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| Tuesday,
July 24, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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A UP poll
induction Challenges
before Deuba |
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Obligations
of the rich GOING by the strength of the members of the rich G-8 group, one would say that those who protested against the perpetuation of the global capitalist economic order at the Italian city of Genoa, where the club of the world's most privileged was holding its annual meeting, were wasting their time and energy. Even if they had a noble cause to draw the world's attention, who would listen to the poor or those who wished to highlight their aspirations today?
Intricacies
of international diplomacy
Summit
with my neighbour
Don’t leave
children in cars
Economy:
clueless pursuit
He
‘knows he will die soon’
Is wine
really good?
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A UP poll induction CHAUDHARY
Ajit Singh, son of the famous farmer leader Charan Singh, has become a Union Minister. It should normally be related to his illustrious lineage. But it is not. His importance lies in his believed hold on the farming community in western Uttar Pradesh which sends 90 members to the state Assembly. The BJP glibly talks of capturing a big majority of them by joining hands with Mr Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Janata Party. Here is the dilemma. His party has won only two seats in last parliamentary election and the rest – more than 19 – had gone to mostly non-NDA alliance parties. In fact, in an earlier election (in 1966) Mr Ajit Singh had lost his father’s long held seat of Baghpat. It was wrested by a defector to the BJP, Mr Som Pal, by a comfortable margin. Projecting Mr Ajit Singh as the sole or authentic leader of western UP is both risky and rash. All this shows the desperation of the BJP to go out to all political contortions to retain power, or to avert an electoral defeat. A popular rejection of the party in the most populous state will erode its legitimacy at the Centre. It is, therefore, necessary to do all within its power to script a different ending. The induction of Mr Ajit Singh falls neatly in this pattern. But Prime Minister Vajpayee faces many problems. The Samata Party, after the dropping of Mr George Fernandes, was eyeing for a Cabinet place. Mr Prabhunath Singh expressed his disappointment in blunt words. There was Mr Ajit Panja of the Trinamool Congress who defied his leader and supported the NDA hoping to be rewarded with a ministerial berth. The PMK of Tamil Nadu wants to reclaim its share in power now that it has walked out of the AIADMK-led Secular Front. These are secular and strident claimants to ministerial posts not only to satisfy individual ego but to buttress the image of the NDA as a non-communal outfit. It is a complex exercise and unless the BJP finds an early solution its problem solving in UP will lead to problem creation in other states. And the aggressive attitude of the Congress only underlines this. |
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Challenges before Deuba NEPAL
is a difficult country to rule from outside the palace. The new Prime Minister, Mr Sher Bahadur Deuba, is not exactly a novice in politics. His claim to fame rests on having once led a highly unstable coalition government. He obviously does not need lessons in how to make his second term prove more fruitful than the one which saw him making compromises for political survival. The fact that Mr Deuba would be heading the ninth government ever since democracy was introduced in Nepal 11 years ago explains the difficult nature of the assignment he has undertaken to discharge. He needs sympathy and support more than applause and compliments for defeating Mr Girija Prasad Koirala's nephew Sushil Koirala by a margin of 72 votes. The post fell vacant after Koirala senior was forced to resign by his own party MPs. Mr Koirala had to go because of his inability to contain corruption in the Himalayan kingdom. The Maoists showed their anger against his style of governance by indulging in a series of wanton killings. He was himself said to be involved in the scam concerning the leasing of an aircraft for the Royal Nepal Airlines from Austria's Lauda Air. His handling of the royal massacre too had made him unpopular among the opposition as well as his own party. The controversial deal with Lauda Air was terminated following public uproar. But Mr Deuba may have to perform the unpleasant task of instituting an enquiry for exposing the names of those involved in the scam. It is indeed amazing that Nepal Airlines does not have a fleet of its own for its international routes. Hefty amounts as commission were reportedly put in the offshore accounts of powerful politicians and corrupt bureaucrats by global aircraft leasing firms for making the national carrier dependent on outside help. Mr Deuba has accorded the highest priority to the task of stamping out Maoist terror from the country. However, this task can be accomplished more efficiently not by spilling blood, but by ruthlessly exposing corruption in high places. Both the Maoists and the ultra-right wing forces, in a manner of speaking, have a common agenda of not letting democracy strike roots in Nepal. Why? Because in their book parliamentary democracy as it has been practised in Nepal so far has only helped institutionalise corruptions instead of redressing the grievances of the ordinary people. The challenges before Mr Deuba are indeed daunting. |
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Obligations of the rich GOING
