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Step by step Noise pollution |
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Dravidian challenge
Waiting for the CDS
Kindness personified
Dateline Singapore Food stops highway traffic Karachi: a city of violence
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Step by step THE new Indo-US joint statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush reflects the breadth and depth of the transformation that has taken place in the relationship between the two countries. Cooperation in civilian nuclear energy, high technology and space was first announced in January 2004. The new statement has the US President committing himself to working for “full” cooperation in civilian nuclear energy, which would not only need US Congress approval to “adjust” current US laws, but other countries to agree to changes in international regimes governing export of nuclear technology. So, while cooperation in the civil nuclear realm is yet to materialise, progress in other sectors has been visible over the last couple of years, auguring well for the future. A couple of billion dollars worth of high-tech goods have already come in, indicating a steady dismantling of the earlier `presumption of denial’ regime. The US has now offered to help modernise India’s infrastructure, and to remove the remaining Indian organisations from the notorious `entities list’ proscribing high-tech exports to them. On the issue of a permanent membership of the UN Security Council, the statement is guarded, with the leaders only agreeing that international institutions must reflect changes in the global scenario. The `global partnership’ being envisaged reiterates co-operation in a range of sectors covering international terrorism, the economy, agriculture, science and technology and AIDS. Indian officials have clarified that the reciprocal measures indicated in the statement will not be exceptional to those being followed by other nuclear weapon states. In any case, working groups are being constituted to tackle issues that may crop up with regard to the fissile material cut-off treaty, IAEA safeguards, and international regimes like the MTCR and the Nuclear Suppliers Group. The calibrated, measured approach being followed is better for the long-term viability of the relationship. In any case, Mr Singh has tellingly noted that the results of this major summit will be fully visible when Mr Bush visits India, sometime this year or early next. The world will be watching. |
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Noise pollution MOST people have heaved a sigh of relief over the Supreme Court’s order on Monday banning the use of loudspeakers between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. As it is, the use of loudspeakers at night is banned under the law. However, many sections of people have been flouting the rule with impunity in public places, including marriages, social functions and places of worship. Noise pollution caused by loudspeakers is a major irritant for the aged, patients and students. In most towns, complaints of citizens against the loudspeaker menace evoke little response from the authorities because of their typical callousness and lackadaisical attitude. Not long ago, a Patna High Court judge sought his transfer out of Bihar when a religious place brazenly defied his orders and reinstalled loudspeakers in broad daylight, right in the presence of the policemen. In fact, a key stumbling block before the fight against noise pollution has been the apathy of the state apparatus without whose cooperation ordinary citizens cannot address complex issues such as measuring decibel levels. Now that the Supreme Court has given explicit directive in this regard, this becomes the law of the land which will have to be enforced by all the states and Union Territories. The apex court has also given a slew of directives banning the use of vehicular horns in all residential areas between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Bursting of sound-emitting firecrackers during festivals like Diwali and Dasehra, too, is banned. Equally important is its fiat to the Centre to categorise areas and zones for implementing noise standards for aircraft and trains. The court is convinced that thickly populated residential areas, hospitals, national zoos, parks etc. need to be protected from noise. While the court ruling should hopefully sensitise the law and order authorities on the magnitude of the problem, there is need for general awareness to check noise pollution. Religious institutions and organisers of social functions should also realise that they have no right to disturb public peace and tranquillity, while performing their duties or entertaining guests. |
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Dravidian challenge THE announcement of the Indian cricket team for the tri-series in Sri Lanka later this month appears to be the first of many changes that would be carried out between now and the World Cup in 2007. The choice of Rahul Dravid as captain was as much on the cards as the sidelining of his predecessor Sourav Ganguly. The inclusion of new, younger faces, too, was expected, though the speculation was who would be the ones from the Bangalore camp to make the grade. Eighteen-year-old Suresh Raina, the promising all-rounder from Uttar Pradesh, one of three new inclusions, is evidently a new find who earned his spurs at the recent training camp. Venugopala Rao from Andhra Pradesh is a surprise choice, favoured by the selectors over Dinesh Mongia and Ajit Agarkar, both of whom were billed as probables. J.P.Yadav, strictly speaking, is not a new-comer, having had a spell of international cricket some three years ago; and, relatively speaking, he is not young. It is all too evident that the new coach Greg Chappell has managed to infuse young blood without diluting the tried and tested strengths of the team. It is a moot point whether this triumph of hope – in the young and the new – over the experience represented by those excluded would be rewarded in the triangular series in Sri Lanka. Although the contest in the island republic is crucial, what the selections suggest is that this is just the first in a series of changes, over the next several months, towards building a new team with a winning edge that has more than an even chance in the World Cup in 2007. Gradually, more veterans would be moved out to make way for an altogether younger team that could be led by Virender Sehwag, now designated vice-captain. Coach Chappell’s flattering assessment of Sehwag is a clear signal that he may wear the cap in 2007. But, for that, Sehwag needs to be groomed with more experience of captaincy at the regional level. |
