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Thursday,
November 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India   |
Legal backing for banks Death as deterrence Fee hike plan welcome |
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Musharraf’s man as Pak PM
First Baloch to become Prime Minister
Bulleh Shah’s message of love & compassion
All about nuts in a nutshell
China jails 33 for Internet use
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Legal backing for banks Parliament on Tuesday passed a Bill whose significance many in the media failed to realise as it did not get the deserved attention. Blame it on the financial jargon that clothed the Bill, hiding its true import. It is called the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Bill, 2002. In short, the Bill, now awaiting the President’s consent to become a law, empowers financial institutions to seize and sell loan defaulters’ assets without getting mired in legal wrangles. The defaulters owe a staggering amount of Rs 70,904 crore (official figure) to financial institutions. This is nothing short of a national scandal that speaks volumes about the incompetence and inefficiency of financial institutions that have recklessly advanced loans to corporate and other favoured borrowers. For years, crooks in business have used the national financial system to their advantage, taken large loans, often with official connivance, for questionable enterprises and refused to pay back, taking shelter in an obliging legal system. The lenders had felt helpless in recovering the public money locked up in bad deals. There have been, no doubt, external factors also like the global recession and the meltdown of the Soviet market which have put Indian companies to loss. But it is the common practice with many companies to declare themselves as bankrupt and file for rehabilitation with the BIFR. The large NPAs also reflect on the poor judgement of bankers and lack of coordination among the banks in blacklisting habitual defaulters and putting them in the dock. By and large, the regulator, the RBI, and the banks have been soft towards loan defaulters, at times under political pressure, and failed to safeguard the public trust in handling the public money. This, hopefully, may change now. The systemic failure that had also contributed to the sorry state of financial affairs may be corrected, at least partly, by the proposed legislation. The sweeping powers given to the banks will enable them to recover their bad loans by auctioning the assets of the defaulters. This may also have some psychological effect and prompt the lazy borrowers to take advantage of the reprieve announced by the Finance Minister for the defaullters owing up to Rs 10 crore. But in practice a clever borrower often himself disposes of his expensive assets before the long arm of the law gets active and the leftover land and machinery are not worth much. The recent public outcry on the huge NPAs has led many financial institutions to be over-cautious in extending large loans to the corporate sector. This is evident from the low offtake of bank credit despite the easing of interest rates. The banks are concentrating on small housing and auto loans where the recovery rate is believed to be high. But they need to be reminded of the Finance Minister’s disclosure in the Rajya Sabha that 75 per cent of the defaulters owe up to Rs 1 lakh. Apart from the profit motive, the banks have a social responsibility to help the genuine and needy entrepreneur with cash to encourage self-employment and industrial growth. The farmer is still exploited by the arhtiya and the village money lender. The banks have to extend them a helping hand and move with compassion and responsibility in dealing with the small defaulters. Genuine mistakes made in the pursuit of sincere banking are definitely pardonable. |
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Death as deterrence Whenever an incident of rape is reported Mr L. K. Advani comes out with his cut-and-dried solution for the problem. He believes that the punishment for what without doubt is an abominable crime should be death. The issue of the sentence of death as a deterrent for a range of violent crimes itself is under debate at the global level. There is a powerful movement for the abolition of capital punishment. This school treats criminals as individuals who need medical and social correction for them to follow the accepted social norms like most normal persons do. Unhappily, most of the time there is more hype than reason that determines the course of a debate on as serious an issue as the increase in the level of gender abuse in India. The sentence of death is not going to change the way an average Indian male looks at the members of the "lesser sex". The anti-female conditioning begins at the conception stage itself. In spite of the ban, most men force their daughters-in-law and their wives to undergo sex determination tests. Death as a punishment for the murder of girls in the womb would be more logical than the same punishment for the crime of rape. The murder of the girl-child in her mother's womb is a pre-meditated act for which the husband, in-laws and the staff of the sex-determination clinic should be made to pay with their lives. Until respect for the female of the species begins at the sex-determination stage not much headway is possible in dealing with not just rape but a whole range of crimes against women that go unreported and
