EDITORIALS

Storm in rice bowl

THE basmati rice patents issue is so emotive that it can lead to a panic seizure throughout the country. There is indignation that India has been robbed of its rightful due. Horrifying images of farmers not being able to export their basmati rice are being conjured up. In the surcharged atmosphere, there is a lot of disinformation floating around. The patent granted to the US firm RiceTec Inc. does not in any way mean that India has been deprived of its claim to "basmati" rice. It can continue to export its rice as before to the USA and other countries. The patent granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office to the Texas-based firm is only on specific rice lines and their progeny developed by this firm. The rice grown by it looks different and tastes different. Even if it is sold under a similar-rounding name like "Texmati", etc. it is not going to be what basmati is. It has been engineered to suit American conditions, with a smaller plant and much higher yield. Patent or no patent, a rice lover is bound to appreciate the difference. Do we really have to make a hue and cry about it? The company did seek monopoly to market and import basmati in the USA but has already withdrawn its claim following Indian objections. Now there are neither reasons nor grounds to challenge the patents. It will be well to remember that most of the seed varieties introduced during the green revolution in India were of foreign origin.

As has been the practice, MPs have disrupted the proceedings of the Lok Sabha over the issue, basing their anger on newspaper reports. But the representatives who wear their sympathy for the farmers on their sleeve have never shown similar alacrity while discussing the Indian Patents Bill and the Protection of Plants’ Varieties and Farmers' Rights Bill still pending in Parliament. Most of India's problems arise because of such short-sightedness. India's focus needs to be on ensuring that basmati is defined as an aromatic rice that is specific to South Asia. The offices of the WTO can be utilised to obtain this legal protection known as geographical indication. The precedent of Scotch whiskey is already there. The rest of the world can make whiskey but not this whiskey following the passage of the Geographical Indication Act earlier this year. On similar lines, basmati has to be recognised as a produce of the subcontinent. The difficulty is that the USA has been using the term basmati for the rice grown in that country for nearly two decades and is insisting that it is a generic name on the basis of this "long usage". But since countries like the UK and Saudi Arabia accept basmati as the rice grown only in the subcontinent, it should be possible to counter American claims. Before beating our breasts about the perfidy of the big bad world, we have to carry out a thorough documentation of our traditional knowledge in accordance with the international patent classification system. Before cursing the poachers, it is better to raise a fence around your farm.

An unacceptable freeze

MINOR denting and painting but no major overhaul of the rickety car of the people’s representation in the Lok Sabha. This is the verdict of the Lok Sabha and it is a formality for the Rajya Sabha to endorse it. A silver lining is that boundaries of each constituency within a state will be redrawn to bring about a partial rule of one-man, one-vote and also the same value, as the Supreme Court once said. What this means in practice is that Delhi will still have only seven seats but the glaring democratic disparity of the Outer Delhi constituency having 30 lakh voters and the Chandni Chowk seat having one-seventh of the number will end. This will be done by dividing the population of Delhi and New Delhi by the number of seats and shedding and shifting localities to form new constituencies and ensure the same value to each vote. This is the parliamentary equivalent of spare parts surgery. According to one estimate, each new constituency in Delhi will have an electorate of 13 lakh or more while Lakshadeep will have less than one lakh. Ironically the MPs from both places will have only one vote of equal value.

The redrawing or delimitation of constituencies has become complicated because of an unimaginative and bureaucratic approach to the problem. The Indira Gandhi government froze the process in 1976 saying that uneven population growth in different states had distorted the picture and the situation would stabilise by 2001. Oddly the same argument is advanced now to put off the process until 2026. This is a wild dream and the political leadership and the bureaucracy cannot come up with a solution that will meet the democratic needs without arousing fierce emotional responses. And this is genuine. If the 2001 census is made the basis and the number of the Lok Sabha seats is to remain the same, the four southern states will lose 14 seats and the four backward states in the Hindi belt will gain 16 seats. Curiously Haryana and Himachal Pradesh will get one more seat each. Since the Lok Sabha is the power-house of policy making, each state is eager to retain its representation or increase it but not lose even one seat. For instance, if the delimitation takes place today, Tamil Nadu, a front runner in population control, will lose seven seats and given the isolationist mood, the people will revolt. A deft reorganising of the power structure can enhance the importance of the Rajya Sabha and meet the emotional needs of the states likely to be affected by delimitation. 

