited Israel three times, most recently for a Holocaust survivors’ conference at the Yad Vashem institute in April.

Kertesz’s first wife Albina, whom he married in 1962, died in 1995. Two years later he marries his second wife, Magda.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Woman’s life costs half of man’s

IRANISN women began talks with Islamic clerics on Tuesday to demand that “blood money” compensation for a murdered woman should equal that of a man. Under Iran’s strict Shi’ite interpretation of Islam, compensation for the loss of a woman’s life is half of that paid for a murdered man.

Hardline clerics’ objections also stem from men’s traditional role as bread-winners, meaning that the death of a man inflicts a greater financial burden on the family. Reuters

Too much bicycling leads to impotence?

Some researchers in the USA have claimed that too much bicycling can lead to impotence.

The claim that excess bicycling is linked to impotence seems to go contrary to the fact that countries like India and Pakistan, where bicycles are widely used, are experiencing population explosions, but the US government researchers have promised to release more data to support the finding, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The researchers have linked impotency in bicycle riders with the way seats are designed.

Some bicycle manufacturing companies in the USA have already been in the process of redesigning the seat, without waiting for the final conclusion of the researchers. PTI

Criminals want to sweeten victims’ lives

Inmates serving life sentences in a Canadian prison want to make life sweeter for crime victims by starting a chocolate factory and donating the proceeds to charity, a spokesman said.

Rene Durocher, an ex-convict who works with prisoners in Stony Mountain Penitentiary near Winnipeg, said he wants to train up to eight of the 508 inmates to make and sell boxed chocolates to the public. The money would go to help victims of crime, but Durocher admitted he does not know how Canadians would feel about eating soft-center chocolates made by criminals doing hard time.

“This is the question,” Durocher said. “We have to be able to look further than what we feel and see the impact that good can do.” Reuters

OF LIFE SUBLIME

Anger is lethal: let’s be forgiving
Firoz Bakht Ahmed

IN today’s hectic times, anyone can hurt us anytime — and that too without any rhyme or reason or fault of ours! We always look for a healing touch after someone has hurt, humiliated or insulted us. A wise man will make haste to forgive because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain. On the other hand, anger is a short madness and when a man grows angry, his reason rides out. Fury and anger carry the mind away.

True, anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one. In fact anger is the fury and frenzy of the soul. Anger is hard to combat as it is willing to buy revenge with life. By controlling the anger of a minute, one may avoid the remorse of a lifetime. So, with the good man anger is quick to die.

Actually, the best way to feel better is the opposite of getting revenge. Saying the words, “I forgive you” could be the most powerful thing we will ever do. Forgiving doesn’t mean giving in. It means to let go. Once we forgive, we are no longer emotionally handcuffed to the person who hurt us. One reason is that it may compensate for the powerlessness we experienced when we were hurt. We may feel more in charge when we are filled with anger. But forgiving instils a much greater sense of power. When we forgive, we reclaim our power to choose. It does not matter whether someone deserves forgiveness, we are free to do so.

It is better to forsake anger than waiting and letting it forsake us. How truly Shakespeare commented in Coriolanus: “Anger’s my meat; I sup upon myself !” To be angry is to revenge the faults of others upon ourselves. Rage supplies all with arms. When an angry man thirsts for blood anything will serve him foe a spear. Fury turns a stick into a cudgel. Forgiveness is good for the body as well as the soul.

Medically speaking, people who remain angry most are susceptible to hypertension and related heart/brain diseases. Re-living unsuccessful or humiliating situations in the past hurt over and over again and prove bad for your health. Simply remembering an incident that made a person angry has proved to be stressful for the heart. Negative feelings that cause stress have also been linked to high blood pressure and increased susceptibility to other illnesses.

An angry man has only accusations to utter because anger’s way is to regard nothing. Therefore, wise men have often said that nothing is benefited with delay except anger. Impetuosity manages all things badly. The angry man always thinks he can do more than he can. In fact he is undone more than he can do. Angry men make themselves beds of nettles. Anger always begins with folly and ends with repentance. When anger swells the heart, the idly-barking tongue must restrain to save from a disaster. Anger is like those ruins that break themselves against what they fall upon. Anger is a spender and few indulge it without cost.

Forgiveness can occur without anybody else’s involvement or awareness. The people who forgive may never realise they wronged us or never know we forgave them. They may deny everything.

What is important is that we let go of our anger. The act of forgiveness may be more than any of us manage on our own. We cannot forget hurt nor should we. Those experiences teach us not to be victimised again and about not victimising others. Forgiveness leads to inner peace, once we have forgiven we would laugh more, feel more deeply, become more connected to others. And the good feeling we generate will pave to even greater healing.

We can express our anger or disappointment with a trusted friend or counsellor. This allows us the strengthening experience of being heard. We can let go of your feeling without the danger of saying or doing any thing we will regret later. Anger releasing method such as punching a pillow can help. If we are not so much angry as sad, we may keep a journal.

By all means we should avoid negative thinking and expression on anger such as driving dangerously, slamming doors or breaking things. We can spell out the truth of what happened as we experienced it without blaming or judging. It is better to use the “I” statement as — I feel — I do not understand and so on. We may describe the impact of the person’s behaviour had on us and express our feelings to resolve the issue.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Live thou and do good to others.

— Kashmiri proverb

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Be friends with a man’s goodness and not with his wealth.

— Chinese proverb

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True goodness is loving your fellowmen. True wisdom is knowing your fellowmen.

—Analects

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You will meet your good deed again.

— Estonian proverb

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Carve good deeds in stone, bad ones in sand.

— German proverb

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Be constant in good.

— English proverb

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One should worship the gods with a heart purified by faith in them, treat the seniors as gods and the equals as himself.

One should make favourable the seniors by salutation, the good people by well-behaved dealings, and the gods by good deeds.

One should attract the friends and relatives by good behaviour, the wife by love, the servants by offering distinctions, and others by gifts.

—The Shukraniti, chapter I

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A gentleman blames himself while a common man blames others.

—Analects

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A gentleman can do nothing greater than encourage men to do good

—Mencius

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The true gentleman is friendly but not familiar;

the inferior man is familiar but not friendly.

—Analects

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For a gentleman there is no other name; he is always a gentleman.

—A saying of Confucius

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One faith, one tongue, one heart.

— French proverb