E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Kashmir poll pointers
BARRING a few places where the voter turnout was reported negligible or poor, the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections presents an encouraging picture. An overall polling percentage of 43.6 is no small achievement amidst the fear of the terrorist gun and the poll boycott call given by the All Parties’ Hurriyat Conference.

Metro train for Delhi
THE inauguration of the trial run of the first Delhi Metro train on Tuesday by Deputy Prime Minister L.K.Advani is a feather in the cap of all those involved with the project. After a three-month trial, the authorities plan to start Metro train services (Phase I) in December.

Court rocks MNCs
THE Supreme Court judgement on Monday imposing a fine of Rs 2 lakh each on two multinational companies and Rs 1 lakh each on 10 other organisations for defacing fragile rocks in the Kulu region of Himachal Pradesh is appreciable on many counts.

OPINION

George Bush’s Saddam problem
US compulsions and growing anti-war pressures
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray
MERCIFULLY, Mr George W. Bush’s war-mongering tirade at the United Nations stopped short of a declaration of hostilities. But standing at an angle to the great nation on which he was foisted by accident, he sounded like a demented Nero.

MIDDLE

Missed target of Bhagat Singh
R.K. Kaushik
FIFTY years ago on June 24, 1952, the midnight rain had given way to early morning drizzling when in the town of Osborne in England, Dorothy realised that her husband, J.A. Scott, Indian Police officer, was motionless and, perhaps, feared the worst.

Predicting an individual’s life expectancy
Wendy Moore
LOOKING on the bright side, at least I now know not to book any lunch dates for 4 July, 2052. Indeed, I shouldn't be making plans for breakfast, lunch, dinner or any other activity for the rest of that year, if internet health advice is to be believed.

Myths surround GM crops
Veronica Brown
U.S. farmers on Monday made their case in favour of genetically-modified crops with the launch in Britain of a report aimed at dismissing commonly held misconceptions about the technology.

Stone-throwing marks this love story
Pandurna (Madhya Pradesh): It might sound strange but people here celebrate a festival by throwing stones at each other. They get hurt and bleed profusely. But it goes this way since it is a custom the people “have to follow.”

TRENDS & POINTERS

It is her 115th birthday
KAMATO HONGO, the oldest living person in the world, turned 115 years old on Monday. Kamato, who was born on September 16, 1887, sleeps two days and stays up for two days and slept through the morning of her 115th birthday. She was to celebrate with her family in the afternoon, according to media reports.

• Kids too suffer from migraines

• Seniors take to dancing

• Sexy models sell coffins

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Kashmir poll pointers

BARRING a few places where the voter turnout was reported negligible or poor, the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections presents an encouraging picture. An overall polling percentage of 43.6 is no small achievement amidst the fear of the terrorist gun and the poll boycott call given by the All Parties’ Hurriyat Conference. It is a sharp rebuke administered to the anti-election forces and their mentors across the border. Pakistan’s propaganda that there was a “freedom movement” going on in the valley has been falsified effectively. Do people take interest in a democratic exercise when they are engaged in an activity like the one Pakistan wanted to invent to suit its own interests? The first phase of the poll shows that the people in general long for peace and progress with their representatives running the government in the state as part of the Indian Union. The Hurriyat Conference leadership has been found to be living in a world of make-believe. There is a large gap between people’s aspirations and the Hurriyat thinking. The separatist conglomerate has been maintaining that the Kashmiris are not interested in elections as conducted by the Election Commission of India. The public in the militancy-torn state, as the separatists saw it, believed that the poll would not provide an answer to the Kashmir crisis. The Hurriyat has been proved wrong in five districts. And the response in these areas, some of which being hit hard by the terrorist menace, has thrown up strong hints that the separatists’ designs will be exposed in the remaining three polling phases too.

On the whole, the elections have been free and fair. Some incidents of highhandedness involving the security forces, as honestly reported by the media, could be expected under the circumstances. These are aberrations, having nothing to do with the overall response of the voters. There was great provocation from the militants. Yet the security forces have performed their duty satisfactorily. They provided enough security cover to the voters to enable them to exercise their right of franchise. The anti-poll elements must be feeling disappointed. They may try to intensify their destructive activities in the coming phases of the crucial elections. That means the need for greater alertness on the part of the law and order machinery. The polls this time are being watched by the entire global community with 16 diplomats and an unusually large number of media persons from various countries reporting the event. This places added responsibility on the shoulders of the security forces as also the election machinery. One hopes they will prove themselves true to the challenging task assigned to them.

