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Thursday,
December 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Unfortunate
lawyers’ stir Tinkering
with poll reforms Corrupting
health & education |
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Indo-Russian
response to terrorism
The main
brain behind Delhi Metro Rail
The magnitude &
sublimity of tragic love 60,000 died in road
accidents last year Magic of
Indian black tea!
Feeling
drunk on flat tonic water?
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Unfortunate lawyers’ stir The spectacle of even lawyers going on strike to get their demands accepted is unfortunate. More than the harassment that it causes to the clients, the agitation by them, despite the Supreme Court all but declaring it illegal, gives the impression of a Bench-Bar confrontation, which is prejudicial to the interests of the administration of justice. The matter should have been settled across the table instead of through the mechanism of holding the litigants and the courts to ransom. There should be a responsive system in place which can defuse a situation before it comes to a head. The apex court has taken a step in this direction by mooting the setting up of grievance redressal committees in states where lawyers could air their grievances for the committee to make appropriate suggestions. That proposition can be implemented only after the present impasse ends. The court has said that only in the rarest of rare cases — where the advocates feel that the dignity, independence and integrity of the Bar or the Bench has been lowered — can lawyers go on token strike, which should not exceed one day. In such an eventuality, the courts can “turn a blind eye” to the strike. But since no exact definition has been given, what constitutes such lowering of the dignity can be a matter of contention. It will be interesting to observe whether the court views Wednesday’s agitation as a defiance or a “rarest of rare cases”. The lawyers are mainly protesting against the amendments made in the Legal Services Authorities Act by the government. These amendments provide for the setting up of permanent lok adalats in every public utility department of the government and transfer of cases pending in regular courts to these adalats. The lawyers are also protesting against the removal from the High Courts of company cases, service matters and other kinds of litigations. They are of the opinion that the steps would deprive many of their colleagues of livelihood. They must review their stand in the larger interest of society. The legal system is woefully overburdened with a backlog of three crore cases countrywide. Radical steps are needed to break this logjam. It is absolutely imperative to sidestep the procedural bottlenecks that are currently prevalent and are clogging the system. Perhaps the various misgivings could have been cleared if only the government had taken the Bar Council of India in confidence before making the amendments. It is already too late for that. The nation expects all concerned to display maturity and bring the ugly episode to an early end. |
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Tinkering with poll reforms The passage of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2002, by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday was not entirely unexpected. Given the manner in which almost all the political parties had united together ever since the historic ruling of the Supreme Court on May 2, 2002, no one was in doubt about their actual intentions and actions. The smooth passage of the Bill was the culmination of the efforts of these parties to scuttle the apex court’s judgement, the subsequent directive of the Election Commission, and give constitutional sanction to their collective will, no matter whether it was in tune with the people’s will and aspirations. Who cares for the larger interest of the nation these days? Our present-day politicians seem to be more interested in preserving and protecting their own interests rather than the Constitution. Undoubtedly, the Bill is a great betrayal of democracy. It also tantamounts to violation of the letter and spirit of the Constitution. We have been arguing in these columns many a time in course of the debate on electoral reforms that the Supreme Court’s judgement was in conformity with the people’s legitimate right to know as enshrined in the Constitution. But this was not to be. Whom are our representatives trying to fool? If Parliament is the chief repository of people’s will and if our representatives are indeed accountable to Parliament (and by extension to the people) for their acts of omission and commission, the best course for them would have been to enforce the May 2 ruling and reinforce with full vigour the people’s right to information under Article 19 (i) of the Constitution. Over the years, the role of money power in the elections has increased so much that it has become impossible for the common man to contest. Criminalisation of politics has further vitiated the electoral process and the representative institutions. The malaise is not confined to Parliament alone. Disturbingly, it has spread to state legislatures, municipal corporations, local bodies and panchayati raj institutions. Had people been given the right to check the criminal antecedents of the candidates as also the individual statements of their assets and liabilities (as directed by the Supreme Court), they would have been able to make an informed choice. The Bill provides for the members’ submission of statements of assets and liabilities after the elections and, that too, to the presiding officers of Parliament. This implies that our representatives do not want themselves to be accountable to the people at all. The government’s contention that the minimum qualification for candidates (as suggested by the Supreme Court) is not necessary does not stand the test of scrutiny. It is common sense that a developing country like India needs a reservoir of educated and enlightened representatives to make laws and shape the destiny of the nation, not otherwise. True, political parties had fears about some provisions in the May 2 ruling, including the possible partisan role of some Returning Officers. But these apprehensions could have been allayed by introducing adequate safeguards against their misuse in the Bill. In its present form, it is a great betrayal of the democratic ethos and spirit of the Constitution. What a pity! |
