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| Friday, February
23, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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A peace vote for J
& K Chandrika’s visit
by Hari Jaisingh |
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An opportunity in Afghanistan
Poet and the city Virus is not somebody else’s problem
Teresa monument near Seattle
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A peace vote for J & K FOR the third time the cease-combat operations drive is being extended in Jammu and Kashmir but it is no routine decision as in the past. One, the government thought it
necessary to consult opposition parties before taking the plunge. That was not so much an attempt at widening the democratic process and building a consensus as to mute criticism from within the alliance and the BJP. Two, unlike on previous occasions there is sullen reaction to the peace process in the valley. The people continue to be angry over the custodial death and the firing on protesters at Hygam and Maisuma. In fact, some fringe elements are uttering the dangerous word of Intifada, the relentless student struggle against Israeli occupation in Palestine in the late eighties. There is no comparison between the two but the loose linking reflects the popular mood. Three, all opposition parties have pressed the government to initiate brisk follow-up measures, presumably talk to the Hurriyat leaders and send its five-member team to Pakistan. No one has demanded the resumption of discussions with Pakistan itself but that is because no one wants to stick his or her neck out and moot the highly controversial proposal. The CPM came close to hinting at it without actually wading into it. It was an easy task to ask the Army and paramilitary forces to hold the fire for the fourth month running. But giving it a meaning and thrust will be a challenging task. Indications so far are not very hopeful. President Narayanan has bitterly criticised Pakistan for its intransigence. Earlier it was the Prime Minister who regretted that country’s failure to respond to the peace gesture. There is no unanimity on issuing travel documents to Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Sheikh Abdul Aziz. It will be a delicate task to overcome these hurdles without giving the impression of massive backtracking. But that needs to be done. In the third week of November the ceasefire announcement generated a massive wave of excitement and enthusiasm. To rekindle it even partially needs dramatic steps. For instance, severe punishment to those who ordered the firing at Hygam and also those who pulled the trigger will somewhat mollify the agitating public. Handsome compensation has also the peace-buying potential. The Army chief is an advocate of the peace process. He should be asked to study the prospect of pulling out a few units, now that the border has remained quiet. It is a risky idea and should be carefully examined by experts but it is one that will have a magical effect on the aggrieved population. The cease-combat operation was a bold step; the need now is for bolder action. |
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Chandrika’s visit THE three-day visit to Delhi from today by Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga assumes added significance because of the Norwegian-backed initiative for restoring peace in the island. Much has happened since her last visit in 1998 when she signed a free trade agreement with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Among other things President Kumaratunga is likely to take Mr Vajpayee into confidence about Norwegian-brokered peace talks with the LTTE. A meeting between the Norwegian representative and LTTE’s chief negotiator in London recently has revived the hope of a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Sri Lanka. The report that the LTTE has abandoned its separatist agenda in favour of a deal which addresses the concerns of the Tamil population without in any way putting into jeopardy the unity and integrity of the island nation too is a significant development. A group of church leaders who met the LTTE representatives in northern Sri Lanka have confirmed the shift in their stand. Of course, after years of bloody armed struggle in which both sides suffered heavily the circumstances leading to the shift in the LTTE’s stand have not been fully explained. If the change is genuine, it would improve the chances of a negotiated settlement promising functional autonomy to the Tamil population. A firm indication of whether the Norwegian-brokered peace dialogue would remain on course should be available by Saturday when the LTTE is expected to announce the extension of the unilateral ceasefire in the Jaffna belt. Mrs Kumaratunga’s visit would provide an opportunity to India to assure her that it was not opposed to the inclusion of Japanese and British representatives, as reported by a section of the media, in the “monitoring mechanism” being fine-tuned by Norway. To be fair, the British decision to postpone indefinitely the proposed ban on the LTTE under the new anti-terrorism laws is meant to give impetus to the latest initiative for restoring peace in Sri Lanka. For the Indian leadership the decision to support the Norwegian initiative is not going to be an easy one because of the massacre of the Indian troops in Sri Lanka and the killing of Rajiv Gandhi by Tamil separatists. Mrs Kumaratunga will have to use her diplomatic charm for selling the Norwegian initiative to India |
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Triumph of faith and spirit of service THE