Metro train for Delhi

THE inauguration of the trial run of the first Delhi Metro train on Tuesday by Deputy Prime Minister L.K.Advani is a feather in the cap of all those involved with the project. After a three-month trial, the authorities plan to start Metro train services (Phase I) in December. Though Delhi is the national capital, its transport system, as in other cities like Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore, has been messy for various reasons. Along with an exponential rise in the population, the number of vehicles has multiplied over the years, making the roads congested resulting in traffic snarls. Against this background, Delhi Metro is a welcome feature. After the project gets fully completed, as many as 2,600 buses would be taken off the road and, in the process, save 26 lakh man hours every day and a fuel bill of Rs 500 crore per year. Delhi Metro is said to have several firsts to its credit. Of the 240 fully vestibuled coaches (for 60 trains), 60 will be manufactured in Korea and the remaining in India with progressive indigenisation. These will substantially reduce noise and air pollution levels and improve the quality of life. The electrically powered trains with advanced passenger information display and public address system will make Delhi Metro among the best in the world. The coaches are of world-class standards, providing airconditioned comfort to Delhi-ites, who were hitherto exposed to old vehicles. The additional safety features on these coaches should add to their popularity. The coaches have an automatic electric door-closing mechanism. If any door opens accidentally, the train will automatically come to a halt. To reduce fire risk, the coaches have been endowed with special design features.

Considering the fact that Phase II of the Metro project is expected to be over only by 2010, the Centre and the Delhi Government will have to ensure that there is no unnecessary delay in the execution of this vital phase. Delays will lead to cost overruns and attendant problems. Phase II is expected to cost Rs 8,900 crore and this figure will go up in the case of delay in execution. While the completion of Phase I is commendable, politicisation of the project is most unfortunate. The Centre and the State should refrain from politicising Delhi Metro, keeping in view the future of the project and larger interests of Delhi-ites. Reports suggest that the Delhi Government has sought some changes in the routes under Phase II. If the suggestions are practical and constructive, these should be accepted. As the project has used state-of-the-art technology in construction and is a boon for Delhi, there should be no face-off between the Centre and the Delhi Government. Issues relating to administrative control, operations and maintenance of Delhi Metro can best be tackled in due course, but what is of prime concern now is to complete the project within the specified timeframe. Delhi Metro should serve as a benchmark for other public transport systems. It could even assist the Centre in its ambitious Kashmir Railway project.

Court rocks MNCs

THE Supreme Court judgement on Monday imposing a fine of Rs 2 lakh each on two multinational companies and Rs 1 lakh each on 10 other organisations for defacing fragile rocks in the Kulu region of Himachal Pradesh is appreciable on many counts. When a newspaper highlighted the defacement of rocks by Pepsi and Coca Cola in the Rohtang Pass area, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of what it called “commercial vandalism” and issued notices to the defaulting companies. A survey showed that there were several other organisations guilty of polluting the environment in the same way and some tried to remove their advertisements painted on rocks to escape penalty. The court stopped them, lest they should damage the rocks beyond repair. The second commendable point about the court verdict is that it has been delivered without the usual delay one associates with judicial decisions. The companies are required to pay the penalty within 48 hours of the court directive. A sense of urgency has been imparted to the whole matter. Third, the court has not left the cleansing of the disfigured rocks to official agencies. Instead, it has asked the Solicitor-General to find out the techniques used internationally to clean up such sensitive rocks. Fourth, the judgement does not bring the case to an end. To take the matter to its logical conclusion, the court has ordered the video-filming of the entire area so that all the culprits are identified and the whole area is cleared of all distasteful commercial exhortations and hoardings. All costs incurred in the process will be recovered from the guilty parties. This is how in the Indian scenario a wrong can be, and should be, rectified.

