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Monday,
May 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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State of the economy Spectre of drought
Waiting for ‘loya jirga’ in Kabul |
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The President’s saloon
Deepening crisis in Punjab’s economy
Dreaming of a person?
City women prefer rich men
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State of the economy CONFLICTING reports are being received about the economic health of the country. The latest is the depressing index of industrial production released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO). The figures show that in April-March this year industrial production declined to 2.7 per cent from 5 per cent during the same period the previous financial year. The major contribution to the downturn was made by the manufacturing sector, which registered a fall of nearly 50 per cent, from 5.3 per cent to 2.7 per cent. An earlier report issued by the CSO had it that in the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1997-2002) India's economic growth stood at a mere 5.4 per cent, the lowest since 1980. This also meant that at the end of the next Plan (2002-2007) there is little possibility of reaching the targeted level of an 8 per cent growth rate. Standard and Poor's and certain other independent international rating agencies have reduced the country's standing as an area of preference for investors. The Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development has placed India at
42—which means a fall from its earlier position of 41—on its list of 49 prominent world economies. This is a shameful performance for a country which has no dearth of technically qualified manpower and has the genuine ambition of becoming a super power in the computer software field. As against this, China, India's formidable competitor at the world stage, has improved its already better ranking from 33 to 31. The significance of the IIMD ranking lies in the fact that its list of economies covers as much as 90 per cent of the global GDP. Some of these upsetting developments are because of the slow movement towards second generation economic reforms, a poor infrastructure scenario, etc. The two-and-a-half-month-old communal disturbances in Gujarat, the country's industrial hub, too have affected the international rating position. The situation, as it seems at this stage, may not improve much in the near future since the government will now be more busy ensuring its survival and improving its standing in the eyes of the public than taking harsh and corrective measures. The recent rollback in the case of some of the unpopular though healthy budgetary measures by an unwilling Finance Minister is enough to make one think on these lines. Contrary to this, a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry-sponsored "Business Confidence Survey" conducted in April has come out with an optimistic note. Over 86 per cent of the 332 respondents have expressed the confidence that within the coming six months the present gloomy atmosphere will change considerably. The survey lays the maximum stress on the services sector for a quick recovery. "The positive business sentiment revealed by the survey matches the projections of higher growth for India made by the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank", asserts FICCI Secretary-General Amit Mitra. This is despite the setback to India's image as an investment destination in the post-Godhra period. Industrial organisations' assessments, however, cannot be taken on their face value because of their growing involvement in politics. While the NDA government is happy with FICCI for its role in the post-Godhra image building exercise, there is no love lost for the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The basic reason is that the CII appears to be following an almost independent line. Therefore, it is difficult to say about how the economy will perform in the days to come. One can only hope for the best. |
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Spectre of drought AS the mercury level has been steadily rising in several states in the last few days, the spectre of a severe drought is hovering over Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. While the drinking water problem is becoming acute in these states, people’s misery is compounded by the respective governments’ failure to keep the tubewells and hand pumps in shape. Worse, ambitious water supply schemes are yet to take off in western Orissa with the entire region, notorious for starvation deaths, reeling under a terrible spell of heat wave. The Centre is sending a team to Andhra Pradesh next week to assess the state government’s report on “severe drought” there. In Karnataka, the total crop loss in the four districts of Haveri, Uttara Kannada, Tumkur and Gadag due to drought has been estimated at Rs 135 crore. The affected states have been exerting pressure on