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Wednesday,
May 22, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Drive to
prevent war Merchants of death A new nation is
born |
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Kaluchak
massacre and India’s response
Rail way
of life
Twists
& turns in IPS officer’s career
Depressed
women tend to live longer
Flying kites for
healthy living
|
Drive to prevent war THE international community led by the USA, it seems, is worked up over the fast gathering war clouds over the Indo-Pak horizon. Undoubtedly, the world is scared of even "limited military strikes" because this may, it is perceived, lead to full-scale hostilities involving the use of the ultimate weapon, nuclear warheads. A desperate Pakistan, the world believes, may use the nuclear option in an event of coming to the brink of losing a conventional war. The West, particularly the USA, is worried that the emerging horrifying scenario will endanger its strategic interests leading to a chaotic situation in the region. Hence concerted efforts to prevent a war. The Western perception, though not reflecting the complete reality, is that India is bent upon using the military option to teach Pakistan a lesson or two for aiding and abetting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of this country. So, the war-prevention exercise is mainly directed towards restraining India. This is where the problem lies. It is, perhaps, for the first time that US Ambassador Robert Blackwill impressed upon the Indian leadership on Monday to wait for some more time for Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's response to the Indian demand for curbing terrorist infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir. One can guess that the USA is of late applying considerable pressure on the Musharraf regime to act quickly and in a result-oriented manner. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is about to reach New Delhi soon as part of the move launched by the super power. Britain, as the closest ally of the USA, is also playing an active role. It has advised India to avoid war at every cost and, instead, return to "productive dialogue" with Pakistan. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has contacted his Indian counterpart Jaswant Singh twice since the May 14 terrorist massacre near Jammu and expressed grave concern at the latest turn of events in the subcontinent. The UK's Defence Chief, Admiral Michael Boyce, will be in India today to take stock of the grim scenario. The truth is that the thinking public in both the USA and the UK is of the view that India has a legitimate case concerning cross-border terrorism, and Pakistan must take concrete measures to prevent a war which will be more
disastrous for Islamabad than New Delhi. One, however, fails to understand why American and British leaders are not blunt in telling the ruling General in Pakistan to come out immediately with a policy decision to renounce terrorism in the case of Kashmir and then launch a fresh drive against militant jehadi elements in the interest of peace in the South Asian region. The ball is in Islamabad's court and it must be made to realise this. The General is in contact with the leadership in Washington as also with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan almost on a daily basis, misleading them about India's war-readiness. This is not going to help. India does not want a war. That is why it has so far not given a go-ahead to its troops deployed near the border in the wake of the December 13 attack on the Parliament complex. It has primarily depended on coercive diplomacy. But the international community has been too slow in realising India's plight. This country has been forced to declare that time is running out. India cannot go on suffering like this forever. It is now left with only the military option to save its honour. The world can, however, prevent even at this stage what nobody wants — a war. But it will have to act at an electronic speed. |
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Merchants of death HARDLY a day passes without reports of people taking ill or dying after consuming spurious liquor or contaminated food or bogus drugs. A few days ago a group of body-builders, journalists and spectators were taken ill in Ludhiana after consuming contaminated soya milk supplied by the contractor. The investigations are progressing at a snail’s pace and no sense of urgency is being shown by the law enforcement agencies in dealing with what is essentially a crime against humanity. And now in Delhi on Monday the special cell of the Delhi Police smashed a nationwide racket of manufacture and sale of spurious drugs. However, it is unlikely that the discovery of such a large-scale bogus drug racket would make the authorities go after the merchants of death. The Indian system of administration and investigation is a slave to procedures and the due process of law. Consequently, the culprits in most cases are able to go scot-free or pay a nominal fine for the life-threatening offence. In the present case the police acted on a tip-off and raided a godown in Teliwara in North Delhi. The raid provided clues about the location