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Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. — George Bernard Shaw |
Waiting for the CDS
Higher defence management in India has been a subject of much debate, especially since the early nineties, when the Arun Singh Committee first made its far-reaching recommendations to reform the system. Unfortunately, the government of the day did not fully implement the report and we had to wait for another decade before Mr Arun Singh, to the good luck of the services, got another chance to rectify the system. This time he succeeded to a large extent, despite many odds and stiff resistance from the system, both from within and without, to accept the changes. However, some of his crucial recommendations still continue to gather dust. The higher defence management in India had traditionally been structured along single service lines. Each service primarily evolved its own doctrine, missions and tasks. It envisaged its own plan of development and modernisation of its capabilities to meet its conceived objectives of national security, estimated and managed its own budget. The country was thrust upon with four wars but managed to overcome these challenges. With limited resources, the services strived to meet the various contingencies with reasonable success. Special mention must be made of the Indian Army here. The major task of the external security of the country fell on the Army. Its responsibilities over a period of time increased exponentially because of the worsening situation of internal security. Due to the changing social and political milieu, the task of internal security will only grow. Despite these constraints, the Army managed itself magnificently and lived up to the expectations of the nation. The other two services also developed a viable capability. With all its failings, the system has shown that it worked well and stood the test of time. Over the years, with each successive challenge, the services managed to improve the system of working together and a home-grown coordinated system evolved. However, some aspects of national security were changing and going beyond their control, which would seriously cripple the higher defence management system, unless it is modified to meet the new challenges. So, what were these factors which changed and added new dimensions to the national security matrix? The first was that the security situation itself had become more complex. The ambit of national security had considerably enlarged. Threats to the nation’s security did not solely emanate from external factors alone. The internal situation had deteriorated and threats from within had to be countered. Then terrorism had raised its ugly head. There was peace and yet the war was unending. A proxy war raged, where the enemy was elusive and ruthless, killing innocent civilians. Threats ranged from gun-running, narcotics trafficking, organized crime, money-laundering, illegal immigration and networking by terrorist groups. Asymmetric warfare was gaining ground. Food, water, economic security and other such factors added their own deleterious affect on the overall security situation. Responses required the system to deal in the realm of politico-military dimension, vastly more complex than originally envisaged. The second factor, which had a profound affect on security, was the nuclearisation of the subcontinent. The higher defence system now required a major surgery to handle such a capability. A new command and control structure had to be put in place with clearly earmarked line of authority. A robust and fail-safe doctrine had to be implemented. Our defence establishment had never handled such a contingency. The third factor which affected the situation was the changing nature of war and the march of technology that compelled the need to prosecute operations in a joint manner. It was not sufficient for the services to fight their own war in their own battlefield but a synergic joint effort was required in a battle space which was getting more and more networked. It was possible through the use of appropriate technical means, for example, for a submarine underwater launched missile to hit a target on land in support of the Army, hundreds of miles away, guided from air by Airborne Early Warning Command and Control aircraft. Individual lines of demarcation of operations were getting blurred. A theatre command concept had to be considered to ensure single-point accountability and optimum use of resources. Finally, there was a crucial need to manage the defence budget more effectively. Even at 2.5 per cent of the GDP, it was becoming a staggering amount. The budget had to provide the necessary security it was intended for and it had to be done in the most cost-effective manner. The nation just could not afford to incur wasteful expenditure. It was no longer possible for the Ministry of Defence to merely add up the budgetary requirements of the three services and work within some imaginary limit, based on the previous yearly expenditure as dictated by North Block. Someone knowledgeable and experienced in warfare had to lay down the priority of the various new schemes of the three services. A single authority in uniform was needed, who could speak on behalf of all the three services and on whose military professional advice the government could act. Such reforms in the higher defence management were not revolutionary and had already been carried out in most of the modern armed forces elsewhere. The Arun Singh Committee in its second “avtar” deliberated on these crucial issues