E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

D-day in Gujarat
After an exceptionally shrill election campaign — which was perhaps also one of the ugliest — Gujarat finally goes to the polls today. Just as the electoral din has come to an end, here is hoping that the bitterness and the communal divide generated by this no-holds-barred exercise will also be allowed to quieten down.

Insecure old age
In the current economic scenario when the interest rates are constantly going down, it is but natural for the retired people to worry about their survival as most of them depend only on interest income.

TV channels on demand
Now TV viewers will not have to pay for the channels they do not access, as has been the case so far. This will be possible with the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2002, having secured the approval of both Houses of Parliament — the Rajya Sabha cleared it on Tuesday. 

OPINION

Various facets of the Putin visit
Realism must guide all relationships
Inder Malhotra
If the visit to New Delhi of the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, still reverberates and resonates within not just the foreign policy establishment but also in the media, there are good reasons for this and some at least of them ought to obvious.

IN THE NEWS

Awaiting elevation to the Supreme Court
Andhra Pradesh Chief Justice Arunachalam Chettiar Lakshmanan’s elevation to the Supreme Court is on the cards. The file concerned is awaiting President A P J Abdul Kalam’s approval. 

• Maverick LTTE chief negotiator

OF LIFE SUBLIME

The stage of complete harmony
Hardit Singh
Spirituality is the stage of complete harmony where the human soul (Atman) and God’s Soul (Paramatman) come near and finally the one merges into the other. The qualities, characteristics and attributes of God as succinctly mentioned in the Sikh credo, Mool Mantra, reflect in and illuminate the human soul, allowing the individual to shed desire and pain.

Employee commitment at work is falling
Simon Caulkin
A mass of academic work has established the link between performance and people management. Put simply, people who are committed, skilled and focused produce better work than those who aren't. 

Lemon can help dementia patients
Alternative treatments such as aromatherapy can help elderly patients struggling with dementia, researchers have said. Drugs and sedatives prescribed to control the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia often have uncomfortable side-effects.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Worship is good for students
Teenagers who worship and rate religion as important in their lives are optimistic and enjoy school, according to a study. “The more religious the kids are, based on its importance to them or their attending worship, the greater their positive outlook on life,” said sociologist Chris Smith of the University of North Carolina, which released the study.

• New male contraceptive pill

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

D-day in Gujarat

After an exceptionally shrill election campaign — which was perhaps also one of the ugliest — Gujarat finally goes to the polls today. Just as the electoral din has come to an end, here is hoping that the bitterness and the communal divide generated by this no-holds-barred exercise will also be allowed to quieten down. The nation understands that the electorate of the state has a very tough and complex choice to make. Religious and political interests have muddied the water so much that the fundamental issues have been all but eclipsed. The odious “us-versus-they” venom has been injected into the body politic despite repeated requests and even warnings. The unfortunate result is that sanity is missing from the contest and the words “poll frenzy” have acquired ominous overtones. The only silver lining is the innate business sense of the Gujaratis. Here is hoping that they will be able to see through the intricacies of the business of politics as well and give a drubbing to those bent upon misleading the voters. The public has shown many times in the past that amidst all the din and deliberate confusion, it can still make the right choice.

The franchise does not have to be exercised on the basis of Hindutva or anti-Hindutva forces. Instead, every candidate and every party has to be tested on the touchstone of their capability to serve the public the best and to raise the social, moral, political and economic standard of living of everyone. Gujarat has gone through the hell of communal riots and the scars of the tragedy are still raw. The state needs MLAs who can get down to the task of healing these wounds with single-minded devotion. They already have before them the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, whose birthplace Gujarat is. How he carried every caste and community along and how he provided a healing touch to all of them is the illustrious model which has to be emulated everywhere in Gujarat. It is unimaginable indeed that communal divide should exist in Gujarat or anywhere else in the country for that matter even in the 21st century. Every act of violence impedes the state’s and the country’s march towards social upliftment and economic development. Words like globalisation and progress become meaningless when placed next to terms like riots and communal pogroms. Gujarat needs leaders and a government which can eliminate the prospects of such a conflagration starting again, or at least work whole-heartedly to do so. That can be possible only if every voter listens to his mind rather than his heart. Over to the men and women in the thick of it!