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Corrupting health & education Which is the most corrupt department or section of the administration in India? The obvious answer, going by public perception, may be: the police. But going by the “actual experience”, it is health which has earned the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt sector in the country. Equally surprising is education at the number two position. These are the findings of a door-to-door survey conducted by ORG-Marg for a non-government organisation called the Transparency International India. Some 5,000 citizens across the country were interviewed for the survey titled “Corruption in India: An Empirical Study” covering 10 different sectors. These ranged from the judiciary to taxation, the public distribution system to power. And which is the least corrupt of all? It is again a surprise: the railways followed by telecommunications. According to the survey, Indians pay some Rs 26,728 crore in bribe annually. That is a huge amount, even by Indian standards. Corruption may cause a lot of heart-burn to the honest and righteous people who believe in merit and go by the rule book. But it is a disease that has defied treatment and is prevalent in every society. What are its economic implications? There are experts like Gurcharan Das, the corporate guru-turned-author/columnist, who believe that if the country grows at the rate of 5.6 per cent annually, corruption does not bother them. Corrupt practices can delay a project, lower its quality and increase its cost. A Mumbai-based business magazine, which also conducted a national survey on corruption, found Gujarat to be at the top. Business people there add the bribe money to the cost of the project and raise their profit margin accordingly. What is shocking about the ORG-Marg finding is that corruption has silently corroded the two key areas of development. Health and education are the two sectors which are, and ought to be, the undisputed engines of higher growth. There are no two opinions on the liberal allocations made in Plan after Plan for these vital sectors. But if the money is mis-spent, it is a national loss. It slows down progress and harms collective well-being. Newspaper reports about the survey findings have not revealed the nature of corruption, but it can be safely presumed that those in high decision-making positions with the discretionary power to dole out favours are the real
culprits. The frequent CAG reports about official negligence or manipulation in the handling of public money are highlighted by the media, but are soon forgotten for want of follow-up action. In a country where corrupt elements do not hesitate to make money in buying coffins for our martyrs, the depths of depravity can be well imagined. Corruption has reached such high levels because some of us indulge in it for petty gains or convenience and the rest tolerate and accept it. We don’t even lend our support to those who fight the dragon on our behalf. The Tehelka.com owners, who exposed the shady goings-on in the defence sector, are being persecuted and few have publicly protested against it. Unless we adopt zero tolerance towards this evil, corruption cannot be reduced, leave alone eliminated. |
Indo-Russian response to terrorism December 31, 1999, the last day of the twentieth century, will be remembered as the day on which the Government of India meekly caved in to terrorist demands. Seated along with three hardcore terrorists, whose proclaimed aim was the disintegration of India, the then External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, travelled to Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, to publicly shake hands with representatives of that regime and hand over the three terrorists in exchange for the passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines Flight IC 814. The twenty first century had barely commenced when the nation witnessed yet another sad episode of capitulation to terrorist extortion. The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr S.M. Krishna obtained the release from prison of a proclaimed separatist with known sympathies for a foreign terrorist organisation in response to a demand from a hardened criminal, who also is known to have links with the same foreign terrorist outfit. It is not surprising that our friends and foes alike regard us as a “soft state”. While New Delhi is understandably elated over the results of President Putin’s visit to India, political leaders in this country would do well to remember some aspects of the determination with which the young and charismatic Russian leader deals with terrorism. When 50 Chechen terrorists held 700 hostages in a Moscow theatre, Mr. Putin did not weep on American shoulders, or release terrorists to negotiate a safe passage, or surrender to the terrorists. Russian Special Forces stormed the theatre and killed virtually every terrorist there. It is true that there was collateral damage and Russian lives were lost. But the whole nation and indeed the whole world lauded the Russian leader’s courage. There is much that our political leadership can learn from such