E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Cowardly act
AFTER testing its diabolical schemes of spreading mayhem in India, the ISI seems to have started spreading its tentacles to neighbouring Bangladesh. Saturday's blast near Dhaka, claiming the lives of 22 activists of the ruling Awami League, is believed to be the handiwork of Pakistan's shadowy outfits.

Politics of paddy relief
THAT farmers had to scuffle with policemen to attend Mr Parkash Singh Badal’s sangat darshan function at Tarn Taran on Sunday shows it is the police that decides, on the pretext of security, who can, and who cannot, meet the Chief Minister. If citizens are not free to walk into such a function to put across their problems, the very purpose of organising a sangat darshan stands defeated.

For a cleaner Yamuna
IT is a trite truism to say that the Yamuna turns into a gutter by the time it leaves Delhi. The mantle of white froth it wears at the Okhla barrage gives an impression of its desire for purity but it is a noxious chemical stuff. Even after the so-called purification the river water is totally unfit for human or animal use.

OPINION

Support elements as fighting arms
Many adverse effects are likely
Harwant Singh
ARTILLERY first appeared on the Indian scene at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526. Babar’s invading army had brought with it cannons and muskets, till then not seen on the Indian battlefields, though by then guns were in use on naval vessels along the West Coast of India. It is generally believed that it was the appearance of this new weapon that resulted in the rout of Ibrahim Lodhi’s far larger army.

MIDDLE

The kabariwala at Harare
Trilochan Singh Trewn
A residence at Harare is a peaceful place during any time of the year. My host was from an elite family of Chandigarh. He had recently shifted a large quantity of junk and waste material from his another large estate to his new residence backyard.

REALPOLITIK

Labour: doctrine of ‘pink slip’
P. Raman

• Ashok Leyland has decided to cut jobs by 1,000 to 1,500 in the next few months and prune its manufacturing divisions.
• Cement magnate ACC is cutting its work force by over 2,000.
• Hindustan Motors will shed around 600 workers at its Uttarpara unit and outsource major production requirements.
  
  

The pain and pride of fatherhood
Tim Lott
THE idea of becoming a father occupies a space in the mind of most men that is comparable to their idea of women’s bodies - vague, conflicted, a mixture of attraction and fear. And despite the recurring media images of men being automatically delighted by the prospect of children, it is also my experience that many men anticipate the coming of children as a kind of grievous loss as well as a gain.

75 YEARS AGO

Cricket at Kasauli
A two days' cricket match was played at Kasauli between the Kasauli Club and the Phoenix Cricket Club of Ambala on the 29th and 30th May 1926. The Kasauli Club having won the toss elected to bat and scored 210 runs. Captain Iyenger's score of 90 runs was a fine display of cricket.

TRENDS AND POINTERS

How to prepare for a holiday
1 WORK out whether you really want that break. Most people look forward to a rest; but others, who fear relaxation (and time with the family), will feel agitated as the holiday draws close. One in four self-employed workaholics took no holiday last year, according to Britain’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development - a sign that they are uncomfortable outside work. If you are anxious, ask yourself why. Perhaps you are frightened of relaxing in case you cannot restart.

• No coffee link to colon cancer

• If the shoe fits, wear it. Or sue
  
  

Cowardly act

AFTER testing its diabolical schemes of spreading mayhem in India, the ISI seems to have started spreading its tentacles to neighbouring Bangladesh. Saturday's blast near Dhaka, claiming the lives of 22 activists of the ruling Awami League, is believed to be the handiwork of Pakistan's shadowy outfits. When Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad attributed the blast to a nexus between religious zealots and transnational terrorist groups, it was quite clear whom he was referring to. The police has arrested an activist of the now defunct Freedom Party, an organisation of the killers of founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It has close links with ultra rightwing groups such as Harkat-ul-Jehad backed by the ISI. These groups are trying to foment trouble ahead of the elections scheduled for October. ISI-sponsored outfits have been trying to project Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed as an Indian lackey. The aim is to prop up a rabidly anti-Indian dispensation in the elections. The diabolical plan has been unfolding gradually through rumours and violence. There have been at least six bomb explosions during the past two years at different places, including a Catholic church just a fortnight ago in a remote village. More than 65 lives have been lost and 298 persons injured. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries of the world weakened badly by natural calamities and a daily round of bandhs and strikes. It is hardly in a position to tackle the challenge mounted by the terrorists.