Insecure old age

In the current economic scenario when the interest rates are constantly going down, it is but natural for the retired people to worry about their survival as most of them depend only on interest income. It is the basic duty of a welfare state to ensure the economic security of all its citizens, particularly the elderly who have no source of regular income. At present the banks pay a slightly higher interest rate on deposits by the senior citizens. On Tuesday Finance Minister Jaswant Singh announced that the government is working on a plan to protect the senior citizens, pensioners and widowers from the falling interest rates. What this possibly means is that for the elderly the interest rates may not fall further from the current levels or they may get a higher interest rate than the present rate. However, too much should not be read in the Finance Minister’s announcement. Its timing is significant as it comes a day before the Gujarat Assembly elections. There are no details which, hopefully, would be contained in the coming Budget. At best, it is an expression of concern at the plight of the insecure aged. Why are the interest rates falling? Because there is too much money available and there are few takers. Companies and even banks prefer to raise money from the US and European markets where the interest rates are much lower. Will it be possible to keep higher interest rates for one section of the population? Is it desirable? The possibility of the misuse of this benefit is obvious. Money deposited in the accounts of the elderly citizens may not be entirely their own. There is another suggestion of floating “sunset bonds” on the pattern of the RBI Relief Bonds for them. What about the vast majority of the elderly people who have neither any pension nor any spare money to invest in such bonds or bank deposits?

The issue of providing social security to the aged, and possibly to the rest of the non-earning citizenry, cannot be dealt with in a piecemeal manner. Whenever a country opens up its economy to competition, there are sharp ups and downs. Inefficient firms go bust and workers lose their jobs. Others hire people when the going is good and fire them in bad times to survive and stay competitive. Incomes may take time to globalise, but prices of commodities fluctuate faster to reach the global levels. In this scenario a welfare state cannot escape its responsibility to protect the unskilled, the jobless and the elderly, who face the maximum impact of the shakeup. When the economic reforms were launched in 1991, the need for a social safety net was stressed. Even after more than a decade it is still only talked about. The states and the Centre will have to join hands to make social security a reality. Welfare models of the Western world can be studied and modified according to our needs. How Islamic societies, which abhor interest income, look after their aged can provide useful clues. Religious institutions, NGOs, rich philanthropic individuals and community efforts can all help provide a social safety net to the disadvantaged sections. The right of every citizen to a dignified life during old age must be acknowledged and protected.

TV channels on demand

Now TV viewers will not have to pay for the channels they do not access, as has been the case so far. This will be possible with the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2002, having secured the approval of both Houses of Parliament — the Rajya Sabha cleared it on Tuesday. The next step for the government is to settle the issue relating to the cost of the set-top boxes, which will have to be acquired by a section of the viewers. Initially, it may cost over Rs 2,000 per piece, but with bulk production, it may be available at a greatly reduced price. This will, of course, be an additional burden on the households, but a one-time investment and that too only for those who opt for the pay channels. Under the conditional access system (CAS), the box for routing the TV signals, also called the addressable system, will not be required for the free-to-air channels. The rest of the cable business will be public-friendly. It is the government which will fix the maximum amount to be charged for the free channel package. Which channels will form part of this basic service tier will again be decided by the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry. The number will be increased with the passage of time, depending on a particular channel fufilling the requirement for being included in this category. The free channel idea is basically meant for helping the Doordarshan channels, a compulsion of the government. So far as the question of paid channels is concerned, the viewers will be the obvious beneficiaries. They will have the freedom to choose the channels they want to access and will pay accordingly. The charges are bound to be much less than the present amount being paid, which is more than Rs 200 at many places. Who will need 70 or more TV channels which cable operators beam these days. Most households’ requirements will be fulfilled by 10 or 12 channels.

Cable operators had been pressing for the passage of the Bill quickly as they had to pay to the broadcasters according to the fudged viewership figures. The increasing cost was, no doubt, being passed on to the viewers, but the operators had been facing the ire of the public. Then the broadcasters quoted the fudged numbers to mislead the advertisers. Now when the actual viewership can easily be determined, most broadcasters will have their advertising revenues coming down. This was one reason why they had been lobbying against the Cable Networks Regulation Bill. The new arrangement will, in fact, benefit the viewers more than anybody else in the long run. So, they should bear the initial expenses happily.

OPINION

Various facets of the Putin visit
Realism must guide all relationships
Inder Malhotra

If the visit to New Delhi of the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, still reverberates and resonates within not just the foreign policy establishment but also in the media, there are good reasons for this and some at least of them ought to obvious.