the Centre for special assistance to tackle drought. Even Himachal Pradesh has demanded Rs 20 crore from the Centre to deal with the “drought-like situation” as most of the natural water sources in the state have reportedly dried up. The Centre should come forward to help the affected states with liberal financial assistance, and there can be no two opinions about it. However, as the latter generally tend to exaggerate their needs for relief, the former should tread with caution. Sadly, the whole business of disaster management seems to be vitiated by ad hocism, myopic objectives and rampant corruption. A chunk of the enormous resources deployed for drought relief virtually goes down the drain not only because a good part of the money gets siphoned off by the intermediaries but also because the huge expenditure seldom contributed to the creation of durable assets or effective drought-proofing mechanisms. Moreover, the states’ record in creating jobs for the drought-hit people, ensuring the payment of wages at the prescribed level and maintaining essential food supplies is seldom creditable. As drought and floods have been recurring with a disturbing periodicity for a few years, it has to be realised that no funding arrangement can be adequate in such a situation. Spending money in such circumstances will be as frustrating an experience as trying to fill a bottomless pit. Prudence lies in making the drought relief works subserve the objective of drought proofing and, more important, in setting the developmental goals in the right perspective. This implies adopting a holistic approach to the use of life-sustaining resources like land and water. The solution has to be sought in linking up the developmental strategies more meaningfully with a view to minimising the drought-proneness by addressing the core issues which relate to such areas as land use and water management. |
Waiting for ‘loya jirga’ in Kabul THE Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan have had the closest relations since the pre-historic times. Gandhari, the royal spouse of Dhritarashtra of the Mahabharat, is said to have been a princess from the present-day Kandahar. Much of Afghanistan and beyond formed part of the Mauryan empire, which lasted more than 100 years in the second and third century BC. Ashoka was the most famous of the Mauryan emperors. Incursions into India by foreign conquerors, beginning with Darius of Persia (now Iran) and Alexander of Macadonia, came through Afghanistan. Mahmud of Ghazni, one of the principalities of Afghanistan, commenced his campaign of raids in India in 1000 AD. His invasions continued for well over a quarter of a century. Then came the Sayyid and the Lodi dynasties, and the tombs of Afghan Lodi Sultans are prominent landmarks in Delhi. The Mughal era began with the invasion of India by Babar, a descendant of Turkish-Mongolian and Afghan origin, in 1526 and lasted nearly two centuries. After the decline of the Mughal power, North India witnessed several incursions and the last of them was by Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afghanistan. He invaded North India eight times during a period of 20 years. So much for medieval history. During the British times Afghanistan was the cockpit of “the Great Game” between the imperial Britain and Czarist Russia. The safety and security of the Indian empire were considered not threatened as long as Afghanistan’s rulers were suppliant and this remained the sheet anchor of British foreign policy till the end of their rule in India. Afghanistan and India have had the best of relations after India’s independence. There was an interesting interregnum in the history of Afghanistan when King Amanullah ruled the country in 1919-1929. He was a progressive, inspired by Kamal Ataturk of Turkey. He visited several European countries and sent a large number of Afghan students abroad for studies. He tried to control the regional warlords and also weaken the hold of mullahs. He encouraged women not to confine themselves to the four walls of their house and take to studies. Amanullah, however, was overthrown by his courtiers. The progressive measures introduced by him disappeared with this. Mohd Zahir Shah became the King at a very young age, and his record was not particularly distinguished. However, he maintained peace and good relations with all neighbours as also with Russia and Britain. He was ousted in a coup in 1973 led by his cousin Mohammed Daud. The King left the country on exile and settled in Rome along with his close family members. After 29 years of exile, Zahir Shah returned in April as a distinguished citizen and an elder statesman. This writer has fond recollections of three visits to Afghanistan between 1969 and 1971. The first visit was as a security officer to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in June, 1969. A day before her departure for Kabul, Hyderabad was in flames because of the highly emotional Telangana agitation. Dr Chenna Reddy, who led the agitation, and some of his