five years ago, at considerable length with full participation and debate by the three services and all elements of the defence establishment. The report of the committee on the management of defence was submitted to the Group of Ministers during the NDA regime. One of the most crucial recommendations accepted by the Group of Ministers was the creation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). While many of the measures recommended by the Arun Singh Committee were accepted and implemented, there was a last-minute hitch on the creation of the CDS and this proposal was quietly buried, stating that political consensus had to be achieved before it could be implemented. The NDA government, despite being a trend-setter of reforming the higher defence management, was unable to set up the CDS. Some say that Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee was made to change his mind at the last minute on the day of the crucial Cabinet meeting. The UPA government has also so far skirted the issue. That is where the situation rests even today. In its absence, the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, tries to carry out the CDS functions but with little success. The bureaucracy, the villain of the piece, is happy. It retains the control which it otherwise would have to delegate to the CDS. The political establishment was looking for a consensus and in its absence, shied away from taking a hard decision. For some inexplicable reason, it lacks the political will to push through the CDS when most of the work had already been thought through and only fine-tuning is left to be done. |
Kindness personified Mr Rajindar Sachar’s
fascinating article in The Tribune (July 18) about some of the sterling qualities of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (the Internal Emergency notwithstanding!) reminds me of some of the sterling qualities of her Attorney-General Niren De (his arguments in the Habeas Corpus case in 1976 notwithstanding!). A practising lawyer of 20 years’ standing in the Bombay High Court, I was picked up by the then Law Minister, H.R. Gokhale, and recommended as the third law officer of the Union. When I took charge in May 1972 as Additional Solicitor-General of India (ASG), I found much heartburning among some of my compatriots at a “foreigner” (from outside Delhi) being inducted in the higher echelons of the Union of India’s legal team. And one of my earliest cases as ASG was pretty disastrous. It concerned the property of Fonseca Ltd., (where the present Taj Mansingh Hotel now stands). I was asked to defend an order of eviction passed by the Secretary, Ministry of Works and Housing, under the Public Premises Act, 1971; the principal contention raised by the petitioner was that the signatory to the order had no authority to pass the same. Under the Business Rules framed under the Constitution it was only the minister who was authorised to do so. In the afternoon, the Bench of the Supreme Court hearing the matter called upon me to produce the Business Rules which I promptly agreed to do the next day. But to my consternation when I returned home there were at least three messages from the Prime Minister’s Office. When I called back they asked me politely but very firmly whether I did not know that there were two Cabinet resolutions saying that the Business Rules of the Government of India were secret and could not be disclosed! The caller at the other end informed me that they were immediately going off to Attorney-General Niren De to see how the damage I had caused to the case could be contained! I was pretty worried at the time. Fortunately for me Niren De was made of stern stuff: he was a consummate lawyer, and a terse one at that. When the Secretary to the Law Ministry bitterly complained about my agreeing to hand over to the court what was prohibited by the Cabinet, Niren took one look at the constitutional provision and promptly said: “But Nariman is right. Your Cabinet decisions are wrong”. And there the controversy ended. The Business Rules were produced next day in the court, and the court upheld the petitioner’s contention. The Union of India lost the case! But I have never forgotten this simple act of consummate kindness displayed by the highest law officer of the Union - he did not know me nor anything of me having joined as ASG in May 1972. As a matter of fact, he was not even previously consulted by the minister before my appointment. Niren De was frank with everyone who met him - and most of all with the court, and quite fearless too. Three years before I was appointed ASG, I had appeared for the petitioners in the now famous constitutional case of Golaknath assisting A.K. Sen and Nani Palkhivala before a Bench of 11 judges presided over by Chief Justice Subba Rao. The Bench was specially constituted to hear the challenge to wide ranging amendments to the Constitution of India. Niren De, then ASG, appeared for the Union of India. Chief Justice Subba Rao (we liked to call him the Citizen’s Judge) raised the point that past legislation, even constitutional law, could be struck down by courts - and not necessarily retrospectively but only for the future, relying on the American doctrine of “prospective overruling”. There were half a dozen counsel appearing for half a dozen petitioners in the great case. They added fuel to the Chief Justice’s point (in the court, the presiding judges’ point is always the best point in the case!); but then Niren De’s opening statement to the court on behalf of the Government of India was to me quite electrifying. He boldly said in his clipped English accent: “I refuse to argue the American doctrine of prospective overruling because it has no application in India” and that was that. Subba Rao hummed and hawed a bit, but the entire argument proceeded without assistance from the Government of India on this crucial point! Niren De was a fine lawyer and a fine human being and I thought I should take the opportunity of paying my tribute, although the only connection it has with Sachar’s article is that he has written about Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and my recall is about her
Attorney-General!