200-year-old Damdami Taksal at Chowk Mehta in Amritsar district is a premier centre for teaching Sikh tenets, prayers and ragas. It has kept up its sacred role in spreading the message of the great Gurus. Today, it inspires both reverence and awe. It was Sant Kartar Singh who shifted the headquarters of Damdami Taksal from Bhinder Kalan village in Ferozepore district to Chowk Mehta in Amritsar district. After the death of Sant Kartar Singh in an accident in August, 1977, Sant Jarnail Singh, who later appended “Bindranwale” to his name, took charge of the Taksal which has in the past often been caught in the Akali-Congress political tussle. That is a matter of separate study. The Taksal stands majestically amidst lush green fields. A colourful fountain was at play the evening I visited the place to make obeisance at the gurdwara. Later I briefly met Baba Thakur Singh, presently head of the Taksal. He was then totally absorbed in listening to Gurbani being recited by his disciple. As many as seven granthis were reciting the holy Granth. Not many visitors were around. The disciples in their traditional robes were busy with their chores. Chowk Mehta got into prominence during Punjab’s days of competitive politics which finally set the pace for militancy in the state for 10 long years. In fact, during those days Sant Bindranwale emerged as the kingpin. How and why Punjab was caught in the bloodbath is a matter of opinion. Basically, it was the failure of political leaders which set the state on a suicidal course. Punjab then lived from one blunder to another. The net result was long suffering of the people. Fundamentalism , for that matter, corroded, to some extent, the basic fibre of Punjabi society. I do not wish to go into the past. Nor do I want to take the readers down memory lane. Certain memories are best forgotten while drawing the right lessons from history and experience. History is a great treasure house of learning. It is a different matter that we as a people are either poor learners of history or read it selectively. That is the reason why history often repeats itself here. Still, it is a tribute to the nation’s resilience that it has successfully withstood the political storms. Punjab has now come out of its shadow of the past, thanks to the people’s zest for life and earthy common sense. A number of political stalwarts, who were once a witness to the state’s blood-soaked years, are now at the helm. They symbolise the triumph of democratic spirit in the face of the rule by the gun. Punjab has come full circle. It is at the crossroads again, especially on the economic front. Politics has, more or less, come to stabilise, though the games politicians play even today have a familiar ring. Also, the state leadership continues to be wedded to old frameworks and outdated notions in today’s fast changing situation. However, more than politics, it is the issues concerning agriculture, the overall growth of the economy and unemployment that pose real challenges to the leadership. Back to Chowk Mehta, the bazaar nearby hums with activities. Business has picked up. The Chowk is crowded with people from nearby villages. The main road also wears a busy look with heavy vehicular traffic. The live picture presented by Chowk Mehta is typical of several such towns and semi-rural and urban centres in Punjab. The Golden Temple, located 26 km away from Chowk Mehta, is, as usual, overcrowded with devotees. The people’s reverence and faith are to be seen and experienced to be believed. Punjab today is in the grip of a religious fervour, the order for which was set by Guru Nanak Dev. Amidst the spirit of service, pro-peace mood dominates the thinking of the people. The psychosis of the militancy days is the thing of the past. There is a meeting of minds as well as hearts among the people. The two major communities — the Sikhs and the Hindus — live in harmony. Some bitterness in the relationship that surfaced during the days of terrorism has vanished. Punjab never had it so good in the complex arena of communal harmony and brotherhood. The social scene is also changing fast. There is an increasing hunger for education, information, better life and improved living standards. The people eat well and live well. The Green Revolution has left a terrific impact on the social life. Still, there is growing anxiety among farmers about their future. The shadow of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) seems to be lengthening as the state faces the problem of plenty of wheat and paddy. Punjab, today is badly caught in a major agricultural crisis. With rising costs and diminishing returns on farming based on expensive chemical inputs, farmers have actually paid a heavy price for their earlier success. The farming sector, in fact, is in a terrible mess. There are serious communication gaps at all levels. The farmers do not know where and what to look for as farming is fast losing its lustre and has practically become unremunerative. “It is painful to live on doles and subsidies. We are left to face crisis situations year after year. The government and its outfits do not care. For them, we farmers are mere objects of exploitation for vote, power and money. We cannot accept this situation.” These sentiments expressed in anguish by an Amritsar-based gentleman- farmer reflect the true state of affairs. What is regrettable is the lack of efforts on the part of the authorities to prepare the farmers to face new challenges. Even agriculture universities have failed to prepare the farmers on correct lines. The extension scheme of Punjab Agriculture University has failed. The main reason for these distortions is over-bureaucratisation of functioning. We know how insensitive is the bureaucracy to the problems and challenges faced by the rural folks. The urban people are equally feeling neglected. The poor sanitary and hygienic conditions attest to poor house-keeping. Ironically, there is more politics than a desire to tackle the people’s problems honestly. As it is, Punjab seems to be in a state of drift. The situation has arisen because of missing political will to lead the state in a determined manner. At one stage I thought that Mr Parkash Singh Badal could easily be in power for years