associates had been imprisoned but the agitation went on unabated. Indira Gandhi flew to Hyderabad and had Dr Reddy brought before her. After long discussions Dr Reddy called off the agitation. She returned to Delhi in the early hours and immediately left for Kabul. On arrival at Kabul airport, she was received by King Zahir Shah. She was looking tired, having not slept the whole night. The King learnt about it and graciously asked her to take rest and that he would call on her in the evening for discussions. Indira Gandhi was accommodated in the Chalistoon Palace which was on a hillock at the outskirts of Kabul. A team of artists, including Begum Akhtar and Kathak dancer Damyanti Joshi, had accompanied the Prime Minister and their performance after the banquet captivated the Afghan elite present on the occasion. Kabul was calm and quite with crowded bazaars overflowing with dry fruits and imported items. While moving about in Kabul with the resourceful manager of the Indian Airlines branch there, Anwar, we came across Mohammed Daud, who was driving a Volkswagon Beetle car through the bazaar and waving to the people. Four years later he overthrew the King with the help of the army, which brought in its wake an era of turbulence continuing even now. My second visit was to bring Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to Delhi in the latter part of 1969. The Frontier Gandhi did not want to overfly Pakistan, and, therefore, his flight via Beirut. I was sent to Beirut to escort him. Indira Gandhi had sent a special plane to Bombay to fly him to Delhi. After arriving by Air-India from Beirut, we proceeded to Delhi by the special plane. Readers may remember the remarkable photograph which appeared in the newspapers showing Khan Saheb coming down the footsteps with a small bundle of cloth under his arm and being received by Indira Gandhi at the foot of the ladder. After a stay of about four months he returned to Kabul by an Indian Airlines flight from Delhi and I accompanied him to Kabul as a security officer. The third occasion was when I accompanied President V.V. Giri during his state visit to Afghanistan in 1971. President Giri visited a number of countries in Europe before arriving in Afghanistan. He chose to take the Prime Minister’s special plane, a Russian jet, TU-124 with limited range. There were a few refuelling stop-overs during his tour which created needless protocol problems and delayed schedules. The President’s arrival in Kabul was in the late afternoon and surprisingly the aviation authorities there did not inform their counterpart in India about the turbulent wind conditions which usually prevailed in the area in the late afternoon. While proceeding to land at Kabul airport the President’s jet ran into turbulent weather and it was badly shaking and vibrating. The aircraft made a couple of rounds before it touched down, but the pilot could not bring it to a halt because of strong winds. The aircraft overshot the runway and sped over the unpaved dusty area raising a huge cloud of dust. The VIP reception team consisting of King Zahir Shah and Indian Ambassador Mehta waiting at the tarmac could not see the aircraft and feared the worst. Fortunately, nothing happened to the President or anybody else. The aircraft was also not damaged. President Giri and his team spent two days in Kabul before returning to Delhi. Though the atmosphere was calm and life placid, I heard rumblings and murmurs about certain undesirable activities by some members of the royal family such as unauthorised export of lapis lazuli, the precious blue stone peculiar to Afghanistan. The King’s son-in-law, Wali, who was also the Commander-in-Chief of Afghanistan, was the power behind the throne and this was resented by a section of courtiers. Afghanistan has undergone turmoil and turbulence for a long period after the Soviet invasion in 1979. It was ended by Gorbachev 10 years later, only to be followed by a Pakistan-directed invasion by the Taliban, who became the new rulers by mid-1990s. The Taliban enforced an extreme form of fundamentalism suppressing every form of education and culture in the country. The nemesis of Afghanistan was Osama bin Laden. After the September 11 attacks on the prime symbols of the USA, Afghanistan invited retribution which continues even today with bombings and fighting on the ground by American and other alien forces. The former King has declared that he has no intention of claiming his monarchy back, and that he only wants to bring about peace and unity in the country. The “loya jirga” with the participation of tribal chiefs from all over the country is due to be held shortly to decide about various reforms and the future form of government. Mr Hamid Karzai, heading the interim administration of Afghanistan, is doing a fine balancing job and trying to maintain good relations with both India and Pakistan. His Cabinet includes many of the erstwhile Northern Alliance veterans holding important portfolios. They have maintained good relations with India as this country stood by them during difficult times. What will be the state of affairs in Afghanistan a year hence is difficult to say. But it will certainly not be a fundamentalist or warlord, controlled regime. The winds of change are blowing very strongly and we may see the Afghanistan of Amanullah’s days again. |