But given the widespread pollution of the environment at various levels in the country and the quantum of workload piling up with the Supreme Court or even with the lower courts, one should not expect the judiciary to always take the initiative to set things right, especially when the executive keeps sleeping. A whole battalion of executive officers is deployed at the district and even the subdivisional level with relevant powers to check disfigurement of any national monument or work of heritage. Defacement of public property is a crime widely practised in cities and towns all over the country, but the district authorities seldom use their powers to haul up the culprits, specially when they are financially and politically influential. Vulgar film posters pasted prominently on the walls of private and official buildings distract the attention of vehicle drivers, leading to accidents, apart from being a disgrace to womanhood. Yet the authorities sleep over the matter. In the hill areas the extent of damage to the environment and greenery is so visible and widespread that official machinery has got used to it. In Himachal Pradesh the government has extended an invitation to disaster by recently allowing construction work in highly fragile and overpopulated areas with support systems inadequate for the existing population. Such a callous and indifferent administration that itself needs lessons in environment protection cannot be expected to take proper care of the state’s natural wealth, leave aside the maintenance of rare rocks.

OPINION

George Bush’s Saddam problem
US compulsions and growing anti-war pressures
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray

MERCIFULLY, Mr George W. Bush’s war-mongering tirade at the United Nations stopped short of a declaration of hostilities. But standing at an angle to the great nation on which he was foisted by accident, he sounded like a demented Nero.

To adapt his words, the world has no quarrel with the great American people who have done so much for the global community and can do so much more. It is America’s current leader who is a menace to international, especially Asian, peace and stability. It is not Iraq that poses a “grave and gathering danger. It is Mr Bush’s United States of America.

Mr Bush’s frantic and futile attempts to brand Mr Saddam Hussein a terrorist only exposed his own obsessiveness. His rhetoric of the previous day, ranging from tear-jerking emotionalism to bravado, did not even acknowledge that US bombing killed nearly 4,000 innocent Afghan civilians, about a thousand more than in the twin towers. Thousands more will die if Americans allow their megalomaniac president to achieve his ambition of defying international opinion and legality to overthrow the legitimately constituted government of a small distant country that poses no threat to the USA.

Among world leaders, only Mr Tony Blair swallows hook, line and sinker the single-(and simple)-minded Condoleeza Rice’s passionate faith that only devastating Iraq today will save America’s devastation tomorrow. It makes no difference to him that her fervour is not rooted in reason.

Newspapers have noted that Mr Tony Blair carries his little-boy’s crush on the prefect to the extent of sticking his thumbs into his trouser belt in the swaggering manner of Texas cowboys. Soon, perhaps, he will start parroting his hero’s linguistic inventions to say that Saddam “crawfished out of UN agreements” and is “stiffing the world”. A British Prime Minister’s mindless grovelling is almost as great a tragedy as the bombardment that threatens Iraq.

American estimates say that a war would cost nearly $ 80 billion. If oil prices rise to nearly $ 40 a barrel, as experts predict, the suffering will be worldwide, as during Operation Desert Storm when India and other developing countries had to pay dearly. War would “open the gates of hell”, according to Mr Amr Moussa, the Arab League’s Secretary-General.

Salman Rushdie’s warning that “the result may well be a united Islamic force that was Osama bin Laden’s dream” repeats what Muslims have been saying from Morocco to the Moluccas. If the USA gets away with overthrowing Saddam, there will be nothing to stop Israel from militarily replacing Yasser Arafat with a puppet Palestinian authority.

Desperate Palestinians would then be given to further excesses, with unimaginable consequences for the entire region. The pro-Western princes and potentates who rule Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan are likely to be swept away in a maelstrom of popular Arab rage.

As for Iraq, it is not fashionable to suggest that millions of Iraqis are also entitled to natural justice, to the rule of law and to UN protection. Iraq’s oil production has plummeted during 12 years of sanctions. Its economy has been crippled, and responsible international agencies blame the deaths from malnutrition and disease of thousands of Iraqi children not on Mr Saddam Hussein’s militaristic machinations, as Mr Bush would have it, but on the restriction on imports.

It can be no one’s case that Mr Saddam Hussein is a paragon of democratic propriety and consensual politics. But, however, authoritarian he might be, he has no truck with the fanatical terrorists who attacked New York and wage war in Kashmir. He is the least bigoted of West Asian rulers. Unlike his peers in Riyadh or Islamabad, he does not succour religious fundamentalists.

If anyone created the monstrous Taliban, it is Pakistan, with America’s moral and material assistance. If anyone financed Bin Laden’s murderous regime, it is the Saudi and Gulf elite which expected a twofold dividend — to keep the fundamentalists occupied elsewhere so that they did not turn their attention to repressive dictatorships in their own region, and the prospect of an easy entree into paradise. If anyone helped to facilitate Al-Qaida’s operations, it was Sudan and Yemen whose governments looked the other way while terror campaigns were planned.