of manufacturing units and storage points of spurious drugs, including brands of expensive life-saving medicines. From Paharganj the special branch recovered 562 kg of bogus medicines, enough to kill critically ill patients in a medium-sized hospital. Yet, the enforcement agencies continue to treat offences under the food and drugs adulteration laws with kid gloves. It is about time that public-spirited individuals and non-government organisations paid more than routine attention to the life-threatening aspect of the crimes covered by the anti-adulteration laws. A nationwide campaign should be launched for demanding life imprisonment, and in the rarest of rare cases even death, for the perpetrators of the crimes against humanity. It defies logic that a person who commits a planned murder of a single person ends up at the wrong end of the hangman’s noose, but a person who puts spurious substances in items of food. drink and medicine, knowing that such an act can result in mass deaths or affect the health of large sections of people, gets away with paying a fine and a short spell in jail. The Delhi raids on factories and godowns making and storing bogus medicines may have saved countless lives of critically ill persons. The special cell deserves praise for busting what is just a fraction of a well-organised nationwide network. Unless NGOs and committed individuals take the initiative for mobilising public opinion against the merchants of death in the form of food adulterators and manufacturers and distributors of spurious drugs, liquor and soft drinks, the menace cannot be pulled out from its roots. And so long as the roots remain intact, the health and life of unsuspecting people will continue to be at risk. Should civil society tolerate such a state of affairs? Must innocent lives be lost for the lawmakers to put into place strict and effective laws for dealing with the menace associated with all forms of adulteration of food, drinks and medicines by unscrupulous elements? |
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A new nation is born AS East Timor has become the fist nation of the world to be born in the 21st century, it is a moment of joy as well as concern for the eight lakh inhabitants of this tiny island. Joy, because their relentless struggle has got them freedom from more than 400 years of foreign rule. And concern, because now begins a daunting task of rebuilding what is one of the poorest nations of the world. It is also a moment of pride for the United Nations which played a great role while standing by this hapless island. It was occupied by Indonesia in 1975 after the withdrawal of the Portuguese. On August 30, 1999, the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence and had been governed ably by the United Nations Transition Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) since then. Few countries have had to pay as heavy a price as East Timor for freedom. During its 24-year occupation by Indonesia, it lost several thousands — some estimates run into lakhs — of its people to foreign brutality. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan mentioned, this glorious struggle is an inspiration for the whole world. Perhaps it could not have managed to remove the foreign yoke if the people did not have such an indomitable spirit. The long struggle and more than four centuries of Portuguese rule have left it hopelessly poor and famished. The world community, which offered its moral support, has now to extend liberal economic support as well. Sympathy is present in abundance at the moment but it has the tendency to evaporate with the passage of time. East Timor has a long haul before it and will need to be assisted for a long time to come. During Jakarta’s occupation, nearly 100,000 East Timorese died amid a guerrilla revolt. The hatred for Indonesia is thus palpable. On the other hand, there are many hardline politicians in Indonesia who are not reconciled to the loss of the country’s 27th province. It was graceful on the part of President Megawati Sukarnoputri to have attended the celebrations in spite of stiff opposition from them. But she will have to watch against the machinations of self-serving Western interests which may try to Balkanise her country. Former guerrilla commander Xanana Gusmao has been declared the President of the new nation. He too has undertaken to heal the wounds of the past. Only a policy of forgive and forget can help it tackle the numerous problems that it faces. A judicious exploitation of its fossil fuel reserves can help it come out of its grinding poverty. |