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Dateline Singapore by Nirmal Sandhu Singapore means Lion City, though lions have never inhabited the region. This once small disease-ridden colony gained importance after Sir Stanford Raffles managed to have some British presence here in 1819 to secure East India’ Company’s trade with China. With a military and naval base, it flourished. Its tariff-free port attracted traders. During World War II Japan snatched the territory from Britain and surrendered it in 1945. The real growth began under Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s Cambridge-educated, pragmatic, socialist-turned-capitalist Prime Minister for 31 years till 1990. He is now a “Minister Mentor” while Lee Hsien Yew is the Prime Minister. He was recently in India to sign the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. Of the 4.24 million population the Chinese account for 76 per cent, Malays 13.7 per cent, Indians 8.4 per cent and the other ethnic groups 1.8 per cent. Most Indians (64 per cent) are Tamils and Tamil is also an official language, the others being Malay, Chinese and English. Punjabis are just 8 per cent. There are seven gurdwaras. Most tourists flock to Little India, Sentosa Island, China Town, Arab Street and Orchard Road.
*** Whatever Singaporeans do, they do it efficiently and in the best possible way. Meritocracy prevails. The best man is given the job regardless of his or her religion or origin. They have built one of the finest airports in the world. Singapore Airlines is quite often adjudged the best. Buildings are beautiful, large with work-oriented ambience. No littering, no stinking toilets, no wastage of water and no electricity failures. Roads are wide and well maintained. Despite water and weather constraints, every available patch has either exotic trees, flower beds, shrubs or is covered with grass imported from various countries. *** Singapore officials interacting with the visiting Indian journalists meticulously stuck to the schedule, were punctual and business-like, responded to every query with the required information. Indonesia has a world-famous tourist destination in Bali, but no one mentioned it. Singaporeans sold with finesse every possible spot of tourist interest as well as their investment attractions. *** With many Indian cities facing a water crisis, there may be a lesson or two from Singapore’s water management. Here is a developed city-state, which hardly has any natural resources, not even drinking water. It is surrounded by sea water, but that is saline. For Punjabis who are over-exploiting their underground water with little concern for the falling watertable, it may come as a surprise that in Singapore they do not at all utilise their underground water. This was confirmed by Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Health. After it became free from Malyasia in 1965, Singapore signed two agreements with Malaysia for the supply of drinking water. When these pacts end in 2011 and 2061, Singapore will be self-sufficient in meeting its water requirements. This has become possible because the Public Utilities Board manages in an integrated manner the nation’s reservoirs, waterworks system, water reclamation plants and sewerage. The distribution network ensures minimum losses. Singapore, as a policy, does not use anything that cannot be recycled. Rainwater is not allowed to go waste; it is treated and reused. Even sewerage water is reclaimed. *** Singapore’s health care system is expensive, but subsidised. Minor ailments are taken care of by state clinics, but citizens are expected to contribute a part of their salary to a medifund, which is different from insurance. A citizen contributes one-third of the cost and the state meets the rest of the expenses in cases of serious diseases. Nothing comes free. Incidentally, the entire board managing a national kidney foundation had to quit because its chief was drawing a huge salary, befitting more a CEO. Outraged Singaporeans stopped donations and newspapers daily flashed the news in detail. Housing is well planned. According to Dr Balaji Sadasivan, 97 per cent of the Singaporeans live in their own houses. A resident has to pay some 25 per cent of the cost to move in and the rest is paid in instalments. “They are so smart they can sell even air as real estate”, remarked a local Indian. He was referring to the rule that up to a certain number of floors in a high rise are reserved for locals. Foreigners can occupy only the top floors. *** Singapore had 311 AIDS cases in 2004. The number is insignificant, much less than the US, but vigorous efforts are on to contain the disease. Amending its strict privacy rules for patients, the government has decided that spouses of HIV patients will be informed about the disease with or without their consent. A recent survey has found that 95 per cent of the pregnant women support the HIV screening to avoid passing the infection to their babies. On weekends, AIDS activists hand out condoms at ferry terminals where local men leave for Indonesia in search of prostitutes.
