O P I N I O N S

PERSPECTIVE

Dalits in private sector will make India stronger
by Udit Raj
The United Progressive Alliance Government was able to muster the support of dalits by promising them reservation in private sector, filling up backlog posts, distribution of land etc. However, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar has happily welcomed the denial of reservation by top industrialists such as Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Kumarmangalam Birla, Anu Aga, Rafik Jakaria etc.

On Record
RJD will win Bihar polls: Raghuvansh
by Prashant Sood
Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has the onerous task of implementing three of the six components of the UPA government’s ambitious Rs 1,74,000-crore Bharat Nirman project. With an easy hands-on approach and grassroots experience, he has taken several steps to streamline implementation of welfare schemes for the poor.

Enjoying life after retirement
by R.C. Acharya
They say death is a great leveller, and so is superannuation, which turns the mighty into humble. Apart from becoming history, sins of past service life tend to catch up. In particular, one’s own behaviour with the juniors start getting reflected in their attitude towards you, after you no longer occupy the chair.

OPED

Profile
Tiger in trouble
by Harihar Swarup
Chicklod Kothi, the erstwhile hunting resort of Nawab of Bhopal, is an hour’s drive from the state capital. There was time when tigers roamed freely in Chicklod forests and adjoining jungles of Khajuri and Rattibar. A few years after the new state of Madhya Pradesh was formed in the late fifties, Marshal Tito visited Chicklod on a hunting expedition and was guest of the Nawab.

Police as agent of social change
by J.L. Gupta
Police in India is almost as old as our civilisation. It has been said, “In Mahabharata and Ramayana there are specific references to the existence of police administration”. The great law giver Manu had also recommended that the “police jobs should be entrusted to only persons with local knowledge of people and regions…” In the Gupta, Chola and Moghul periods, the police looked after law and order. Centuries have passed. The basic duty of the ‘Droga’ has not changed. If at all, the responsibility has increased.

Diversities — Delhi Letter
North-East students protest against rape
by Humra Quraishi
We make such tall claims about the North-East but do little for the people living there. We don’t even care to know what problems and difficulties they face or live with. And even the students coming from that end to the capital are rarely given a chance to intermingle, as though they are foreigners coming from some alien place.

• Limits of insensitivity

• Three well-known persons no more

• Beating the heat, the French way

REFLECTIONS

PERSPECTIVE

Dalits in private sector will make India stronger
by Udit Raj

The United Progressive Alliance Government was able to muster the support of dalits by promising them reservation in private sector, filling up backlog posts, distribution of land etc. However, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar has happily welcomed the denial of reservation by top industrialists such as Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Kumarmangalam Birla, Anu Aga, Rafik Jakaria etc.

The captains of industry have extended their support to the uplift of dalits through training and education in private schools. But the expenditure on this will be much more than what they would have spent on dalits by providing them employment and remuneration. Clearly, the industrialists do not want to shoulder any responsibility.

Some intellectuals, industrialists and a section of the middle class argue that reservation in private sector will adversely affect production and efficiency. In the post-independence era, what development has the private sector done to compete at the international level? Our industrialists have not made a single international brand so far compared with their counterparts in developed countries.

There is no reservation but they are still lagging behind. Of over 100 crore population, we could not get a single gold medal in the Olympics though there is no reservation in sports. If some corporate houses are doing well, it is for personal benefit. Our professionals, technocrats and bureaucrats always angle for foreign training. But why have we not developed like those in the West? Indian industries themselves are product of a sort of reservation like adopting foreign technology, office establishment and what not.

When the annual profit and loss of a company is declared, industrialists in the US first make it a point to declare the representation given to Afro-Americans, Red Indians and Hispanics. Till date which Indian industrialist has shouldered this kind of social responsibility? When our government and industrialists follow the American industries as their role model, why cannot they follow their social ideals and obligations?

Interestingly, during a study tour to California last year, I found that when the Municipal Corporation, county etc., award contracts, they impose conditions on businessmen to buy materials from weaker sections such as Negroes, Hispanics and Red Indians according to their population ratio. The Delhi Government is building a flyover in Dhaula Kuan. The contract worth Rs 1,000 crore is given to a private company which has to buy 25 per cent of raw materials from dalits. By this way, in the Rs 1,000-crore business transaction, Rs 250-crore worth business will go to dalits. In no way it will hamper efficiency and production. This will enable dalits to have a say in the country’s development.