unpunished in India. UNICEF and WHO studies have shown that the male-child receives preferential treatment in most Indian homes. Don't go by the gender revolution that is visible in most urban centres. They conceal the larger ugly reality of the continued neglect of the girl as a daughter, sister, wife and mother. The average Indian is not socially qualified to even discuss the issue. An example of how centuries of mental conditioning influences even the judgment of the seemingly rational and informed segment of society was The Big Fight conducted by Rajdeep Sardesia on a television channel. There was not a single male face either on the panel of experts or among those asking questions. Why? Mr Advani favours the penalty of death for rape. If he really wants to help the female of the species, there are other ways he can achieve this objective, perhaps more effectively. And that is by persuading other lawmakers to clear the Bill that provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in the country's legislatures. Let them become effective partners in deciding what set of laws would protect their interests, rather than recommending the penalty of death for rapists. |
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Fee hike plan welcome The Union Finance Ministry’s Expenditure Reforms Committee (ERC) has rightly proposed a hike in the monthly tuition fee being charged from the students of all the colleges and universities in the country. The proposal for a 20 to 33 per cent increase in the fee is long overdue, considering the fact that the cost of education has increased by leaps and bounds today compared to, say, 50 years ago. Reports that the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has, in principle, accepted the proposal are also heartening because such a measure is expected to add to the resources of the cash-strapped educational institutions. It is indeed amazing that even though higher education has become costlier, our colleges and universities continue to charge a paltry sum as tuition fee from the students. Delhi University students, for instance, pay only Rs 15 for undergraduate and Rs 18 for postgraduate courses. The ERC is of the view that the increase in the tuition fee would not be a burden on the students as most of them come from public schools where they were paying anything between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500 every month. Few would disagree with this view. Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Professor Deepak Nayyar is also on record having said that if the students have money to pay for car parking, have coffee in parlours or own cellphones, there is no reason why they should not pay more towards their tuition fee. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have also been maintaining over the years that higher user charges for education have become imperative to meet the growing demands and challenges. Notwithstanding the HRD Ministry’s willingness to implement the proposal, it is doubtful whether the hike plan will be implemented. This is because two similar proposals made by the Mehmood-ur-Rahman Committee and the Anandkrishnan Committee to the HRD Ministry as far back as February, 2000, have not yet been implemented by the government despite strong and justifiable reasons for the hike. While the Mehmood-ur-Rahman Committee suggested a hike of Rs 55 to Rs 200 in the undergraduate courses, the Anandkrishnan Committee recommended a monthly tuition fee of Rs 100. As it has become difficult to continue heavy susbisidation of higher education, a reasonable hike in tuition fee seems to be the only alternative for improving the infrastructural facilities in the colleges and universities. While attempting to rationalise the fee structure, the authorities concerned should keep in mind the interests of those studying basic sciences and humanities. As more funds are required to maintain our ill-equipped laboratories, science students should be prepared to pay more. But the interests of those in the lower strata of society should not be overlooked in the process. To help this stratum, the government could extend facilities such as book banks and lending libraries, and liberalise norms for providing easy loans to buy books, pay fee and so on. The aim of the entire exercise should be to ensure that the race for higher education does not become the exclusive preserve of the affluent sections of society. |
Musharraf’s man as Pak PM AFTER a fraudulent referendum and a manipulated General election that produced a conveniently fractured verdict, General Musharraf’s Pakistan now has a facade of a civilian government of sorts. Mr Zafarullah Jamali, an amiable Baloch tribal sardar who had happily served both Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and General Zia-ul-Haq, too, is Prime Minister. His Cabinet includes several defectors from Ms Benazir Bhutto’s PPP, and some of them have got important portfolios. This, incidentally, was made possible by General Musharraf’s kind act of suspending the sanctions in the constitution against the legislators ratting on their parties. It can be taken for granted that these would be restored soon enough to avert desertions from the wafer-thin majority mustered behind Mr Jamali by methods that would not bear too close a scrutiny. This country should refrain from commenting on the form of government in Islamabad and leave it to the Pakistani people to decide how they want to be ruled. Most of them, remarkably, have made no secret of their derision for the current state of things, especially after they saw that even the Speaker’s election was being rigged. However, it is strange that those powerful countries that claim to be the uncompromising promoters of democracy across the globe are quite happy to let General Musharraf run Pakistan the way he and the Army want to. The USA, for instance, has contented itself with saying that Pakistan hasn’t yet moved back to “full democracy” and that Washington would “work together with the Jamali government” to work to achieve democracy’s complete restoration. Evidently, the Bush administration was worried over the surprisingly good showing by the united front of Islamic extremists under the banner of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). This combination had campaigned for its candidates carrying the portraits of Osama bin Laden and openly