Kaluchak massacre and India’s response THE Kaluchak massacre in Jammu on May 14 was audacious and carried out by a suicide squad or fidayeen, as they are called. There was another terrorist attack in Jammu on May 19 and yet another on May 20. They would probably carry out some more attacks within the next few days before the surviving “jihadis” also achieved their martyrdom. Is there something new in these attacks? Taking into account the raids on the J&K Assembly last year and the daring onslaught on Parliament on December 13 and the two recent attacks, a distinct feature that emerges is the fact that all of them were suicide attacks by fidayeen steeped in Islamic fanaticism. Most of these “jihadis” were outsiders, either Pakistanis or Al-Qaeda trained foreigners. In spite of the developments since September 11 and even after the much-acclaimed speech on January 2 by Gen. Musharraf condemning terrorism and promising the elimination of the gun culture in Pakistan, Musharraf has not changed his stance on terrorism in Kashmir. To him whatever happens in Kashmir is part of fight for freedom. Attacks on women and children would be routinely condemned but not the “jihadi” spirit underlying the attacks. Even last week Musharraf said that the fight for self-determination by Kashmiris should not be termed as terrorism. Musharraf is not going to change his stance, whatever the pressure from India. The USA has its own compulsions and cannot go beyond a certain point in forcing the hands of Musharraf. After nine months of sustained bombing and fighting on the hills, the primary objective of the USA of capturing “dead or alive” Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and their top collaborators has not been achieved. After hunting in the wilderness of Tora Bora mountains, the Americans and the allied forces have moved into the Khost and Bakhtiar regions of Afghanistan adjoining Pakistan, looking for the elusive fugitives. Pakistani forces are cooperating with them in the Pak-Afghanistan region. A large number of Al-Qaeda militants had escaped and dispersed throughout Pakistan, with or without the knowledge of Pakistan’s ISI. Mr Stephen P. Cohen of the Brookings Institution has pointed out that “the Pakistani strategy has been, for years, to turn over just enough terrorists and ‘wanted’ individuals to please the USA and that they seem to have a very large supply of these characters.” The seeds of terrorism sowed by ISI operatives over the years have begun to yield a deadly crop: The killing of the Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was a rogue action by Islamic fundamentalists, in the sense it was not sanctioned by the ISI. The attack on a church in the diplomatic zone of Islamabad was yet another instance. The recent attack in Karachi, killing a dozen French technicians, who were engaged in assisting the Pakistan Navy in building submarines in Karachi port, was the most serious of them and was apparently carried out by an Al-Qaeda jihadi. Gen. Musharraf would possibly cite these instances to make out that the recent attacks in J&K and Delhi were not at the instance of Pakistan’s ISI and they were by Islamic fundamentalists over whom he had no control. This argument would be only partly correct, as he had not uptill now rounded up the “jihadi council” members operating from Pakistan. On the other hand, most of the Islamic extremists arrested in January had been released during the recent weeks. While calibrating its response, India has to convince itself that these were organised by Pakistan’s ISI, as distinct from “jihadi” elements based in Pakistan operating on their own. The correct position could be ascertained through Track-II operatives, some of whom continue to maintain contacts with the highest level in Pakistan. What does Musharraf really have to say about these attacks? Does he express his helplessness and if so, would he be happy or at least turn a Nelson’s eye, if some of the training camps in the PoK were destroyed? And who is in charge of the training camps, if not the ISI or its surrogates? If India is in a position to ascertain the exact position, various options are available to India thereafter. There could be commando raids crossing into PoK border and destroying the camps. Perhaps helicopters could be used to drop them and pick them back to the extent possible. Moreover, are there training camps operated by Pakistan’s ISI across the LoC near Baramulla or further north? The full data could be easily collected, both by India and the USA. Both the countries have close collaboration in collecting intelligence after President Bush set in motion the Operation Enduring Freedom. There is an FBI operative in the US Embassy in Delhi and he keeps close liaison with his Indian counterpart. The Americans have several satellites regularly passing over the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and they could easily take well-defined photographs to find out the correct position about the existence and the activities in the training camps in PoK and elsewhere along the LoC. If the existence and training activities of these camps are established beyond doubt, India could well send its air force planes to bomb them and destroy them, after fully keeping the Americans informed who in turn should tell Gen. Musharraf regarding the limited nature of the operations. The Director General of Military Operations in the Army Headquarters at Delhi is supposed to be in touch with his Pakistani counterpart on a hotline and he could also communicate this information so that the intention and scope of Indian operation in the border region were not misread. But how does one ensure that the Pakistani reaction would be rational and restrained? Any such operations would have to be worked out only with the USA’s consent. Whether the latter, which speaks so eloquently about fighting terrorism wherever