by the strength of the members of the rich G-8 group, one would say that those who protested against the perpetuation of the global capitalist economic order at the Italian city of Genoa, where the club of the world's most privileged was holding its annual meeting, were wasting their time and energy. Even if they had a noble cause to draw the world's attention, who would listen to the poor or those who wished to highlight their aspirations today? Of course, any protest does have its impact and so was the case with that in Genoa by 1,00,000 or more people. They forced the seven leading industrialised nations-----the USA, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan---- plus Russia to cough up $ 1 billion to create a health fund for the underprivileged of the world. This was unthinkable without the efforts of the pressure groups from within the rich countries and elsewhere. G-8 leaders discuss so many things----they have been doing it for the past three decades---but at the end of it all they have little to offer to the world at large. This is what happened at Genoa on Sunday when their summit concluded. Global climatic change, security-related issues, the fast growing debt burden of the poor and possible measures to prevent global recession were deliberated upon but without any concrete results. These were listed as the key issues but the summit participants merely agreed to disagree. Surprisingly, there was a good suggestion from US President George W. Bush that poor nations should be given more loans and fewer grants through the international financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, but the others present did not approve of it. The acceptance of the US proposal could have given the message that the privileged of the world realised their obligations and cared for the underprivileged. Another suggestion coming from a distinguished "shadow official" of the summit, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, that India, Brazil and China should be made part of the G-8 gathering was not taken seriously. These nations. despite not being rich, have acquired a special status over the years owing to the size of their economy and certain other factors, and deserved to be represented at the summit. But that was not to be. They could have pressed for facilitating an increased flow of trade from the developing countries to the developed world by removing the roadblocks erected by the industrialised nations in this age of globalisation. Even now nothing is lost. Dr Kissinger's idea can be implemented next year if the rich find it compelling. |
Intricacies of international diplomacy THE Chinese lost their previous bid for the Olympics to Sydney by two votes and took care to employ the best public relations firms in bidding for the 2008 games and won handsomely. The moral of the story is that in the arcane world of international diplomacy — anyone who believes that politics can be separated from international sports is living in a fool’s paradise — expertise is an important tool. As India discovered at Agra, disdaining the world’s media ostensibly to maintain confidentiality was a recipe for disaster. Leaving hundreds of mediapersons to their own devices and the tender mercies of Pakistani spokesmen yielded a predictable result. The world’s media gave the Pakistani version of the talks’ “failure”. While Indian spokesmen were unavailable, their Pakistani counterparts were answering queries on mobile telephone. As one who has covered summits around the world, it is amazing how India made all the mistakes it could in giving itself a bloody nose. The Indian spokesperson’s one-line or one-paragraph statements were read out at a speed suggesting that she was taking a class of backward children. The only foray Information Minister Sushma Swaraj made to list the items discussed while omitting Kashmir gave General Pervez Musharraf a handle to hold forth on television for two hours. What this minister was doing in Agra remains a mystery because supervising media arrangements is the job of information officers, not the minister. The sphinx-like silence of the Indian side after Mrs Swaraj’s out-of-turn remarks was music to Pakistani ears as the world’s media, including Indian journalists, had perforce to rely on Islamabad’s version of events ranging from “the hidden hand” to the alleged hard line of Home Minister L.K. Advani. Even when the official spokeswoman was allowed to read out statements, she was not given the freedom to field questions, a negation of the very concept of her job. And in the final hours of the summit’s failure, it was thought fit to lock the gate of the one-on-one Musharraf-Vajpayee talks on hundreds of journalists. So colossal have been the blunders on the Indian side in projecting its side in the Agra summit that one must consider the deeper roots of the malaise. There is a strand in the Indian psyche that rebels at public relations, believing in the superiority of truth and good deeds and their ability to shine on their own. Packaging of goods as well as ideas has always been a weakness in the Indian scheme of things. Besides, long years of colonial rule reinforced by the resolve of “babudom” to retain real power have generated a culture of maintaining secrecy on the hypothesis that information is power. A Freedom of Information Act is, therefore, anathema and it comes naturally to members of the country’s civil service that as little information should be imparted to the public as possible. This is evident in small ways and big. If an Indian Airlines plane develops trouble at an airport, passengers are the last to know what the problem is and how long it will