Non-whites such as Oprah Winfrey and Alfonse Fleture are among the top industrialists in the United States. But not a single dalit has reached this position in India. At present, 75 CEOs and most powerful blacks (See Black Enterprise, February 2005) are ruling the roost in US corporate houses. However, not a single dalit occupies such a position in India.

Sometime back, the West and the US were role models for Indian industries, but now it is China. If the same mindset continues, some underdeveloped nations would become new role models for us in the future because China will have left us far behind. Asking for reservation in private sector is synonymous to participation without compromising merit.

The country, which faces internal contradiction, would never progress. In the 60s and 70s, America witnessed bloody battles between Negroes and Whites but the problem has been successfully tackled by integrating them in various fields. Without this, the US could not have progressed and become a super power. Today Negroes are the pride of the US in music, games, industries etc. India’s dalits have been waiting for such opportunities. But who will let them in?

Our industrialists speak of merit. But they themselves are victims of inefficiency and poor human resource because they employ people on the basis of caste and recommendations by politicians and bureaucrats. Thus, they are deprived of hard working, honest and patriotic manpower. This way, not more than 20 per cent of the population contributes to human resource. If the best brains among the dalits and other sections are rewarded with jobs, our industries would be much more efficient. This will enable our industries to compete with global players.

Chinese goods are dumped in Indian markets and average customers would like to buy articles made in Korea, Taiwan, China etc. Dalits and backward classes proved better in their traditional occupations. Shoemakers did well in leather, carpenters and milkmen in their respective professions but the martial caste was unable to stop the enemies even once. The caste engaged in education failed to educate the country. Consequently, how can the protagonists of meritocracy brand dalits as inefficient?

If dalits join the private sector, our industries will stand to gain because the former’s buying power would help consume the goods manufactured by the latter. Thus, whatever salaries the industries would pay, they would stand to gain. Educated hypocrites deny instantly that they believe in caste system but matrimonial columns in the newspapers expose their hollowness.

Reservation is being sought in the private sector primarily to compensate discrimination on caste basis. Indian industrialists are casteist to the core. Globalisation is being welcomed in economic field whereas it is badly needed elsewhere too. Once our culture is globalised, the industrialists would themselves come forward to accommodate dalits.

Our industrialists consider below their dignity to dine and interact with employees, but business tycoons in casteless countries would refer or introduce their own kith and kin to others even if they work as scavengers, carpenters etc. Globalisation of culture will put to rest such complexes and prejudices.

The Centre doesn’t seem to commit itself on providing reservation for dalits in the private sector. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi should give serious thought to this. Dalits are deeply disappointed. The Left is up in arms on issues like FDI and FIIs etc. But it is least bothered about promises made to dalits. If the Congress is not playing gimmicks, it should help enact legislation to provide reservation for dalits in the private sector.

The writer is National Chairman, All-India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, New Delhi

On Record
RJD will win Bihar polls: Raghuvansh
by Prashant Sood

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh

Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has the onerous task of implementing three of the six components of the UPA government’s ambitious Rs 1,74,000-crore Bharat Nirman project. With an easy hands-on approach and grassroots experience, he has taken several steps to streamline implementation of welfare schemes for the poor. Affable and genial, Dr Singh, 59, is a Ph.D in Mathematics. A key aide of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, he is confident of the RJD getting a majority in the ensuing Bihar elections.

Excerpts:

Q: How is the RJD bracing up for the Assembly elections in Bihar?

A: There is no need of preparation as people will give a one-sided verdict. The RJD will get an absolute majority and with its allies it will have two-thirds strength in the Assembly. People have seen the outcome of a hung Assembly and have realised their mistake. Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav has also admitted that the party made some mistakes in the last elections. The RJD and the people of the state will not make more mistakes.

Q: Who are your allies?

A. We will try to bring all the UPA partners together.

Q: Will you also have an understanding with Mr Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party?

A: Though an ally of the UPA at the Centre, the LJP is neither with the UPA nor with the NDA in Bihar. As of today, both are opponents in Bihar. Leaders of both parties are criticising each other. There is no ceasefire yet.

Q: Are efforts being made for a ceasefire?

A: If this does not happen, people will force a ceasefire.

Q: How do you look at Mr Paswan’s stand on having a Muslim Chief Minister?

A: Mr Paswan is dodging people. His MLAs were not Muslims. No MLC or MP of his party is a Muslim. How will people believe him?

Q: Why did the RJD not accept Mr Paswan’s offer of making a Muslim MLA from your party as the Chief Minister?