But why blame them alone? It is clear now that Islamic fundamentalists were able to set up cells in every Muslim country, and even in neutral capitals like Singapore and London. Should they all be attacked? Or should Iraq be singled out because its destruction would serve Mr Bush’s other agenda?

It is now recognised that the seeds of World War II were sown in the harsh conditions of the Peace of Versailles. The terms imposed on Iraq in 1991 were infinitely more stringent. A repetition would only hasten the day of reckoning.

Mr Bush has been harping on the need to preserve and protect democracy. That sounds very odd indeed as the world watches him play footsy with corrupt and authoritarian Central Asian leaders with appalling human rights records who have suddenly been elevated into valuable allies. The State Department’s euphemism for opportunistic and immoral alliances that give the lie to everything Mr Bush has been preaching and professing this week is “enhanced engagement”.

Uzbekistan’s unyielding Islam Karimov, who was an honoured guest in Washington earlier this year, boasts of his new “strategic partnership with the US”. Another sudden American protege. Turkmenistan’s Saparmurat Niyazov, has anointed himself President for life, or at least for until some rival overthrows him. These are the Synghman Rhees and Ferdinand Marcoses of the new millennium. They provide military bases, in return, the USA gives money and promises protection.

Pakistan’s military ruler is in the same category. To return to Rushdie, “Many observers of the region will be wondering how long Pakistani-backed terrorism in Kashmir will be winked at by America because of Pakistan’s support for the ‘war against terror’ on its other frontier. And as Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf does more damage to his country’s constitution, the US government’s decision to go on hailing him as a champion of democracy does more harm to America’s already shredded regional credibility.”

Already, the Afghans mutter about the US “army of occupation” Mr Zalmay Khalzad, the White House’s special envoy, is referred to as “the viceroy”. The June 30 killing of about 120 wedding celebrants appears to have been the last straw.

Why does the lone super power with its imperial reach and matchless military and economic might squander its huge assets in this reckless fashion? Is it oil, is it revenge, is it to finish the President’s father’s unfinished business? Is pressure from the shadowy but sinister entity that Dwight Eisenhower called “the military-industrial complex” which must sell its weapons driving Mr Bush?

With Congressional elections looming ahead, the president without an electoral mandate, who nevertheless once enjoyed the highest ever opinion poll ratings, possibly hopes to regain his domestic political advantage through foreign adventurism. His plight is understandable. Millions of Americans have seen their pension funds melt away in financial scandals. No one knows what happened to the anthrax investigation. No one knows what happened to Bin Laden. But though his presidency is smirched by corporate fraud. Mr Bush has brilliantly replaced talking points like Enron and Worldcom with Iraq.

A powerful Iraq might not threaten the USA but it could jeopardise US interests in the Gulf if the House of Saud, America’s main prop in the region and principal oil supplier, is toppled. Hence Mr Bush’s recent consultation at his Texas ranch with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi envoy who was said to forge US policy in 1991. But as history repeats itself, Mr Bush should also remember that victory over Iraq did not win his father’s re-election.

Voters in the world’s oldest democracy are nothing if not discerning. They may well be aware that the world cannot sleep safe unless there is a regime change in Washington.

The writer is a former Editor of The Statesman.

MIDDLE

Missed target of Bhagat Singh
R.K. Kaushik

FIFTY years ago on June 24, 1952, the midnight rain had given way to early morning drizzling when in the town of Osborne in England, Dorothy realised that her husband, J.A. Scott, Indian Police (IP) officer, was motionless and, perhaps, feared the worst. Her fears were soon confirmed when a doctor from the neighbourhood along with some others came and declared him dead. J.A. Scott died leaving behind his wife Dorothy and two married daughters.

Scott was born on December 2, 1895, in Lancaster and joined the IP on November 20, 1915. He was given the Combined Cadre of Punjab, the NWFP, Delhi and Baluchistan. He had his first posting in Multan as ASP for two years. He remained posted at Jhang in 1920 for some time and was later shifted to Lahore for one year. He was SP at Mianwali and Jehlum and became SSP at Lahore in the summer of 1926.