take. Yet the relief generated by an honest dissemination of information on international flights is an experience many have gone through. About packaging — rather the lack of it — the most telling comment I can recall is of a German journalist colleague who was shocked that the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi were being collected in an ugly old bucket used by sweepers to clean streets. It had occurred to no one that the ashes of the Mahatma should be kept in a container worthy of the man and the event. Sanskriti is one of the few organisations seeking to reintroduce aesthetics into the Indian way of doing things. It follows from the lowly position usually accorded to Indian spokespersons that, unlike in such countries as the USA, they are not included in the decision-making process at the highest levels. A spokesman will not know what to say or what not to say if he does not know how decisions have been arrived at. Yet Indian politicians find it difficult to accord anything but a subsidiary role to their spokespersons. At Agra, the Pakistanis for their part won the battle but lost the war. They went for the overkill. By any yardstick, the principal guest holding forth for two hours in a televised Press conference while the summit was delicately poised was not only undiplomatic but also asking for trouble. Since General Musharraf had experienced foreign policy advisers to assist him, he cannot plead ignorance. A second Pakistani overkill was for their spokesmen to spread the word among the world’s media about the “hidden hand” sabotaging the summit and about India’s last-minute rejection of three drafts of the Agra declaration. These versions have been copiously reported in the mainstream newspapers in the West and will not help the two countries to pick up the threads again. For his part, General Musharraf appears to have been seduced by the charms of the television medium. So delighted was he over his TV performance at Agra that he repeated it all over again in Islamabad after the end of the summit. A man who advertises himself as the bluff army man has discovered in himself the qualities of being a television star and one can now expect the General’s regular appearances on the box to regale audiences at home and abroad. While Pakistan’s propensity to win battles and lose wars is clear, India desperately needs to learn lessons from its disastrous showing at Agra. Mr Vajpayee himself is not an extrovert and his health does not permit him to be a robust spokesman, a task that can be performed by Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and his spokeswoman Nirupama Rao, who should be given due authority and lessons in conversational elocution. Most important of all, Indian spokespersons must have the self-confidence to talk to the world’s media without the need to look over their shoulder. The first task of the Vajpayee government is to recognise the nature of the problem. If the Chinese can successfully seek foreign assistance to bid for the 2008 Olympic games, there would be nothing wrong for India to hire public relations gurus to teach it the secrets of winning friends and influencing people. The writer is a former Editor of The Statesman |
Summit with my neighbour EVER since our two neighbouring plots were partitioned, there has been a running dispute — now called an issue — over the kachnar trees left out on the other side of the wall. The bone of contention is the “cross-border needling” by the fallen leaves and branches that keep littering our lawn, while the neighbours enjoy their shade and beauty. On various occasions in the past, I have been lodging protests with our neighbour — a retired military Colonel now in the garb of civvies — about this proxy “green war,” but, without any resolution. All my peaceful parleys with him have failed, and he refuses to cut them off on various pretexts. He insists on first holding a plebiscite among the inhabitants of the trees — comprising scampering squirrels, cooing koels, cocky crows and wily wagtails to take their vote on cutting off the trees. Actually, I quite enjoy their antics and even entice them to stay on my side with grain and a bird house for nesting — but they always enjoy all these facilities and then fly away to chirp melodious birdsong on the neighbour’s side. Therefore, I crow only about the raucous crows who also indulge in extremist activists like dirtying my lawn with fallen bones and stinky bird droppings. Finally, realising the futility of an ongoing festering feud, I decided to take a unilateral peace initiative for the sake of coming generations and to rewrite history — by inviting the Colonel for talks. As the buzz about the meeting went around; many self-styled experts and Colonel-watchers poured unsolicited advice. Initially, even my better-half, the hard-headed “home minister,” opposed the invitation as a sign of being softy — which I am, with all my flab and bird-brained ways — but agreed to play along. The crusty Colonel and his charming begum finally arrived. I noticed his stiff body language — stern half smile and tough handshake, as not too promising. After initial pleasantries we were left alone for one-to-one talks; while the begum sahiba was taken for a round of the backyard to show her our collection of roses and cacti — as an act of subtle symbolism. During the talks I insisted that the discussions should also include other issues such as the cracks in the boundary wall, their clothes line spoiling the view of our backyard; and the cacophonic music played by their domestics early in the morning. But the Colonel would not budge an inch and insisted on the centrality of the “K-factor” and the freedom movement of its inhabitants. Realising the logjam we both were in, I then dropped all pretences and whispered into his ears about my own personal agreement with his views...but the compulsions of the domestic pressures...! To my utter surprise he also slumped into the chair and confessed to the same problem. Then we parted graciously and agreed to disagree and continue such confidence building measures in the future. When asked about the outcome of the talks, they were described as, “frank, cordial, and constructive...” In the meantime, there has been an escalation of both the bird droppings and the leaf fall with a vengeance. But we have moved on from “bawdy language” to a better understanding of one another’s body language — especially that of the begums. Aren’t summits all about this! |