*** Indians carry their reputation wherever they go. The Indian Embassy in Singapore invariably gets in a week two to three complaints of shop-lifting by Indian visitors. During a lunch at an Indian restaurant one of us, a TV journalist, discovered a cockroach in dal and left the place in a huff without pursuing the matter to its logical end. Another was over-charged, again by an Indian, for a packet of cigarettes. *** A number of Singapore companies are already in India. Their experiences in India are interesting. SingTel officials have this to share: “A woman’s bare legs attract more attention than an exposed belly between a sari... so do not wear short skirts and sleeveless blouses on business occasions”. “Delhi is known for its frequent electricity outrages... meetings carry on in the dark, without the slightest hint of surprise or discomfort”. Indian English is also a source of amusement. One Singaporean manager was told that a colleague was not turning up for work because his grandmother had “expired”. Wondering how humans could “expire”, he probed further and was told that his grandmother had “moved on”. One Singapore manager went to a restaurant and asked for “ek” (meaning one in Hindi) glass of water. The waiter, however, returned with eight glasses of water. A project manager was furious to see “graffiti” and red markings on a machine. The staff told him that they had performed pooja for blessing the newly commissioned machine. |
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SOME years ago, vehicles en route to the holy Amarnath shrine were often stranded in severe traffic jams at Nashari, a landslide-prone part of the Jammu-Srinagar highway. Now the cars stop more often due to rumblings in hungry stomachs. At Nashari, about 130 km north of Jammu, the state’s winter capital, traffic jams are an unending affair, but no longer due to landslides. Travellers, most of them devotees heading for the annual Himalayan pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Lord Shiva at Amarnath at a height of 13,500 feet, stop here to eat at the free kitchens set up by voluntary organisations. The queue of vehicles keeps lengthening and traffic barely moves due to the lure of mouth-watering food and the sound of spiritual songs blaring on loudspeakers. “Bhole Shanker ka langar hai, aaiye aap ka swagat hai” (You are welcome to the free kitchen of Lord Shiva), says a signboard at one such kitchen set up by an organisation from Rajpura, Punjab. Steaming glasses of tea greets visitors. They are directed towards a row of cots where they can rest and feast under a rectangular tin shed offering a panoramic view of the Nashari canal overlooked by dense forests. Any attempt to contribute money to the free kitchen - or “langar” as it is known in Punjabi — is politely declined with folded hands. There are more than two dozen “langars” along the 294-km Jammu-Srinagar highway serving a varied menu. On the narrow curves of Kud, a highway township 103 km north of Jammu, a kitchen set up by the Association of Brick Kiln Owners of Jammu begins early in the morning. The devotees are offered tea and snacks during breakfast. A typical Punjabi breakfast would feature “poori chana”. But lunch has more of the local Jammu flavour with rajma (red beans), rice and potato curry. “We take care that the food is not oily so that the devotees do not face problems on their journey,” explains Naseeb Singh, a brick kiln owner who has been serving visitors for the past week. The eateries respect the privacy of visitors. “We never ask anyone who he is and where he is going. We assume that all of them are devotees and our honoured guests who deserve our service,” says Narinder Kumar, a volunteer at a “langar” at Ramban. He becomes impatient when asked to give the number of visitors. “We do not count. That is not our job. We are here in their service, not to do a census of them.” More than 120,000 pilgrims have visited the cave shrine since the pilgrimage began June 21, enabling the kitchen owners to do brisk business. “It is all the “prasad’ (holy offering) of Lord Shiva, we have to take it”, comments Vinod Kumar, a pilgrim from Madhya Pradesh. Some of these kitchens have also set up toilets for men and women. “We are supposed to take care of all this. Serving food is just a part of it. Public conveniences are equally important”, Radhye Sham at Nashari says. While everyone - pilgrims and the volunteers - is happy, hoteliers along the highway are a disappointed lot, since their business has been hit
hard. — Indo-Asian News Service |
