E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

A strident Congress
IT is a cliché but it is closest to truth: the Congress is reinventing itself. Also repositioning itself as a critical opposition party. Three developments attest to this. One, Mrs Sonia Gandhi has been in a denouncing mode. 

Cheaper liquor
THE news that country liquor will cost less in Haryana following changes made in the excise policy will cheer tipplers as much as it disheartens the diehard votaries of prohibition. Ironically, both have tremendous numerical strength in the State which has a history of swinging from one extreme to another, depending on which party is in power. 

Signals from UP
FOR the Congress, which is trying to reinvent itself at the national level, living at the mercy of the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra and struggling to remain afloat in Uttar Pradesh, even a small act of betrayal can in due course become the source of a major setback. Monday was a particularly bad day for the party. 

OPINION

America’s silly move on Tarapur
Time for firm response, not overreaction
Inder Malhotra
AFTER several positive statements and promising indications about its determination to maintain the upswing in Indo-US relations, the month-old Bush administration has made its first false move. It is as hurtful as it is unnecessary. Its baneful consequences, to be discussed in detail, are already becoming obvious.

IN THE NEWS

An unrecognised hero
BHUJ, one of the worst earthquake-affected areas in Gujarat, has its own share of unsung heroes. In this particular case it brings to the fore the efforts of a lone individual to get the news of the devastation in Bhuj and Kutch districts to the outside world. 

• Quake & Minister’s priority

• Robert Mugabe

Courage, thy name is Vineet
R. K. Saboo
VINEET, a perpetual winner, ultimately fell to the inevitable. Only death could defeat him and that it did. He passed away in the morning of February 11, 2001, and when I got the information I could not believe it. According to doctors, he was a living crisis and anything could happen to him any time. 

TRENDS AND POINTERS

Earth-like life “common in our galaxy”
FOR THE FIRST time, astronomers have indirect evidence that there could be billions of earth-like planets in the galaxy, many of them home to forms of extraterrestrial life. The clue to a Star Trek version of the universe, according to Norman Murray of the University of Toronto, can be read in the distinctive light from more than half the stars in a sample of the galaxy. 

• Babies born with perfect pitch

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

A strident Congress

IT is a cliché but it is closest to truth: the Congress is reinventing itself. Also repositioning itself as a critical opposition party. Three developments attest to this. One, Mrs Sonia Gandhi has been in a denouncing mode. First she bitterly castigated both the Gujarat government and the Centre for mismanaging earthquake relief work. And it stung. Then she turned her attention on the cease combat operations in Jammu and Kashmir. She has accused the ruling alliance of pursuing a militaristic policy and totally lacking in a political or pro-people one. This after the government held an exclusive briefing for the Congress, a privilege other parties, including the alliance partners, have not received. (This was set right by the all-party meeting on Wednesday.) The carping comments on the Kashmir peace process is particularly hurting for two reasons. The move is totally identified with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and hence an attack on it is seen as a personal attack on him. It rankles. Two, the BJP is sharply divided on the extension of what is loosely called the ceasefire. Home Minister L.K.Advani and party president Bangaru Laxman are opposed to an extension and are happy being dubbed hardliners. Mr Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Defence Minister Fernandes support the move. Given this political reality, the Sonia interjection looks like tilting the scale in favour of the hardliners.

There is more to the new policy line of the Congress and its president. The days of constructive opposition are definitely over. The party will now walk the extra mile to harass and molest the government and the leading component, the BJP. From today, it will keep the spotlight on the judgement of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court and the reaction of the UP government, earthquake relief in Gujarat, policy towards the farmers and the loss of initiative in Jammu and Kashmir. Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s speeches and the media briefing by the party spokesman indicate a hardening of stand which is not a helpful sign during the budget session. Of course, the Congress is forced to strike an aggressive posture because of its internal dynamics. Mrs Sonia Gandhi has just established her supremacy in the party by packing the decision-making Working Committee with her favourites. Two, the dissenting voices have been properly silenced. But she has problems in two key states. In West Bengal one section of the party wants to align with Ms Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on her terms while another wants her to break with the BJP. With the CPM losing leaders from one district in the name of strengthening the Congress, it is really a mess. In Tamil Nadu, it is the classic one step forward and two steps backward. The Congress has sealed an electoral pact with the Tamil Maanila Congress led by Mr G.K. Moopanar but is undecided over any seat-sharing agreement with the more powerful AIADMK. It had its priorities hopelessly tangled. But an exaggerated opposition does not solve internal compulsions. Not even in the Congress party. 