Don’t leave children in cars PARENTS
should not leave young children in their cars when they want to go to do some petty business because their offsprings might die from fast higher temperature in the vehicles. At least 120 young children in the United States were killed between 1996 and 2000 because their parents left them in their cars. Some forgot their offspring in the cars by thinking they were already sent to nursery schools. A
similar incident occurred in Thailand some years ago when a couple left their child in a car with the air-conditioner still working as they wanted to do petty business. They went back finding their offspring choked to death due to a leakage of carbon monoxide in the car. Some parents often felt it would be all right when they left their children in cars for a moment. Normally temperature of the child body is more sensitive to environment than that of the adult body. In particular, the child body temperature increases 3-4 times faster than that of the adult body in the enclosed warm place. According to a study, temperature inside a car will rise to 51 Celcius when it is parked in a place where outside temperature is 34 Celcius for around 20 minutes. The temperature will increase to 60 Celcius when it is parked for around 40 minutes.
TNA Selfishness often does not pay Selfish people often end up doing themselves more harm than good when they try to push through short-term interests, according to two mathematics professors from the southern German city of Darmstadt. Academics Juergen Bokowski and Alexander Martin pointed out that a decision that appears to offer a swift solution good can often later turn out to have disadvantages. Take the example of people surging forward to board a bus. Such behaviour leads to overcrowding at the entrance and it takes passengers much longer to get on than if they had assembled in an orderly fashion. Scientists refer to "greedy algorithms’’ when describing such behaviour which means that a quick decision made without regard to future consequences is taken on the basis of "take what you can get now’’. It represents the so-called local optimum. If this does not lead to the full solution or global optimum then the algorithm or calculation method is incorrect and the result is not the best obtainable, say mathematicians. “In most cases a selfish decision does not lead to the optimal result since the global view is lacking,” said Martin. This can be observed at any busy road junction. Vehicles stand bumper-to-bumper which would seem to enable the maximum number to occupy a given road space "but in fact it leads to such congestion that traffic is
gridlocked,” said Martin. In many instances society has successfully overcome the greedy algorithms that would otherwise lead to selfish, anti-social behaviour. Most rules, such as waiting at red lights or paying taxes are adhered to even if they are not liked. This even extends to holidays. “Ambitious people and workaholics would work through until they achieved their aims in the most direct way," said Martin. “Going on holiday forces them to regenerate.’’
DPA |
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Economy: clueless pursuit A prominent business editor recently lamented that Indian corporates are so frustrated that they remain utterly clueless about their investment plans for the decade. This frank admission by such an ardent champion of globalisation reveals the precarious state of our economy. No one, right from the government leaders to the whiz kids of reform, has any more worthwhile advices to overcome the impending crisis. Even business associations seem to have lost faith in the repetitive recitation of the ‘more-reform’ mantra as a cure for industrial sickness. Disinvestment, the loudest stotra, can at the most bring some funds to fill the budget gap. It will not substantially improve production or job prospects. On the contrary, it will only absorb the investible capital by the Indian and foreign firms without creating much new manufacturing facilities. Already, much of the post-reform FDI has only gone into raising foreign partners’ equity holding in the existing firms and for mergers and acquisition. The corporates did not react when lakhs of labour-intensive small units which substantially contribute to the exports, were wound up. Now it is their turn. Banks are flush with funds but the investors remain hesitant. The accumulated outstandings to the IDBI and banks tell this sad story. Private sector investment in the first quarter of the year has dipped by over 12 per cent. The corporates don’t know what will happen to their existing business. The mortal fear of imports, Nasdaq vagaries, various high-tech manipulations and the lack of a level-playing ground have made the very existence uncertain for them. It is defeatism all around. The prevailing subdued mood