exploiting the anti-American sentiment with which Pakistan is awash. Washington also knows that some at least of the MMA candidates had the tacit support of Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). None of this has persuaded the USA, however, to call a spade a spade, leave alone remonstrate with General Musharraf. Obviously, the present situation suits both sides. America regards the Pakistani military ruler to be its “best bet” in a strategically located Muslim country and goes on praising him as a “key ally” in the “war of terrorism”. General Musharraf merrily plays the duplicitous game of handing over to the Americans some important Al-Qaeda leader once in two months and simultaneously playing footsie with home-grown extremists for whom jihad, especially against India, is a sacred duty. Between them the USA and General Musharraf have managed to exclude both Ms Bhutto’s party and the MMA out of the federal government in Islamabad. But there is no way the MMA can be prevented from ruling the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan. Both areas border Afghanistan that cannot remain unaffected by the MMA’s sympathy for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban that it has been proclaiming from the housetops. It is somewhere in the federally administered tribal areas of the NWFP that Osama is reportedly living in safety and comfort. Under the circumstances, it is no surprise that the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, has bluntly pointed out that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are dubious allies in the fight against terrorism, given their own dismal record of promoting this very scourge. But in the USA this appears to have fallen on deaf ears even though the Russian leader had pointedly made these remarks shortly after receiving President George W. Bush in St. Petersburg. India, of course, cannot shut its eyes and ears. For one thing, after a brief lull, Pakistan-backed terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir — and even in distant places in the southern state of Andhra — has once again erupted in full fury. The dastardly suicide attack on two temples at Jammu, preceded by several onslaughts on security forces in which casualties were heavy, make the intentions of the Pakistan-sponsored militant groups starkly clear. That the attack on Jammu’s Raghunath temple was the second in a matter of months has a message of its own. As the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, has remarked, the merchants of terror and mayhem, dismayed by the brilliantly successful elections in Jammu and Kashmir, are trying to promote communal tension and trouble in the composite state that is a symbol of Indian secularism. Any pretence that the perpetrators of terrorism are indigenous Kashmiris would not wash. For the militant groups operating under various aliases and claiming responsibility for the nefarious attacks on civilians, including women and children, are offshoots of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Both these outfits operate on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and cross it regularly, often under cover of heavy firing by the Pakistani Army. America’s role in relation to cross-border terrorism is also becoming curiouser and curiouser. Time was when the USA strongly condemned acts of terrorism directed against civilians and tried to dissuade Pakistan from continuing with this horrendous activity. The US Ambassador to this country, Mr Robert Blackwill, was once quoted as saying that India’s “fight against cross-border terrorism” was a “part of America’s war on terrorism” everywhere. In August last, the US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Richard Armitage, after a “tough meeting” with General Musharraf in Islamabad, publicly assured this country that the General had committed himself to stopping “infiltration” across the LoC “completely and visibly”. In the light of what has happened since then — ranging from the attack on Parliament, the killing of the families of Indian soldiers at Kaluchak, the onslaught on Akshardham to the current monstrous acts in J & K — Mr Armitage’s assurance sound like a cruel joke. There is absolutely no evidence to show that America is leaning on General Musharraf hard enough to persuade him to end cross-border terrorism. No wonder, the Prime Minister was constrained to lament, during his recent visit to Britain, that the West was adopting “double standards” in relation to terrorism that troubled it and that afflicting India. This concern has clearly escalated since then which explains why the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser, Mr Brajesh Mishra, is going to Washington next month for discussions on this painful subject. America’s apparent indifference to persistent Pakistani terrorism against this country is doubtless a major concern — the Foreign Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, spoke forthrightly on this in the BBC World Service’s Hard Talk programme — but not the only one. New Delhi is aghast also over Washington’s policy of turning a “blind eye” to the blatant “nukes for missiles” deal between Pakistan and North Korea. Latest revelations by American officials themselves are shocking beyond belief. US spy satellites have observed US-gifted Pakistani C-130 cargo aircraft landing in North Korea with a consignment of equipment for uranium enrichment and flying back home with ballistic missile parts. And yet the Bush administration has chosen to remain mum. Under American laws such activity must immediately invite mandatory sanctions. Far from imposing them, the USA has withdrawn even those sanctions that were applied to Pakistan after the 1998 nuclear tests. In other words, to keep