A: Mr Paswan stuck to his no-BJP, no-RJD stance till the end. The offer of having a Muslim candidate from the RJD as Chief Minister was conveyed to us when most of Mr Paswan’s MLAs had moved away from him. Had such an offer been made to us earlier, we would have considered it. Mr Paswan held the key to government formation, but he did not make honest efforts. Is it possible for one to dictate terms to 100 MLAs with just 29 in his kitty?

Q: What about the NDA’s charge about being prevented from forming a government in Bihar through the late night recommendation for dissolution of the Assembly?

A: There were reports of deals being made to win over rebel LJP MLAs who were being moved from one place to another in Jharkhand. Dissolution was the only way to stop horse-trading. The NDA did not stake claim to form the government before the Governor. Hence, dissolution was the correct decision, belated though.

Q: What was the RJD’s basis of staking claim to form the government when the majority did not look feasible?

A: Had the RJD been called to form the government, the MLAs would have taken oath. In the debate on the confidence vote, the LJP MLAs would have been forced to review their stand. We would have been able to prove our majority even if they had abstained.

Q: What were the mistakes made by the RJD in the last elections?

A: The party faulted in ticket distribution. At many places, the opinions of workers were ignored and they were angry. When the elections were declared, the RJD was in a position to get absolute majority but at the time of ticket distribution, I had sensed that the party will not reach the half-way mark.

Q: Why did the RJD’s seat-sharing talks with the Congress fail?

A: The fault largely lies with the Congress. First, the Congress leaders announced seat-sharing agreement with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand without consulting us. We were for a formula-based agreement on seats in Bihar. The talks continued for a week but the Congress’ demand for seats was unreasonable. They had 14 MLAs in the outgoing Assembly. Initially, they were seeking 104 seats which included 22 sitting MLAs of the RJD. The RJD was willing to give nearly 40 seats but the Congress was not willing to bring down its number from 72.

Q: What are the chances of a seat-sharing agreement in the coming Assembly elections?

A: If positions taken are reasonable and logical and if winnability is made a criterion for deciding seats, there should be no difficulty.

Q: How far has your ministry progressed in achieving the goals of Bharat Nirman ?

A: We are implementing the schemes with earnestness. But the ministry needs more funds to reach the goals of rural road connectivity, housing for poor and providing drinking water to villages.

Q: What steps have you taken to ensure that the benefits of schemes reach the intended beneficiaries?

A: Apart from strict vigilance at various levels, we are involving people in villages to monitor the implementation. Funds are distributed according to a time-frame and there are committees at every level to look into complaints.

Enjoying life after retirement
by R.C. Acharya

They say death is a great leveller, and so is superannuation, which turns the mighty into humble. Apart from becoming history, sins of past service life tend to catch up. In particular, one’s own behaviour with the juniors start getting reflected in their attitude towards you, after you no longer occupy the chair.

Facing early retirement, officers of the defence forces plan well into the future for other avenues of gainful employment. However, unless one is a doctor, lawyer, architect, or belongs to Income-tax, customs services etc., the possibility of self-employment as an independent professional or a consultant may not be roses all the way.

Some manage to build bridges with the private sector much ahead of the D-day and join them as consultants, some even before the mandatory cooling period of two years. Quite a few develop close contacts with NGOs or set their own in their field of specialty.

Post-retirement openings generally fall into three broad categories. First, when an old friend wants you for your own worth as an individual who is knowledgeable, trustworthy to help him out in his venture. Secondly, some one who is setting up a new business or has one running but not well, and needs your expertise to help him avoid costly mistakes. Thirdly, for the services rendered in the past, or likely to render in near future. Not many would opt for this unless they are in dire need of gainful employment.

Keeping mentally and physically active is perhaps the key to facing the post-retirement blues. While golf could be within the reach of a lucky few, morning and/or evening walks do not require much resources, and a game of bridge over the weekend could keep those grey cells in the pink of health.

If you have been one of those who always had “ants in his pants”, enjoying a retired life reading your favourite authors, listening to music and generally pottering around the house may not be your cup of tea. However, one would be prudent in avoiding a full-time responsibility which may place very heavy demands on your physical energies and prove to be beyond your capability.

For quite a few, life can really begin at 60 and going on those trips to exotic and far off places, if financial circumstances permit, can be quite an experience in itself. Periodic visits to your children in distant lands will be worthwhile.

There is very little doubt that post-retirement phase in most cases can seldom be as exciting, challenging, or rewarding as the rough and tumble of an active service life, howsoever sedate and disappointing it might have been.