is horrifying. Every day brings more and more startling revelations about the crisis. A few days back, quick estimates of the CIS said the GDP growth in 2000-01 had been just 5.2 per cent and not 6 per cent. With the growing recession and production paralysis, it is set to worsen this year. Preliminary data for April, first month of the new year, had shown a marked fall in the growth of industrial production to 2.7 per cent. Now we are told that in May it had further plummeted to just 1.9 per cent as compared to 6 per cent achieved in the same period last year. The main reason for the poor performance has been the slowdown in the crucial manufacturing sector. More worrisome has been the grim picture of the capital goods segment within the industrial goods. It marks a negative growth rate, indicating that no new industries are coming up. Neither basic nor intermediate goods have shown any increase in growth. Electricity generation has also been lower at 2.2 per cent compared to 6.4 per cent last year. Consumer durables, mainstay of the middle class-based reform strategy, fell to 6.2 per cent from as high as 27.5 per cent growth last year. This is the position after ten years of reform and globalisation measures. A simple comparison of growth during the pre-reform and post-reform decades unfolds many a harsh truth for developing countries like India. Official statistics reveal that our corporate-centred growth strategy has led to a sharp decline in investment, output and employment in the unorganised sector. Manufacturing had grown by 8 per cent in decade 1981-1991. In the subsequent reform period, the growth fell by one per cent to 7 — despite all the liberalisation measures and encouragement to foreign capital. In 1990-91, manufacturing grew by as much as 9 per cent and in 2000-02 by about 5 per cent. Much of the investments during the reform period have been in consumer durables and items meant for what has been described as 30 crore Indian middle class. This has been almost to the exclusion of the lower classes, goods for who have little profit value. Apparently, the overemphasis on the exaggerated demand from the affluent segment did not work as per projections. The present slump — call it demand recession — has been mainly due to building up of this excess capacities. Reduction sales and hire purchase offers also have their own limitations, especially at a time when the WTO-induced imports put further pressures. The Vajpayee government takes much consolation in the fact that imports have actually fallen in April, the first month of the WTO era. In reality, such slump only further strengthens the fears of a demand recession and reduced industrial activity. An economic writer has concluded that during the period there had been an increase of as much as 332 per cent in consumer goods category of imports. In any case, it will take more time to experience the full impact of such opening up. Already, it has been reported that ‘the entire household electric appliances industry has switched from buying from the Indian small scale sector to buying from Asian countries.’ The same report also suggests flight of capital to the East. A clock firm and a tyre giant have begun setting up units in China. Globalisers hail it as a big stride for Indian business. But flight of capital, like import of goods, means import of unemployment. The ruling party had promised to create one million jobs every year. But a report by a prominent magazine estimated that last year alone one million jobs were lost in the organised sector. The slump has affected even the software segment. This week, NIIT announced a steep 93 per cent fall in its profits for the third quarter. So far, the only silver lining has been on the exports front. But the latest data (for April and May) shows export growth rates have slipped to 5 per cent. This has forced the commerce ministry this week to slash the export target for the year to 12 per cent from last year’s achievement of 19.83 per cent. As a result, trade deficit is set to rise to 12.13 per cent against 10 per cent last year. Another startling report this week pertains to foreign institutional investors. We were told that the FIIs will add dynamism to the stock market and improve the investment climate. True, the FIIs have helped boost India’s foreign exchange. But the latest report indicate that the worst fears about their parasitic nature and predatory profits have come true. Five of them with a total capital base of just Rs 7.50 lakh have repatriated an astounding net Rs. 2,900 crore during the two years ending March, 2001 — all legally and in accordance with FERA and FEMA and with the RBI’s permission. Coming through the dubious Mauritian route, they together brought Rs 777 crore and repatriated Rs 3,677 crore. The report was in connection with their links with Ketan Parekh. The NDA government’s economic mismanagement and total loss of control on established institutions have made it almost irretrievable. The public institutions that are expected to regulate economic and financial system have been allowed to crumple. Vajpayee and his finance minister watched helplessly when speculators, manipulators and the plain swindlers took over every institution, including the stocks and UTI. The ruling politicians failed to act as they themselves have used the system to help their favourites. Headless institutions and extended tenures tell the pathetic tale of governmental neglect. While the leaders remain solely preoccupied with political and media management, essentials of governance are left to bureaucrats and favoured appointees. All this has put the very credibility of the system at stake.