Politics is as much of an obsession in Bangladesh as it is in India. One-upmanship is the name of the game. Immediately after the blast, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed hinted that the Opposition had a hand in it. Her argument was that it had occurred just days after a Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader threatened to eliminate ruling party MP Shamim Usman (who is badly injured in the blast). But soon after she said so, the BNP reciprocated by alleging that the motorcade of its leader Begum Khaleda Zia had been attacked on Sunday outside Dhaka. She accused the government of trying to eliminate her. Such angry exchanges may win some sympathy all right, but pave the way for the ascendancy of the enemies of the nation. It is time various parties sat across the table and devised a strategy to destroy the Frankenstein.

Politics of paddy relief

THAT farmers had to scuffle with policemen to attend Mr Parkash Singh Badal’s sangat darshan function at Tarn Taran on Sunday shows it is the police that decides, on the pretext of security, who can, and who cannot, meet the Chief Minister. If citizens are not free to walk into such a function to put across their problems, the very purpose of organising a sangat darshan stands defeated. Besides, hundreds of farmers who held a sit-in protest under the banner of the Kisan Sangharsh Committee were no political protesters or habitual trouble-makers. They raised two serious issues: one, why the central relief package of Rs 350 crore for farmers who were forced to make distress sale of paddy last year has not been disbursed so far. Two, the amount forcibly deducted by arhtiyas on paddy sales under the patronage of a state minister should be returned to them. The farmers alleged that part of the money thus collected was paid to the minister. The allegation warrants thorough investigation and, if found true, the minister should be exposed for extorting money from already distressed paddy-growers and sacked.

Delay has wiped out much of the political gain Mr Badal made when he secured the Rs 350 crore package. Given the plight of farmers, with which Mr Badal is fully aware and vocally sympathetic too, such delay is unpardonable. Who will get and how much — remains to be seen. On paper, farmers who sold paddy from September 21 to October 14, 2000, will be paid 62 per cent of the difference between their selling rate and the MSP (minimum support price). According to reports, disbursement committees will be constituted by June 20. Headed by the SDM concerned, each committee will include one arhtiya and two farmers with the Assistant Food Supplies Officer concerned acting as its member-secretary. Relief money will be paid for four days from June 28 at their respective mandis. Farmers are required to produce “J” forms to claim relief. That the entire relief amount does not reach its targeted destination is common knowledge. One hopes the paddy-grower will get more than the Planning Commission figure for the beneficiaries of poverty alleviation programmes: Rs 10 to 15 out of every Rs 100. The minimum the state government can do is to ensure that the relief distribution process remains as corruption-free as possible and the deserving is not muscled out by political loyalists.

For a cleaner Yamuna

IT is a trite truism to say that the Yamuna turns into a gutter by the time it leaves Delhi. The mantle of white froth it wears at the Okhla barrage gives an impression of its desire for purity but it is a noxious chemical stuff. Even after the so-called purification the river water is totally unfit for human or animal use. Repeated laboratory analysis has shown that biological waste is present at a dangerous level. That is understandable since all conceivable domestic and industrial refuse is drained into the river at various points. As it is, the Yamuna enters the national capital in a highly polluted state, having collected both industrial and agricultural effluents during its journey through Haryana. Only a few industrial units have set up treatment plants and farmers perforce treat the river as a dependable drainage system. There is a pollution control board but the river is yet to benefit from it. At Agra and Mathura it really stinks but the majestic beauty of the Taj Mahal and the religious importance the temples of the other city attract people.

