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| Thursday,
July 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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VVIP
squatters A deadly
attack |
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The
right to food THIS can happen only in India. Surplus food stocks on the one hand, and prospects of starvation deaths on the other. And yet little action. How callous the political representatives of the people in at least six states can be is evident from the fact that instead of acting on their own, they had be told to make available foodgrains to the people facing starvation. One can understand if the bureaucracy sleeps over the situation, but the political leadership adopting an ostrich-like stance exposes its total insensitivity to the needs of those who elected them to power.
Beyond the botched
summit
The Ajit Singh factor
in UP
New way to treat
kidney
Of VCs & politics
How they use Net
Learn your economics
from squirrels
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VVIP squatters NOW that the Supreme Court has given its firm verdict, former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar will have no option but to start leaving the Bhondsi “ashram” in Gurgaon which had been expanding ever since it came into existence in 1983. The real outward march started in 1990 after he became Prime Minister for a few months. Today, it is 10 times its original size. To be sure, it is prime property, whose total value runs into hundreds of crores of rupees. Right now, the Bharat Yatra Kendra Trust of his is in possession of hundreds of acres of mainly forest land; till some time back it squatted on BSF land as well. In a stinging judgement, the apex court has not only sought a compliance report by the end of the month, but has also passed instructions so that there is no attempt to cut trees on the land. The painful fact is that he is not the only VIP who sits cosily over public property. There are hundreds - if not thousands - of his ilk who also do so with impunity. They think that the VIP tag means they are above the law. And an extra V before the abbreviation is a further guarantee that laws meant for ordinary mortals do not apply to them. They are guilty of a serious crime against the public of course, but equally guilty are the government and other official agencies that look the other way when the VVIPs commit such gross irregularities. The government conveniently remains blind to the goings-on which every ordinary citizen is fully aware of. It is just that he has neither the money nor the resolve to challenge the looters. Who can afford to win the enmity of such powerful people? It is heartening that some public-spirited people have started questioning the established (dis)order. It is a very long haul though. Just look at the way the Bhondsi case has been dragging on for years and years. One requires patience of an exceptional order to undertake such a thankless job. It is ironical the public servants (who actually are public masters) think that all public property is their personal jagir, whereas the members of the public, who are actually the owners, are disadvantaged in protecting their rights. This sense of helplessness has come about because most attempts to save public property from the jaws of land sharks fail miserably because of an unholy politician-bureaucrat-moneybag nexus. Once this fight for justice gets broad-based into a public movement, the power of the gang will diminish sharply. |
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A deadly attack IF there is an international award for perfect guerrilla attack, the LTTE of Sri Lanka will walk away with it. It is as feared an organisation as Israel’s Mossad was in conducting commando operations in the past decades. The early morning raid on the island republic’s only international airport and the main air base had all the finger prints of the dreaded LTTE. It was packed with surprise, precision planning, well-trained and deeply motivated cadre and audacious selection of the target. Its information gathering machinery should evoke awe in the government, political parties and the armed forces. LTTE agents must have surveyed the access to the airport extensively. The area is one of the most heavily guarded and it is inexplicable that the LTTE managed an unmolested exercise or came by top secret maps of the airport and the air base. Either way it is unpardonable. Particularly on a day the LTTE observes as “black day” to remember the anti-Tamil riots in Colombo in 1983 after the funeral of 16 soldiers killed by its guerrillas. That called for heightened vigilance but the intelligence and counter-terrorist agencies concentrated on other targets, leaving the airport vulnerable. It is obvious that the 15-odd terrorists waded through a shallow canal close to the Negobmo lagoon which is not fenced and the rest is the grim tragedy of the deadly raid. The political fallout is unpredictable and very damaging. The LTTE has hit back after air strikes earlier this month on some of its strongholds. There has been international criticism of these raids and the unknown loss of lives. Still earlier the military launched a disastrous attack on an LTTE camp, losing more than 250 soldiers. All this has stalled the tentative peace process initiated by Norway’s Erik Solheim. Also, President Chandrika Kumaratunga is on very weak wicket. She is secure as President but her party, the People’s Alliance, has lost majority support in Parliament. Since then she has taken several political contortions which speak more of intolerance and insecurity than accommodation. The LTTE foray into the airport and airbase and the ease with which it undertook it is a serious setback to her. She has ordered a referendum late next month. As of now it appears she will lose it and then the political mood will reach close to flashpoint. That situation will not help the democratic process or the President but the hardliners on all sides. The grounding of the airport is the most unusual but also very