The provocation for a chain of events in Indian history came from Scott who on October 20, 1928, beat up Lala Lajpat Rai personally when Lalaji was protesting against the visit of the Simon Commission to Lahore. Lala Lajpat Rai died because of grave injuries received in brutal lathi charge and for his merciless beating for more than half an hour by SSP Scott, DSP Syed Ahmed Shah, DSP Niaz Ahmed and Sub-Inspector Aijaz Hussain. The great Indian revolutionaries, martyrs and freedom-fighters — Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and his comrades, Raj Guru, Sukhdev and Chandrashekhar Azad — and others decided to take revenge and teach a lesson to SSP Scott.

They started watching his movements and decided to kill him on December 15, 1928. It was a big mistake on the part of Jai Gopal (later government approver along with Hans Raj Vohra) that Raj Guru fired at a 1924 batch IP officer, ASP (Lahore) J.P. Saunders. Later Bhagat Singh pumped five or six bullets on him killing him instantly before he could be taken to Mayo Hospital at Lahore. It is pertinent to mention here that the great martyrs soon realised their inadvertent mistake that they had shot ASP Saunders instead of their main target, the SSP of Lahore, Scott. They ran towards DAV College, Lahore, while they were chased by Traffic Inspector Fern and Head Constable Chanan Singh. Chanan Singh was also shot and killed by Bhagat Singh.

It is not well known that it was a telephone call from his wife Dorothy which led SSP Scott to leave the office in the afternoon and that also on a bicycle. Scott had the habit of using different modes of transport, including bicycles, motorcycles, jeeps and cars. However, his official car (No PB-6728) was well known in Lahore. Scott loved wrestling and boxing. These were his favourite games.

He used to organise wrestling matches wherever he was posted during his 32 years of service in police and was the DIG (Lahore Range) at the time of Independence. Scott also had some inherent difficulty in speaking and used to speak very fast. In fact, his subordinates and colleagues always found it difficult to understand as to what he was speaking. He was shifted as SSP at Rawalpindi in 1929 from Lahore and was succeeded at Lahore by his batchmate (1915 batch of the IP), GTH Hardinge.

It would not be out of place to mention here that it was in the case of the killing of ASP Saunders and Head Constable Chanan Singh (later known as the Lahore conspiracy case) that Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev were hanged in Central Jail, Lahore, on March 23, 1931. The Lahore conspiracy case was investigated by SP Khan Bahadur Abdul Aziz, an ace investigator of those times. He was shifted from Montgomery to Lahore for investigating and supervising the trial under the leadership of J.A. Stead, then Inspector-General of Police, Punjab (1898 batch of the IP).

The British government nominated both sons of Khan Bahadur Abdul Aziz — Mr Masood Aziz and Mahmood Aziz — to the IP. J.A. Scott could be called the “missed target” of great martyr Bhagat Singh and his comrades.

Predicting an individual’s life expectancy
Wendy Moore

LOOKING on the bright side, at least I now know not to book any lunch dates for 4 July, 2052. Indeed, I shouldn't be making plans for breakfast, lunch, dinner or any other activity for the rest of that year, if internet health advice is to be believed.

How long have we got?

According to the website longtolive.com, 4 July, 2052 will be my day of reckoning. After answering just 24 quickfire questions on my health and lifestyle, taking all of three minutes to complete, the site cheerily informed me not only that I will die that day but actually specified the time down to the last second. Since I will have reached the grand age of 94 by then, the chances are I won't even be able to see the second hand on my watch as it charges towards my destiny.

Life expectancy quizzes are the latest internet health craze. With a variety of appealing titles such as `The Death Clock' and `The Grim Reaper', a growing number of websites are offering to predict precisely when you will die. Simply tap in your age, gender, weight and other vital statistics and up pops your expected death date. On one site, which rather more pessimistically predicted 2030 as my likely date with death, you can even download a handy little clock - `the internet's friendly reminder that life is slipping away' - which counts down the seconds until that last breath.

Not surprisingly, medical experts have responded to the death clocks with reactions ranging from mild scepticism to serious alarm.

Predicting an individual's life expectancy with any degree of accuracy is a statistical impossibility, the experts agree. Although epidemiologists, doctors and life insurance companies regularly use various measures to estimate life expectancy, these only provide crude averages based on large groups.