Cheaper liquor

THE news that country liquor will cost less in Haryana following changes made in the excise policy will cheer tipplers as much as it disheartens the diehard votaries of prohibition. Ironically, both have tremendous numerical strength in the State which has a history of swinging from one extreme to another, depending on which party is in power. Perhaps with time this to-and-fro movement of the pendulum will lead to a golden equilibrium. Where the excise policy 2001-2002 differs from the previous ones is that it has recognised liquor as a commodity instead of a revenue-earning evil. The permission given to the licensees to lift a 25 per cent additional quota of country liquor on a cumulative basis every month without any licence fees only gives an official recognition to a practice that had been going on in a clandestine manner all along. It is this concession that is likely to be passed on to the “consumers”. Throwing open the supply of country liquor to reputed distilleries all over the country indeed has the potential of ensuring quality, variety as well as reasonable price. The Chautala government is doing away with the impractically rigid regime of Mr Bansi Lal. There are apprehensions about the likelihood of a jump in consumption. These should be addressed. The ban on the sale of liquor in the holy cities of Kurukshetra, Pehowa and Thanesar stays. Elsewhere, no liquor vends would be located at a distance less than 150 metres from the main gate of a recognised school, college, main bus stand or place of worship. The government also ought to ensure that there is no proliferation of vends along main roads because that encourages drunken driving with all the resultant consequences.

The deleterious effects of drinking are well known. But banishing the dangerous brew presents a social as well as administrative dilemma. A blanket ban has never worked anywhere in the world. In fact, it has compounded the problem. So, the government has to devise acceptable damage-control measures. The worst culprits are hard drinks. One way out is to wean drinkers away from such drinks to relatively less harmful ones like beer. That by no stretch of the imagination means that non-drinkers should go in for any kind of alcoholic drink. In fact, everyone should be goaded to give up drinking. But those who are addicted to hard liquor and cannot give it up can be encouraged to taper down to a less harmful alternative

Signals from UP

FOR the Congress, which is trying to reinvent itself at the national level, living at the mercy of the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra and struggling to remain afloat in Uttar Pradesh, even a small act of betrayal can in due course become the source of a major setback. Monday was a particularly bad day for the party. It received bad news from UP and disturbing signals from Maharashtra. In UP the source of bad news could be attributed to the Jitendra Prasada factor, which is alive and kicking in the form of his sizeable band of supporters. Mr Surendranath Awasthi, who was until Monday a Congress MLA, is one of them. He continues to be in the Congress, but is no longer a legislator. His heart suddenly started beating for political stability which made him vacate his Hydergarh seat in Barabanki for Chief Minister Rajnath Singh. Accusing Mr Awasthi of betraying the Congress is not going to undo the damage he has done to the party because UP Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kesrinath Tripathi does not believe in sleeping over resignation letters, particularly those which help the Bharatiya Janata Party in regaining lost political ground. Mr Awasthi’s resignation is meant to convey to the Congress high command the displeasure of the Jitendra Prasada supporters over the rejection of their demand for nominating Mrs Noor Bano, Lok Sabha member from Rampur, to the Congress Working Committee.

The reported cosying up of Mr Sharad Pawar to the BJP could mean the end of the innings for Maharashtra’s Congress Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. Considerable political importance is being attached to Mr Pawar’s appoint as Vice-Chairman of the Joint Disaster Management Committee headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. It must be remembered that most leaders of the parties which are part of the National Democratic Alliance were once as loud in proclaiming their secular credentials as Mr Pawar. If Mr George Fernandes, Mr Nitish Kumar, Mr Sharad Yadav and Mr Ram Vilas Paswan have no problem in sharing the burden of governance with the BJP, why should Mr Pawar’s calculated move to do political business with the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra raise eyebrows? The reconstituted Congress high command cannot afford to dismiss as of no consequence the developments in UP and Maharashtra. For those who survive on crumbs every morsel counts.