ominious. |
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The right to food THIS
can happen only in India. Surplus food stocks on the one hand, and prospects of starvation deaths on the other. And yet little action. How callous the political representatives of the people in at least six states can be is evident from the fact that instead of acting on their own, they had be told to make available foodgrains to the people facing starvation. One can understand if the bureaucracy sleeps over the situation, but the political leadership adopting an ostrich-like stance exposes its total insensitivity to the needs of those who elected them to power. It was the People’s Union of Civil Liberties which filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the states where artificial food scarcity had been created while FCI godowns overflowed with foodgrains. The court issued notices to six states. These were: Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Orissa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Only the first three responded to the notice when the court heard the case on Monday, while the other three sought more time to file a reply. Their wish was granted and the case was adjourned to August 20. While the court was keen to take up the matter next week in view of the urgency of the case, the states sought more time which shows how even such life-and-death cases are treated with the same casual approach as any other. How urgently they will
respond to the court’s directive to make the public distribution system outlets functional wherever need be remains to be seen. The Supreme Court has given the states a time limit of one week. The court rightly blamed the officialdom for the artificial food scarcity and found fault with the distribution system. Any starvation death in any part of the country is shameful not only for official machinery and the political leadership but also for the people of the area in general and NGOs in particular. The situation is reminiscent of the Bengal famine in early 20th century. What Nobel laureate Amartya Sen found then is still relevant. The famine occurred not because there was not enough food stocks, but because a proper distribution system was not in place and people lacked purchasing power. Today when the country has food stocks of 50 million tonnes against the required buffer stock of 17 million tonnes, the very thought of starvation deaths taking place is tragic. It was a “horrendous state of affairs”, admitted Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, appearing for the Centre. What should be done ? First, there should be coordination between the Centre and the states. A national survey is required to identify scarcity areas not just in the six states but elsewhere too. Second, a food-for-work programme should be initiated at the state level. The states facing any financial crisis should be helped to overcome it, but without any bailouts. States’ profligacy needs to be checked. Third, the Centre has enough funds committed for infrastructure building and the process should be speeded up with states’ involvement wherever necessary. Fourth, as required by the famine code, food should be provided on priority to the aged, infirm, disabled, destitutes, pregnant and lactating women. Finally, there is need to ponder the question raised by the PUCL: Does not the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution include the right to food ? |
Beyond the botched summit AS a people we are strangely disinterested in history which perhaps explains why we are condemned to repeat our mistakes all too often. Even so, there must be some still around who remember that after the trauma of the 1962 border war with China, the then President, S. Radhakrishnan, had publicly accused the government of his friend Jawaharlal Nehru of “credulity and negligence”. The situation after the botched up Agra summit is not exactly comparable to the aftermath of the brief but brutal war in the high Himalayas. But the sterile summit between the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Pakistan’s military ruler and self-appointed President, General Pervez Musharraf, has been damaging enough. Those responsible for this sad state of affairs have surely been naive and inept, to put it no more strongly than that. Regrettably, the bungling had begun at the beginning though at that time it did appear — and the spin-doctor made it appear — that the sudden, hasty and out-of-the-blue invitation to the General was a move worthy of a chess grandmaster. It was only after General Musharraf had hijacked the summit in the service of his single-point-agenda — “Kashmir, Kashmir and nothing but Kashmir”— and triumphantly gone home, “empty-handed” but with a swollen head, that breast-beating in New Delhi started. “We had asked Pakistan for an official-level meeting to prepare the ground for the summit and work out a ‘structured agenda’. But what could we do when Islamabad refused?” So went the refrain or words to that effect. However, no one has bothered to answer a simple and highly pertinent question. Why were quiet soundings about a ‘structured agenda’ and allied matters not taken before sending the effusive letter of invitation to the General who, having accepted it, made it clear to the wide world, day after day, what exactly he was after. Mr Muchkund Dubey, a former Foreign Secretary, is right in suggesting that the “extension” of the invitation to General Musharraf somehow became a corollary of the “non-extension” of the “unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir. As if this was not enough, Indian policy makers committed a second cardinal error. They should have looked upon