Don’t play with cricket

THE Union Government's decision not to allow the Indian cricket team to visit Pakistan next month is unfortunate. It appears that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government is in hurry to destroy the autonomy of the various sports organisations in the country. And the game of cricket is its prime target. The person responsible for injecting a heavy dose of political interference in sports is the redoubtable Ms Uma Bharati. As Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs she has created unacceptable precedents. The fiasco over the selection of sportspersons for the prestigious Arjuna Award is just one example of the unhappy fallout of political interference in the decision-making process of the various sports organisations. The high profile nature of the game of cricket is a prime reason why it has suffered more than the other less glamorous games. In a manner of speaking, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is itself responsible for getting the game embroiled in avoidable controversies. Had it not tried to brush under the carpet the match-fixing controversy in the initial stages Mr S. S. Dhindsa would not have found the opening as the then Sports Minister to turn an inconsequential portfolio into one which has, perhaps, now become as important as Defence, Finance and External Affairs. There was talk of match-fixing in cricket much before the Delhi Police stumbled upon the Hansie Cronje tapes. There was no way the BCCI could have resisted government interference in the name of autonomy once the contents of the tape became public. Looking at the issue from the portals of political power, it could be argued why Ms Bharati should have settled for less than the attention Mr Dhindsa attracted because of the Cronje tapes. And she has done admirably well so far.

Ms Bharati continues to be in the news because of differences with Mr Suresh Kalmadi over the holding of the Afro-Asian Games. The Arjuna Award fiasco earned her negative publicity. So what? For a politician bad publicity is better than no publicity. That she is against maintaining cultural and sporting links with Pakistan is well known. What is surprising is the fact that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee consulted Home Minister L. K. Advani and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh for giving his seal of approval to Ms Bharati's stand. Doing political business with General Pervez Musharraf is acceptable. But India cannot play in a Test series, involving Bangladesh and Sri Lanka too, because it is being held in Pakistan. Will someone care to explain how doing business with General Musharraf is correct, but playing cricket with Pakistan is injurious to the health of India? As far as Ms Bharati is concerned, now that she has managed to block the Indian cricket team from playing in the Asian Test Championship in Pakistan next month, she may become more arrogant and insufferable in dealing with the "small fry" of Indian sports.

OPINION

Dealing with Musharraf’s Pakistan
The realities are rude and crude
Inder Malhotra

WITHIN a month of the failed Agra summit this country is mercifully beginning to learn how rude are the realities of having to live with a neighbour like Pakistan, especially when it is ruled by a military dictator like General Pervez Musharraf.

In this respect, the Independence Day speech of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, was most revealing. He acknowledged that the core of what General Musharraf chose to call their “core issue” was Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism that it has escalated brazenly and alarmingly since the summit in the shadow of the Taj fell flat. His message to Islamabad was clear enough: “Don’t be under any illusion that you can wrest Kashmir by terrorism any more than you could through wars.” This is doubtless true. But unfortunately this view is totally rejected by the other side.

For Pakistan, there is no terrorism, cross-border or otherwise, in Jammu and Kashmir, only a “freedom struggle”, as General Musharraf has said so often. Policy makers in Islamabad are also convinced that the Indian Army is “tired of the long struggle” in the state, that its morale is “low” and that it is a matter of time before it would throw in the towel. Pakistan’s entire gameplan emanates from this conviction. The wild men leading the various jehadi outfits operating from Pakistani soil are shouting from the housetops that their jehad in Kashmir “is now nearing its end and it would soon be extended to the rest of India.”