By far the most important of them is that the Russian President spoke out on the issue of terrorism, especially cross-border terrorism that afflicts India, with refreshing force and forthrightness — something that leaders of other major powers are strangely reluctant to do. He, however, set the tone of his blunt statements even before leaving home. At a hurriedly arranged meeting with President George W. Bush in St Petersburg, he specifically raised the issue of Pakistan’s dubious role in the fight against terrorism.

He then flew to Beijing where also terrorism was high on his agenda though the context was different. Both the host and the distinguished guest fretted about the flames of terrorism spreading to Xinjiang province of China and the Russian backyard, the Central Asian republics, as well as Chechnya within the Russian Federation.

Again, it was in Moscow that before embarking on his journey, the Russian leader, in an interview to an Indian newspaper and a TV channel, brought up “the barter deal” under which Pakistan has been getting ballistic missiles from North Korea in return for nuclear technology. And then he virtually dropped a mini-nuke by declaring that Pakistani nuclear weapons could “fall into the hands of terrorists”.

It was against this backdrop that Mr Putin willingly joined the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, in calling on Pakistan to end “infiltration” of jihadis across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and to “dismantle” the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan and the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK). What galled General Pervez Musharraf and his advisers even more was Mr Putin’s endorsement of the Indian position that there can be no dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours until crossborder terrorism ends.

Evidently, Islamabad was not taken by surprise because Beijing had informed it of Mr Putin’s strong feelings on the issue of terrorism and Pakistan’s role in it. The Musharraf regime’s reply — gentle remonstration with the Russian President, combined with a great show of hurt — was, therefore, ready. But more revealing than the diplomatic niceties and public rhetoric is the reality on the ground.

As is his won’t, General Musharraf has produced a dual, indeed duplicitous, response to Mr Putin’s demands. On the one hand he has seen to it that infiltration across the LoC does come down, as the outgoing Army Chief, General Padmanabhan, has confirmed it has. On the other hand, the Pakistani President, together with his hand-picked Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Jamali, has declared that Islamabad’s “proactive policy” on Kashmir would continue.

Quite clearly, the Pakistani military ruler, now functioning from behind a facade of a civilian government of sorts, is confident that he can get away with his double-speak and double-dealing. Regrettably, he has reason to be so cocky. After all, he has so far got away merrily with his equally duplicitous policy in relation to Al-Qaida. Once in every two or three months he hands over one Al-Qaida “big fish” to the Americans while other Al-Qaida leaders, including most probably Osama bin Laden, live comfortably in their sanctuaries in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Remarkably, blatantly pro-Osama and pro-Taliban Islamic parties are now ruling the two Pakistani provinces bordering Afghanistan, the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan. Despite all this, the General continues to receive from the USA steady encomiums as a “key ally” in the “war on terrorism”.

Or look at the dangerous “nukes technology for missiles” deal between Pakistan and North Korea, the latter country branded by President Bush as a member of the “axis of evil”. This brazen essay in nuclear and missile proliferation should have immediately invited mandatory American sanctions. And yet, though the exposure of the barter by the American media has been pitiless and relentless, the Bush Administration has adopted a perversely permissive approach to the scandalous affairs, violating in the process American laws.

That is where Indian inability to comprehend the rude realities of life comes in. The USA is not unaware of what is going on. If it persists in plunging headlong into a policy of “all support to Musharraf”, obviously Mr Bush and his cohorts believe this to be in America’s best interest.

Nor is this all. The USA, in its concern for General Musharraf’s sensitivities, has taken the astonishing step of telling India to “tone down” its “activist role” in Afghanistan. Why? Because, in Washington’s views, it “causes problems” for the Pakistani ruler and thus impedes action against the Taliban and Al-Qaida! The Indian rejoinder, that the “boot is, in fact, on the other leg”, has apparently fallen on deaf ears.

It is time, therefore, for South Block to realise that the USA would not do more than it already has to “persuade” General Musharraf to deliver on his promise to end the infiltration of jihadis across the LoC “completely and visibly”. Another fact of life to be faced squarely is Pakistan’s plausible conviction that militarily India cannot do anything more than it has already done during the eight months of mobilisation of half a million troops on the border. Ironically, Mr L.K. Advani’s shockingly imprudent invitation to Pakistan to fight the fourth war with this country has been greeted by most Pakistanis with derisive laughter.