the summit with a Pakistani ruler India was refusing to talk to for two years as an opportunity to explore whether an atmosphere of mutual trust conducive to progress on the “high road to peace” in future could be created. Instead, they started hankering for immediate results. They yearned for a joint declaration, and this inevitably played straight into the General’s hands. Since when has it become obligatory that every summit must result in a joint declaration or statement? The Presidents of the United States and Russia, Mr George W. Bush and Mr Vladimir Putin, have held two fruitful summits straddling the extravaganza at Agra. They were not bothered about issuing a joint statement after either. Similarly, more than a decade ago when China was keen to welcome Rajiv Gandhi in Beijing, it made it clear well in advance that there would be no joint communique or joint press conference. A blow-by-blow account of the summit in the shadow of the Taj underscores that General Musharraf exploited to the hilt the penchant for a joint declaration. While the officials on both sides plodded over their ponderous draft practically throughout the night, it was the Pakistani ruler who sprung on an unsuspecting Mr Vajpayee a two-page composition of his own. It ruthlessly promoted his agenda to lend overriding primacy to the “Kashmir issue”. To give up his insistence on calling it the Kashmir “dispute” was his only concession to his hosts, miffed by his lionising of the Hurriyat and infuriated by his infamous breakfast show. What is more, the Musharraf draft made addressing of all other issues between India and Pakistan conditional on the progress on the “core” issue of Kashmir. Indeed, Kashmir alone would determine the state of India-Pakistan relations, according to him. On top of it, the General absolutely refused to countenance any talk of cross-border terrorism, insisting that there was no such animal in Kahmir, only a “freedom struggle” and that there was no border in Jammu and Kashmir, in any case. Apparently, it is this draft that bears some corrections or changes in the handwriting of the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh. Pakistan has already put this “document” on a web site from which some Indian publications have already reproduced it. In short, Pakistan is meticulously hammering home its message that the two sides had “practically agreed” on a draft declaration but Mr L.K. Advani — described by the Pakistani media as the Vajpayee government’s “pitbull” — sabotaged the understanding. Mr Parmod Mahajan, Information Technology Minister who also doubles as the Union Cabinet’s spokesperson, has characterised the Pakistani claim as a “white lie” but the world does not seem to be listening to this belated denial. In any case, the Indian delegation’s handling of Pakistan’s media war was so inept that both friends and foes of the ruling coalition have deplored it in no uncertain terms. Wrong-doers are also dogged in their fatuous defence: “diplomatic etiquette” must be honoured, and so must be the “confidentiality” of negotiations. Secrecy certainly has its uses when both sides observe it. Where is the confidentiality when one side bares all? Without going into murky details, let us look at the end-result of the unequal media and propaganda war. Every Pakistani scribe is writing that General Musharraf’s prestige has “soared” and most foreign observers of Pakistan agree. In this country, even those who support the policy of seeking peace with Pakistan are bemoaning the amateurish conduct of the summit and its inevitable fallout. The critics are rightly incensed that for the Foreign Office the “destination” at Agra was a “joint statement” and nothing more. The sequence of events after the summit is revealing. Mr Jaswant Singh was the first to declare that the Agra summit was “inconclusive”, not a failure, and that the two sides would build on it. Seven hours later, his Pakistani counterpart, Mr Abdul Sattar, said the same thing but, typically, gave a twist to the tale. The points concerning the “centrality” of Kashmir to the entire gamut of India-Pakistan relationship would, according to him, be the “basis” for all further negotiations. Understandably taken aback, the External Affairs Ministry declared the next day that since nothing was agreed at Agra, the two sides must “start from scratch” and built the future relationship on the basis of the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. A sound suggestion, no doubt, but even an ignoramus knows that General Musharraf was totally unwilling to treat the proposed Agra declaration as a “continuation” of the two earlier accords at Simla (1972) and Lahore (1999). Under the circumstances, it is imperative that this messy situation is remedied before Mr Vajpayee parleys again with General Musharraf in New York or Mr Jaswant Singh lands in Islamabad even earlier. But, unfortunately, diplomacy may have to take a backseat because a dangerous escalation of the cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir now occupies the centrestage. It is no coincidence that the failure of the Agra summit has been accompanied by renewed Pakistani firing in the Kargil sector, the sinister attack on the pilgrims to Amarnath and the nauseating slaughter of the innocent in a remote hamlet in Doda. And let there be no mistake that this is for starters. The Army has already announced that the Pakistani troops on the Line of Control have started helping the infiltration into Kahsmir of well-armed and motivated jihadis from across the LoC. To bring this alarming situation under a modicum of control, not diplomatic posturing, is New Delhi’s primary task. It is not merely the intensification of the death dance in Kashmir by cross-border terrorists that delights the votaries of jihad in Pakistan. Many of them are absolutely convinced that India, faced with 27 insurgencies and with its Army at the “end of its tether in Kashmir”, is on the verge of disintegration. New Delhi should ask itself what these influential Pakistanis would be thinking after what is happening in Imphal and