together, enjoying tremendous goodwill among the people. Still, somewhere down the line he seems to be losing the grip. This is a pity. It is a fact that he suffered during the days of militancy. He knows the importance of peace in Punjab. No one can match his political and administrative experience in the state. A people’s man, Mr Badal is a skilful organiser. He knows his job. He understands what is needed for what purpose. His problem, however, is a lack of assertiveness which is necessary if one has to change the old order by a new one. Instead of setting the pace for tomorrow, Mr Badal has allowed himself to be overtaken by events and his political adversaries. Today, the Chief Minister is on the defensive. Nothing seems to be in order. What is regrettable is that even in the field of information technology (IT), other states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have stolen a march over Punjab. This is despite the fact that major players in IT in India and abroad belong to this state. There is, however, no reason for pessimism but plenty of cause for concern. It so happens that the Punjab government has not been able to win over the confidence of investors. There are problems of redtapism, mindset, mounting corruption and administrative slackness. Also, there is the problem of the absence of political will as stated earlier. This is a serious matter. Political management in Punjab needs to be made of sterner stuff. The state administration today is groping in the dark. It does not know how to come out of the present multiple mess. The saving grace is the Congress is not able to exploit fully the growing disenchantment among the people. The party is far from united today. . It is, therefore, not certain whether it would be able to turn the people’s resentment into votes in its favour. Meanwhile, Mr Badal continues in power merrily. For, he is a jolly good fellow. So say even his adversaries. This was evident during the prestigious Majitha byelection last Sunday. |
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An opportunity
in Afghanistan THERE are interesting feelers from Afghanistan, a country with which India had traditionally friendly relations till a few years ago. The Taliban regime’s Ambassador in Islamabad, Mr Abdus Salam Zaeef, is reported to have expressed his country’s desire to re-establish normal ties with India. This shows that the Taliban regime is willing to reopen diplomatic and trade routes between the two countries blocked after the overthrow of the Burhanuddin Rabbani government. An opportunity for New Delhi to grab it, but there are serious roadblocks on the way. One fundamental problem relates to the Taliban regime’s closeness to Pakistan and the other its insensitiveness to Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden’s questionable activities. The whole world knows that the Taliban movement owes its existence to Pakistan’s ISI. The regime in Kabul has to establish with its actions and behaviour that its umblical chord in Islamabad has ceased to have any meaning with the passage of time. Its assertion that Afghanistan cannot accept any other country’s “bondage” will not do. No doubt, the history of the brave Afghans has it that they are fiercely independent by nature. But that is history. We have to see things in the context of today’s reality. Pakistan is one of only three countries (the others are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) which have accorded recognition to the Taliban regime. Not only that. The rulers in Kabul depend on Islamabad for all kinds of help——military, economic, etc——to remain entrenched in their present position. All this has led to an impression that Afghanistan under the Taliban is an extension of Pakistan, not a healthy development for any self-respecting nation. How can India think of dealing with a country allowing Osama bin Laden to run training camps for terrorists active in Jammu and Kashmir under the cover of Islamic jehad? If this is part of the “international propaganda against the Taliban”, as Mr Zaeef wants India to believe, his country has to find a way to come clean in this respect. He admits that there were terrorist camps in Afghanistan but they existed before the advent of the Taliban. Those schools of death and destruction have been dismantled now, he claims. If this is the reality, will Kabul allow international observers to visit the suspected sites for the satisfaction of New Delhi as also the world at large? It is a well-known fact that Osama is the guru and financier of the mercenaries active in Jammu and Kashmir, trying to implement the unholy agenda of their masters in Pakistan. If the Taliban regime is honestly interested in reconstructing the demolished structure of trust between Afghanistan and India, if must rein in the Saudi maverick. This will not only help New Delhi and Kabul understand each other better with the prevailing geopolitical realities but also strengthen the peace drive in the valley. As far as India is concerned, it has to shed its inhibition of dealing with a regime condemned by the West, specially the USA. The western world looks at things in the backdrop of its own interests, not in accordance with India’s perceptions. One story doing the rounds is that Afghanistan is prepared to hand over Osama for trial on charges of terrorism to a third country provided the USA agrees to recognise the Taliban regime. Afghan Foreign Minister Abdel Wakil Muttawakil, who reportedly made the startling disclosure, has disowned it, but the denial seems unbelievable. There is another report that the Taliban regime wants to deport Osama to his motherland, Saudi Arabia, though the latter is unwilling to accept him because that may lead to complications in Saudi-American relations. Whatever the truth, something definitely is cooking between the Bush administration in the USA and Afghanistan under the Taliban. The new development appears to be the