To point this out is not to detract from the importance of maximising the friendship and cooperation with the United States of America. For its part, the USA, despite its fixation on General Musharraf in the subcontinental context, is also willing to strengthen strictly bilateral relations with this country.

In short, one must repeat that all international relations have to be weighed and assessed in the cold light of reality, not on the basis of sentiment or wishful thinking. And this applies also to the India-Russia relationship, as to any other. What Mr Putin said during his sojourn in Delhi — and this was surely music to Indian ears — should not divert attention from the fact that hype over the Putin visit has been excessive. This is particularly true of the extravagant hopes being pinned on the India-Russia-China “triad”. It is an old idea that hasn’t got off the ground, nor is it likely to do so, if only because Russia, China and even India are more anxious to be friend the US than one another.

There is no doubt that during the recent three or four years, India-Russia relations, that are strategic, not tactical, have “stood the test of time”, just as Indo-Soviet relations had done in the past. Mercifully, the coolness of the Yeltsin-Kozyrev era is history. Even so, it would be unrealistic to ignore the pitfalls on the way to the full realisation of the relationship’s potential.

For one thing, there is a point beyond which Russia would not go in supporting India vis-a-vis Pakistan. Even while Mr Putin was receiving thunderous applause in New Delhi, Russian and Pakistani officials were engaged in serious negotiations in Moscow. Among the subjects under discussion was “cooperation in combating terrorism”. For another, Russia, Iran and Pakistan have signed an agreement on transporting Central Asian oil and gas to the outside world. There is silence on the possibility of India joining any energy-sharing plan.

Russia has been a reliable source of the bulk of India’s needs of sophisticated weaponry and defence equipment for all three services. There is now a commendable move from imports and production under licence to participation in design, development and joint production of such military hardware. However, Russian exports of military equipment to China are far greater than to India though Moscow does not give some weaponry it sells to India. Some of the Soviet equipment sold to China has regrettably enhanced Pakistan’s military prowess thus affecting Indian security.

Above all, despite all the brave talk to expand the present meagre trade between India and Russia, there is no likelihood that this would happen any time soon. This is so because apart from tea there is little India can sell, and besides military equipment Russia can sell us precious little. Failure to solve this problem would be disastrous because no strategic relation is worth much without a firm economic base.

IN THE NEWS

Awaiting elevation to the Supreme Court

Andhra Pradesh Chief Justice Arunachalam Chettiar Lakshmanan’s elevation to the Supreme Court is on the cards. The file concerned is awaiting President A P J Abdul Kalam’s approval. As the chairman of the three-member judges probe panel constituted by the Chief Justice of India to look into alleged acts of omission and commission by three judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr Justice Lakshmanan has already submitted the report. He has assiduously refrained from discussing the report, emphasising that it is for the Chief Justice of India, Mr Justice G B Pattanaik, to decide whether to make it public or not.

He hails from a respectable and affluent Chettiar family in Tamil Nadu, the community whose contribution to the cause of education, social, economic and religious activities is well known. The community has in its ranks in South India several top industrialists, educationists and philanthropists.

He is the first person from his community to be appointed as a government pleader in the High Court of Madras. In 1990, he was appointed as a permanent judge of the Madras High Court. Having done his graduation in law from the Madras Law College in 1966, he enrolled as a lawyer in 1968. He also had independent practice in civil, criminal, writ and tax matters in the Madras High Court. In 1997, Mr Justice Lakshmanan was transferred to the Kerala High Court and had also served as its acting Chief Justice.

In May, 2000, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court and in November, 2001, the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. He is presently Chairman of the AP State Legal Services, AP Judicial Academy, National Academy for Legal Service and Research University, Patron of the Alternative Disputes Redressal Regional Centre for South India and Patron-in-Chief of the Child Rights Legal Aid Clinic.

He is a recipient of several awards, including the Shiromani Vikas Award for National Integration and Development and the Vijay Shree Award for his professional excellence.

Maverick LTTE chief negotiator

In a badly bruised nation, struggling to pick up the pieces in the midst of a prolonged ethnic conflict, Mr Antony Balasingham holds out more than the ray of hope. On the shoulders of this 64 year-old man, the chief negotiator in Oslo-brokered peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, lies the expectations of an entire nation, not only that of the Sri Lankan Tamil community.