Guwahati. |
The Ajit Singh factor in UP A marriage brings jubilation in both camps. If it is a marriage of convenience the happiness is greater since there is no sanctity attached to it. It signifies only the convergence of interests. The newly forged alliance between Mr Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal and the BJP falls in the latter category. The Jat leader has gained immediately by becoming the Union Minister for Agriculture and the BJP expects to reap the benefit in the near future. That means at the time of the assembly elections in UP. Mr Ajit Singh, a computer technologist by training, has been in political hibernation since he and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav parted company in 1996 after a brief coming-together. His rehabilitation has come as a blessing in disguise. The BJP needed him as much as he wanted the company of the ruling party. The BJP's rank and file was feeling uneasy in the absence of a leader who could ensure the party's victory in at least 50 per cent of the constituencies in western UP, which sends 90 MLAs to the assembly. Though the party already has 45 seats from the area, it was unsure of retaining this position owing to a serious erosion in its base. It contested the previous elections under the leadership of Mr Kalyan Singh, former UP Chief Minister, who belonged to a backward class and created a large vote-bank in this part of UP. Since Mr Kalyan Singh is in a different camp today Mr Ajit Singh is expected to fill that gap as an ally of the BJP. Will he come up to the BJP's expectations? In the current assembly his party has only nine members. He has a following among the farmers (Jats), in what he believes can be carved out as Harit Pradesh, but not comparable with that of Mr Kalyan Singh. In fact, Mr Ajit Singh retains very little of the legacy of his illustrious father, Chaudhary Charan Singh. The new Agriculture Minister has no charisma. After the RLD-BJP alliance he will be in the company of the people fighting the battle of the ballot with the anti-incumbency factor working against them. It will be a tricky situation for him, though for the party heading the UP government today things may be different. His performance under the circumstances will be crucial for his political future. Nepal’s new PM The new Prime Minster of Nepal, Mr Sher Bahadur Deuba, owes a great deal to his predecessor, Mr Girija Prasad Koirala. This is not to say that the senior Nepali Congress leader has helped him to get elected as his replacement. In fact, he was given a good fight by Mr Koiral's nephew, Mr Sushil Koirala, with 40 votes against Mr Deuba's 72 in the party's leadership election. The senior Koirala's role in promoting Mr Deuba goes back to 1991 when his party had formed the government after the first multi-party elections in the country. Mr Deuba was then considered a lightweight in Nepal politics, but Mr Koirala found him fit to be the Home Minister. He was a promising student leader but no one could think of his getting what he did at that point of time, thanks to Mr Koirala. This catapulted Mr Deuba to the front rank of politics, and in 1995 he filled the bill when there was a search for somebody to head the then shaky coalition ministry. That he could survive as Prime Minister for only 18 months is a different story. Born on June 12, 1946, in Dadeldhura district, he has earned the reputation of being a hardcore democrat. A product of Tribhuvan University and the London School of Economics, Mr Deuba had been imprisoned for nine years for his political activities even when he was a school student. A founder-member of the Nepal Students Union, he was actively involved in the movement for the restoration of democracy in his country. Mr Deuba has a vast administrative experience which should help him now when he has been elevated as Nepal's Prime Minister for the second time. But the test of his abilities lies in handling the challenge posed by Maoists. It was the Maoist demand for Mr Koirala to step down that led to Mr Deuba's rise to the top. Immediately after he took up the reins of government the insurgents had promised to hold talks with the new leadership to end the six-year-old crisis. But the Maoists have struck again by killing 16 policemen and close to the new Prime Minister's home district. Perhaps, the rebels want to convey a clear message that they should not be taken for granted. |
New way to treat kidney STEM cells from bone marrow can change into kidney cells and may provide a new method to treat kidney disease that could reduce the need for transplants, British scientists said on Wednesday. Stem cells are master cells in the body that can transform into most other cell types. Researchers at Britain’s Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) showed that kidney cells can be derived from stem cells in bone marrow. “Until now people weren’t entirely sure how the kidney took care of its normal wear and tear. People assumed that it was all done within the kidney. What we’ve shown is that cells from outside the kidney are able to contribute to the repair process,’’ molecular biologist Dr Richard Poulsom said in a telephone interview. The finding opens up the possibility of mobilising a patient’s own bone marrow stem cells to repair or replace kidney cells destroyed through disease or injury. It could also pave the way for using bone marrow stem cells containing genes resistant to cancer or other diseases to protect the kidney from further damage. “In people whose kidneys are failing, we might be able to generate more functional kidney cells. That is something that has not been known before,” Poulsom added.