America’s silly move on Tarapur
Time for firm response, not overreaction
Inder Malhotra

AFTER several positive statements and promising indications about its determination to maintain the upswing in Indo-US relations, the month-old Bush administration has made its first false move. It is as hurtful as it is unnecessary. Its baneful consequences, to be discussed in detail, are already becoming obvious. The incipient mischief needs to be nipped in the bud in the best interests of both sides.

First, the facts. Tarapur is this country’s first nuclear power station that was built nearly 35 years ago by the USA that had also guaranteed the supply of its fuel, enriched uranium, throughout the plant’s life. From the very start, Tarapur has been under safeguards agreed to by India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and accepted by the USA.

In spite of this, in the late seventies, after this country’s first nuclear explosion at Pokhran in 1974 and the subsequent election of President Jimmy Carter, the USA reneged on its commitment to supply the fuel required to run Tarapur. After prolonged and painful negotiations, it was agreed that France would supply enriched uranium on exactly the terms and conditions on which America was doing earlier.

This could continue only up to 1992. In that year, France, which had refused to sign the NPT ultimately, decided to adhere to it. (So did China, that, too, had stayed out of the NPT when it came into force in 1970.) Consequently, India decided to import nuclear fuel from China, under continuing IAEA safeguarding, and Beijing readily agreed to sell it.

Russia came into the picture in October last when the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, on a visit to Delhi, agreed to fuel Tarapur, in addition to concluding some other nuclear agreements with this country.

Against this backdrop, America’s demand on Russia not to supply India fuel for Tarapur, voiced in a public statement by the spokesman of the State Department is curious, to say the least. The stated American pretext is that India has not accepted full-scope safeguards, as against safeguards in relation to specific foreign-aided nuclear facilities. But then this was precisely the position when the USA applauded the agreement with France and raised no objection to the subsequent agreement between India and China.

Another American reason in demand of cessation of fuel supplies is that “India has a nuclear weapons programme”. In heaven’s name, this country tested half a dozen nuclear weapons in May, 1998, and declared itself a nuclear weapon power then. Russia, a signatory to the NPT and a member of the London-based Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG), knew this when it agreed not only to sell enriched uranium to this country but also to do a lot more.

For instance, Moscow is building at Koodankulam in South India a nuclear power station with two reactors of 1000 mw each. Moscow will provide the fuel for both on terms similar to those applicable to Tarapur. France, which is also keen on cooperation with India in the nuclear power industry, is carefully watching the goings-on, and herein might lie a clue to America’s quixotic move. The US laws prevent export to nuclear equipment and material to countries that do not accept full-scope safeguards. The US nuclear industry, therefore, is worried about the lucrative Indian market for nuclear power stations being captured by others. Another wider objective vis-a-vis Russia also seems to be at work. Angered by Moscow’s strong opposition to America’s national missile defence (NMD) programme, Washington does want to pressurise Russia in whatever way it can. As for India, American purpose appears to be to serve notice that nuclear non-proliferation remains an issue despite the Bush administration’s own rejection of the CTBT. Furthermore, if the Koodankulam project could be wrecked, American companies might be in a stronger position to sell conventional power stations to this country to meet its acute shortage of electricity.

In 1993, the USA had succeeded in arm-twisting Russia into amending its deal with India for the supply of cryogenic engines for the geo-stationary satellite-launching vehicles (GSLVs). But what has been the result? India has developed its GSLV largely on its own, and it will be operational next year — only a few years behind the original schedule. If the fuel supply for Tarapur is interrupted, this country can use the indigenously developed Mox fuel or continue to rely on China.

The key question is whether Russia will again succumb to American pressure. Moscow does need trade with and technology from America. But unlike Mr Boris Yeltsin and Mr Kozyrev, who ran Russian policy in the mid-nineties, President Putin and his colleagues are Russian nationalists determined to uphold their country’s interest. Russia also has the option of moving closer to China and jointly resist American attempts to lay down the law for the rest of the world.

Whatever the course of future developments, the dangers inherent in Washington’s ill-considered and ill-timed statement on Tarapur have already become manifest. In both this country and the USA there are people mired in the old mindset. Those in this country have started shouting that the “honeymoon” between the most powerful and most populous democracies “is over”. Those subscribing to this view have strong objection also to an earlier statement by the American Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld. While berating Russia for being a “missile proliferator”, he had lumped India along with Iran and Libya, earlier described by the USA as “rogue states” as recipients. He had made things worse by saying that all this “threatened” other people, including the “US, Western Europe and countries in West Asia”. To add insult to injury, Mr Rumsfeld had remained totally silent on China’s supplies of missiles and missile technologies to Pakistan.