The President’s saloon IT was well past midnight when I heard a strong knock as well as a long shriek of my door bell. In my pyjamas, I opened the front door of my flat located close to the Gateway of India, Mumbai, and found myself face to face with six harried persons. Such untimely guests baffled me for a while. They seemed to have been much relieved to find me and introduced themselves as the GM of Western Railway, the GM of Central Railway, Chief Mechanical Engineer of Western Railway, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Central Railway and the Manager of Heavy Railway Workshop, Parel, Mumbai. I soon guessed that it must be some technical problem for which assistance of Naval Dockyard was being sought. They regretted the midnight knock and explained that the propeller shaft of the President’s main coach was found vibrating excessively affecting the President’s travel. No railway or other workshop nearby had a big enough balancing machine to undertake the repair job. The President’s saloon, earlier known as the Viceroy’s saloon, was first commissioned in 1885 during the British reign and was widely used for the Viceroy’s frequent trips to various princely states. The Viceroy’s staff included ADC, bodyguards, catering staff and some officers required for the specific trip. The staff on duty was always in uniform. The two coaches comprised the bedroom, dining room, study, kitchen, toilet, conference room and an anteroom on the pattern of the royal train in the United Kingdom. Repair over, a team of technical persons visited the President’s saloon prior to its departure for New Delhi. The team included Mr Eric Watson, chief representative of the manufacturer of the balancing machine in India. The upkeep and the decor of the saloon was highly impressive. There were no mobile telephones in those days and our austere and, devout President was going to receive his next mail and newspapers during the trains’ halt at Ratlam, the next morning. The anteroom was used by the President to be his pooja room. Hari, the President’s personal cook, greeted the team. He showed us the bedrooms, toilet, study, anteroom and the kitchen for confirming proper functioning, of the facilities provided. Hari explained that he would be cooking all the President’s food for the evening while the President himself would be cooking early in the morning. Dr Rajendra Prasad used to wake up at 3 in the morning, visit toilet, take bath, recite scriptures with pooja and then prepare his own breakfast which was frugal. The President attended to office work at 9 a.m. onwards. Mr Eric Watson also had a look at the President’s study and admired his dedicated lifestyle of humility and scholarship. After an hour’s stay in the saloon we had to face a small embarrassing situation. As Mr Watson advanced towards the scullery entrance, he got a strong wave of pungent smell. He closed his nose with his hanky and politely asked Hari: “Do you still have a plumbing problem with any of your badly choked drains?” We looked at each other till. Hari pointed out towards an open plate of the choicest variety of pure “heeng” (asfoetida) lying besides salt and pepper containers. Hari apologised to Mr Watson and explained the culinary qualities of “heeng”. But Mr Watson took time to swallow what was explained to him before he removed his hanky from his nostrils! |
Deepening crisis in Punjab’s economy PUNJAB, which until recently was the most prosperous state of the country, is in a deep economic crisis. Its agrarian economy is at the crossroads as agricultural production and crop yields have nearly stagnated. Land and water, the two most critical resources on which Punjab’s rural economy is built, have sharply deteriorated over time and future of Punjab agriculture will depend upon their conservation, sustainable use and efficient management. Profit margin of farmers have come down drastically. Farmers are finding it difficult to pay back the loans which they had taken at high rate of interest from land development, co-operative and scheduled commercial banks for digging tubewells and buying farm machinery. In addition, they have taken loans from commission agents for consumption purposes at exorbitant rates. As a result, Punjab farmers are more indebted now than ever before. Unable to pay back these loans and under pressure to alienate land or livestock assets, they are resorting to suicides. More Punjab farmers have committed suicides during the last five years of Badal rule than during the past 50 years of Congress rule put together. The state itself is so highly indebted that its annual debt servicing liability is larger than the annual plan size of the state. There is a huge backlog of