Suave and well-read, Mr Balasingham is known to be the ideologue and core member of the LTTE think-tank and perhaps the closest confidante of the dominant Tamil militant group’s supremo V Prabhakaran. He is the face of the LTTE.

Both he and his Australian-born wife, Adele Wilby, 52, shuttle between the Western capital of London and the island nation discussing matters of ethnicity and sociological moorings by smuggling themselves to various regions to avoid getting caught by immigration authorities. Mr Balasingham, a former employee of the British High Commission in Colombo, studied in England. Apart from his diplomatic credentials, he has also made headlines for daring moves which is unusual for a man with many ailments. He is a diabetic, and has had one of his kidneys removed in 1999. At the intervention of the Norwegian authorities, he was flown from Bangkok to Oslo for a kidney transplant which might have been a life-saving operation. His wife Adele is believed to be a major influence on his psyche. It was Adele who arranged for Prabhakaran to reunite with his wife and two children in 1990 when the LTTE opened talks with the then Sri Lankan government. Though there are many serious glitches to overcome on the devolution of powers to the Northeastern province of Sri Lanka, it is significant that they have finally got down to discussing the matter. 

OF LIFE SUBLIME

The stage of complete harmony
Hardit Singh

Spirituality is the stage of complete harmony where the human soul (Atman) and God’s Soul (Paramatman) come near and finally the one merges into the other. The qualities, characteristics and attributes of God as succinctly mentioned in the Sikh credo, Mool Mantra, reflect in and illuminate the human soul, allowing the individual to shed desire and pain. Such an enlightened being is without pride, wants no praise, has no enmity, is not afraid or aggressive, and above all remains calm. He is no longer trapped by the lust, wrath, avarice, infatuation and the ego. God himself dwells in such a person. In Sikhism, this stage is known as “Sehaj” and the enlightened person is known as “Jivan Mukt” or “Brahmgyani”. A Jivan Mukt is not a mere spectator of life but one who fights for righteousness and stands against oppression.

Spirituality is a reflection of God’s kindness, mercy and grace. It is the divine love, benevolence and benediction bestowed freely on God’s creation, especially humankind. There is no yardstick to know or to measure why, when or who wins God’s grace. Even agnostics or evil people can be favoured if God’s so wills. This could be one’s karma and the result of good actions carried forward from the previous lifetimes.

The concept that a living guru is needed for spiritual attainment is not entirely correct. According to the Mool Mantra ‘guru’ is also one of the attributes of the Formless God. Guru Gobind Singh authenticated this by saying that the one ever-present prophet i.e. God is his guru “Ad ant eko avtara soi guru samjhio hamara.” Guru like God is formless and its eternal form is shabad (Word)- “Gur moorat gur shabad hai” and only a formless entity like shabad or bani can help to unite with the Formless Being.

Unfortunately, our commitment to shabad and bani has been limited, even superficial. We do not recite or hear it attentively. We neither accept it as truth nor do we mould our life accordingly. Should a devotee say his prayers with love and devotion, the guru may enlighten him. “Bani kahe sewak jan mane, purtukh guru nistare.” It would be fruitful to seek company of noble souls and to attend holy congregations where God is remembered. “Harkeertan sadh-sangat hai sir karman ke karma.”

Age is no bar for achieving spirituality. Baba Farid had lamented that he who does not meditate when still young will not do so when he turns gray. Guru Amar Das who ascended ‘gur-gaddi’ at the age of 62 corrected him by saying that God’s grace is ever present irrespective of age provided one remembers Him from the core of his heart. Guru Nanak was enlightened from his birth. Guru Harkishan attained it at the age of five.

Education, wisdom, scholarship and intellect, without a spiritual perspective are all vanity. None of the prophets, gurus and bhagats was formally educated.

Education is not a prerequisite to achieve spirituality. Knowledge can be available to librated souls who can draw from spiritual archives whatever is needed.

Spiritualism is a matter of soul and the heart and not that of the body. Renunciation, wearing of acetic garb, visiting sacred places, bathing, observing silence are mere affliction and tribulation to body and are as such of little consequence towards development of spirituality. Human body is primarily meant for meditation (simran) and service of humanity (sewa).

