Foot lost, not pride
By Amarjit Thind
Tribune News Service

CHANDI MANDIR, July 28 — The loss of a foot during a mission in Operation Vijay has not dampened the liveliness of Naib Subedar Leela Ram. It has instead strengthened the sense of pride to have been of some service to the motherland.

The 42-year-old from 3 Rajput Regiment hails from Devsar village in Bhiwani district and belongs to a family of faujis. His two elder brothers have retired from the Army while the youngest one is posted somewhere in Rajasthan.

He was part of a team that was on a reconnaissance mission near Thangtop in the Third Glacier area on the night of July 13. It had been ordered to patrol the area and report any enemy activity and to verify reports that the infiltrators were leaving some positions in the area and heading back to Pakistan.

A party was assembled and they began the ascent on the same night. After the climb, the exhausted party rested and later spread out and prepared to observe for any enemy activity. "There were no major positions in the area but we had been instructed that the infiltrators might have vacated the area. The chances of booby traps were very high," said Naib Subedar Leela Ram.

The party observed no suspicious activity that night or the next day. The next night when the party was on its way to another objective in the area, tragedy struck and despite precautions, they walked into a minefield. There were traces that the infiltrators had been in the area but had left.

"The next evening, around dusk, when the team was negotiating a gully, I stepped on a boulder and heard a loud bang. I was thrown away by the impact and it was only after the initial shock that I came to realise that my right foot had been blown away. I also suffered some injuries to my other foot. Following this the party halted and checked the area for more traps. Many anti-personnel mines (APMs) were detected and defused by us," added the brave soldier.

The traps had been carefully laid down and concealed by rocks. Since it is the practice to step over rocks than on frequented paths to avoid such occurrences, the enemy had booby-trapped the surrounding areas we would probably be using, he observed.

Convalescing at Command Hospital, he is a bit worried about feeding his family of four — his wife and three children. The family jointly owns about 25 bighas of land and since the return from it is meagre to support the family, the men in the family had joined the Army.

Till his elder brothers were serving in the Army, the land had been given on lease. Knowing that he will be discharged from the Army in view of his injuries, his major worry is that he will have to start life afresh. Although the artificial limb will ease matters, but the Army has been a way of life for him. "I will have to find some job as the earnings from my share of the ancestral land, about four bighas, would be insufficient as the children grow up," he says.

Nonetheless, he firmly believes that "a man has to do what he has to do and in war one has to be prepared for the worst".

But he is happy that the war has had a groundswell of support from the people and that they have shown their gratitude towards the hardships faced by the troops in clearing the occupied area.

Chandigarh ‘suffers from restrictiveness’
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, July 28— "Chandigarh has a lot of marketing potential . All that is needed is globalisation," suggests Prof Ravi Kalia of City College of New York University, saying that "we have to equip our new generation to get global experience and view ."

"We should not be restrictive in our process of globalisation. I must quote an instance that at one of the American universities where I was teaching earlier, a new Vice-Chancellor was to be appointed. The Board of Directors of the university decided to look for some one who is globally known. But at the same time they wanted to restrict the choice to the city of the university. This is contradictory. This should not happen. You have to have someone who is experienced, have travelled to different parts of the world and possess qualities of leadership and global vision.

"What I feel is that Chandigarh suffers from restrictiveness. But once we come out of it, I am sure this city and then India by extension will change not because of what we do but because of the new generation," adds Professor Kalia.

Professor Kalia was here in January this year to participate in the "Chandigarh : 50 years of the Idea " conference organised by the Chandigarh Administration. He is also the author of a book on Chandigarh. Besides, he has done similar books on other planned cities, including Gandhi Nagar and Bhubaneshwar.

"Chandigarh," he says," has enormous potential to be marketed as a convention city, golfing city, sport city, education city, medical city, travel and recreational city. It has excellent climate round the year and is conveniently located close to the Union Capital. It has remained limited by imagination. In the present-day age and with the benefit of technology, it can reach anywhere in the world.

"There are both expensive and inexpensive ways of marketing. One can rather generate money in marketing. Besides, there are socio-economic ways. Instead of being extrovert, Chandigarh has been rather very protective of its own. Being a capital city, it need not be a boring city where only law makers come, make laws and go away.

"There are people who want to live beyond their professional work and lives. The scientists have established that aging can be controlled not only by physical activity but also by remaining alert. The old and retired people can help in intellectual advancement of a town. The city needs to be enriched with authors, artists, writers, theatre and other such allied activities.

"Today is the time of portable technology. For example, in the rehabilitation colonies, you can take computers and with the use of multimedia technology can encourage people from different parts of the country to go for their handicrafts and market them by organising weekend bazars. You have to make an effort to reach people, educate them, make them flourish.

"You do not have to wait for people to come to you. You must go to the people. In marketing a city, businessmen must be involved. There is nothing wrong in making money. The trick to good business it is a win-win situation for all.

"The problems of Chandigarh are not unique to this city. Many cities, including those in America, are facing the same problem. But here, I must remind you that the World Bank has projected that by 2005, tourism will become the world's biggest industry. Chandigarh, or for that matter, is any Indian city ready for that ?," asks Professor Kalia.

Professor Kalia, when asked about his involvement in Chandigarh, says that he has done a biography of the city. "I have been emotionally involved. My father served Punjab police here. I myself lived in Chandigarh. It is why I am prepared to do something for the city".

"Chandigarh has been fortunate in many ways. The city was lucky in getting Mr Jagdish Sagar as Adviser who has been succeeded by an equally bright woman officer, whom I met today. She is very imaginative and eager to do something for the city. The question is whether the Administration will give the latitude needed to accomplish the things to be accomplished," he adds.

Professor Kalia is also setting up in Chandigarh a new programme. Starting with two schools in the Union Capital, he says, students of the age group of 10 to 17, will jointly do projects with students of two schools of New York by use of Internet technology. The projects will be on key issues like pollution control, sports opportunities for children, values of respective societies. The faculties of the two schools, too, will interact by use of this technology.

"I also want to extend this experiment to Chandigarh. This will open up the vision of our students to the global scenario," he adds.