unemployed youth. Whatever jobs are created are shamelessly sold to the highest bidder by those at the helm of affairs. In the present liberalised and globalised environment, Punjab’s small scale industry is finding it difficult to withstand the pressure of competitors and is unable to absorb any more additional labour force. In the absence of employment opportunities in the secondary or tertiary sector unemployed youth are falling back on agriculture. Unfortunately, agriculture’s capacity to absorb labour force has also come down drastically over time. Thus unemployment problem is becoming really alarming for the state’s planners and policy makers. There is an urgent need to diversify state’s agrarian economy. Diversification in the narrow sense of the term within the crop husbandry sector would mean going away from the wheat-rice combination to production of other crops such as sugarcane, cotton, gram, pulses, oilseeds, soyabean, etc. In a little broader sense diversification would also mean going away from crop husbandry to other allied activities such as dairying, poultry, fishery, piggery, bee-keeping, horticulture, sericulture or floriculture etc. In a still broader sense, it means going away from agriculture to other rural non-farm activities and agro-processing. In this context, Punjab can learn a lot from the Japanese or Chinese experience of rural industrialisation where economic activities were taken to people’s doorstep rather than people going to urban areas in search of jobs. For diversification to become successful, Punjab should be divided into a number of agro-climatic zones. Each zone should consist of a cluster of villages which are homogeneous in terms of soil type, weather, quantity, quality and type of irrigation and suitability for a particular type of cropping pattern. Each zone should be designated as most suitable for a particular cropping pattern. Then there should be synchronisation of micro level (say zone level) and macro level (state level) plan and the state should decide how much area should be allowed to go under a particular crop. For achieving this kind of ‘optimal’ cropping pattern which is sustainable in the long run, the state can use the instrument of subsidies and disincentives instead of giving a subsidy of Rs 4000 per acre for reverting to maize production as Dr Johl has suggested recently. We should understand the basic fact that India with more than 60 per cent of its population dependent on agriculture cannot compete with developed countries like the USA in giving subsidies to farmers where less than 3 per cent of their population is involved in farming. Already the USA is giving $ 70 billion subsidy to its 10 million farmers whereas India gives subsidy worth $ 1 billion and the number of people involved in agriculture is more than 600 million. So, we should think in terms of achieving a sustainable agricultural growth with our limited resources rather than competing with developed countries by giving subsidies to farmers, a game in which in any case India is bound to lose. Small and marginal farmers should be persuaded to go in for labour-intensive crops such as ginger, turmeric, mentha, tomato, vegetables and chillies which give better returns but require a lot of personal attention which only small and marginal farmer can afford to give. Of course, they would require marketing support. If possible, the zones which are suitable for production of such crops should have processing units to make turmeric powder, tomato or chilly paste or mentha accent extraction plant etc. On large farms capitalist agriculture should be allowed to develop which in turn would require creating a suitable legal framework where the lessee has no fear of losing his/her land to the lesser. Even the ceiling laws will have to be given a relook. Alternatively, we can also go in for contract farming for which necessary legal framework (for determination of mutually agreed prices, penalty for default etc) should be created by the state. Co-operative agencies dealing with agriculture like Markfed, and agro-industries corporation should be entrusted the task of creating a chain of cold storages which should also be promoted in the private sector. In this context I personally feel that Punjab requires at least three or four airports in the state, if export of these agro products is to be given a real fillip. In fact, it would be still better if instead of exporting fresh flowers we go in for value addition i.e. extract accent of these flowers which is then used in perfumes and cosmetics and can even think in terms of developing perfumes and cosmetic products industry which is hugely profitable. In order to meet the cash needs of farmers and save them from the clutches of commission agents/money lenders, Punjab farmers should be given the facility of storing their produce in co-operative or government stores and they be given 75 per cent of the expected value of their produce against the hypothecation of what they have stored there. This way even small