courage and determination to take hard options. Welcoming President Bush in St. Petersburg on November 22, President Putin minced no words in telling his guest that America had chosen wrong allies in its war against terrorism. He referred to the role of Saudi Arabia in financing terrorist groups and alluded to Pakistan’s role in promoting terrorism by referring to the presence of Osama bin Laden in that country. He even drew attention to the dangers of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction passing into wrong hands. The Russians have a decade-long experience of dealing with terrorism emanating from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan — terrorism that has received strong support from Pakistan. After seizing power in 1991, Chechen leader Jokhar Dudaev gave a call for jihad in 1993. “Volunteers” from Pakistan and Afghanistan answered this call. Even after President Yeltsin signed a peace deal with Chechen leader Aslan Mashkadov in 1997, Shamil Basaev, a Chechen field commander led a rebel force into neighbouring Dagestan. This force is known to have included volunteers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and some Arab countries. There are reports that Bin Laden contributed $ 30 million for this adventure. Driven by extremist Wahabi ideological inclinations and funding from “charities” in Saudi Arabia, the aim of Basaev and his cohorts was to establish an Islamic Caliphate in the Caucasian region. Even before his foray into Dagestan in 1999, Shamil Basaev had visited Pakistan and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in 1994. Chechen terrorists are known to have received ideological indoctrination and military training in Akhora Khattak in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. In 1999 the Naib Amir of the Jamiat-e-Islami in Pakistan, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, gave a call for jihad in Chechnya. Shortly thereafter the so-called “President” of Chechnya, Zelmikhan Andarbaev, visited Pakistan, met terrorist leaders and raised funds for Chechen terrorists in the name of jihad. Wakil Ahmed Mutawakkil, the Foreign Minister of the Taliban regime, proclaimed: “It is the Muslim world’s shame that it does not support the Chechens.” Mutawakkil, a known protégé of the ISI, represented the only regime in the world to accord diplomatic recognition to Chechen terrorists!! Unlike General Colin Powell and his State Department mandarins, who still nurture fond hopes about the military regime in Pakistan, Mr Vladimir Putin is a supreme realist. He knows that with the MMA having acquired influence in the NWFP and Baluchistan, the Chechen component of Bin Laden’s International Islamic Front will receive support and sustenance on Pakistani soil. The Russians also have no illusions about the mutually reinforcing nexus that exists between the ISI, the Pakistani religious political parties and the jihadi groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Toiba on the one hand and Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their associates in Central Asia, Philippines, Indonesia and Chechnya, on the other. It was evidently in this context that President Putin made it clear that Russia would not hesitate to strike against those set to promote terrorism on its soil, wherever they may be. But, at the same time, the Russians are keeping their options of dealing with and persuading Pakistan to change the course open. The Memorandum of Understanding that Mr Yashwant Sinha signed with his Russian counterpart establishes an inter-agency Joint Working Group on terrorism. This will supplement the existing arrangements between the National Security Councils of the two countries. With the forces of the Taliban, the Al Qaeda and the virulently anti-Russian and anti-Indian Gulbuddin Hikmetyar regrouping in Pakistan and Afghanistan, quite obviously with ISI acquiescence and support, both sides have recognised the importance of working in close consultation and rendering all possible support to the Government of President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. In an obvious reference to the “only carrots and no stick” approach now adopted by Washington towards General Musharraf, Moscow has joined New Delhi in proclaiming that: we have to “fight against terrorism and must also target the financial and other sources of support to terrorism”. Also, for the first time, India and Russia have agreed to cooperate in taking “preventive and deterrent measures” against terrorist threats. The visit has also set the stage for much greater cooperation in persuading the international community to reject and condemn terrorism based on any ground — political, religious or ideological. This is particularly important because of the ambivalence of some Islamic countries on taking an unambiguous and forthright stand on the issue of terrorism. The international community has to be persuaded to take punitive measures against the states that support terrorism and violate the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 1373. While New Delhi can draw satisfaction from the visit of President Putin, it would be naïve to expect others to fight our battles. We will have to ensure that Pakistan does not take advantage of the problems in border-states like Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Gujarat that are often exacerbated by our domestic political rivalries. The recent elections in Jammu and Kashmir have won international acclaim. Partisan political considerations should not come in the way of the Union and State governments jointly building on the yearning for peace that one senses among the people at large. The gunning down of Pakistani terrorists in Delhi, the recovery of a Pakistani surface-to-air missile in the jungles of Kupwara and the release of leaders of terrorist outfits are all clear indications that General Musharraf intends to continue using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. One sincerely hopes that like Mr. Putin, New Delhi shows resolve and firmness in dealing with this challenge. |