it existed, would agree is highly doubtful. The political process in Kashmir is very important in the overall context of this complicated situation. Efforts are on to bring in the moderate elements in Kashmir politics into the mainstream of constitutional activity and induce them to participate in the forthcoming elections. Two leading members of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and Abdul Ghani Lone, had participated in the Sharjah conclave on April 16-17 which went into the modalities of bringing peace to Kashmir. The participants included Sardar Abdul Qayum Khan, former PoK Prime Minister, apart from delegates from the USA, the UK, Canada and Pakistan. The conclave felt that militancy in Kashmir should be ended, the fidayeen elements from Pakistan should stop infiltrating into Kashmir and Kashmiri political leaders, other than the National Conference, should get together and contest the elections, provided it could be ensured by India that they would be free and fair. This was indeed a step in the right direction and some of the erstwhile militant leaders like Abdul Majid Dar have openly come out in defiance of Hizbul Mujahideen’s Pakistani chief, Salahudeen. Shabir Ahmed Shah, one of the leading lights of Kashmir politics, has also come out in favour of contesting the elections. It is in pursuance of bringing about such a denouement that certain operatives from the Centre have been working in J&K for quite some time. The Centre may not seriously disagree with the Kashmiri leaders’ perception that with Farooq Abdullah continuing as Chief Minister, fair and free elections may not be possible. If the Hurriyat and other political leaders are to participate in the elections, it is the responsibility of the Centre to ensure this. The recent moves at the highest level to request Farooq Abdullah to move to the Centre in an appropriate position and his son Omar to replace him in Srinagar, appear to be part of the Centre’s plan for normalising the situation in J&K. Once the elections were held fair and free, and a truly representative government emerged, the question of autonomy to Kashmir could be considered and conceded with the cooperation of all the political parties at the Centre. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao had once declared that the sky was the limit insofar as autonomy to Kashmir was concerned. The details could be worked out with mutual goodwill of all concerned. The next few months preceding the Kashmir elections will be crucial and may witness many more Kaluchak versions by the “jihadi” elements. India has to tackle the situation without losing its cool and without resorting to frequent war cries. However, other measures such as cessation of diplomatic relations and all trade with Pakistan, deporting of all overstaying Pakistanis in India and even stopping the flow of water from the Indus system could be considered. The intelligence machinery at the Centre and in the States, especially the border states, has to be fine-tuned and preventive measures taken to the maximum extent possible to prevent the fidayeen attacks. The writer is a former Governor of West Bengal and
Sikkim. |
Rail way of life FROM the groves of academe to the world of railways, it was a bit of a culture shock. As a bride, I became part of the one and a half million strong railway family some 16 years ago. Prior to that, the very mention of “railway” would only conjure up the vision of a smoke-billowing engine hauling a train, chugging along now, and then running past stations, big and small, towns, forests and fields, with gay abandon. Little did I know, like many of us, about the elaborate systems which worked in the background round the clock to keep the wheels moving. I later learnt that there were wheels within wheels, and much more. The cryptic lingo which the rail-folk bandied about sounded like gobbledegook. They all lived by the 24-hour clock, be it office or home. Initially, it took me quite an effort and arithmetic to figure out 2200 hours as 10 p.m., 1900 hours as 7 p.m. and so on. I vividly remember how I became an odd woman out when I reacted solemnly to a senior officer’s wife’s suggestion to let the garden party continue up to “odd” hours. Sensing my discomfiture, some kindred soul confided in me that the “odd” hours meant midnight and was not as odd as I thought. And the party merrily went on till well past midnight. It didn’t take me long to learn that a rail could get fractured and a passenger coach could take sick. In rail lingo, a rail fracture referred to a crack in the iron rail whereas a coach grounded for repairs was described as sick. Likewise a “power failure” signified a locomotive’s inability to haul a train rather than electricity supply breakdown. Before being baptised into the religion of railways, the woman in me felt outraged when I heard or overheard them animatedly talking about the growing incidence of “chain pulling” in a passenger train. I felt both relieved and ruffled, in that order, to discover that it was not a lady passenger’s chain that was at stake, but the “alarm chain” pulled by the miscreant to stop the train for wrong reasons. That reminds me of Mahatma Gandhi’s historic rail journey from Durban to Pretoria via Johannesburg. At Pietermaritzburg, a white man entered the train. Unable to stand a black man’s presence in the first class compartment, he had the unobliging Gandhi pushed out on to the platform along with his baggage. On that cold, wintry night was Gandhi reborn, with dogged determination to fight the colour prejudice. Warts and all, I am really proud of the Indian Railways and the rail way of wife — oops, life. The Railway Minister has dedicated the 150th year of Indian Railways to the humble passenger. What indeed fascinates me most is E.B. White’s commuter, the alter ego of