Even so, officials in South Block had tried to make light of the US Defence Secretary’s tactless remarks as no more than an aberration. After the demand on Russia to terminate the Tarapur arrangement such indulgence is not possible. The trouble, however, is that over-reaction could be equally harmful.

It is in India’s best interests to have the kind of qualitative change in its relations with the USA that has been in the offing for some time. Differences over the nuclear issue will not disappear. But to allow them to become an obstacle to better and cooperative relations with the USA would be an unwise policy. The best thing India can do is to make known its point of view to the Bush Administration in no uncertain terms. Beyond that it should be left to Russia to resist and reject the untenable American dictate. Interaction with France on the nuclear issue should also be intensified.

On the other hand, those who go on crowing about a “paradigm change” in America’s attitude towards this country must learn to recognise that even when the relationship with the USA becomes intimate, problems with Washington will persist. This is the case with countries like China and Japan which, for different reasons, find a higher place in the American scheme of things than does India. The overbearing USA also miffs its European allies from time to time. For instance, except for Britain, which joined the aggressive action, other European countries have distanced themselves from the US bombing of Iraq. China and Russia have condemned it. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee has deplored it in moderate tones and rightly asked for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq.

In dealing with the USA, this country will have to be steadfast, of course, in defence of its vital interests on which there can be no compromise. But it must also learn to be skilful and, where necessary, flexible. America knows that this country’s minimum and credible nuclear deterrent will not disappear. If we play our card well, America will come to terms with this reality, as Russia has done, and France is likely to do.

— The writer is a well-known political commentator.

An unrecognised hero

BHUJ, one of the worst earthquake-affected areas in Gujarat, has its own share of unsung heroes. In this particular case it brings to the fore the efforts of a lone individual to get the news of the devastation in Bhuj and Kutch districts to the outside world. Putting aside his personal tradegy, J.N. Rawal, as duty officer of All India Radio, Bhuj, somehow managed to keep the transmitter functional barring a three-minute break from 8.46 a. m. to 8.49 a. m. on January 26 when the killer earthquake struck. The personal risk and trauma notwithstanding, the staff operated from outside the cracked building which had become unsafe. All other modes of communication like the telephone, PCOs and cell phones had gone dead. The state government’s network had also become inoperative.

Despite the tremendous odds, regional news bulletins in Kutchi and other programmes were relayed to tell the outside world the enormity of the tragedy that had befallen the people of this region.

Sticking to his post despite the calamitous situation, Mr Rawal took short breaks from work to ascertain the fate of his sister, brother-in-law and nephew. To his horror, they had all died when their house in Bhuj collapsed in a heap.

After the rubble was cleared in the next two days, Mr Rawal recovered the badly decomposed bodies of his relatives, carried them on his own two-wheeler to the cremation ground as there was no other means of transport with death and destruction stalking all around. It was up to Mr Rawal to keep AIR, Bhuj, on the air and he did not budge in that task.

Quake & Minister’s priority

Some politicians must have their way irrespective of the death and devastation all around. Gujarat Industries Minister Suresh Mehta, who hails from Mandvi, is believed to have insisted on having the flag hoisting ceremony in Bhuj after the earthquake.

Mr Mehta, a former Chief Minister of the second most industrialised state in the country, directed all the district officials to be present. People are seething with anger that instead of contributing to relief efforts, the Minister wanted to fulfil his ego of hoisting the national flag when Bhuj town lay in tatters. This is nothing but madness.

What most observers have found baffling are Mr Mehta’s claim that he rang up Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel in Ahmedabad and the Prime Minister’s office in New Delhi to apprise them of the catastrophe. This is not corroborated either by Mr Patel or the PMO in New Delhi. This too when all communication systems in Gujarat had collapsed with the earthquake.

Contrast Mr Mehta’s statement with that of Mr Patel. People of Bhuj and Kutch districts are amazed by Mr Patel’s statement on Doordarshan around 2.30 p.m. on January 26 that Ahmedabad had suffered the worst damage in the earthquake.