Reuters
Black Death can strike again The Black Death, which struck Europe in the 14th century and raged for 300 years, was caused by an Ebola-like virus, not bubonic plague, according to a new British study, details of which were published in The Independent newspaper. If the findings were confirmed it could mean a modern form of the Black Death could emerge without requiring the insanitary conditions of the Middle Ages, the study says, noting the progress of the disease suggested person-to-person transmission of a virus. The study contradicts the well-established theory that the disease, which killed around 25 million people according to modern estimates, spread by bacterial infection carried by rats’ fleas. Christopher Duncan and Susan Scott, infectious
disease specialists of the university of liverpool, conclude the Black Death bears a closer resemblance to modern outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever caused by the Ebola virus.
DPA
Glass walls unshattered Women continue to face “glass walls” in their efforts to achieve high-ranking management positions, according to a new International Labour Organisation (ILO) study of the role of women in business and government in more than 70 countries. In 1999, women held 5.1 per cent of the executive management position in 500 of the largest US companies. In France, 4.7 per cent of executive positions went to women in 1997, while Australia filled only 1.3 per cent of the positions with women in 1999, according to the ILO. “Women in these countries are experiencing not so much a ‘glass ceiling,’ but ‘glass walls’, where women are not being trained for and offered mid-level positions that prepare them for the top,” said Linda Wirth, the report’s author and senior gender specialist for the ILO.
WFS |
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Of VCs & politics THE news that Dr S.P. Singh would be the new VC of G.N.D. University was out on Sunday after Mr Parkash Singh Badal cold-shouldered Dr Harbhajan Singh Soch, who had gone to Delhi to plead for his extension. Dr S.P. Singh, it turned out on Monday, was not Mr Badal's man. He had the good fortune of being a classmate of Mr Barjinder Singh, the Ajit editor. The Tribune headline said it all the next day: "Barjinder Singh behind the appointment?" The question mark left enough scope for both the new VC and the editor to deny it. No denial came. The editor must be happy at the open acknowledgement of his political clout — that too in a major English daily — and the VC too busy in celebrations to issue denials, even for record, or simply unwilling to disown a friend's help. "If Dr S.P. Singh is a political (or is it journalistic?) appointee", argued a well-wisher of the new VC, "who is not?" Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, it is public knowledge, was handpicked by Mr Badal for the Punjabi University post. How the similar posts were filled at PAU and PTU is also known. A VC-minister mud-slinging match at Punjabi University has just concluded. Another VC-minister standoff over a promotion at PAU followed. What is higher education coming to? The whole academic environment is polluted. It is sickening to see professors chasing politicians for petty gains. University faculties are divided on political lines. Akali VCs today. Congress VCs tomorrow. BJP Pro-Vice-Chancellors soon, if Education Minister Tota Singh's suggestion on equitable distribution of top university posts between the ruling partners is implemented. Think of the fallout. If a VC appointment is political, how can teachers' selections and promotions be on merit? How can students' admission be fair? The malaise spreads, creating architects of future disasters. Guru Nanak Dev University, being in the border belt, has affiliated colleges in the educationally backward areas of Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts. A far-sighted and awakened VC can motivate colleges and uplift the area educationally. But the new VC, his press interviews indicate, is more into uplifting Punjabi, which effectively means friendly Punjabi writers can pass on their unsold books to the university and its colleges. A VC need not be scholarship incarnate. The late Bishan Singh Samundary was not. And yet he was successful. He picked up talented teachers wherever he saw them. In the initial years, GND University had some of the best teachers, particularly in the history, English, Punjabi, political science and chemistry departments. In sports, it excelled nationally. Professors were role models then. Prof Yashdeep Bains chose to quit the English Department rather than oblige the VC for something he thought was unethical. Then came the decline. What next? Telling politicians to stop interference will not work. Apolitical, talented, now sulking professors should join hands and stand up to every wrong. They alone can keep politicians out. The Chancellor and Punjab Governor should ensure that to appoint a VC a proper selection process is followed. Panjab University has it. Alert professors and the Press can jointly clean up the mess in the universities. |