R. K. Laxman’s common man. One who spends his life In riding to and fro his wife. A man who shaves and takes a train And then rides back to shave again. Aren’t we all passengers in the train of life? Bon voyage. |
Twists & turns in IPS officer’s career THIS follow-up is on the career graph of an IPS officer of the Punjab cadre. Mr R K Sharma, an ex-Army officer, who joined Punjab in 1969, went on deputation to RAW in the year 1983-84. During this tenure, he got posted to the USA, the posting period expired on September 30, 1990. The next eight years (1990-98) of his career display an unbelievable zigzag of absence from duty, shuttling of his requests and representations between the state and the Centre and typical bureaucratic questionings and justifications. At least three times he applied for voluntary retirement (VR), which not only helped him get leave sanctioned for the period of absence from duty but also the charge-sheets issued twice to him got dropped. During the past 12 years, no departmental enquiry has ever been held to take account of the alleged breach of service rules. He has even been promoted to the rank of I-G. The story begins in 1990 when Mr Sharma did not return to Punjab from his posting in the USA. Instead he applied for one-year ex-India leave. He returned in October, 1991, and joined the state government, but within 12 days, on October 21, 1991, he again applied for leave to go to England on the grounds that his mother was not keeping well. Without waiting for leave sanction and permission to leave the country he left for England. From there he sought extension of leave, which the state sanctioned up to January 10, 1992, with a stipulation that no further extension would be granted. As per records, he then sought extension of leave on the ground that he himself was not well. However, the state government refused to extend his leave. But Mr Sharma continued to apply for extension. This prompted the state government to charge sheet him on January 8, 1993, for abstaining from duty. He finally returned and submitted his joining report on April 12, 1993. But in less than a month, on May 5, 1993, he applied for (VR) on health grounds and also deposited three months’ salary in lieu of the notice period. Interestingly, without waiting for the outcome of his application, he left for England and even afterwards never showed any interest about the status of his voluntary retirement. Meanwhile, the state government sent his request to the Union Home Ministry, which rejected his request on September 27, 1993, on the ground that “it has not been found possible to accede to the request for VR made by the officer regarding waiving of three months’ notice period on the ground that he has deposited salary. Hence the case is rejected”. It appears that Mr Sharma did not deem it fit to leave any contact address nor he contacted the state on his own. Finally, the state government wrote to the Home Ministry on November 29, 1994, that since his foreign address was not known and hence his notice period be considered from May 5, 1993. The state government also dropped the charge sheet as the officer had already sought voluntary retirement. As a result, on March 2, 1995, the Home Ministry issued a letter stating, “The requirement of three months’ notice by Mr Sharma has been waived and thus permitted to retire voluntarily”. It is interesting to note that Mr Sharma, who never enquired about the status of his VR application for two years, returned to the state on April 18, 1995, and made a request to join duty stating that he did not know the fate of his application. And that now he was physically fit and, hence, had changed his mind about his VR. Apparently, it was an ideal situation for Mr Sharma to withdraw his VR application as the charge sheet had been dropped and the Home Ministry’s letter of acceptance of his VR had never reached him in the absence of any contact address given by him. However, his request letter to rejoin duty when sent to the Centre was rejected on June 20, 1995. Mr R K Sharma then sent a representation in this regard in July 1995 and yet another one in March 1996. Finally, the Government of India allowed him to withdraw his VR application on August 14, 1997. This prompted another IPS officer, Mr P Lal, to knock the doors of CAT, as joining of Mr R.K. Sharma would have affected his seniority. The CAT quashed the Government of India’s orders, and thus, Mr Sharma was not allowed to join. At this juncture, both the Government of India and Mr R K Sharma, filed writ petitions in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in May 1998. As per records, Mr Sharma’s