It was no mere coincidence that these jehadi groups staged three of the most horrific and sinister outrages on the night before Indian Independence Day. They carried out the selective slaughter of Hindus in Udhampur district of Jammu province. In the Doda area of the same region that has been their new target for some time, they used an improvised explosive device to blow up several policemen, and they mounted a cowardly attack on schoolchildren near Kupwara in the Kashmir valley.

Since then Pakistan has raised the ante by simultaneously resuming the firing across the Line of Control (LoC) that had remained more or less tranquil since the Vajpayee government’s unilateral ceasefire against the militants in Kashmir last year. (Mr Amanullah Khan, the Pakistan-based leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), has candidly admitted that many of the so-called Kashmiri militants are really foreigners.)

Yet another change in the situation needs to be noted. The majority of the merchants of terror and mayhem in Kashmir in the recent past had to be foreigners for the simple reason that the Kashmiri youth had turned their backs on the insurgency. The Chief of the Army Staff, General S. Padmanabhan, has now confirmed that the Pakistani ISI and jehadi groups have started persuading, cajoling or coercing Kashmiri youth to go across to the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) so that they can be trained, armed, indoctrinated and infiltrated back into Kashmir. He has described it as a “rather abnormal” development.

There are also reports that 200 militants who had surrendered in recent months have quietly gone to Pakistan. This confirms the earlier suspicion that they were regular Pakistani soldiers who had come in camouflaged as jehadis. That apart, it has also been known for some time that the foreign mercenaries, before being sent into Kashmir, are trained up to the level of an infantry soldier and given the same salary as an infantryman gets.

It is against this backdrop that there is anger against and frustration over the continuing Pakistani terrorism in the country in general and in Jammu and Kashmir in particular. This was crystal clear after the slaughter of the innocents in the Doda area and the firing at Jammu railway station. The outraged and infuriated Doda people even refused to cremate their dead until the arrival of the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, who sent instead his Minister of State, Mr I.D Swami, Mr Chaman Lal Gupta, Minister of State for Civil Aviation who represents the Doda constituency in the Lok Sabha, was so enraged that he clashed with Mr Advani on the floor of the House.

Not to put any glass on the unhappy situation let it be said that people no longer want mere reassuring words but concrete action to translate into reality the Prime Minister’s promise to “crush the cross-border terrorism” even while peace talks with Pakistan go on as they should.

Of this sadly there is yet no sign, though there has been a torrent of soothing and yet brave words from Mr Advani, General Padmanabhan agrees with the Home Minister that the Army has the situation under control and is gaining an upper hand on the Pakistan-backed terrorists. But he has also admitted that given the terrain of Kashmir, it is not possible completely to stop the infiltration of heavily armed terrorists from Pakistan.

And yet Mr Advani’s new approach to the latest phase of Pakistani gameplan — to spread terrorism from the Kashmir valley to the Muslim-majority areas of Doda and Kishtwar in Jammu province — is primarily military. He is inducting more troops in the area from where some formations had earlier been withdrawn, to Mr Gupta’s anger. Also the Home Minister has brought all of Jammu and Kashmir, with the exception of Ladakh, under the Special Powers Act that confers on the security forces enormous powers. Great care needs to be taken, however. Reliance on military methods only, to the exclusion of any kind of bridge-building with the people of Kashmir politically, can be counter-productive.

The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, and the Union Minister for Defence and External Affairs, Mr Jaswant Singh, have evidently endorsed Mr Advani’s policy framework. But the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser, Mr Brajesh Mishra, was conspicuously kept out of the meeting where the decisions were taken. Such turf war is hardly conducive to meeting the grim challenge that confronts this country in the sensitive state of J & K accurately described by Mr Jaswant Singh as the “core” of Indian nationhood. Policy makers ought to be targeting the terrorists, not one another. But eve this is not all.