Often when things don’t work out, even when carefully planned, there is simply no option but to simply grin and bear it. I should know, for I have been doing it for the last 13 years.

The writer is a former Member, Railway Board

OPED

Profile
Tiger in trouble
by Harihar Swarup

Chicklod Kothi, the erstwhile hunting resort of Nawab of Bhopal, is an hour’s drive from the state capital. There was time when tigers roamed freely in Chicklod forests and adjoining jungles of Khajuri and Rattibar. A few years after the new state of Madhya Pradesh was formed in the late fifties, Marshal Tito visited Chicklod on a hunting expedition and was guest of the Nawab. He could spot few tigers but could not bag any one of them. The Nawabs of Bhopal had been great Shikaris and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi inherited the tradition. Elders of the area still recall with pride how the future capital of India’s Cricket Team, on a hunting expedition with his maternal grandfather, Nawab Hamiddullah Khan, felled a fully grown tiger with his 20 mm rifle. Mansur Ali was barely 16 then and the big cat was his first trophy.

People in the erstwhile state believe that he has come to be known since then as ‘Tiger Pataudi’. So impressed was the grandfather that he presented the young man with a Dutch rifle. Nawab Hamidullah had laid down strict norms for hunting in his state. Only members of the royal family were entitled to shoot a wild animal. Killing of female species of animals was strictly forbidden.

It is indeed sad that the ‘Tiger’ landed in trouble for allegedly shooting a blackbuck, an endangered species, in the wild of Jhajjhar region in Haryana. His Vasant Vihar residence in Delhi was raided and the blue Maruti Gypsy, said to be used in the hunting, has been seized. The law would now take its course. Pataudi, former Captain of India’s cricket team, is known to be an amiable man, a good host and a popular figure in the sports world. A forward looking person, he was the first among the erstwhile princes who had no qualm in accepting that the days of privileges and privy purses have gone for good and living in the past would be foolhardy.

Ironically, not long ago, at a book release function, he hit out at the government for failing to check tiger poaching. One wonders why someone, so pragmatic as Pataudi, should take the risk of game hunting? Perhaps, like most princes, he too was fascinated by hunt.

At 65, he indeed cherishes some fond memories of hunting in Chicklod forests and his time as a world-class cricket player. His family’s hunting legacy — Chicklod kothi — is full of trophies of sambhar, blackbuck, chinkara and bison. Reports from Bhopal, quoting the Madhya Pradesh’s Forest department, say that he had applied for registration of a number of wildlife trophies including hide of various animals. He had reportedly informed the department that trophies belonged to his mother the late Sajeda Begam and he inherited them.

Pataudi has been so careful in legitimately possessing his family treasure of memento — sambhar, blackbuck, chinkara and bison — but, possibly, slight indiscretion in the Jhajjhar blackbuck shooting put him in a spot. Those who were guests at Chicklod villa say that a railing made with horns of sambhars and dining hall decorated with their heads was very impressive indeed.

Both Mansur Ali Khan and his father the late Iftikhar Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi, have two common fads — shikar and cricket. Once known as a great sport, hunting is now regarded as feudalistic and primitive but cricket became the world’s first ranking event. Both senior and junior Pataudis have left an indelible mark on cricket. Iftikar Ali Khan made his debut in Body Line series and hit a century on debut. After World War II, he played three tests for India as captain. He died while playing polo when he was just 42.

Junior Pataudi became the captain of the Indian team when he was barely 21, youngest to lead the team. With just a single eye, his batting was nothing but divine inspiration. Of 46 tests he played, ‘Tiger’ captained India in 40. He married glamorous actress Sharmila Tagore who is presently the Chairperson of the Film Censor Board of India. Their son is a movie star. Junior Pataudi has been a successful model but was a failure in politics. He is known to be adventurous and a great leader, inspired respect from teammates and opposition ranks alike.

Hunting continues in India despite stringent laws. Tigers are butchered for skin and body parts and blackbuck hunted also for skin and delicious meat. It is easy to bag members of antelope family, blackbuck in particular, as they are not only restricted to national parks and sanctuaries but found outside protected areas. Hunting of blackbuck, locally known as ‘shyam hiran’, still continues to be a sport in affluent families, film stars and erstwhile princes.

Felling of an antelope is celebrated with great fanfare. Its meat is marinated the whole night and ‘kebabs’ produced become a delicacy. No wonder, Pataudi, or someone from an entourage, pinched a blackbuck in Jhajjar but nabbed. Generally, such stray hunting goes unnoticed but ‘Tiger’ was not lucky this time.