Pakistan happy, the USA is willing to flout its own laws. At the same time it tells India that despite its willingness to do so, it cannot sell to this country nuclear reactors because of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act! Meanwhile, there is an internal dimension of the latest upsurge of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir that, regrettably, is not being handled with due care. The nation’s stakes in this sensitive state, the target of Pakistan’s proxy war for 12 years, are much too high. Therefore, it cannot and must not be treated as a plaything of partisan politics. Unfortunately, this is precisely what is happening. There can be no other meaning of Mr Advani’s statement that the recent policies of the Mufti government have “encouraged” the terrorists and of the exchanges between the Treasury and Congress Benches over the question whether Srinagar had consulted New Delhi before releasing some POTA detenues. Must the Gujrat election take precedence over supreme national interest? |
First Baloch to become Prime Minister He was among several senior members of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League who defected after the military coup in 1999. They formed their own faction, the PML (Q), which emerged as the largest party, though short of a majority, after the general election in October. Since the coup, the PML (Q) has remained close to the military regime. A hockey player who excelled in the half-line, Mr Jamali will require all his dribbling skills to weave his way through Pakistan’s Freudian politics. “Jabal” to his close friends, Mr Jamali will have to retain his cool in the conspiracy-ridden corridors of power in Islamabad. He comes from a land-owning family which has played an active role in Pakistani politics for five decades. Born in Rowjhan, he attended the prestigious Royal College at Murree and Aitchison College in Lahore before obtaining a masters degree from Punjab University. Adept in English, he is also fluent in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi. His critics believe it is unlikely that he will challenge General Musharraf. Mr Jamali began his political career as a member of the Pakistan People’s Party which he joined in the 1970s. He has been a member of various national Cabinets first under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and then military dictator Zia-ul-Haq. He also served in the civilian government headed by Mr Mohammed Khan Junejo. Founder of India’s first micro-finance institution As of June 30, 2002, BASIX had worked in 3,600 villages in 22 districts of five states in the country. It had disbursed more than 60,000 loans worth 18 million dollars to over 33,000 direct borrowers. In addition, BASIX micro-credit reached another 10,000 women who received loans through 800 self-help groups (SHGs). Based in Hyderabad, the organisation has 150 full-time employees, mostly in rural districts and over 100 village-based customer service agents. Little wonder then that Mr Mahajan has been selected this year as an outstanding social entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation launched by World Economic Forum President Klaus Schwab. In Mr Schwab’s own words, “social entrepreneurs are unusual leaders. They proceed in a fashion that democratises knowledge and human capacity, providing tools for others to act who are less equipped than themselves”. A prolific writer, Mr Mahajan has published a book on the rural non-farming sector in India and over 50 articles on rural development and micro-finance. |
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Bulleh Shah’s message of love & compassion During the last 60 years nowhere has so much blood been shed in the name of religion in the world as in the West and East Punjab though the pre-1947 Punjab had thrown up a galaxy of men who had given a message of love, compassion and piety to the poor and the suffering. Through their trials and tribulations, they built up a remarkable tradition that represented the finest human values. They emphasised God’s personal dimensions of the divine human relationship, and saw God in all things, losing thereby the ability to discriminate among creatures. They were not concerned with doctrines or judicial issues but constantly reminded us of God’s presence. The proponents of such transcendent reality were the Sufis of Punjab who enriched the social and cultural life. One of the most distinguished of them was Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah. To a hard rationalist like Bertrand Russell, Sufism meant nothing because it negated rationality and materialism, and ignored social and economic issues. But the Sufis think otherwise. They believe that there are things spiritual that cannot be explained rationally. According to them the object of Sufism is to focus on the self-alienation of man and to delineate it and cultivate within him consciousness of the divinity and purposeful existence. The underlying assumption is that man is a solitary being altogether leading an empty and dreary life and needing spiritual comfort and support to lead a fully creative life. In such circumstances, it is Sufism that shows the way for building up a moral and spiritual strength to face the grim, sordid realities of life. Belonging to his ancestral village, Ujj Gailanian Arth in Bahawalpur state, Bulleh Shah, born in 1680, lived during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb. He enjoyed great reputation as a renowned Punjab Sufi and poet. His family had migrated to Kasur where in his early life along with Syed Waris Shah he received education under the guidance of Hafiz Ghulam Murtiza and Ghulam Mohiuddin. He read a great deal of Urdu and Persian literature. The view propaged by Bhai Prem Singh that Bulleh Shah was illiterate is not supported by evidence. The Mughal Empire was crumbling, and Punjab was sliding into political disorder (gardi-ka-wakt), an age of troubles. In this turbulent period, Bulleh Shah stood up and fostered among his followers a fearless spirit of sanity and fiery independence of character. From his early life Bulleh Shah was temperamentally inclined to Sufism. His interest in Sufism brought him closely in touch with Hazrat Inayat Shah Qadri who was highly respected for his learning and sobriety. Under Qadri’s guidance, Bulleh Shah imbibed the spirit and