The relations between the Centre and the state government are also not what they ought to be. There is a lot of bad blood between the two sides. This is ironic beyond words. Dr Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference is a member of the ruling National Democratic Alliance in New Delhi , and his son, Omar, is Minister of State in the External Affairs Ministry. And yet both father and son often blame the BJP and the Union Government for “undermining” the National Conference, while BJP MPs frequently demand immediate dismissal of the Farooq Ministry in Srinagar. Pakistan unsurprisingly is enjoying the bizarre situation, just as it is lapping up contradictory statements emanating from New Delhi from different leaders and sometimes from the same leader. Cut to the quick by some of Mr Vajpayee’s disclosures about the ineptitude displayed by General Musharraf at Agra, Islamabad has had the temerity to complain that some of his statements were “in bad taste”. The Pakistanis are also creating as much uncertainty about a meeting between the Prime Minister and the Pakistani military ruler on the fringes of the UN summit in New York next month, and blaming India for this. Two conclusions follow from all this that we can ignore only at our peril.

First, the government at least should speak with one voice and with some consistency. Secondly, and most importantly, the primary and principal task of the government is to regain at least a modicum of control over the ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir. At present the world believes, understandably, that the writ of the Indian State is not running there.

Until this impression is dispelled or dented materially, neither will Pakistan be deterred from cross-border terrorism nor can the Kashmiri people be persuaded that they must look for a future within the Indian Union.

IN THE NEWS

Arzoo gone, desire remains

SABEER Bhatia is relaxing these days. He is on a vacation and was recently spotted attending a fashion show in Mumbai. The man who shot into fame when he sold the Web-based free e-mail company Hotmail to Microsoft for $400 million is taking a break after his latest baby, Arzoo.com, was shut down.

He can afford to. He is 31, rich, famous and still a bachelor. His one success made him stand out from even among the Silicon Valley’s charmed world of Indian cyber millionaires.

He still is conspicuous because of his innate modesty and straightforwardness. He might own a Porsche Boxter, Ferrari F1 355 Spider and a BMW M3, all ultimate mobile status symbols in the world of vehicles, yet the son of an Army Captain whose mother worked with the Central Bank of India, clings on to his Volkswagen Jetta, a basic car that he had when he started Hotmail.

Throughout the one thing that stands out is the brilliance of the BITS, (Pilani) boy who topped Cal Tech by getting a passing score of 62 in 1998. The next highest score was 42. He has worked in both Apple Computers and Microsoft at various stages of his life. He and his friend Jack Smith left Apple to start Hotmail. They rented a tiny office in Freemont, CA, and built the company with 15 employees and $ 3,00,000. It was a major success and soon after its launch on July 4, 1996, it started signing up new users at an incredibly fast pace. By this time the staff strength had risen up to 25.

After selling off his venture to Microsoft in 1997, Sabeer continued as the president of Hotmail. By now the number of employees was 144 and it had a beautiful new office. His contract with Microsoft prohibited him from starting something new and this held him back for a while. But soon he left Microsoft and started his end-to-end e-commerce company, Arzoo.

Again, he believed in running a lean establishment. He limited the staff strength to 30 of the brightest minds he could find. But this was the wrong time for a start-up and, eventually, he closed it down. He keeps his projects lean and has the guts to pull out when going is impossible. But will he rise again like the proverbial Phoenix?

While the “arzoo”, the passion or the desire to do something great, remains, Arzoo the company has shut down its operations. Sabeer is weathering out the dotcom bust that he believes will get sorted out in a year or so. Till then he can relax and play all the golf he wants with his golfing partner Bill Gates.

First woman chief of Amnesty

Amnesty International has no power to punish any government, yet its pronouncements are respected in world capitals. This is because the London-based independent organisation monitors the performance of every country in the light of the Charter of the United Nations, particularly Article 55. The charter aims at promoting universal respect for and the observance of the recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals and groups. Over the years Amnesty has acquired a moral authority and that is why its reports evoke immediate reaction worldwide. The headship of such an organisation is a rare honour which has come to 44-year-old Irene Zubaida Khan of Bangladesh. She is not only the first woman but also the first Asian and the first Muslim to have been chosen for the challenging job.