and marginal farmers will be able to sell their produce at the time of their choice and they will not have to go for distress sale immediately after the harvest to meet their pressing needs for cash and to repay the crop loans. Growing unemployment is one of the most challenging problems which Punjab’s economy in general and Punjab’s rural economy in particular is facing right now. Perhaps something on the lines of Chinese Town and Villages (TVEs) where Chinese rural labourer work during their free-time/off-season is the answer for Punjab’s growing rural unemployment. Set up about 30 years back, each Chinese TVE now employs around 31 persons every day. Their contribution to the Chinese national economy is now 28 per cent. I would suggest that Punjab should send a team of experts to China to study their experience, how they have been able to take economic activities to rural areas instead of villagers going to urban areas in search of jobs. How China has created inter-linkage between TVEs and urban industrial units should be studied thoroughly because it is the first and perhaps the only experiment of its kind where village (small) and urban (large) industries work in tandem with and supplement each other’s efforts. To my mind our small and marginal farmer should be part-time farmer and full-time worker in these rural enterprises if their standard of living is to be improved. Right now Punjabi youth is not prepared to take up the kind of jobs which are available in the rural areas and the kind of jobs they want to do are just not there. If we succeed in creating rural industries on the lines of China, it will resolve the problem of mismatch between the kind of work available and the aspirations of Punjabi youth. It would be far more useful to study this phenomenon of Chinese TVEs rather than an MD of Markfed going abroad a dozen times in a year without any tangible results as it happened under the previous regime. The writer is a Professor in Punjab School of Economics, G.N.D. University, Amritsar. |
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Dreaming of a person? WHAT’S in a dream? Shakespeare may have had it right when he wrote. “To sleep: per-chance to dream...” because the symbols we see in our dreams can help us understand ourselves, according the School of Metaphysics. “Dreams bring perspective,” said Pam Blosser, President of the school located in Missouri. “Sometimes you do something and you don’t know why you do it. A dream will help you understand why you’re feeling the way you’re feeling or think the way you’re thinking.” Laurel Clark, National Co-ordinator for the National Dream Hotline, said there is a “universal language to dreams.” The School of Metaphysics has been researching dreams for about three decades and invites people to not only call the hotlines, but to e-mail them as well to som@som.org. Dreaming of a person? That person represents an aspect or quality in you. House? That’s your mind. Animals? They represent your habits. “If you dream about a bear chasing you and you turn around and kill it, it symbolises some king of habitual way of thinking that is threatening to you.” Blosser said. “By killing it you’re changing that habit. Other symbols include stones (willpower), food (knowledge) and hands (purpose). “If you dream about holding rocks in your hands, you’re becoming aware of a purpose for willpower,” Clark said. “People often dream about being naked. The dream means you’re becoming open and honest. It’s a common dream. Someone finds himself in a public place. If you dream you’re embarrassed, it means although you can be open and honest in your waking state, you get embarrassed by it.” It wasn’t until the 19th century and Sigmund Freud that dreams took on a personal aspect. Clark calls dreams communication from the inner-self to the outer-self. “We dream so that we can have greater awareness of who we are, why we’re here,” she said. People often worry their dreams are forecasting a disaster. “We’ve had people call the hotline, disturbed about dreams that they are having an affair,” Blosser said. A killing dream is about change. “By interpreting those kinds of dreams, we dispel people’s fears.” Though most dreams are strictly symbolic, some are precognitive, forecasting things that have yet to happen, Blosser said. Often they will be of catastrophes rather than ordinary events, she said. “I think that’s because there is more emotion involved. It is more powerful vibration ... (that goes) through the subconscious mind. They (the vibrations do exist.” Well-known psychic Irene Hughes said some of her predictions have come to her in dreams. “One of the most memorable, I think, was the fact I dreamed Bobby Kennedy was going to be shot through the head,” she recalled. “The dream indicated to me it would be shortly after his brother would be assassinated.” She related this dream during a seance to a Methodist minister and former Iowa Governor and Senator Harold Hughes. Reuters |