Last week the Union Government sanctioned slightly more than Rs 220 crore to reduce the level of pollution in the Yamuna. It is not as ambitious as the Ganga Action Plan which has so far cost over Rs 800 crore but with no discernible benefit to the river or the people who use its water. Holy it certainly is but clean it is not. The hope is that the Yamuna project will prove to be different if only because Delhi and New Delhi are home to a superior set of citizens who have everything to do with the Yamuna and nothing with the Ganga. Even in these days of democracy, a bit of self-interest imparts a powerful motivation to unglamorous schemes like making rivers a little less death-dealing. The Ganga experiment is close to being a fiasco. But it has rich lessons for the proposed Yamuna plan. Not in terms of what to do but what not to do. One, the cleaning should not start at all towns and cities on its banks all at once. It makes focused implementation and monitoring impossible. The river should be divided into stretches, the pollution sources identified and cost-effective treatment facilities located and, most important, people’s cooperation should be enlisted. Despite their cynical distrust of politicians and bureaucrats, the common people will respond warmly to any plan to make the Yamuna smell roses because of their religious attachment to the river. Simply put, the Yamuna clean-up project should be a people’s movement and not a bureaucracy-driven sarkari kaam.

Support elements as fighting arms
Many adverse effects are likely
Harwant Singh

ARTILLERY first appeared on the Indian scene at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526. Babar’s invading army had brought with it cannons and muskets, till then not seen on the Indian battlefields, though by then guns were in use on naval vessels along the West Coast of India. It is generally believed that it was the appearance of this new weapon that resulted in the rout of Ibrahim Lodhi’s far larger army. Yet some historians are of the view that the more important factor was that among Babar’s troops, 90 per cent were prepared to die on the battlefield at Panipat, while the number fired with the same spirit was much less in Ibrahim Lodhi’s army. This simple fact has relevance even today and was amply demonstrated at Kargil. Be that as it may. One could not afford to overlook the arrival of a decisive weapon.

Over time the deployment of artillery saw many changes, due to changing tactical concepts and advancements in technology. It was during World War I that for the first time extensive use of artillery was made. Guns of large calibre ranging from 8.25 inches (called “Big Bertha” with projectile weight of 228-Ib) to 18 inches were deployed. The Germans produced a gun with an unusually long barrel which had a range of 100 miles and the projectile reached a height of 30 miles at its maximum trajectory. It was not so much in the calibre and range of guns that World War I relates to employment of artillery as to the mass deployment of guns and the enormous quantities of munitions delivered onto the enemy positions. Defensive positions were subjected to hours of continuous shelling and yet the defender was able to beat back attacks with crippling losses in human lives. Studies showed that it took more than five and a half hours of continuous pounding to lower the morale of the defenders. One of the major lessons to emerge from the employment of artillery during this war was that against disciplined troops in well-fortified positions, it was less than effective. In some of the battles of this war, millions of rounds were fired, and yet the attacks invariably failed.

With increased range of guns, these could be deployed 10 to 15 km to the rear, well away from the enemy, with only small OP parties (three to four persons in each party) deployed ahead in the forward defences or with the assaulting troops depending on the nature of the operation. That has, by and large, remained the pattern of deployment to this day. The addition of air OPs and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) in certain situations, can result in redundancy of OP parties as well. This manner of deployment, well away from the enemy, makes this important component of the army a supporting arm, quite distinct from those who seek or make direct contact with the enemy and gets to grips with it, both in offensive and defensive battles and consequently are termed as fighting arms. On some rare occasions single gun may be employed to engage a target across open sights (though in mountains ATGMs can achieve better results). Similarly sappers often move with the assaulting troops to deal with mines/obstacles/fortifications and/or construct bridges while under fire. Yet all this does not qualify these support elements as fighting arms.

The very nature of the tasks and employment of supporting arms, their ethos, training, exposure and experience of their officers limits capacity to command fighting units and formations in battle. Only officers of exceptional ability, experience, exposure and performance are selected for induction into what is termed, “General Cadre” which otherwise consists, essentially of officers from the fighting arms.