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He ‘knows he will die soon’ EX-BEATLE George Harrison has admitted that he expects to die soon from cancer, the group’s former producer was quoted as saying. The 58-year-old musician has been treated for a brain tumour at a clinic in Switzerland, having already undergone an operation for lung cancer earlier this year. The Mail on Sunday said Harrison had told his friend and former producer George Martin, dubbed the “fifth Beatle’’, that he does not have long to live. Martin told the newspaper: “He is taking it easy and hoping that the thing will go away. He has an indomitable spirit but he knows that he is going to die soon and he is accepting that.’’ Spokesmen for Harrison and Martin could not be immediately reached for comment. Martin added: “George is very philosophical. He does realise that everybody has got to die some time. “He has been near death many times and he’s been rescued many times as well. But he knows he is going to die soon and he’s accepting it perfectly happily.’’ Two weeks ago, Harrison told his fans he was feeling fine after undergoing radio therapy at a Swiss cancer clinic. Swiss cancer specialist Franco Cavalli confirmed that he had recently treated Harrison. At the beginning of May, Harrison had surgery at the Mayo Clinic in the United States to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs. Harrison overcame throat cancer in 1998, which he blamed on smoking. He was given the all-clear after radiation therapy. Just over 18 months ago, Harrison survived a life-and-death struggle of a very different kind — with a knife-wielding intruder who stabbed him in the chest. The former Beatle was almost killed in the attack at his home near London in late 1999. He was saved by wife Olivia, who hit the attacker on the head with a poker and table lamp. Harrison was known as the “quiet Beatle’’ during the heyday of the “Fab Four’’ in the 1960s and was rated as a major musician in his own right only after the breakup of the group in 1970. The reserved Liverpudlian lived for many years in the shadow of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but after the group broke up he released a triple album, “All Things Must Pass’’.
Reuters |
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Is wine really good? IS wine really good for you? A German chemistry professor has now scrutinised all the latest scientific research to finally answer this controversial question. Franz Effenburger of Stuttgart University says that drinking wine in moderate amounts will reduce the risk of heart attack and arteriosclerosis, but only in the healthy. “Anyone with a liver disease or who is addicted to alcohol should not touch a drop,” he said. Effenburger has found two little-known long-term studies supporting the theory that “moderate wine consumption’’ can be beneficial to health. He says the majority of medical experts would agree with him that men can drink up to half a litre of wine a day, women up to a quarter of a litre, without it causing any damage to health. He refers to the Copenhagen Heart Study which researched the influence of alcohol on 13,000 men and women aged 30 to 79 over a 12-year period. It included people who drank only wine, only beer, spirits or were teetotaller. The earliest results of this long-term study were published in 1996. They showed that the probability of dying prematurely from heart and circulation problem is reduced by 60 per cent by moderate wine in-take, and by 28 per cent for moderate beer consumption. The probability of dying prematurely from any illness, strongly influenced by cancer, was 50 per cent lower among drinkers of moderate amounts of wine. But drinkers of spirits have a 35 per cent higher risk of premature death. Red wine is healthier than white wine because it contains higher amounts of
resveratrol, said Effenburger. Red wine contains between 1.7 and 4.7 mg of resveratrol /litre. Bordeaux and Burgundy wines contain high amounts.
DPA |
Barrister’s secret marriage
Calcutta |
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No man on earth is perfect. Everyone has one drawback or the other. Hence you should not be angry at the imperfections of others.... Perfection is the forte of God only. ***** Desirelessness is the key to transcend anger. ***** Desire is preceded by a feeling of want, fear has its roots in the apprehension of a mishap, while anger ensues when someone interferes with the attainment of our desires or when one's will is not carried out. He who attains perfection through the practice of meditation, feels the presence of God everywhere. His ego is annihilated and when he ceases to have any desire, how and on whom will he get angry? ***** Man should observe his angry mood by his Higher Self.... A little irritability should be rationalised before it assumes gigantic proportions. — G.C. Mago, Anger: How to Transcend It ***** Do not be proud of near to the king. ***** King's drum is empty and all its noise a headache, Whoever is contented with dry and wet (morsel) is like a king of lands and waters. ***** Man hidden in rags is like a king of the world. For sword in the scabbard is the
guard of the country He advises the king and the opulent. ***** Remember the beggar who is without provision And who sleeps hungry in a corner in the night. ***** Worthless and the worthy, any one who has insatiate longing for wealth is hellish, Incense and dung whatever falls in fire turns to ashes. — From Shibli Numani, Bayan-i-Khusrau ***** If you want to be far from countless sorrows, Be happy and contented with your meagre fortune. ***** Blessed are the souls that passed away and were clean like the sun, And who did not cast even their shadow on the (wealth of the) world. — Kulliyat-e-Anasir Dawawin |
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