result of the heat generated by the UN sanctions against Afghanistan despite the brave statements coming from Kabul. In fact, the inhuman sanctions and the crippling drought in Afghanistan provide an opportunity to India to review its policy vis-a-vis Kabul, keeping in view its own regional interests. Unfortunate Afghans are either dying of starvation or leaving their hearth and home to live as refugees mainly in Pakistan and Iran. They have mostly preferred Pakistan (there are over two million of them in tents in that country) because of ethnic, geopolitical and other reasons. In panic Islamabad has asked the UN to put up more tents for the homeless Afghans within their country as Pakistan is unable to bear any further burden. The truth is that Afghan refugees are no longer welcome in the country of their first choice——Pakistan. A kind of love-hate relationship seems to be developing between the two neighbours, notwithstanding the factor of the Taliban’s history, particularly after Pakistan’s compliance with the UN sanctions. The Afghan authorities’ not-so-visible interest in India may be aimed at gaining a better bargaining position vis-a-vis Pakistan. But there also appears to be an urge to come closer to New Delhi, as one can guess from Mr Zaeef’s remarks. Though India itself is caught in a major crisis in the aftermath of the Gujarat earthquake, it is a big and resourceful country and can come to the rescue of the starving Afghans. Even a small gesture at this juncture may go a long way. There can be no better way to rebuild bridges of understanding. The Taliban regime, with all its angularities, is a reality. It is not wise to ignore it, specially for India. |
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Poet and the city So long as Kumar Vikal was alive, his persona was an inescapable part of his poetry. With his passing way (he breathed his last in Chandigarh on February 23, 1997), the persona and the poetry enter into a different relationship. Terms of relationship call for recognition not only for understanding his life and works but also ourselves in relation to the play of the persona and the poetry in our lives. If he were to grow as a poet at a place other than Chandigarh, his poetry may have been the same in its themes but not in its form and structure. In early 1960 he came to this city from Ludhiana and spent most of his life as an activist-poet and poet-activist in Chandigarh till his death. In the 37 years of his life in Chandigarh, his poetry and the city came of age. In one of his early poems he describes poem as a city. The image of his city runs throughout his poetry. It acquires complexity, ambiguity and ambivalence. In the layout of Chandigarh, Kumar Vikal sees no place for the poor who happen to be here despite the city. What is it for the children to live in matchbox-like enclosures without windows for the sun, he asks in a poem. In the shadows of the setting sun, he sees a decline of his poetic will, his impending death. The class character of the modern city is visible in its division of sectors, multi-storeyed buildings, low-ceiling quarters, open spaces and the silhouettes of the Shivalik hills. A lower division clerk is the central protagonist of his "Ek Choti si Ladai", his first anthology of poetry, who turns into a poet, exhausted in his quarrel with and courtship of the medium, his memory and the milieu. His identification with the struggles of the lower middle class in Le Corbusier's modern city throws into sharp contrast the seductiveness of the city and the vulnerabilities of the middle class. In his poems, buildings become the monsters who gobble up thousands of men and women in the mornings and throw them out in the evenings. In the dehumanisation
festering in these buildings, he declares the birth of a dark rhinocerous. Here is the outgrowth of a jungle, more insidious and ruthless than what we normally associate with it. A jungle in the city and the city as a jungle is how he sees Chandigarh. It creeps into his inner life. He begins to see the poetic images of his inner journeys grown out of the wildness and wilderness of the City Beautiful. There is no aspect of his professional and private life of which the city is not a crucible. Known the world over as an emblem of modernity, the city, for poet Vikal, is the microcosm of the aberrations of our kind of democracy, egalitarianism and consumerism. It becomes an octopus with us in its belly. Some of his critics see the failure of poetic verse in his later poetry — 'Rang khatr hein hein', 'Nirupma butt main udas hoon'. The revolutionary fervour dissolves itself in the poet's sensuousness of a pagan with which he sees the neon lights at night of the City Beautiful, its wide roads, its flora and fauna, its winter sun, and the snowy Kasauli hills. He establishes his right as a poet on the flowing hair of a beautiful girl like his right on sun, water, earth and sky. In the title poem of his last anthology, Nirupama Dutt leaves Chandigarh for Delhi. He exhorts her to come back to the city. In the poem, Nirupama becomes a symbol of the poet's, earlier strategic and now nostalgic need for solidarity. Though sentimental on the face of it, it brings out the callousness of our times through the need for struggle to stay human. It has to be a collective struggle against the system of