Even the most complicated measures can only ever predict whether an individual is at low or high risk of a heart attack or stroke. A smoker, for example, runs two to three times the risk of a fatal heart attack in the next 20 years than a non-smoker. Somebody with diabetes is four times more likely to suffer a heart attack. Raised blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, older age and being male all add to risk and each factor is additive. `

Eating habits have been linked to cancers of the bowel, stomach, mouth, throat, oesophagus and pancreas. Excessive drinking is linked to cancers of the throat, tongue, mouth, oesophagus and pancreas. From five to ten per cent of all cancers are caused by faulty genes. Yet all of these have a miniscule effect compared to smoking, which causes one in three cancers.

In any case, obsessing about how long we may live could be unhealthy in itself. Changing social conditions and medical advances have both contributed to people living longer over the past century. Many of us - whatever the death clocks may say - will become centenarians. Yet we are not necessarily enjoying more years of health.

`The issue is not so much about living longer as living healthier,' says Prof Kelly. A balanced approach to life is the key, he says. To illustrate this, he recounts an anecdote about a man who has stopped smoking, visits the gym daily, eats brown rice and drinks only water. He asks his doctor whether he will live a long life. `I don't know,' replies the doctor, `but it will certainly seem like it.' Life expectancy sites:

Estimate your life expectancy www.longtolive.com

Calculate your `real age' www.msnbc.com/modules/quizzes/lifex.asp

Download your personal `death clock' www.mcsindia.org/patients/calculators/death_clock.asp

The BBC's lifespan calculator and health advice www.bbc.co.uk/health/tools/living_100.shtml

Looking after your heart www.bhf.org.uk

Avoiding cancer risks www.cancerresearchuk.org

Healthy living www.hda-online.org.uk The Guardian 

Myths surround GM crops
Veronica Brown

U.S. farmers on Monday made their case in favour of genetically-modified crops with the launch in Britain of a report aimed at dismissing commonly held misconceptions about the technology.

"Various pressure groups and some media are hoodwinking the public by making unsubstantiated assertions about U.S. farmers' adoption of biotechnology," said American Soy bean Association technical director Kimball Nill.

The report, entitled "Let the facts speak for themselves," attacks a number of statements made about GM-crops, including the belief that widespread growing of GM herbicide-tolerant crops has harmed the environment.

"Far from causing harm, herbicide tolerant crops have transformed much of U.S. agriculture by reducing the need to plough the land," it said.

Thanks to nil, or minimal ploughing, soil erosion is minimised and less carbon escapes from the soil to contribute to global warming gases in the atmosphere, the report added.

Public opinion in Europe is wary of gene-altered crops after a string of unrelated food safety scares, including mad cow disease, and there is a three-year de facto ban in place on approvals of new GM varieties.

Trust in biotechnology companies also took a battering recently with the disclosure of small impurities in field trials for oilseed rape, which threatened to derail the British government's three-year test programme on the environmental impact of such crops.

The seed blunder also prompted UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher to break with the government's broadly GM-sympathetic government line, saying that the country was being pressured by the USA to allow commercial planting of gene-spliced crops.

Nill said that while he was aware of the debate in Europe about adopting biotechnology, myths and misinformation were fuelling much of the discussion.

British farmers hosting the launch of the report, which is backed by nine U.S. groups, said that all sides of the GM argument needed to be heard.

"Momentum for biotech crops has become unstoppable -- at least globally, where does this leave the UK in particular and the EU in general?" said Henry Fell, Chairman of the UK's Commercial Farmers' Group.

"The truth is, we are being left behind. Investment in science and biotechnology is being cut, he said. "We must learn from what is happening in the rest of the world and benefit from their experience and advances in technology." Reuters

Stone-throwing marks this love story

Pandurna (Madhya Pradesh): It might sound strange but people here celebrate a festival by throwing stones at each other. They get hurt and bleed profusely. But it goes this way since it is a custom the people “have to follow.”

Recreating the legendary love story to this day the villagers of Sanwar Gaon erect a flag, personifying the girl, in the middle of the river. ANI

TRENDS & POINTERS

It is her 115th birthday

KAMATO HONGO, the oldest living person in the world, turned 115 years old on Monday.

Kamato, who was born on September 16, 1887, sleeps two days and stays up for two days and slept through the morning of her 115th birthday. She was to celebrate with her family in the afternoon, according to media reports.

Her birthday fell on the date on which Japan was marking “Respect for the Aged Day”.

Kamato requires constant care and is slightly hard of hearing, but is otherwise said to be in good health. She enjoys drinking sake, or Japanese rice wine.