Ms Khan, an internationally acclaimed expert in human rights law, comes to Amnesty International after serving the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for 21 years and with distinction. She has always taken active interest in safeguarding the human rights of people the world over. A product of the University of Manchester and Harvard Law School, she became a counsellor at the UNHCR in1980 and gained enough experience while fighting for the rights of refugees during her postings in Britain, the Republic of Ireland, Pakistan and certain South-East Asian countries.

The post of Secretary-General of this prestigious organisation, however, is no bed of roses. The human rights watchdog is often under attack from the "guilty" governments. It has to be extremely careful about the authenticity of its facts which it collects with the help of a well-oiled network spread over 160 countries.

Amnesty has over 11 lakh donor-members and supporters who provide the required funds. It has a well-equipped research cell which scans hundreds of newspapers, magazines, government bulletins, reports from lawyers and public service organisations, etc everyday. That is why its voice is heard with all seriousness by democrats and non-democrats alike.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Nizam’s jewels set to dazzle Delhi

WHEN an exhibition of the Nizam’s jewels opens in New Delhi next week, the common man will for the first time get a glimpse of the treasure trove meant only for princes.

An 185-carat diamond, 22 perfect Columbian emerald drops, a seven-strand pearl necklace, rings, armbands, gem-encrusted turbans and belts are all part of the Asaf Jahi collection.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will open an exhibition of the sparkling jewels at the National Museum on August 29.

The collection was built over two centuries by the Nizams, who ruled Hyderabad from 1712 till 1948, when the government of newly independent India forced the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Pasha, to accede to the Indian Union.

International auctioneer Sotheby’s valued the 173-piece collection at $162 million in 1991. The same year Christie’s of London offered to buy it for $135 million. Some of the world’s richest men, including the Aga Khan and Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos, are known to have eyed the collection.

But the Nizam’s Trust, which has been in charge of the family’s assets since Osman Ali’s death in 1967, wanted this part of Hyderabad’s history to remain in the country.

The trust approached the Indian government, which after prolonged negotiations acquired it for Rs.2.18 billion (about $47 million) in 1995. Since then, it has been gathering dust in the vaults of the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai.

That is, until a month ago, when it arrived in Delhi on a special Air Force flight, with high security cover.

For the government, getting the collection at $47 million was a steal. But the Supreme Court decided the price, and the arrangement was the acquisition was partly in lieu of taxes the Nizam’s family owed the state. It was not as if the last Nizam of Hyderabad did not leave behind riches enough to take care of taxes. But he also left behind thousands of claimants to his wealth. Much of which is now caught up in protracted litigation or has been frittered away by an heir with a penchant for a lavish lifestyle and disastrous business ventures.

Mukkaram Jah, grandson and heir to the last Nizam, now lives in Turkey with his fifth wife, and is said to be near bankrupt. Four expensive divorce settlements, according to family friends, ate into his inheritance as well. IANS

LIFELINE

Living without a heartbeat
Dug Begley

ROBERTS Tools, the world’s first recipient of a self-contained mechanical heart, has said the biggest adjustment had been having a “whirring sound” in his chest rather than a heartbeat.

The sound took some getting used to, the 59-year-old patient said on Tuesday in his first public remarks since undergoing the ground-breaking surgery on July 2.

“The biggest thing is getting used to not having a heartbeat — I have a whirring sound. And that makes me realise that I’m alive because I can hear it without a stethoscope,” Tools told reporters in a video link from his surgeons’ office at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.

“It feels great,’’ said Tools. “I realise that death is inevitable. But I also realise that if there is an opportunity to extend (life), you take it.”

Tools’ recovery has not been plain sailing in the 50 days since he received the heart. Last week, he contracted a lung infection and was placed back on a ventilator. He appeared to be short of breath during the news conference.