oppression rather than the oppression as an abstraction and a transcendent. He goes back to the folklore, the childhood memories, the days of his watching a biscope. His bacchanalian escapades, the raucous cat-calls in the elite gatherings of theatre, music and dance and poetry lovers were his eccentricities alright but were also his cry in the wildernesses of the City Beautiful, against its gentility. His poem "Traffic ke Naye Kanoon" brought him instant fame during the Emergency. He has been recognised as the poet of the Naxalite movement. In his bunch of poems, "Nastik ke prarthana-geet", he encounters God in his own image, his fragility and humanness. Kumar's poetry hits most without our being aware of it when he makes the vocabulary of childhood-memories, romance, nostalgia and love, a vehicle of his political imagination. As against the loss of innocence, the loss of sleep is a more seminal metaphor to capture our predicament in these debased times. Whether it is the darkness of his lower middle class parental house, the place of work, the drinking pubs, his political engagement or his poetic calling, the city is a foil to his private and political being. If the city owes its vision to Le Corbusier, it owes its counter-vision to Nek Chand's Rock Garden and Kumar Vikal's poetry, no less. The writer is Professor, Department of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh |
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Virus is not somebody else’s problem “Why are you wearing a seat belt? They haven’t started levying fine for not wearing it as yet,” I was asked recently. “My wearing a belt has more to do with my safety than with avoiding fines,” was my answer. There was a time when virus was someone else’s problem. It happened to the geeks and their ilk. The recent proliferation of the “Anna”, “I love you”, “Melissa” and other viruses has brought the word to
the fore, so much so that even in popular language, when we talk of a virus we refer to the computer version, not the medical one. It used to be said that a difficult-to-diagnose disease would be traced to a virus. In case of computers, the disease is not difficult to diagnose, its symptoms manifest themselves quite easily and carrying the medical analogy further, they are treated with software programs that have antidotes. What exactly is a virus? It is a program that searches out other programs and “infects” them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become Trojan horses. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus sneaks in too, thus propagating the “infection”. This normally happens without the user knowing it, and can, at times, cause irreversible damage to data on a computer. A virus is to be differentiated from a worm. A virus cannot infect other computers without assistance, whereas a worm can. The latter traces its roots to “Tapeworm” in John Brunner’s novel “The Shockwave Rider”, and is a program that propagates itself over a network, reproducing itself as it goes. In popular terms, when we talk of a virus, we include worms too. Both “I love you” and “Anna” were worms. In fact they have many similarities and “OnTheFly”, a screen name of the man who created “Anna”, says that he did it to see whether people had learnt anything from their experience with the “I love you” virus. From the proliferation of this virus, it is obvious that they haven’t learnt much, if anything at all. It used the same kind of a format as its predecessor did, an attachment, in this case a photograph of the popular tennis star Anna Kournikova in a file called annakournikova.jpg.vbs, instead of a letter, and it spread through the popular e-mail program, Outlook. When a recipient opened the attachment, the worm used Visual Basic to mail itself to everyone in that address book. Such an action would typically overwhelm mail server computers. Unfortunately it does not take much skill to wreak havoc. While “I love you” was created by a man from the Philippines who knew programming, “Anna” was created by a Dutchman who did not even know programming. He just used a program called VBS Worm Generator that traces its origins to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and makes it easy for novices to create worms. The way that mischief has wormed its way throughout the world is obvious. What is also quite apparent is that virus is no longer something that happens to “them”. When it happens we are all affected by the disruption it causes in varying ways. How can you protect yourself? By taking measures to secure your computer and being careful in opening e-mail messages. You have to, in effect, make sure that the computer that is home to so much of your data is an electronic castle protected by moats and firewalls, and you have to be very careful when you let the electronic drawbridge down. You have to make sure that you wear electronic seat belts of various anti-virus programs even as you cruise the information superhighway although no one will book you if you don’t wear one. |
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Teresa monument near Seattle Dominic Gospodor has done a lot of thinking about Mother Teresa, Nazi Holocaust victims and native Indians in his lifetime. So the 77-year-old Seattle man is building a monument park to all three along Interstate 5 near Toledo, Washington, just outside Seattle. “Mother Teresa did so much good and she was very well known,” Gospodor told India Abroad News Service. “I was just inspired by how she worked for the poor — she was very devoted.” Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who died in 1997, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor in Kolkata. Gospodor designed the project himself. The park won’t be open to the public and is intended to be only a visual tribute. Gospodor has already used $ 250,000 of his own money for the project and said he is likely to use another $ 50,000. Apart from Mother Teresa, Gospodor said he wanted to pay a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust and the native Indians, who suffered atrocities at the hands of the early American settlers. The monument will occupy a 10-acre site and will feature three illuminated spires. The central spire dedicated to Mother Teresa will be 137 feet high and include statues of her and Jesus Christ. On one side of the central spire will be a monument to Indians shaped like a totem pole rising 100 feet, with a statue of Chief Seattle highlighting it. On the other side will be an octagonal-shaped Holocaust monument that will also stand 100 feet.