Police as agent of social change
by J.L. Gupta

Police in India is almost as old as our civilisation. It has been said, “In Mahabharata and Ramayana there are specific references to the existence of police administration”. The great law giver Manu had also recommended that the “police jobs should be entrusted to only persons with local knowledge of people and regions…” In the Gupta, Chola and Moghul periods, the police looked after law and order. Centuries have passed. The basic duty of the ‘Droga’ has not changed. If at all, the responsibility has increased.

Today, the police discharge thankless duties. It looks after the people and their problems. In difficult conditions. Despite interference from different quarters. And without enough facilities. Every path that a policeman takes has a puddle. Be it the agitating employees, the labour or the leaders, the students or the terrorists, the police faces the wrath. Everywhere it gets the bricks and bullets. No bouquets. And invariably, at the end of each incident, there is a demand for judicial inquiry. No pat from anyone. Only persecution. From everyone.

Still the people criticise the police. We call it, “An organised gang.” We proclaim that it has no “license to kill.” We declare that the “Police needs a paradigm shift.” The cant of criticism is continuous. The “citizen and the criminal, the judge and the judged, the press and the politician, the rogue and the reformist denounce the police.” Whole-heartedly. In one voice.

The criticism is natural. The teacher who demanded discipline was never popular. The cop who is charged with the duty to enforce law and order can have no reason to be an optimist. And then making complaints is a national pastime. Nobody can help that. In fact, a man can give only what he has. Nothing more. It is a matter of satisfaction that despite the criticism and difficulties the force has continued to function. Normally, with a fair degree of objectivity.

Today, we live in an era when the whole human society faces a devaluation of values. Crude criminality. Lack of morality. Spiritual impoverishment. A social collapse. Whatever the cause for this degradation, we are all a part of this social system. Every one of us is a product of the society that we live in. When the wood is crooked, the furniture cannot be straight. When the society is sick, a section alone cannot be free from the symptoms. In the prevailing environment, it would be unfair to expect the police force to be an epitome of values and to stand alone as an island.

And then, no one who is discharging such an onerous job can please everyone. Such an attempt shall spell a formula for failure. No human being can be perfect. In fact, perfection is still an enigma. A few aberrations shall occur everywhere. But a few black sheep cannot blacken the whole service. Nor can a few individual errors justify a generalisation.

Society needs police. To spy on the deviants and to help the innocent. Whatever the form of government, the police have a role to play. An authoritarian state uses and abuses the police power to augment its authority. To suppress dissent. In a democracy, the police have to ensure the safety of the individual’s person and property. His freedom of expression. The democratic rights of the citizen. Sometimes, the line that divides the two forms of government may be very ‘thin’. An apparently democratic government may actually attempt to be utterly autocratic. The police have to stand as a guard between the citizen and the state. It is under a duty to protect, preserve and respect the rights of the citizen.

In a society governed by the rule of law, the role of the police is especially important. The car driver does not see the red light till there is a cop. Nobody observes any speed limit when there is no patrol car. The burglar shall be kept at bay, even if there is a retired old man in uniform. The police are an essential force to maintain law and order. To save man from another man and his vagaries. To induce a sense of security in the minds of men.

Some people complain of corruption. Even of unwarranted harassment at the hands of the police. The complaints are not unfounded. But we, in India, have not known self-governance for a long time. In fact, for centuries. Today, when we are in our formative years, we are facing a few teething problems. In the initial stages, development creates disparities. Population, poverty and progress pose new problems. Create new tensions. Till the society finds solutions, the people and the police have to bear with the problems. With time these shall pass.

Police plays an important role in the criminal justice delivery system. It is responsible for the investigation of cases. Its credibility is essential. Its independence imperative. To keep the criminal under control. To ensure that the innocent do not suffer. The sword of justice falls on the guilty alone

Police has difficulties. But let us remember the Arabian proverb, “All sunshine makes the desert.” Snow and storm are essential for growth. For becoming tougher. The hottest furnace produces the brightest steel. Harsh winds only help the man to fly higher. Struggle gives strength and makes a man stronger. Difficulties do to the mind what exercise does to the muscle. So, let us not allow the difficulties to defeat us. Carry on the fight. And it is not enough to merely succeed. The critics must fail. They have to be silenced.