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How they use Net THE average Internet cybersex aficionado spends only about three hours per week cruising or online thrills — although men log twice the time that women do, according to a new survey. “Men and women seem to use the Internet differently for sex,” said Dr Al Cooper of the San Jose, California, Marital and Sexuality Centre, who conducted the survey in conjunction with MSNBC. “While men might be looking for stimulation, women often seem to be looking for education,” he said in an interview on Friday. Cooper has conducted a series of surveys probing the growing world of Internet sex, which ranges from pornographic Web sites and steamy chatrooms to online self-help groups and clearinghouses of sexual information. The researchers say that a minimum of 20 per cent of US Internet users visit sexually explicit Web sites online, which has helped to make the pornography one of the main drivers of Internet growth, “Sex had really turbo-charged the Internet,” Cooper said. The latest poll drew more than 40,000 responses at the MSNBC site, of which some 38,000 were deemed usable. About 80 per cent of the respondents were men, and 85 per cent identified themselves as heterosexual. Cooper said the initial results of the latest poll largely mirrored earlier surveys, which have found that — for the most part — Web users appear capable of handling the temptations of Internet sex without becoming too involved. “For the vast majority of people, sexuality online is not going to be a problem, but for some people it is going to be a big problem,” Cooper said. Calling the current study “one of the largest surveys of human sexuality ever,” Cooper said the new results showed a surprising number of respondents believed that Internet sex actually improved their offline sex lives. While a majority agreed that online sex “had no positive effect”, about one third said it had complemented or improved their real life relationships. “This is surprise”, Cooper said, noting that most of the publicity about the explosive growth of sex-related material on the Internet has been negative. Some experts have questioned the validity of Cooper’s findings, noting that the self-selecting nature of the respondents meant it was not as scientifically useful as a true, random poll. “We did the poll because we found it to be interesting, not necessarily to obtain hard scientific results”, said Charlene Laino, MSNBC’s health editor. But Cooper, a psychologist who teaches at Stanford University, said the fledgling field of online sexuality studies required new methods of gathering data and that Internet poll could reach a much large and more diverse group than traditional surveys. “This poll highlights how tremendous the potential is for doing research over the Internet”, Cooper said. “Where else are you going to find people to tell you about bestiality? Or pedophilia? And a number of studies have found that people respond more honestly to sexual questions online than they do offline”. Along with establishing an “average” amount of weekly cybersex among poll respondents — 3.2 hours per week for men, 1.85 hours per week for women — the survey said that only about 9 per cent of respondents had problems with cybersex compulsion. Cooper said the three hours average for online cybersex was less than some experts had predicted. “What’s three hours? For some people it might seem a long time but really in a week it is not much time”, he said. While much of the rest of the “dot-com” world has gone through a serious correction in recent months. Cooper said there was little sign of a slow-down at sex-related sites. “These sites are continuing to grow and to permeate the Internet”, Cooper said. “I don’t think we’ve reached saturation yet at all”. |
Health propaganda in Karnal
A very lively function was held in the Karnal city on the 6th of July in connection with health propaganda. A big meeting of citizens was arranged where instructive lectures on cholera and plague were delivered. To relieve the monotony, music was arranged for the occasion. A clever musician amused the audience. Col. Foster,
D.P.H., graced the occasion and was so pleased with the arrangements that he promised to contribute a sum of Rs 2000 to make this function a permanent thing at Karnal. |