(IANS) Tramcar binds Melbourne
and Kolkata What is common to Kolkata and Melbourne besides being erstwhile British colonial centres? A plethora of British legacies of course, with the “wood box on wheels” occupying pride of place. The quaint, ecologically-friendly tramcar is turning out to be an unlikely source of sentimental bonding between the far removed citizens of Kolkata and Melbourne. Over the past six years, authorities in both cities have been trying to abolish the tramcar for its alleged unsuitability to urban roads. But lovers of this pollution-free mode of transport are now waging a battle against the decision and the threat to the existence of trams is even bringing them together. Already trams have been taken off several routes in Kolkata while the Australian authorities’ reported decision to do away with the post of tram conductors has raised suspicion with tram lovers there that tramcars could be abolished. But there could be hope yet for the tramcar if a joint endeavour of Kolkata and Melbourne citizens succeeds in “waking up the authorities” to the need for such a pollution-free mode of transport. A couple of years ago, the Melbourne-Calcutta Tramway Friendship Project, an attempt by tram lovers to save tramcars, devised ways of upgrading the Calcutta Tramways Company’s (CTC’s) infrastructure in an effort to dissuade the Communist government in West Bengal from banishing the tram from Kolkata’s roads. In India, trams run only in Kolkata city. IANS Bears hold secret for
space-hibernation HIBERNATING bears keep fit in their sleep, scientists have found. The remarkable discovery that bears lose only a quarter of their muscle-power over 130 days of hibernation promises new knowledge of the way human strength wastes away among the bed-ridden or on long sojourns in space. In research published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Nature, scientists point out that a human being who was inactive for 130 days would lose an estimated 90 per cent of their strength. Black bears spend five to seven months a year hibernating in their winter dens. Their body temperature drops to about four degrees centigrade below normal and they do not eat, drink, urinate, defecate or show any other perceptible activity. Yet over a 130-day period of this deathly slumber, the bears lose less than 23 per cent of their strength. The researchers, led by Henry Harlow and Tom Lohuis from the University of Wyoming, suggest that there are three possible ways to keep good muscle tone while apparently doing nothing. One is by stimulating the muscles unconsciously and rhythmically, for example by shivering. The alternatives, since muscles are ultimately agglomerations of the very complicated molecules known as proteins, is to have a system in the body which recycles waste back into proteins, or draws on protein reserves outside the muscles.
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SPIRITUAL NUGGETS Behaviour is a mirror in which every one displays his own image. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities *** Tolerance mitigates frictions and fissures in human relations and enhances joy and peace. — Baba Hardev Singh, Gems of Truth *** We live in two worlds. When we are awake, we live in one world, and when we are asleep, we live in another. This is our common experience. Half of our lives is spent in the waking state while half of it in the sleep state. So we live in the two worlds almost for equal periods. The two worlds are called the external world and the internal world. There would have been no difficulty at all, had we lived only in the external world eating, sleeping, working, enjoying and when our life span is over, passing on. But we know that there is something life span is over, passion on. But we know that there is something other than this universe we see there is an internal world... — Swami Sunirmalananda, "Upanishads - Wealth of India" *** Say not, "I have found the truth", but rather, "I have found a truth." Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line; neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
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