In any case, no one can stop doing his duty. Not merely for fear of being criticised. The duty has to be performed. Like debt, it must be discharged. Without delay or demur. And then, it must be remembered that a person’s weakness is the sole strength of his critic. We need to overcome the weakness.

The man in uniform is a symbol of state’s authority. Vested with the power to enforce the laws. To deprive a person of his liberty. Sometimes, even life. This is undeniably a tremendous responsibility.

Thus, we must awaken. The men in uniform have to arise. Make a diligent effort. With dignity and devotion. Exercise the personal potential. Pursue. Seek. Search. Put together the attachments, affections, emotions, love and the sentiments. Concentrate on one goal. Create confidence in the minds of men that the police seek to serve. Destroy all the doubts that exist. Be friends whom nobody shall fear. Let only the actions speak.

The task is not easy. It shall take time to accomplish. Make a continuing, keen and unremitting effort. Make an inner inquiry. Your efforts shall bear fruit. The crime and criminal shall be conquered. The police shall then become an instrument of social change.

The writer is a former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court

Diversities — Delhi Letter
North-East students protest against rape
by Humra Quraishi

We make such tall claims about the North-East but do little for the people living there. We don’t even care to know what problems and difficulties they face or live with. And even the students coming from that end to the capital are rarely given a chance to intermingle, as though they are foreigners coming from some alien place.

But now, these students have begun to react as a collective group. And it’s time they did so. In fact, after that tragic rape of a student from the North-East and now this week after a particular remark of a Delhi University college vice-principal, these students from the North-East are reacting, and putting up a series of brave counter-reactionary resistance. No longer dependent on any of the government or semi-government agency, they are staging demonstrations and voicing protests at the insensitive attitudes, prevailing at various levels.

Limits of insensitivity

Amidst heat and dust heady dramatic eruptions. How else can one explain happenings and sayings on L.K. Advani front? And not to overlook those action-riddled shots at Pataudi’s end. We sit helpless, as mute spectators, rendered so by the daily hassles and our impotency to react and counter-react.

Our insensitivity has reached such heights that though half of New Delhi’s population has been refugees at some stage, they seem immune to the very crisis that today’s refugee faces, living in this city (crisis and challenges in the form of the emotional to the financial to just about each and every aspect of living). If only the well known writer Sanjoy Hazarika’s words are drilled into each one of our heads then, perhaps, we would

be a shade more sensitive towards those who are on the move.

Hazarika’s words are, “We are all migrants…we could be born in one city but grow up somewhere else and live in another place…”True, destined turns could take you and I all over…

Three well-known persons no more

Before moving ahead, I must mention about the passing away of three well known persons. Theatre activist Habib Tanvir’s spouse Moneeca Misra, who passed away last fortnight and this week Tanvir himself suffered a bad fall. He was present when the crucial Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) meet was on at the Vigyan Bhavan and slipped and broke his hip joint and just about yesterday went through surgery.

Though I had never spotted his wife on stage, she was always around. Offstage and not centrestage, shall we say. Almost always to be spotted was their only child, daughter Nageen, who is also a theatre person. It’s her name, named after Srinagar’s Nageen lake that has always intrigued me.

Though I have seen her sing and dance along with tribal artists, till date she has not been able to carve a niche for herself. Maybe because her father and his talent and personality has always towered too high and Nageen has been totally awed by him.

The other person who has departed is Rani Padma Padamjit Singh Saheba of the Kapurthala family. Winters she would spend here, at her Jangpura home and summers at Shimla. Though I had never met her, it’s through her daughter Anita Singh that one had heard so much. For Anita seemed close to her mom and her talks would be laced with an obvious emotional bonding with her.

For Anita, her priorities seemed just two-fold — her mother ‘mummy’ and focus on the Punjab heritage. Few know that most of the heritage festivals centering around the historical backdrop of Amritsar or Patiala had Anita Singh’s enthusiasm, in the backdrop or foreground.

Last week also saw the passing away of the former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Ranjit Singh Narula. For the past several years, one had heard about the humanitarian work he was doing and his ability to reach out to the affected. His grandson’s wife Reema Anand wrote an extremely touching piece on him, on his departure. So another good person passed away.

Beating the heat, the French way

There seems no dip in the level of enthusiasm for the French here. Alliance Francaise people seem to be saying, beat the heat, by music and films. All through this month evenings lie packed by music shows and films.

The French embassy and the Alliance Francaise are paying a tribute to the legendary Francois Truffant by screening his films in New Delhi for us folks.

REFLECTIONS

— Guru Nanak