advocate gave an assurance recorded by the court that he would not claim seniority over Mr P Lal. As a result, the CAT order was set aside on July 4, 2001, subject to the direction that Mr R K Sharma would not be assigned seniority over Mr P Lal and other officers, who had been promoted during his absence from duty till the government took a comprehensive decision on the allegations against Mr Sharma. The state was also directed to take appropriate decision in the matter within six months without being influenced by the fact that the enquiry initiated against Mr Sharma in 1993 was dropped on November 9, 1994 and wholly unwarranted observations recorded by the then Home Secretary, Mr Surjit Singh, in his letter of March 3, 1999. Incidentally, his promotion was to affect the seniority of at least 26 officers. Interestingly, during the court proceedings, it was brought to its notice that Mr R K Sharma had taken employment with California Design and Construction Inc, USA, as Managing Director. He also exchanged official letters with the Government of Haryana, signing contracts worth Rs 18 crore. And that he never disclosed to the Government of India about this employment, which as a government officer he was not allowed. The official record of his employment from March 6, 1996 to August 12, 1997, was also produced before the Court. Notwithstanding all these developments, Mr Sharma still represented that he should be promoted to the rank of I-G and the state government promoted him I-G in May 1999. However, in response to the court’s direction, the Punjab state issued a charge sheet against Mr R K Sharma on September 27, 2001. It might appear a strange coincidence in the similarity of action that Mr R K Sharma once again put in his papers for VR within 12 days of the charge-sheet having been issued, quite like the first one issued against him. Once again, history was repeated when the then D-G.P. Mr Sarbjit Singh, wrote a letter to the Home Department on November 15, 2001, that the charge-sheet may be dropped, as he had already put in his request for VR. Similarity of action is not only curious but has a definite pattern as within 10 days of the D-G.P’s letter, Mr R K Sharma again wrote on November 26, 2001 that he would like to withdraw his VR application. In this process, the charge sheet still awaits upon him. Meanwhile, Mr P Lal filed an SLP in the Supreme Court in October 2001, which granted an interim stay on the high court order, which meant that the CAT order now got revived. As a result, the state government relieved Mr R K Sharma from duty on January 22, 2002, who, in turn, represented to the state that only the Government of India was authorised to relieve him from the job, as he was an IPS officer. In response to this letter, the state government has withdrawn its order of relieving him from the job and also filed an application for the vacation of the stay by the Supreme Court. When asked about his curious career graph, Mr R K Sharma said that nothing was illegal about any of his actions. “Seeking voluntary retirement or withdrawing it is my right. As for working for a private company while still in job, let me clarify that it was an honorary status. My rivals in the profession motivate all accusations against me. What they are terming as absence from duty was on account of my ill health. It is not a sin to fall ill. On the contrary, I am an aggrieved party, who is being harassed”. During the last hearing on May 10, the Supreme Court has asked the state to explain how the order of relieving Mr R K Sharma from the job was withdrawn. |
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Depressed women tend to live longer MILDLY depressed older women tend to live longer than those who are not depressed at all, a surprising new study suggests. The findings are contrary to most other studies on the link between depression and mortality. Those studies have generally shown that depression increases the likelihood of death within a certain time period. “This is totally counterintuitive to what you expect to see,” said Dan G. Blazer, a Duke University professor of psychiatry and behavioural science. “We know that depression in younger populations is very clearly associated with mortality. It’s not so clear in older populations.” The results might support the theory that mild depression is a survival mechanism, he said. The Duke study, published in the May-June issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, is the first known examination of mild depression and death, Blazer said. Other studies looked only at people with severe depression. The study was based on a group that started with 2,401 women and 1,269 men, all older than 65. Researchers took into account age, chronic illness and other factors in calculating the mortality rate. The researchers found that depression had no influence on the mortality of men. “We don’t want to make too much out of this except that it’s a very interesting finding,” Blazer said. Blazer said the study may support a theory advanced by University of Michigan psychiatrist Randolph M. Nesse that says mild depression may allow people to cope more easily with their problems and remove themselves from dangerous or harmful situations.