The affected people find it bewildering that even six hours after the staggering natural calamity, the Chief Minister remained blissfully unaware of the mind-boggling havoc wrought by the earthquake in Bhuj and Kutch.

The district authorities in Bhuj and Kutch affirm that they could not establish contact with Gandhinagar or Ahmedabad for at least 48 hours.

Robert Mugabe

For those who revelled in anti-colonial movements Robert Mugabe was a shining star, a real hero. But that was in the early eighties when his Zimbabwe was waking out of illegal white rule. The Third World, rather the huge conscious sections, welcomed it and lionised Mugabe as the latest folk hero. Those were the days when hero worship recognised no national boundaries and ideology and yearning for freedom had a global reach.

Mugabe was a small man, a son of a labourer and himself a humble primary school teacher. What is more, he was not even working in his motherland but in neighbouring Mozambique. But the colonial Africa was in ferment and he learnt his lessons of both nationalism and national fight from Kwame Nkruma of Ghana, who was deposed while on a state visit to China. It was a heady mix, a common man’s fight against the mighty colonial power and his final success. It was victory of popular strength against imperial power and hence intoxicating.

At the historic Lancaster House negotiations to end the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) by Ian Smith, he was the low profile black leader with the British media concentrating on Joshua Nkoma and Bishop Muzorewa. But when election was held in 1981, it was Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) which won a comfortable majority. A new African political star was born and the idealistic sections of the world rejoiced.

Today Mugabe is a changed man. He has lost his halo of selfless leadership. He is desperately trying to cling to his leadership. In last presidential election he could enthuse only one third of the voters to exercise their right and it was an alarm bell sounding for the mighty Mugabe.

Worse was to come. In last year’s election he was challenged by an ordinary — that is, an unknown politician, who threatened to worst Mugabe. Again this was alarming. Mugabe changed from being a freedom fighter to being a fighter for retaining his personal fief. And it is galling to his former admirers.

After his near rout in election, he has reverted to white farmer bashing. He has openly declared that he would back efforts by black farming hands in taking over the vast lands of white farm owners of tobacco and corn fields. This is against court rulings. But his political compulsions leave no room for a reasonable way out. Expediency is killing larger national cause and to think that Mugabe, yesterday’s hero, is in the middle of it all is distressing.

Courage, thy name is Vineet
R. K. Saboo

VINEET, a perpetual winner, ultimately fell to the inevitable. Only death could defeat him and that it did. He passed away in the morning of February 11, 2001, and when I got the information I could not believe it. According to doctors, he was a living crisis and anything could happen to him any time. But we had become so used to his overcoming the health emergencies, to his getting home after a tryst with hospitals, to his returning to his service activities and poetry writings that we thought this time too he would come out of the crisis. He did come back home and he did continue to work for his projects until the previous day, but could not go further and we lost a most humane being from our midst.

Chandigarh will not be the same without Vineet Khanna. He will be remembered by hundreds of people who came in touch with him, by the poorest of the poor children in slums and colonies who were getting hope for a better living. He will be missed by the neglected youths who could get some gainful vocational training, or by the treating doctors who considered him sort of a miracle, or even by those who found him a convenient route for contact with the powers that be. He will be missed by us all.

Vineet was a person to be very comfortable with. He would immediately strike a friendly chord. His personality was transparent. And yet, it was difficult to fathom the depth of his inner strength and measure the height of his courage. Whenever I was with him, he made me feel as if I was the most important person but internally I used to realise his superior ability and strength. During his short life, he packed his 46 years in a way as if he knew that he had limited time for doing what he wanted to. And he did more than what a normal person could possibly do during the full span of life. But Vineet was not a normal person.