discipline of Sufi philosophy and practice. The Qadri branch of Sufism was greatly influenced by the Hindu cult of Bakhti philosophy, much to the chagrin of the orthodox. Bulleh Shah’s 30-year-long and intimate association with Qadri opened to him the world of learning and rich spiritual experience. Through his spiritual experience he adopted the spirit of self-control and tempering himself so well that he would feel neither elated by praise nor depressed by neglect. His life was simple and austere. He was a bachelor. He followed strictly the tenets of Wahad-al-Wajud (unity of existence) as distinct from Wahdat-al-Shahud (unity of phenomenon) and viewed God as the Supreme and the Absolute. Implanted in this belief is the notion of (fana) annihilating the ego and complete surrender to God. This approach is close to Dante’s famous line. ‘His will is aur Peace’. He firmly believed the God can be realised by intuitive responses, contemplation and imaginative sympathy and not by rationality. Thus God is not a formula but an illumined self which brings in tranquility. Bulleh Shah perceived the reality of life through his spiritual quest and experiences which he expressed in his poetry reflecting a variety of moods. His poetry is essentially spiritual in content, and is meant to be sung due to its lyrical qualities. Broadly speaking, his poetry can be divided into three parts: his earliest verse expresses his disenchantment with life, but during the second phase reflects his restless spiritual quest, and finally, there is a mood of fulfilment by submitting to the will of God. In the course of his struggle, he saw in his teacher the image of God, but later on nothing mattered to him except God. In the historian Ranke’s term, God was ‘immediate’ to him. So disquiet, tussle within and fulfilment constituted the slips and steps of his life. Discarding the worldly desires such as name, fame and wealth, Bulleh Shah exercised self-control, meditated on God and reached ecstatic flights to apprehend the glory of God. Caste, colour and community did not matter to him. He espoused the cause of humanity. The foundation of his poetry is pure love for God and compassion for all. His poetry is a series of intuitive flights into the realm of the Absolute soaring with tranquil assurance. He offered a challenge to the narrow-minded fanatical Mullahs who were misguiding the gullible by their sectarian propaganda. His poetry emphasised that action is the chief end of existence and that what is amiable and excellent in nature is contained in habit. Exposing the devious means adopted by the Mullahs, he wrote, ‘Challey mullah de jeeb machine wagon, parchey kufir dey dhara dhara chapdi ai’ (the tongue of the Mullah goes on like the machine preaching lies). Because of the simplicity of his idiom and themes, Bulleh Shah’s poetry became popular, and when set to music enthralled his audience. His Kafis carry the message of Tauhid and Ishq-e-Illahi (love of God) highlighting thereby the richness of Punjabi culture and literature. He addressed a higher consciousness of the soul by employing the delicious and enticing imagination lit up with imagery. It is a pity indeed that Bulleh Shah and his message of love have been forgotten, and he is looked on as a Pakistani Sufi poet not worth listening to. |
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All about nuts in a nutshell
Packed full of fat and calorie-dense, nuts can harm the heart and widen the waistline, doctors and dieticians warn us. However, a closer look at the nutritional research reveals that nuts are not a dietary demon. Eating nuts can have considerable benefits for heart health, and is unlikely to add to any excess baggage we may carry. Contrary to popular opinion, the evidence suggests that nuts are one food worth shelling out for whatever the time of year. Nuts are an intensely fatty food, with about 80 per cent of the calories they offer coming from fat. While this fact might seem somewhat unpalatable, it should be borne in mind that the types of oils found in nuts such as almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts and Brazil nuts is predominantly of healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated types. One potential effect of these beneficial fats is to reduce blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, which is believed to have artery-clogging potential in the body. Nuts are also rich in fibre and natural plant substances known as sterols, both of which are thought to have cholesterol-quelling potential by helping to block its absorption from the gut. Although many people with raised cholesterol levels are warned off eating nuts, this advice is simply not based in science. Several studies show that including nuts in the diet can lower LDL cholesterol levels by 10 per cent. Nuts are also rich in nutrients believed to have heart-disease protective properties such as vitamin E, magnesium, copper and potassium. It is perhaps no wonder then that five large studies have found that those who eat nuts tend to be at lower risk of heart disease. For the very best health effects, nuts are probably best taken in their raw (unroasted) and unsalted state. Despite being full of calories, they are unlikely to inflate our weight: the body generally compensates by eating less of other foods. In contrast to their unwholesome reputation, nuts are supremely healthy and nutritious.