Tools, whose identity was kept secret until yesterday, said he had wanted to protect the privacy of his family. But he decided to come forward “to take away all the mystery of it.”

Before the surgery, Tools, a diabetic, had an 80 per cent chance of dying within 30 days. He said that made the decision to have the experimental heart implanted very easy.

“I had a choice. I could sit at home and die or come here and take a chance. I decided to come here and take a chance.’’

Waking after surgery

He told reporters his first thoughts after the surgery were: “I was happy to wake up and see people — to know that I got that far.”

Dr Robert Dowling, one of the physicians who implanted the device, said in an interview Tools’ progress “bodes well for the next patient”, although the next patient had yet to be identified.

Dowling said if all went well Tools may be able to return to his home in Franklin, Kentucky, where he enjoys bass, fishing and jazz.

Tools, who is married with two children, spent most of his adult life in Colorado but moved to Franklin to be considered for a heart transplant. Because of his other health problems, he was deemed not eligible for a human heart.

The artificial device has four components: The heart that pumps the blood, a controller that tells the heart how much blood to pump and how fast, an internal battery and a coil that receives energy across the skin and transmits it to the heart.

Combined, those components weigh about four pounds (1.7 kg), about four times the weight of a normal heart, Dowling said.

Tools said the device “feels a little heavier than my old heart”.

Dowling said tools would have different sensations than with his normal heart, but: “I think it’s nothing he would complain of.”

The doctor said tools, looking tall and lanky, needed to gain at least 30 pounds (13 kg), and preferably about 50 pounds (22 kg). “As he gains weight, he’ll forget about it,” he said.

Before he can return home, Tools must gain weight, undergo physical therapy and become fully adept at maintaining the device, which is powered by an external battery pack.

If he wants to leave home, he must carry batteries with him, each of which holds a charge for about 30 minutes. He can also plug the device into an electrical outlet but he will need to have his home equipped with a generator and surge protectors. “There are a lot of fail-safes,” Dowling said.

“The goal is to get him stronger,” the doctor said. “I think when he gets his strength, the device will allow him go fishing and on walks.”

Dowling said UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles was very close to being fully ready to do an implant.

“They’ve finished the appropriate training of doctors, nurses and ancillary staff and they’re completing the institutional review board so the study meets the ethical criteria,” he said. “My guess is they will shortly be looking for a patient.” Reuters

Separated from love
Gregor Tholl

FOR many young couples being separated geographically while united in soul is an everyday situation. Whether for a long or a short period, almost everyone has experienced a long-distance relationship.

For one person it’s hell on earth, because he or she cannot stand being separated from the one they love.

For another person it could be a relief, however, because they don’t appreciate proximity, and are only after the rosy side of a relationship without the day-to-day humdrum. These people appreciate the freedom of being single half-time and with a partner half-time.

Sociologist Norbert Schneider, a Professor in Mainz, was commissioned by Germany’s Family Ministry to write a study on “professional mobility and lifestyle”.

Love from a distance is not (yet) the majority choice but in the age of globalisation, travelling from A to B, between the workplace and the relationship in this case, has become normal from many 18 to 39-year-olds, according to Schneider.

Professional upward mobility often means time spent out of town. “the defining element in our age is the mobile subject — flexible, unfettered, productive,” says Schneider. The pressure emanating from this ideal makes the union of work and private happiness more and more difficult.

Regardless of job, millions of Pairs are affected, especially unwed middle-class couples. “In certain groups — for example in media, banking and academia — long-distance relationships are the norm,” says lifestyle expert Schneider, who speaks partially from personal experience.

Some people suffer in this brave new world of mobility, as the lifestyle magazine “Elle” revealed in a recent survey. Some 2,000 couples separated by distance were asked about their feelings. DPA

OF LIFE SUBLIME

The healing touch of love
C. D. Verma

EVERY one in the factory called Ram Bharose a guru. He was respected because he was an excellent skilled worker, always willing to help and guide others. Dedicated and honest, he stayed on in an electroplating unit in Faridabad despite getting better offers.