I came to know Vineet in 1976 when a friend of mine in Calcutta referred to me an article in a Hindi magazine featuring Vineet's case. On the face of it, it appeared to be a case needing sympathy, monetary help or some support for rehabilitation. I sent my secretary to see him and find out what he needed. Came back the answer that he did not need our sympathy or money; all he needed was a second-hand typewriter, which he could use for his writing. I was struck by his unusual need; and that made my wife and me personally visit him. He accepted the typewriter but in a way rejected us because he thought we carried a basket of sympathy for him. However, we became friends soon. As we got closer to him, we could see he would not permit his unfortunate permanent confinement to bed to be an impediment to his creative mind, his vision for the future, his desire to live with dignity. We wanted him to feel that he was needed, he was useful, he could contribute, he could give. He started writing expressive poems which to me were beautiful. I thought if his work could be published somewhere it would give him a sense of accomplishment. I talked to the then Editor of The Tribune and persuaded him to publish a poem. The poem did appear in the newspaper with some editorial refinement and when I met Vineet later, I thought he would be very happy. Instead, I found him an angry man and I still remember his words, "They have no right to change. If they did not like it, they could just refuse but they cannot alter what I had written." I realised that this man, though appearing to be dependent had an uncompromising self-respect and my own esteem for him instantly enhanced. Subsequently, we were able to get a book published with the collection of his poems and he was extremely excited about it.

In 1986, Vineet had a brush with death when he started having serious kidney stone problems. No surgeon was prepared to take his case because of his abnormal health situation. I was able to persuade my friend, Dr Colabawala, then President of Rotary Club, Mumbai, and an eminent surgeon to undertake this task. Vineet's case was a challenge to the anaesthetist as well. The moment anaesthesia was given, Vineet's heart stopped. It appeared the end of his journey. But the doctors were able to revive him. The operation, of course, was suspended. That was one time, I found Vineet nervous and did not want to go through the operation. I flew over to Mumbai, talked to the surgeon and the anaesthetist and then to his mother and finally to Vineet. I knew the risk involved but according to the medical advice if he would not undergo this operation, the end would be coming soon in any case. It was a dilemma, whether to go ahead or not. God gave the direction and Vineet agreed to go through it. However, his one condition was that I would be in the operating theatre and on my explaining that I would not be able to stand the sight of the surgery of a dear one, he agreed as long as I would be close by. Thanks to the medical team and the staff of Jain Hospital in Mumbai, Vineet was successfully operated upon. Once again, Vineet showed the strength of his character, he would totally submit himself to a person once he developed confidence in him.

Returning from Mumbai, Vineet was a totally different person. He was no more concerned about his health problems, but was wanting to extend himself in helping others. Vineet opened his doors and increased his interaction with people from all walks of life, from intellectuals to illiterates, from the affluent to the poor and from those in authority to the common man. He started modestly on finding vocational training possibilities for neglected or even delinquent juveniles. His selfless work started getting to be known and he received offers of financial help and grants from abroad and from within the country. Thus, started the organisation YTTS, Youth Technical Training Society. Vineet never looked back and continued to enlarge his vision and scope of work, his commitment to the children in the slums and villages. He increased his mobility and reached the unreached.

He had every reason to be complaining because he was not fairly treated by life but he accepted the challenge to live on his own terms. During my long association with Vineet I never found him touched by self-pity. I knew the struggle that he had to go through. His health problem, financial situation and a host of other difficulties would un-nerve any ordinary person. But Vineet was no ordinary man and he faced all the difficulties keeping his head high. No crisis, financial or otherwise, and they were many, would make Vineet compromise with his upright stand. He became a giant of a man. It is difficult to describe Vineet; he was a multi-faceted and an accomplished person. He was an avid reader on practically all the serious subjects of life. Lately, his creativity blossomed also in Hindi poetry. He truly became a profile in courage, determination, self-respect, creativity, vision and compassion. Vineet was rich in personality and I always felt enriched in his company. He had always something to give to everyone who came in contact with him.

He did not seek or care for any recognition or awards-his highest reward came from the smiles of people he touched.

Vineet was one of the finest creations of God and as he returns to God, perhaps, he would be asked, "Vineet, what did you do on earth". I am sure Vineet's reply would be, "I made people happy".

— The writer is a well-known entrepreneur with social commitments.

Earth-like life “common in our galaxy”

FOR THE FIRST time, astronomers have indirect evidence that there could be billions of earth-like planets in the galaxy, many of them home to forms of extraterrestrial life.

The clue to a Star Trek version of the universe, according to Norman Murray of the University of Toronto, can be read in the distinctive light from more than half the stars in a sample of the galaxy. If there was iron in the starlight, he argued, there could be rocky planets wheeling around it.

