M A I L B A G

Importance of being good human beings

Kiran Bedi’s article “How do you wish to be remembered?” (Sunday Oped, Feb 12) was interesting. Let me recount the answers that we as children gave to this question which were often asked to us in our village school by the teachers way back in 60s. The wordings of the question used to be a little different — “what do you want to be in life?” Our answer used to be — Bara hokar, apne maan-baap ka naam roshan karunga. And we meant it. Emphasis was on being and not on becoming.

The family honour and good name of our parents was of paramount importance for us children. And so was for parents. They would not do anything which could bring disrepute. They would also spend a lot of time with us and take pains to inculcate moral values in us. On our part, we would work day and night to shine in the school so that the teachers could talk high of us in front of village elders.

Today, it is different. In the name of modernity, and to be with the ‘in thing’, the youth seems to be drifting away from the traditional values and parents’ sanskars. The love for big money and quick fame seems to be adding fuel to fire. The parents on their part are equally to blame. They are neither setting personal example in ethical values nor spending enough quality time with their children. The result: depressed youth and unhappy parents.

Colonel R.D. SINGH, Commandant, 213 Transit Camp, Jammu Cantonment

Parricide offenders

In her article, “Dealing with parricide offenders” (Perspective, Feb 26), Akanksha Bhalla has given an in-depth treatment to the parricide issue with reference to Pawandeep who brutally eliminated his parents and aunt. While child abuse — physical or psychological — resulting either from bias or preference towards one child over the other has been on the rise, the writer has missed the wood for the trees in overlooking the persona of the stepmother in the tragedy.

A stepmother, throughout the ages, has never been able to establish good rapport with the children of her husband’s first wife, thus alienating the father and bringing the family to a disastrous ruin.

Major BALDEV SINGH, Ambala Cantonment

Overdose of vamps Randeep Wadehra’s “Revamp the vamp” (Spectrum, Feb 19) does not fully expose the intentions of serial makers and their overdose of vampish machinations of women characters. Why is a vamp or a flirt a must in every story and in domestic plots especially? If Wadehra thinks negative women characters make a narrative interesting, it may not be so with everybody. We have a Kaikayee in The Ramayana to play havoc with goodness, but there are much more villainous Shakuni, Dushasan and Duryodhan in The Mahabharata also. Then why associate women only with evil? These grotesquely made up diabolical female characters sometime render TV viewing so disgusting that one is virtually forced to either switch off the dibba or look the other way. Be it Kiran in Astitva, Kaveri in Sat Phere, Yana in Sarrkar or Ameesha in Rabba Ishq... none of them has really anything to do with Bollywood syndrome of role models like Lalita Pawar, Shashikala, Bindu or Manorama. They are inventions of the sterile brains of serial makers depending on improbably malevolent designs of the sexily dressed female for commercial gain. In fact, it is time to ‘devamp’ the serials. KAMLESH UPPAL, Patiala

History of Bilaspur

We were thrilled to read the piece “The Raja and the Mahatma” (Jan 22). For we are in the process of writing the recent history of Bilaspur utilising the extensive archives left behind by our father, His Highness Raja Sir Anand Chand of Bilaspur. He was a man of great integrity who was devoted to the people of Bilaspur who, in turn, greatly loved him.

He was also instrumental in ensuring that the Bilaspur retained its status of statehood in the Union. A website, http://www.Bilaspur.info/, has been recently created to act as historical reference for Bilaspur.

Dr GOPAL CHAND, Bilaspur (HP)

Religious prophet

This has reference to “Mahatma’s pivotal failure” by Gurpreet Maini (Spectrum, Feb 26). Gandhiji was a votary of Ram Rajya.

He once told his confidant Mahadev Desai privately “Though we do say that Hindus and Muslims are brothers, I can not conceive of their being brothers today.”

In this connection, Jinnah once said, “Mr Gandhi is responsible for turning the Congress into an instrument for the revival of Hinduism”. Nirad Chaudhry once said, “Gandhi was not simply a politician, he took politics into religion to become a religious prophet.”

Whenever there was a talk to give freedom to India, Gandhiji always opposed any such move wherein special concessions were to be granted to the Muslims to keep India united and rather preferred the division of the country.

Major Narinder Singh Jallo (retd), Mohali