Kamato, who lives on the southern Japan island of Kyushu, has seven children, more than 20 grandchildren, and has outlived her eldest daughter, who died two years ago while in her 90s.

She became the world’s oldest person on March 20, after the death of Maud Farris-Luse, of Coldwater, Michigan, who died aged 115 years, 56 days old, according to the Guinness World Records homepage.

The world’s oldest living man is also Japanese. Yukich Chuganji, who is 113 years old, also lives on Kyushu.

Japanese have had the longest life expectancy for years, with women’s life expectancy at 84.93 years and men’s at 78.07 years in 2001.

As of September, Japan is home to 17,934 people over the age of 100. That is four times higher than a decade ago. Some 84 per cent of Japan’s centenarians are women and 91 per cent are 103 years old or less. AP

Kids too suffer from migraines

It is surprising but more than eight million or 15 percent of all children by the age of 15 suffer from migraine headaches though their symptoms may differ from those of adult sufferers, according to the American Medical Association.

For many, these severe headaches often stop as they grow up, but the trouble often returns in middle age. Before puberty, migraines hit boys as often as they do girls. But as with adults, girls are the main victims among adolescents. And 70 percent of all youthful sufferers have a family history of migraines.

Physicians believe that the cause of migraines is the same in children and adults, but the former often exhibit different symptoms. Lacking is the visual aura adults often report. Most common symptoms among kids include nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, increased urination, sweating, thirst, and swelling and tearing, says a report in HealthScout.

US health experts say that children often stop having migraines within a year, even without treatment. But to reduce their impact, maintaining regular bedtime and mealtime schedules is very important. Also vital is identifying and avoiding the “triggers” that spur a migraine’s onset. ANI

Seniors take to dancing

Grandmas and grandpas decked out in American West finery are packing Singapore’s stomping grounds in a line dancing craze touted as exhilarating and healthy. Classes offered by community centres, recreation clubs and even churches are swamped by seniors anxious to strut to country and western strains.

“It’s easier to learn than other dance forms,” said Siew Lan, an instructor. “The music is vibrant, all ages can take it up and you don’t need a partner.” While the middle-aged were the first to catch the fever here even septuagenarians are now hooked. DPA

Sexy models sell coffins

Death is hardly something to look forward to, but one Italian funeral home is trying to make the afterlife a tad more tempting by using bikini-clad women to sell its coffins.

On its site http://www.cofanifunebri.it, the Rome-based funeral home and coffin factory Cisa features its hand-crafted caskets alongside models sipping champagne or reclining seductively on the lids.

"We wanted to make the whole idea of picking your coffin less serious, maybe even make people laugh a bit," Giuseppe Tenara, one of the partners, said.

Near-naked women are used to sell everything in Italy from computers to chocolate bars, but Cisa has taken the advertising ploy to new limits.

"Some people are scandalised, but we just explain that we're trying to make people laugh," Tenara said. Reuters

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

I bow to Vinayaka,

who with glee holds

a half-eaten modakam in His hand,

who is the ever present means of moksha,

who has the moon as an ear ornament,

who protects all the worlds,

who is the single leader for those

who have been left leaderless,

who destroyed the elephant demon and

who swiftly removes the blemishes of those

who bow to Him

***

I seek refuge of the great Lord,

who is higher than the highest,

who is everlasting,

who is ferocious to others than those

that bow to Him,

who is resplendent as the newly rising sun,

worshiped by both demons and gods,

the saviour of those that bow to Him

the Lord of all the Gods,

the Lord of all wealth,

the elephant God and Ganeshwar,

the Lord of the ganas.

***

I bow to the resplendent one

who bestows peace to all the worlds...

who has not a small belly,

the excellent one who has a beautiful elephant face,

who is eternal,

who is kind,

who is forgiving,

who gives happiness, who bestows fame and

who satisfies every wish of those

that bow to Him.

— The Maha Ganesha Pancharatna Stotram

***

Aum! Hail to the God whose face is always shining!

Aum! Hail to the God who has only one tusk!

Aum! Hail to the God with huge elephant ears!

— Achamana mantra during the worship of Lord Ganesha

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Aum. O Lord dressed in splendid white, pervading all the universe, shining radiantly like the ivory rays of the full moon, having four mighty shoulders and a charming, happy face. We meditate on you, Lord that all obstacles may be quelled.

— Vighneshvara Prarthana