“If there are bodies in orbit around these stars, at least the probability that there is life — similar to what we consider to be life — has to be more likely than it would have been before we discovered this evidence,’’ Professor Murray said. “It is one more indication that life may be common in the galaxy.’’

Since 1995, using subtle observational techniques, astronomers have detected the presence of 55 planets, all the size of Jupiter or bigger, orbiting around faraway suns.

But all of them would be vast balls of gas, and all of them were very close to their parent stars, which was why they could be detected. In such star systems, there would be no room for rocky planets like Earth, Mars and Venus, on which water could flow and an atmosphere could form. And such rocky planets would be too small to see across the light years of space.

But Prof Murray told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco that there was another way to look for evidence of earth-like planets.

Bodies such as Earth and Mars were about 30 per cent iron. Meteors and asteroids were about 20 per cent iron. Comets were mostly water, but even they contained iron, and crashed into the sun at the rate of at least one a day.

In the life of a solar system, lumps of rock and iron equal to the mass of a planet or two would be swept into the outer envelope of the sun.

So, he said, those stars which were anaemic — with a low signature of iron in their light — probably had no orbiting rocky planets. Although iron is forged in the thermonuclear cores of stars, the only way it would appear in the outer sheath would be as dust attracted from its orbiting companions. Guardian

Babies born with perfect pitch

ALL BABIES may be born with perfect pitch — that astonishing, one-in-10,000 ability to hit the right note unaccompanied, rare even in professional musicians.

Puzzlingly, according to Jenny Saffran, director of the infant learning laboratory of the University of Wisconsin, babies do not seem to have relative pitch, the capacity to remember the intervals between notes. Instead, they seem to have an innate capacity to recognise the precise number of cycles per second of a sound.

“We don’t know when the flip happens,’’ she told the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “I tested eight-month-olds and adults, and eight-month-olds seemed to be processing absolute pitches, not relative pitches and adults seemed to be processing relative pitches more than absolute. When that switch happens we don’t yet know.’’

Professor Saffran had already shown that babies acted as little statisticians: on the way to learning to listen and speak, they made sense of sounds by looking for consistent patterns. She devised a test to measure whether infants and adults recognised tunes by absolute or relative pitch. The infants all showed the same talent that distinguished Mozart, Nat King Cole and Menuhin. She played a three-minute stream of bell-like tones, and followed that with segments which were identical in relative pitch but transposed to a different key.

The adults recognised the similar “tunes”. Eight-month-old babies were not able to comment on the sounds they heard, but they gave their opinion by showing the intensity with which they listened.

Psychologists had long ago learned to use a baby’s attention span as a measure of novelty. Babies attend to something new, and show much less interest in the familiar. Guardian

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Today humanity is bowed down with trouble, sorrow and grief, no one escapes; the world is wet with tears; but thank God, the remedy is at our doors. Let us turn our hearts away from the world of matter and live in the spiritual world! It alone can give us freedom! If we are hemmed in by difficulties we have only to call upon God, and buy His great Mercy we shall be helped.

— 'Abdu' I Baha', Paris Talks, November 22,1911.

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God has a Master-plan. We have out parts to play.

Play out your part well...But do not fetter yourself. Keep your mind steady on the lotus feet of the Lord. You will swim in the ocean of Divine bliss.

Have no attachment for this mortal body of flesh and bone. Cast it off like a slough anywhere, just as the snake throws away its skin. Make up your mind to give up the body at any moment. Become absolutely fearless.

— Swami Shivananda, Bliss Divine, Introduction

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When a person makes his mind the dwelling of God, he is all bliss.

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A discontented mind is like a versel with a hole at the bottom and hence incapable of being filled.

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The world is a deep and dark ocean. But if the mind is enlightened by the light of God-knowledge one can cross it safely.

— Baba Hardev Singh, Gems of Truth

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Let no brother hate his brother,

Let no sister hate her sister,

May you all speak and behave

With harmony and sweetness,

May you all be unanimous

And of one accord.

— Atharva Veda, 3.30.3

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Men whose wisdom is unwavering do not use their high reputation to excuse lowly behaviour.

— The Tirukural, 699

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A beautiful behaviour is better than a beautiful form.

— Ralph W.Emerson, Essays: Second Series. "Manners"