There have been sustained attempts by many senior artillery officers to re-categorise artillery from supporting arm to fighting arm. General Rodrigues tried hard to bring about this shift. Based on inputs provided to him by interested officers he contended that artillery had much higher percentage of high calibre officers compared to fighting arms and therefore, by keeping them out of the circle of “fighting arms officers category” (General Cadre) the army was losing out on good material for higher command. He had to be provided data pertaining to officers of all arms with above average performance on a block of 11 junior command, nine senior command and 12 staff college courses, selected at random, which was indeed enlightening for him. At these courses equal opportunity is provided to all officers to compete amongst themselves and their comparative merit is assessed against a common yardstick. These courses essentially relate to employment of armoured and infantry units and formations in battle. The data showed that the category of high grade officers in infantry were 21 per cent, armoured corps 31.1 per cent, artillery 10.9 per cent, engineers 10.8 per cent. That knocked the bottom out of the argument and the plan. The acronym COAS could not be made to mean, Chief of Artillery Staff!

Artillery over the years has been equipped with highly sophisticated and lethal weapon systems and has seen much refinement with the added ability to “shoot and scoot”! It is the most potent supporting weapon on the modern battlefield. The Russians call it the God of war. Yet the very nature of its employment and role in battle and the distance it keeps from the enemy places it in the category of supporting arms.

The core issue is of command effectiveness for combat formations in battle. Balancing this basic requirement against sops or compensation to combat arms officers in way of priority in allotment of accommodation and other benefits to make room for artillery officers for command of infantry and armoured formations, as recommended by Lt-Gen Joshi’s committee is irrelevant, illogical and the long-term deleterious effect of this policy will surely surface during war.

Individual corps and regimental identity and spirit have sustained various components of the Indian army through all these stressful years of toil and turmoil and has been a matter of, not only pride but the very raison d’etre to excel in peace and war. To term it as “casteism” between regiments within the army is to display gross ignorance of the very basis of regimental spirit, traditions and underlying motivation to outperform the others. As one moved up the command ladder, though some insignias of parent corps or regiments remained with the uniform, as a matter of regimental identity and pride, the thinking, perspective and actions or misconceived notions of petty loyalty no longer related to the parent corps or regiment. That has been the guiding principle and the unwritten law for the higher command.

It is currently being argued and supported by the Joshi Committee that artillery has done a great job during the Kargil operations and it warrants a reward in the form of its transition from supporting arm to fighting arm. But can such an argument hold water! Is it for the first time that artillery has accomplished its task of providing effective fire support to the infantry? However, during the Kargil conflict, the enemy had no fortified defences and had to make do with “Sangars” which were merely piles of stones with no overhead cover (as noted in the Kargil Review Committee Report) and consequently the troops occupying these had little chance of survival or to effectively use their weapons while under artillery shelling. Even so we had to fire more than a few lakhs of ammunition to kill an estimated 700 of the enemy (perhaps 25 per cent amongst these were killed by the assaulting troops — Kargil Review Committee figures.) Still, as always, the infantry had to take the enemy positions at the point of its bayonets.

On the other hand amongst our own casualties of 500 dead and three times the number is wounded, 70 per cent of injuries were attributed to enemy artillery fire (GoC 15 Corps figures) Own artillery was unable to neutralise enemy guns in spite of having fired over 60,000 rounds in counter bombardment tasks. Further the other cause for our high casualties was the large danger zone of our medium guns (Bofors) compounded by slow rate of advance due to height and steep slopes, thereby exposing own troops to enemy fire for much longer duration. Firing a few rounds from guns in direct firing mode can hardly justify the claim for transition from combat support arm to combat arm.

Therefore, the argument and recommendation by Joshi’s Committee regarding misconceived notions of regimental rivalries etc and that the artillery’s performance in Kargil operations etc merits its claim to a fighting arm status, lacks substance, logic and is motivated.

Being powerless and unable to influence and manage the external environments (improve service conditions and promotion prospects to make service attractive, removing anomalies created by the Fifth Pay Commission, better deal for ex-servicemen, etc) the higher command of the army has been constantly tampering with the internal. A few examples should suffice to highlight this point. Shortage of officers was met by lowering intake standards and shortening period of training at the IMA. Insufficiency of volunteers for hard life of infantry was overcome by adopting ‘Block System‘ at the IMA, rather than making entry into this arm attractive through obtaining special allowances etc. The change from the earlier system to block system has increased the number of disgruntled cadets who are being forced into the infantry and other arms/services against their choice. Unable to obtain from the government, improvement in career prospects for officers, there has been periodic juggling with the annual confidential reporting format, reducing it to a mathematical exercise.