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Learn your economics from squirrels ONE of the trees in my compound on the Panjab University campus is a beri. It is a large tree, the fruit is good, but we hardly get any to eat. Birds and squirrels finish them much before they ripen. Efforts to stop them have not succeeded. However, it is a joy to watch the playful mood of nature through the happenings on this tree, how the squirrels and the birds share the fruit. Why don’t homo sapiens learn to share the bounty of nature with other species? The tree, when it blossoms, attracts a large number of honeybees. I see them sucking assiduously the nectar from the flowers. They will process the nectar into honey somewhere. Indeed, the bees add value twice — first by helping the process of pollination on the tree and then by
manufacturing honey at some other place. Then, little fruits emerge amidst the lush green foliage, replacing the flowers. As they slowly grow in size, the branches bend under the weight. The tree acquires the shape of a canopy, green and graceful. I would occasionally walk under the canopy, sit for a while, meditate, and become an integral part of the happenings on and around the tree. The fruits attract birds, particularly parrots, and squirrels. It is amazing to watch a squirrel come and eat a ber. It plucks a fruit, holds it in its claws and nibbles. It loses its grip and the fruit falls to the ground. The squirrel climbs down, picks it up and starts eating it again. Squirrels are very economical. They do not waste. Man should learn his economics from squirrels. Preserve and consume, rather than consume and waste. The squirrels run around playfully and jump from one branch to the other. As they move, the pretty stripes on their backs shake, weaving patterns of joy. I would remember the story told by my grandmother: When the Rameshwar Setu was being built by Lord Rama to cross the sea to reach Lanka, a little squirrel also participated in the construction. It would take a dip in the water, roll its wet body in the sand on the shore so that the sand sticks to the body, run to the bridge under construction, shake its body well to drop the sand in the water. It would go into the water again roll over the ground, collect sand and again pour it at the site of the bridge. The process went on. Lord Rama was observing. He was pleased with the squirrel’s sincere and relentless effort. He called the squirrel. It came happily and sat in his lap. He fondly moved his fingers over its back. The gracious touch gave the squirrel its beautiful stripes. My grandmother would convey the moral of the story: “It is the sincerity of Karma, not the output that matters.” And, I wonder whether the method of measuring effectiveness of an effort solely by its result as advocated by modern management gurus is appropriate. Stripes of squirrels attract many. I have seen people killing squirrels and stuffing the skin to decorate their drawing rooms. What a cruel aesthetic sense! The desire to possess seems to have become stronger than the desire to enjoy. It is easier to possess a dead squirrel (or any animal) than a live one. And man is busy destroying living beings and adding non-living things on the planet earth in his possession spree. |
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To run after riches is beggary; A covetous person always has a pale face. — From Life, Times and Works of Amir Khusrau Dehlavi ***** All desires are insane. Desire as such is insane because desire means living in the future. And the future does not exist at all. What exists is the present. To live in the present is the only sanity there is. ***** Desire has not to be dropped, it has to be purified. Desire has not to be dropped, it has to be transformed. Your very being is desire; To be against it is to be against yourself and against all ***** When one desire falls, it leaves many desires in its wake. One desire dies; it leaves many children around.... Fulfillment never comes through desire; Fulfilment is the fragrance of non-desiring mind. — Osho, Come, Come, Yet again Come; ***** The fire of desires can be extinguished only with the power of the Word. ***** The cure for the disease of desire is the Name of the Lord. ***** When there is no end to desires, there can be no satisfaction. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Var Majh M I, Page 147 ***** Happy is he whose riches are won by honest means. — Imam Hazrat Ali, Maxims ***** Wealth and poverty are both divine gifts; but wealth is corrupted by negligence and forgetfulness and poverty by covetousness. — A. H. Ali Hujwiri, Kashf-ul-Mahjub ***** Renounce evil, cultivate virtue — evil brings suffering and remorse. Those who do not discriminate between a clear reservoir and a dirty pool sink in the morass. Soiled within by dirt of greed, falsehood and evil speaking. By repeating His Name as the Guru directs, thou shall attain the Truth. Praise God, praise the Word,
And let his will be done. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Sorath M.
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