One fine morning when he came to his factory, after a long absence, his employer dismissed him summarily, settled his account, and asked him to go home. His fault was that he had contracted tuberculosis while working in a polluting and hazardous factory. With great difficulty, Ram Bharose controlled his tears, quietly collected his belongings and walked out of the factory's gate.

He knew that his dismissal from service was the beginning of his banishment from society, which still carried the myth in its collective psyche that TB was a dreaded disease, and that a TB patient must be isolated and avoided.

All Ram Bharose wanted at the moment was to embrace his son and cry. Sandeep, his six-year-old son, was to him his heart-beat outside his body. But he was not there. Just 10 days ago his wife had abandoned him, taking Sandeep along with her to her parents' home.

Ram Bharose went to Dr Raman Kakkar, a TB specialist and narrated his tale of woe. Dr Kakkar is known as a crusader in the service of TB patients. He has been writing articles on the subject, visiting schools and colleges and appearing on the electronic media to create awareness among the public against the erroneous belief that TB is a death warrant, and that TB patients are a liability and must be shunned.

Dr Kakkar got Ram Bharose admitted to the Government TB Hospital. As a TB patient, he was ostracised and deserted by his near and dear ones, including his wife and father. One day Sandeep, attached as he was to his father, came without informing his mother. Young Sandeep was not afraid of TB and was driven by love to be with his father, hug him and shower affection on him.

Sandeep's loving care came as the whiff of fresh air. Ram Bharose smiled for the first time in many days. His desire to live was ignited. Life started seeping back into the dying man. Two months later, Ram Bharose walked out of the hospital, a cured man. Love had caused a miracle to happen.

Verily love is a great healer. It ignited hope among the hopeless. It imparts strength to the weak. It kindles the will to love among the dying. Life is a game of whist. From unseen sources the cards are shuffled and the hands are dealt. In the case of Ram Bharose, Sandeep's love for his father was that unseen source.

75 YEARS AGO

Corruption among Bombay police

Bombay
The Commissioner of Police has for sometime past been taking rigorous measures to enforce discipline and stamp out corruption in the city police force. A large number of cases, involving corruption in one form or other, have so far been detected resulting in many dismissals and reductions. Two more instances of suspected bribery for suppressing a case of mis-appropriation are under investigation, involving a European police inspector and an Indian Sub-Inspector. The Police Commissioner has taken out a warrant of arrest against a Parsi who is said to be concerned in alleged bribery. The Parsi, who owns a firm of wine merchants, lodged a complaint with the police against another Parsi for failure to pay up the cost of liquor bought of him.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

While returning from Mecca, Guru Nanak Dev rested under a tree on the outskirts of Baghdad and started singing a shabad to the strains of Mardana’s rabab.

“I make a supplication at your door,

Lend me Your ear O creator.

You are True, Great and merciful

You are Faultless, O cherisher...!”

This attracted a curious crowd which resented the intrusion, since praying in musical tones is forbidden according to Muslim tenets. Pir Dastgir, the High priest of Baghdad, approached the spot... and addressed him thus:

“Music tends to divert the mind towards enjoyment of the senses. It is, therefore, not proper to use it for holy communion.”

Guru Nanak Dev replied:

“Musical sound originated from God. It is holy in every sense. The best way to worship God is to blend the Divine Word with holy music. The music of worship is higher than the type of singing, indulged-in by some for entertainment.”

— Based on Janam Sakhi Bhai Bala.

* * *

Bilawal Rag should be practiced, when the tongue utters the Name.

Shabads sound pleasing in rags, when the mind is attuned to God.

The Lord should be worshipped regardless of ragas to attain his blessings.

Nanak, the devotees meditate on God, and so rid their minds of ego.

— Sri Guru Amar Das. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, page 849

* * *

One can chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking himself lower than the straw in the street. One should be more tolerant than the tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.

— Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Shikshashataka