The higher command must focus on the external and insist on getting for the service what is fair and its rightful due rather than let failure and frustration on that front drive it to turn, topsy-turvy, the internal.

Finally Lt-Gen Joshi’s recommendations, devoid as they are of merit and justification, will create a hiatus and dissentions in the officer cadre of the army and deliver a body blow to the existing cohesiveness and camaraderie and the confidence in the impartiality of the higher command. The adverse effect of these will definitely surface during war.

The writer is a retired Lieut-General.

The kabariwala at Harare
Trilochan Singh Trewn

A residence at Harare is a peaceful place during any time of the year. My host was from an elite family of Chandigarh. He had recently shifted a large quantity of junk and waste material from his another large estate to his new residence backyard. This material included heaps of old files, western magazines, stacks of newspapers, books, two 45-gallon used luboil drums, two Belgian made chandeliers, rubber sheathed electric cable in large rolls, nonferrous utensils and bells of various sizes, plywood sheets in hundreds and sheets of Belgian plateglass up to 10mm thick and had dumped the same in a large corner for disposal.

I was used to dealing with a cycleborne kabariwala with his loosely slung sloppy gunnybags cycling around the streets and byelanes of Chandigarh.

One day my host informed me that he had to go to his project site for three days in the east of the capital suddenly and I had to help him in looking after the visit of a kabariwala to lift the entire junk material lying in the backyard, during his absence, the next day. The appointment was made earlier and could not be changed arbitrarily, he explained. Reluctantly I accepted this task. He then drove away for his paper mill project site.

I witnessed a red Toyota car accompanied by a large van with a mini crane and other devices crossing the main entrance. Promptly a white man with a cowboy hat came out from the car, wished me and introduced himself as Mr Hamilton who had come to collect the junk and waste items. I was taken aback as I was not prepared mentally to see a white well dressed sahib as kabariwala. I expected a poorly dressed South African native to have called for such a job.

I quickly noticed that the kabariwala was sporting the latest version of the famous royal oyster tudor swiss watch costing at least Rs 20,000 on his left wrist. He went round the heaps of various items along with his two African assistants. He recalled that the old and damaged large chandeliers had once decorated the banquet hall of the Livingstone House in Harare.

Having seen the items he sat down with me on the garden chairs and brought out a price catalogue where specifications and rates of hundreds of household and commercial used items were indicated. His assistants carried out checks on (a) calorific value and ash content of the engine luboil in the two 45-gallon drums by means of the lab kit available in the van (b) lead content of the cut crystal glass used in the chandeliers (c) which one of various thick plate glasses were crack proof (d) chemically which of the nonferrous items were made of bronze, gunmetal, copper, aluminium or brass (e) whether the plywood sheets were waterproof/termite proof etc (f) the three rolls of rubber sheathed electric cables by shearing of both ends to confirm the metal of the cablewire.

After the above checks lasting about 40 minutes he asked his assistants to measure the cable length by special mini measuring electric machine. The books, newspapers and magazines were compressed in small bundles by means of a mini portable compressor. Plywood sizes were sorted out and sheets were strapped with steel straps. All items were weighed and stacked inside the van by means of the mini crane. On completion of the operation the kabariwala handed over to me a cheque equivalent to about $ 8000. I could not help admiring the versatility and systematic approach of the modern kabariwala. Although I wasted almost half of the day amidst my peaceful stay at Harare selling kabar, I was grateful to my host for introducing me to such an innovative trade!