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Karachi: a city of violence Reports that three of the London suicide bombers visited Karachi will not come as a surprise to anyone. Pakistan’s largest city is the place where the American reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded on camera by militants believed to be linked to al-Qa’ida. Karachi has a reputation for violence, so much so that the England Cricket Board is reportedly refusing to let its team play a Test match in the city later this year, citing concerns for the safety of the players. Bombs go off a little too often for comfort in Karachi and there is a high rate of drive-by shootings. On Sunday a senior Muslim cleric was killed when gunmen opened fire on his car from a motorbike. Most of the violence has little to do with international Islamic militancy. It is fuelled by Pakistan’s own sectarian conflicts. But the backdrop of lawlessness has allowed Islamic militancy to flourish. Karachi is home to the Binori Town madrassa, one of the most famous jihadi madrassas and a place with overt links to Osama bin Laden. It used to be headed by Maulana Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was said to have been Bin Laden’s spiritual mentor until Shamzai was assassinated last year. The Binori Town madrassa was one of the first places in Pakistan where the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan was preached, and where volunteers were recruited. The city made the international headlines when Pearl was murdered there in 2002. Unable to arrange his abduction in the better policed Islamabad, where Pearl was staying, his kidnappers lured him to Karachi with the promise of an interview with an elusive Islamic cleric. His abduction tells us a lot about Karachi. He met his kidnappers in a crowded area in the centre of town, which was safe. He was driven to the suburbs, which were not. Police have lost control of the suburbs, and they were unable to track Pearl down, even though he was held in the city for some time before his murder. The man who arranged it was a Briton of Pakistani origin: Omar Saeed
Sheikh. Pakistani intelligence has named Qari Usman as one of five men arrested over the weekend in connection with the London bombings, and said he was an associate of Amjad Farooqi, who was killed by Pakistani forces last year, and was also involved in the Pearl kidnapping. Karachi was in the news again later in 2002, when Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a suspect in the 11 September attacks, was captured after a gun battle, after al-Qa’ida broadcast an interview with Bin al-Shibh and the alleged mastermind of 11 September, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, believed to have been filmed in Karachi. When Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi in 2003, there were reports that he had been in Karachi before moving north to evade capture. If the London suicide bombers did spend time in Karachi, it would have been easy for them to have made contact with Islamic militant groups.
— The Independent |
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From the pages of “LOCAL RATES IN INDIA”
Mr Carstairs
thinks that the absence of good rating system is an important defect of the administration. He admits, taking Bengal as an example throughout, that the people are poor and are already heavily taxed, but he thinks a good system of rating would lighten the burden while effecting an improvement all round. “Provided it is prudently, gradually and economically managed, there is no political danger whatever in local taxation.” Throughout the tens of thousands of Indian villages there goes on daily a constant bleeding of the poor in labour, in substance, and in money. Whereas a public rate is, or ought to be, limited in amount, and regulated by the ratepayer’s ability to pay, and the benefits he received, these private taxes are limited only by the extent of his means, and his power to resist or evade payment; and they are spent, not for his benefit, but for that others. One of the first effect of organised local taxation will be the relief of the poor from the pressure of private exactions. Among these private exactions must be included the periodic visitations of officials on tour. In spite of every effort made these official tours are a great burden on the people. |
The path of knowledge is very difficult but being impartial towards all helps one on this path. It means not having any loved ones or any hated ones. Everyone must be treated equally irrespective of relationships. Sages sped life times searching for this balance. —The Mahabharata Faithful believers, do not take usurious interest, multiplied and compounded; and be wary of God, that you may prosper. —Book of quotations on Islam No writer has a pen powerful enough to describe him. No amount of paper will be sufficient to write about him. No one can have clear idea about the mind of such a person. —Guru Nanak Harsh words are reflected back, as light in a mirror. Those you speak to harshly, will reply in the same way. Harshness breeds harshness like weeds in a barren field. —The Buddha All that the proud live for, is their vanity. They have no love for anyone only for their own egos. —Book of quotations on Hinduism Success is either magical or mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals. —Book of quotations on Success Happiness is a state, of which you are unconscious, of which you are not aware. The moment you are aware, that you are happy, you cease to be happy... You want to be consciously happy; the moment you are consciously happy, happiness is gone. —Book of quotations on Happiness  |
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