The Guardian |
China jails 33 for Internet use Amnesty International urged China on Wednesday to free at least 30 people jailed for using the Internet to share information or express their views. China had detained or imprisoned at least 33 people for offences related to Internet use, but two adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned in 1999 and declared an “evil cult”, had died in custody, the group said in a statement. Amnesty said among those held was former police officer Li Dawei, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for downloading articles from pro-democracy Web sites abroad. The government had gone so far as to filter foreign sites, create a special Internet police and even shut down Web pages posting politically incorrect fare, the rights group said.
Reuters Wash away your troubles with beer There are days when you feel like a bath full of beer, not just a glass. Now you can have both — thanks to a German brewery which has developed a beer you can wash down your food with or wash down body. Klosterbrauerei, or monastic brewery, was looking for ways to mop up excess capacity in a slumping beer market and struck upon the bathtime supplement to help tipplers soak away their stresses and strains. The brewery, in Neuzelle, near Leipzig, eastern Germany, says the dark brown brew has restorative powers for both the mind and body to improve the skin and pep up spirits. “It opens up the pores, the yeast penetrates the skin and after 15 minutes your skin feels softer everywhere,” company spokesman Dirk Vock told Reuters. “It is also a good remedy for people with skin problems.”
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Lakshmana says: “This fortune is but a coward’s crutch; it is the lazy who cry — fortune! fortune!” — Shri Ramacharitamanasa, Sundara Kanda
*** Loss that is gain and death that is life of immortal glory are attained only by the wise. — The Tirukural, 235
*** How to meet death is a problem with wise men. 1) Consider Dharma and Truth as essential objects of life but not possessions or what happens in life. 2) The satisfaction of having performed one’s duty to the best of one’s ability will produce peace of mind. 3) Belief in a future life and in the existence of God, who is the distributor of rewards and punishments for good and bad actions. 4) Vairagya or non-attachment for worldly possessions realising that they are transient or at best only a means to do one’s dharma. 5) By surrendering our will to the Will of God. Our will is simply an instrument in the hands of God. God plays His Lila through us. But we do not realise it. We are arrows and God is the archer. We cannot escape from the Cosmic Law. 6) Constant meditation and prayer. Reading books that describe the glories of God and Godmen with devotion... 7) Company of true sadhus or sattvika men will enable us to acquire discriminative knowledge, self control and peace of mind. 8) Pure sattvika and moderate food, observance of fasts, enduring the pairs of opposites such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain, honour and dishonour etc compassion and gifts to deserving men, etc will lessen the fear of death. — R. Narayana Iyer, “Death and How to Meet It”, The Kalyana Kalpataru, September, 1996. |
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The stocky Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, 58, has the distinction of being the first Prime Minister of Pakistan from Balochistan, considered the poorest district in the neighbouring country. He is the seventh person to hold this post in Pakistan since the adoption of the 1973 Constitution. It is well known that the Balochs have no love lost for the Punjabi elite. Inexorably, Mr Jamali having the blessings of Pakistan’s self-appointed President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, has wasted no time in pronouncing that he will follow the powerful military establishment’s foreign policy towards India. At the same time Mr Jamali is described as a moderate, middle-of-the-road and pragmatic leader with a high level of tolerance. 
Mr Vijay Mahajan, founder of BASIX, the first micro-finance institution of India, could have chosen many different life paths and lucrative careers. An IIT (Delhi) and IIM (Ahmedabad) alumnus, and a fellow at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Mr Mahajan has channelled his talents and education for the uplift of rural India. Inspired by role models such as Mr Verghese Kurien of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), he decided to focus on the promotion of rural livelihood schemes to alleviate poverty. In 1983, he co-founded Pradan, a rural development NGO, and in 1996 founded BASIX, India’s first MFI with an ambitious target: to disburse micro-crdit to one million rural poor in the country.