Labour: doctrine of ‘pink slip’
P. Raman

• Ashok Leyland has decided to cut jobs by 1,000 to 1,500 in the next few months and prune its manufacturing divisions.
• Cement magnate ACC is cutting its work force by over 2,000.
• Hindustan Motors will shed around 600 workers at its Uttarpara unit and outsource major production requirements.
• First Global will trim 40 per cent of its workers and close down 60 per cent of its branches.
• Reliance is in the process of pruning 4,600 work force to cut the flab in its different units.
• Yamaha Motor Company of Japan will cut the flab by 200 persons in its Faridabad plant but leave the Surajpur unit in UP untouched for the present.
• Several textile mills have already closed down and even many prominent ones are finding it difficult to survive the increasing competition. Garment manufacturers who have over the years established a substantial exports’ market, have sounded warnings of large-scale closures due to a fall in exports.

The steep fall in industrial production has been due to a triple effect. The cut in the capital expenditure of the government from 4 per cent of the DGP to 2 per cent had a multiplier effect, especially on demand generation. The fall in agricultural production led to a slack in demand from the vast rural sector. The influx of foreign goods may not be substantial but it has certainly affected the morale of the industry. All this has made job hopping by both the top slot and the semi-skilled extremely difficult. Proposals like introduction of hire and fire through legislation is bound to add to the social woes.

The pain and pride of fatherhood
Tim Lott

THE idea of becoming a father occupies a space in the mind of most men that is comparable to their idea of women’s bodies - vague, conflicted, a mixture of attraction and fear. And despite the recurring media images of men being automatically delighted by the prospect of children, it is also my experience that many men anticipate the coming of children as a kind of grievous loss as well as a gain.

Loss of what? Freedom, certainly. An acquired idea of masculinity, perhaps. The relationship with their partner that has hitherto existed - definitely. I can certainly say that in my case - I have two daughters - I was at least as frightened as I was delighted by imminent fatherhood. And I don’t think that this feeling is atypical.

But now that I have lived with being a father for seven years - negotiating an obstacle course starting with nappies and sleepless nights and culminating in articulate but recurring tantrums on both the adult and child side of the divide - how justified were my fears?

I guess the immediate aftermath of having children for men is like childbirth for women in only this respect: you forget how painful it is. Because I found those early days, in many senses, agonising.

I think the reason for the agony was partly that it took me a while to bond with the new arrival. Unlike women, who usually begin to develop a relationship with the child as soon as it is conceived, many men have trouble seeing newborn babies as their own rather than just, well, babies. Pink, messy, anonymous.

This distance eventually closes and is replaced by intense love. But what didn’t pass was the incubation within myself of a painful sentiment that is normally ascribed to children but which defines many adults to an equal degree. It is the feeling of helplessness, and the fear of that feeling.

Men - and I dare say a great many women - who are anticipating the birth of children and who are used to controlling their own lives tend to bring to parenthood a number of illusions, among them the idea that with training and patience and, later on in life, conversation, children will sooner or later be susceptible to the appeal of reason by negotiation.

This makes the fundamental error that children are simply pint-sized adults who can be dealt with on adult grounds using adult tools. It also makes the further error that the balance of power lies with the adult, and that a modicum of peace and compromise is a desirable end of all involved. But, in my experience so far, these assumptions are fallacies.

The fundamental imaginative leap that most would-be parents fail to make is that children are not only anarchists, but very powerful anarchists. Much more powerful than you imagine. Megalomaniac would not be too big a word. Thus parenthood is, at least half the time, a passionate war of attrition between the forces of chaos and order.

One needs to make a qualitative distinction here between babies and young children. Both are powerful, particularly babies (believe me, after 20 minutes of a newborn screaming its lungs out in the middle of the night, you will do anything, anything, to please them). But young children are more frustrating, because after they have fully achieved the power of speech, you kind of vaguely expect them to grasp what is possible and what is not, and what matters and what does not.

This is not the case. This is so much not the case. To endure an extended tantrum because a polo mint has a bit missing in the middle, or because it’s raining when they require it to be sunny, is extraordinarily vexing. You are on a different planet where the laws of logic don’t apply. Children are primitive.

So, having children is to be the perpetual victim of emotional terrorism. Sooner or later, on a bad day, it reduces you to a child. And it never ends.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that along with sex, New York and good cheesecake, having children is one of the few life experiences that truly lives up to the hype. I have known how to be miserable both with children and without. But I never knew what happiness truly was until I was a father. And it looks nothing like I thought it would.