A sure indication that a person has achieved admission into the spiritual world is that he lives truthfully (Sat), is contented in every respect and remains in high spirit under all circumstances (Santokh), is aware of God’s doings and His will (Gyan) and above all is absorbed in His ambrosial Name (Amrit Naam) 

Employee commitment at work is falling
Simon Caulkin

A mass of academic work has established the link between performance and people management. Put simply, people who are committed, skilled and focused produce better work than those who aren't. As a result, companies that nurture this behaviour tend to report better results than those that don't.

What's more, good people practices leverage or 'turbocharge' investment in other areas. For instance, well managed people use new computers or other equipment more productively than others.

It's important to emphasise that being nice to people on its own has no more economic meaning than being nasty. To be productive the practices need to be allied to, and tied together by, business purpose. Which is where lean manufacturing comes in.

Lean systems (systems thinking in manufacturing guise) aim to cut cost and improve responsiveness by removing all processes which do not add value to the product as defined by the customer. They therefore supply a strategic and improvement dynamic that people practices on their own don't have. In fact, they mandate many of the high-performance measures that complement them: you can't do single-piece cellular manufacturing with continuous improvement without, for instance, semi-autonomous teams, copious information-sharing, training and a large amounts of reciprocal trust.

Interestingly, lean systems are more prevalent in unionised than non-unionised workplaces. This adds support to previous analysis suggesting that unionisation, far from being a barrier to workplace innovation, actually favours it. One way of looking at high-performance working is in terms of building human capital. Investing in human capital, whether through innovative work practices or workforce development, pays off. So, even more, does management development — especially development of people management capabilities.

Performance is affected by the knee-jerk reaction of managers to tighten command and control routines when times are hard, whereas high-commitment, high-trust working demands the opposite. Typically, this breeds resistance and diminishes trust, thus confirming management attitudes and making it even harder to break out of the vicious circle.

The important thing is to understand the dynamic as the first step towards embracing a new way of working.

Meanwhile employee commitment at work has fallen for the third year running, according to a report from Aon Consulting. Worries about pensions, stress and increasing pressure on performance for no extra reward all contributed to the fall, says the study, UK@Work, which was conducted among 1,500 UK employees. Job security and long hours were also factors.

What leads to high performance? High-performance work practices aim to encourage involvement, commitment and trust through:

1. Semi-autonomous teams

2. Continuous improvement

3. Responsibility for own quality

4. Information sharing

5. On and off-the-job training

6. Personal development plans

7. Appraisal

8. Performance-based reward

9. Harmonised terms and conditions

10.Formal grievance procedures

11. Joint committees

12. Performance is also linked to lean techniques, profit-sharing and share schemes The Guardian 

Lemon can help dementia patients

Alternative treatments such as aromatherapy can help elderly patients struggling with dementia, researchers have said. Drugs and sedatives prescribed to control the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia often have uncomfortable side-effects.

Psychiatrists say some types of complementary medicine work and are well tolerated by elderly patients. “Aromatherapy and bright light treatment seem to be safe and effective and may have an important role in managing behavioural problems in people with dementia,” said Alistair Burns, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Manchester, England.

In an editorial in The British Medical Journal, he and his colleagues said three trials done in the past year have shown the benefit of aromatherapy, particularly the use of lemon balm and lavender oil, for dementia patients.

The oils contain compounds that are absorbed into the body and seem to improve some of the symptoms of the illness. Reuters

TRENDS & POINTERS

Worship is good for students

Teenagers who worship and rate religion as important in their lives are optimistic and enjoy school, according to a study.

“The more religious the kids are, based on its importance to them or their attending worship, the greater their positive outlook on life,” said sociologist Chris Smith of the University of North Carolina, which released the study.

“They have more self-esteem and confidence. The more religious they are, the less they hate school.”

The survey of thousands of 12th grade students found that optimism and confidence correlate with exposure to religion as much as with success, race, wealth, “self-esteem” or education in schools. The study was part of a four-year project. PTI

New male contraceptive pill

Research on a contraceptive pill for men that works by deforming the sperm is showing positive results with contraceptive effects being reversible too. The pill could have fewer side-effects than experimental hormonal male contraceptives, which work by increasing levels of testosterone to suppress sperm production. Furthermore, its contraceptive effects may be more completely reversible than other non-hormonal drugs in development, say the researchers conducting the experiments at the University of Oxford, UK and reported in New Scientist. ANI

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Wisdom with which there is no goodness is not to be considered as wisdom; and skill with which there is no wisdom is not to be considered skill.

—Menog-i Khrad II, 4-5

***

Compiled by Satish K. Kapoor