Agencies |
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Flying kites for healthy living SKY is literally the limit of joy from this toy. As a hobby, people enjoy it, but kiting or flying kites is incidentally a sport that inculcates healthy lifestyle. Notwithstanding the ignorance of the common man about the sporting potential of kiting, thanks to the much hype given to other games, there are many who consider this a hobby sport and sincerely believe its popularity is on the increase. “If I am not seen flying kites for more than three days, consider I am seriously ill,” says 60-year-old Mohammed Zahid who has been a spirited kite flier for more than 50 years. Aided by this hobby sport, which helps to be physically fit, the veteran from Aligarh claims he’s never caught any disease till date. Echoing his view, another proponent of this sport says kiting helps develop both body and mind. “Pulling the kite back in full breath enhances the function of lungs and body muscles. Constantly looking at it sharpens the vision. Controlling the kites properly to cut down the opponent’s makes you a sharp decision maker,” says Azad Singh, 58-year-old kite enthusiast from Allahabad’s Neo National Kite Club.
PTI
Even a little smoke hits kids Just a little bit of smoke can damage a child’s learning ability, affecting reading, maths and reasoning, researchers have said. More than 13 million children breathe in enough secondhand smoke to be affected in this way, said the researchers from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. “This study provides incentive for states to set public health standards to protect children from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke,” Kimberly Yolton of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at the hospital, who led the study, told a conference.
Reuters |
By Brahma, a boon has been given to them (planets): “When honoured, you will honour”. —
Yajnavalkya Smriti *** The conjunctions of planets and zodiacal signs (in a horoscope) at the birth of a person produce an unalterable destiny which is called bhagya; it is fixed. —
Yavaneshvara, Sphujidhvaja *** ..... just as armour is a protection against the wounds by arrows so shanti (grahayajna) is a protection against the strokes of fate. —
Matsya Purana *** I believe that daiva (destiny) is all powerful and human effort is (more of less) futile. —
King Trishanku. The Ramayana *** It is fate or divine will that brings everything to life and all die when killed by daiva. —
The Ramayana *** A man comes under the will of daiva as if fastened with thongs. —
The Mahabharata *** Happiness and suffering which creatures undergo are under the control of destiny, and are not the result of self effort. —
Matsya Purana *** Who can avert the fruition of evil destiny? —
Bhartrihari, Nitishataka *** Fate rules supreme; human effort is only a pretext. By the power of mysterious fate, one conquers the earth. Between fate and human effort, daiva (fate) is superior. —
Atharvaveda-parishishta *** What is not to be, will not be; if it is to be, it will not be otherwise. Why not drink this remedy that destroys the poison of worry? —
Hitopadesha *** Weak daiva (destiny) is subdued by (constant) human effort; in a similar vein, weak human effort is overawed by powerful daiva. —
Caraka |
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