When I was in my 20s I thought that happiness looked like a big desk I could sit behind, ordering people around. I thought happiness was golden beaches, and exciting parties, and recreational drugs, and exotic travel and big salaries and gorgeous women. And I tried all these things - oh, how I tried them. But you can add them up and multiply them by their own power, and none of them achieve the simple intensity of the joy that is granted by pushing my daughters on the swings in the local park on a sunny day, or simply watching while they sleep. No clever piece of artifice - film, theatre, TV - can make me laugh half as much. No stunning piece of art can be so beautiful. No winning of a literary prize would make me so proud. Happiness, it turns out, like evil, is banal.

What is wonderful about children is the same thing that is terrible about them. Things matter so much to them. They have the capacity to draw immense joy from, say, a cereal packet - and generate extraordinary grief when it is trodden on. Children, emotionally, are like adults - only far, far more so. And what could be more terrifying and brilliant than that?

75 YEARS AGO

Cricket at Kasauli

A two days' cricket match was played at Kasauli between the Kasauli Club and the Phoenix Cricket Club of Ambala on the 29th and 30th May 1926. The Kasauli Club having won the toss elected to bat and scored 210 runs. Captain Iyenger's score of 90 runs was a fine display of cricket. He hits 15 boundaries and one over-boundary. The visitors did not start well but as the game progressed, they improved and at the fall of the 5th wicket, 156 runs were scored. Mr Sultan Ahmed, who went third in number, scored 181 runs, having played a brilliant and dashing game. He hit 30 boundaries and 6 over-boundaries. Mr Mohd: Ishaq missed his century by a narrow margin, having retired not out with 90 runs to his credit, out of which 18 were four's. The visitors closed their innings wish a huge total of 466 runs.

With heavy odds against them, the Kasauli Club could only score 142 runs in their second innings and the visitors won the match by one innings and 114 runs.

How to prepare for a holiday

1 WORK out whether you really want that break. Most people look forward to a rest; but others, who fear relaxation (and time with the family), will feel agitated as the holiday draws close. One in four self-employed workaholics took no holiday last year, according to Britain’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development - a sign that they are uncomfortable outside work. If you are anxious, ask yourself why. Perhaps you are frightened of relaxing in case you cannot restart.

2 PLAN ahead - especially if you have to clear your desk. It is easier to squeeze seven weeks’ work into six weeks than two into one.

3 THINK of things that could go wrong while you are away and pre-empt them. It could just be that you paint your name on your chair so you don’t feel homeless when it is missing on your return. But you may also need to delegate if there are bigger issues.

4 REMEMBER that even the most popular people are vulnerable in their absence. It is human nature to blame the person who isn’t there for any disaster. Colleagues can talk more freely about unpopular bosses when there is no chance of them walking in - and they can find better ways of doing things if those bosses haven’t kept up with the times.

5 DON’T expect perfection, says occupational psychologist Michael Carroll. Many couples and families have rows on holiday - but this is natural, he says: `You could be just making up for the missed rows you were too busy to have before.’ Holidays have the same challenges as the rest of life; golden beaches and laughing children will, in reality, be accompanied by sunburn and car breakdowns.

6 EXPECT to be thrown off balance on the first day or two, suffering withdrawal symptoms from your usual routine. `You won’t be able to disengage psychologically on the first day,’ says Carroll. The ideal holiday is probably three weeks: disengage in week one, relax in week two and rev up again in the last week. Since such long breaks are rare, understand why you may occasionally feel disorientated.

7 TRY to avoid mimicking your work patterns - do not arrange museum visits as if they were business appointments. Try to live in the present, not the future. Experiment. Read novels. Dance. Do anything you would not often do back home. The Observer

No coffee link to colon cancer

The aromatic beverage that millions of people depend on to get them going every morning does not increase the chances of developing colorectal cancer.

Swedish researchers who conducted one of the largest studies into colon and rectal cancer and coffee said on Monday that even drinking large amounts of coffee does not seem to increase the risk of cancer.