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City women prefer rich men BIG city girls, unlike their provincial cousins, look for rich partners — at least when it comes to advertising for a lover, scientists have said. Kevin McGraw from Cornell University in New York collected lonely hearts ads from newspapers in 23 American cities, ranging from Los Angeles, home to 3.5 million people to Montgomery, Alabama, with a population one tenth the size. The ads were then sorted according to what the women sought in a prospective partner and analysed to see if there was any link between the size of a city and taste in men. McGraw found women from big cities were more likely to rank wealth over emotional qualities, stressing words such as “professional”, “financially stable” or just plain “rich” over “companionship” or “long-term relationship”. But in their defence, McGraw concluded city-dwellers were not necessarily inveterate money-grabbers. “A middle class woman in New York might have higher resource demands simply because of a higher cost of living,” he told New Scientist magazine. Reuters
Breast-feeding makes brainier adult The longer an infant is breast-fed the higher they are likely to score on intelligence tests as adults, according to a Danish study. IQ tests administered to more than 3,000 people born between 1959 and 1961 showed that being breast-feeding for up to nine months conferred a long-lasting intellectual benefit. Breast-feeding beyond nine months, however, actually had a detrimental effect on mean IQ scores, although the researchers concluded only that there was no additional positive effect. The study “demonstrates a robust association between the duration of breast-feeding and adult intelligence,” study author Dr Erik Mortensen of Copenhagen University Hospital wrote in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. “The nutrients in breast milk, behavioural factors, and factors associated with choice of feeding method may all contribute to the positive association,” he wrote.
Reuters
A village’s goodbye to liquor Situated on the fringe of Haryana and Delhi near the national highway, Kath Majra, a dusty village once known as the “village of liquor,” recently set a precedence by unanimously saying “no” to liquor. “On January 26 this year, we all gathered at a place and took a pledge against touching or drinking liquor. And whosoever breaks the pledge, will be fined. So far, we have fined two people,” said Matadeen, an old villager. Kath Majra had a well-known track record in bootlegging business, which had flourished even more after prohibition in Haryana. In fact, the village had to pay a price only four months ago when two native policemen lost their lives due to heavy drinking. “My husband, a policeman, lost his life due to liquor. He was very ill, but despite that, he continued drinking till his last breath. Had the ban come a little earlier, my husband would have not lost his life,” said a teary-eyed Darshana. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, “better late than never, the village has written a new script with the help of Alwar police. The bottles and drums, which were earlier used to store liquor, are now being used for storing water and grain. The village has turned relatively prosperous.
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A true lover of God becomes oblivious of his surroundings. All that matters to him is His Beloved. Nor is he concerned with orthodox and dogmatic religion.... In fact the essence of God is love and he who is devoid of it, can never realise the Lord. — J.R. Puri and T.R. Shangari, Bulleh Shah, section two *** Whose believe, and do things that are right, and believe in what hath been sent down- Their sins will He cancel, and dispose their hearts aright. — Koran 47.2 *** God Highest is the abode of the endless One Omnipresent is He knowing All The compassionate One is benign to all The world is His play Of which none knows the limits. Thy substance is Thine play Thou knowst Play from illusion None can keep account of Thine Emanations One who does is His devotee just a fragile glimpse of God Makes one wise... *** Nature is a unitary Truth with endless emanations. ... Sublime is God and so is His glory Nothing except that matters Let his devotees with learning be armed To grasp Truth, holds Dhesi. — Autar S. Dhesi, Heritage *** We should hold fast to the sustainer and the prime mover, as our main stay. Generally, it is asked: Can God be seen? Does this question not negate the experience and teaching of the Great Masters who have said in no uncertain terms that God can be seen and realised? Some people curse God, nay even deny His existence. Others are dedicated to Him and ever chant His glory. However, God sustains both, those who curse Him and those who praise Him. So do the saints and devotees, who identify themselves with God. A bath in pure and clean water makes one clean and fresh. Similarly, immersion in God-consciousness makes one pure and pious. — Baba Hardev Singh, Gems of Truth |
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