But they also concluded that coffee has no protective effect against the disease. Other studies had suggested drinking coffee could help to prevent cancer but the Swedish scientists added that that conclusion may be premature.

“For patients seeking advice about coffee consumption, the evidence suggests that moderate or even high consumption will not likely influence the risk of colorectal cancer,” said Professor Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Wolk and her colleagues studied data on the coffee consumption and eating habits of 61,000 Swedish women, aged 40-74 years old. After about nine years of follow-up they found no link between coffee and the cancer that affect more than 3.5 million people worldwide each year.

“We found no association between coffee consumption and risk of total colorectal cancer,” Wolk said in a report in the medical journal Gut.

Dr Tim Key, an expert on diet and cancer at Britain’s Imperial Cancer Research Fund, said the Swedish research showed that drinking coffee does not protect against colorectal cancer.

Cancers of the colon and rectum are common among both sexes. They occur most often in industrialised countries. Cases of colon cancer have increased since the 1970s.

Medical experts say a diet high in fibre and plenty of fruits and vegetables and exercise may diminish the risk of developing the disease. If it is detected early colorectal cancer can be successfully treated. Reuters

If the shoe fits, wear it. Or sue

Martina Hingis, the world’s number one women’s tennis player, has amassed winnings of US $ 15milion on the lucrative circuit by the age of 20. But now she is going for the really big money in a court of a different type: $ 34 million damages against the sports shoe makers whose product she claims wrecked her feet.

It seemed a straightforward deal at the time: Hingis, who is Swiss, was given a $ 5 million contract to endorse, and of course wear, Sergio Tacchini shoes.

But it quickly went wrong. Hingis says that the foot problems first came to light during the US Open in 1998, when she not only reached the final but also managed to take the doubles crown with Jana Novotna.

The fact Hingis could win that many matches inside a fortnight and on hard court, which is known to be the most physically demanding surface in tennis, while all the time apparently suffering from injuries is seen by some tennis observers as a testament to her stoicism.

According to court papers: “She had the injury examined by a Manhattan doctor who confirmed that the injury was a chronic one and was being caused by the tennis shoes manufactured by Tacchini.” The Guardian

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

It is overeating for three hundred and sixty-five days of the year that creates many kinds of disease.. To enjoy food is all right, but to be a slave of it is the bane of life.

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Fasting is one of the greatest ways of approaching God: it releases the life force from enslavement to food, showing that it is God who really sustains the life in your body. But the temptation of satan is that as soon as the mind thinks "food", you want to eat.

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If you overload a wiring system with too much electricity, it burns out. And every time you load your digestive system with too much food, the life force burns out.

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A fast of three days on orange juice will repair the body temporarily, but a long fast will completely overhaul it.

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I know the secret by which one can fast and still not lose weight. The life force, when under one's conscious control, may be utilised to take off flesh or to keep the body at normal weight. Either way it is effective. When this principle is applied the normal temperature of the body does not go down no matter how long one fasts. Drawing energy from the medulla... the life-force begins to rely more and more on its innate regenerative powers instead of depending on outside sources.

—Excerpted from Paramahansa Yogananda's lecture at Self Realisation Los Angeles, March 9, 1939.

Fulfil Thy will in me each day,O Master mine.

Use me as much as Thou art able.

I am not skilful, but the old artists' motto shall be mine,

"The utmost for the Highest".

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May Thy life be made manifest in mind, dear Master.

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Lead me O Lord, beside the waters of quietness. Breathe into me Thine own calmness; keep me still.

When the feverish bustle comes on, and the voice gets loud and harsh, or the arrogant ring is heard, or there is the wish to a fault, O hush me dear Master.

May I feel the pressure of Thy fingers on my lips.

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That I may be Thy gleeful child; That I may enter fully into the glad mirth each day's life contains; That I may know "the deep power of joy", I pray Thee, O my happy Master.

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Lord, help me to win this mark. Search deep into the hidden springs of my being, and see if my motives are right. Make my speech sincere, my actions true to my creed. Put Thou a measuring line in my hand, and show me how to measure myself, that I may be in every part sincere.

—Charlotte Skinner, The Marks of the Master