The main brain behind Delhi Metro Rail
The 70-year-old technocrat, who took the challenge of the Konkan railway and made it a reality when all his colleagues then in the Railway Board had insisted that it was unfeasible, Mr Sreedharan has shown that he means business and delivers ahead of time. Come December 24, imported trains will roll on the first 8.3 km stretch of the 62 km, Rs 10,000 crore network of the rapid transport system which forms Phase I. When the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was cleared in 1996, it remained headless for two years till Mr Sreedharan was appointed its Managing Director in 1998. The four trains, specially designed and manufactured by a Japanese-Korean consortium, have already made endless practice runs to remove any glitches. Mr Sreedharan is emphatic that the metro rail system is the only solution to Delhi’s traffic chaos besides reducing pollution levels and accidents. Considering the population of more than 15 million in the metropolis, Delhi should have had in place at least 100 km of a rapid transport network by now. Nevertheless, Delhi’s metro is more advanced than the similar network in New York or Tokyo and comparable with that in Singapore and Hong Kong. Mr Sreedharan accepted the job of seeing through the direly needed metro project on the condition that he should be allowed a free hand with no interference in finances and appointments. He has a fierce reputation for being tough against corrupt employees and contractors trying to cut corners. Despite the massive construction work under way in Delhi and its surrounding areas, this has not led to traffic snarls or inconvenienced the public to a great extent. Mr Sreedharan’s passion for using the best technology is all too evident though he feels he lost out on introducing standard guage lines instead of the broad guage lines. He envisages problems when it comes to updating the Delhi metro later because India might have isolated itself as the metro technology all over the world is standard guage barring a few countries like Spain and Argentina. The man who got India talking A graduate from Panjab University and an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, Mr Mittal started his career at a young age of 18 and founded Bharti in 1976. Finding the need for a bigger canvas and the urge to make it big, he moved to Delhi in 1978 and two years later started importing portable generators. The move into telecom took place in 1983, when he started importing push-button telephones and since then telecommunication has been literally running through his veins. A year later the logical diversification of manufacturing telephones came about. As aggressive reforms started sweeping the telecom sector in the country in the immediate post-reforms phase unleashing a gust of cut-throat competition, Mr Mittal joined the race with a rather modest rollout of the Airtel brand in the cool climes of Himachal Pradesh. By 2002, barely five years later, Mr Mittal presides over one of the biggest rollouts ever by a private company with a presence in 16 states and 15 mobile circles besides five fixed-line business areas and becoming the first private national long-distance-operator in the country. Today he heads an enterprise with a market capitalisation of approximately $ 2 billion, employing over 5,000 people. A flying entrepreneur and a tennis freak, Mr Mittal’s managerial and financial skills are reflected in the fact that he has secured over $ 1 billion in foreign equity — the largest foreign investment to date in the telecom sector.
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The magnitude & sublimity of tragic love LOVE — tragic in seed and flower — is so widely the subject of art and literature, of films and TV serials as to make one wonder in awe before its majesty, particularly when love between a man and a woman ends in a supreme tragedy. From great novels and plays and poems to villages ditties and folk songs, ballads and mournful sagas will always and ever be written or recited so long as blood beats in human veins. It’s then, with the sublimity of such tragic tales that I’m concerned here. That explains the perennial appeal of such tragic love stories in our parts as those of Laila-Majnu, of Heer-Ranjha, of Shirin-Farhad, of Sassi-Punnu, or of Sohni-Mahival. Centuries have rolled by, but the sheer magnitude and sublimity of their love which drives the plighted loves to doom and death, and, thus, immortalises them. The soil of Punjab, in particular, has the honour of producing some of the most daring warriors of love. And not surprisingly, the songs around them have entered the racial and communal consciousness of the region. I take up only a couple of examples here to illustrate the point, one from the land of Punjab, Heer Ranjha, and the other from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. The legend of Heer and Ranjha which Punjab’s prime poet, Waris Shah, immortalised in his long epical poem, Heer remains a timeless classic. A tragic tale of the medieval Punjab, it has till this day a magical hold on the imagination of the reader and the listener. Sung in a long, heart-breaking mournful tune, its rendering has now taken a specific form. And the purity of the rendering is preserved only by those blessed with a rich, resonant voice which, when reaching out to extremities, demands a pitch and plume beyond the pale of ordinary folk singers. This harrowing tale of love and death was the subject of long poems by some earlier poets also — by Damodar, Mukbal, Pilio and Hafiz Barkhardar. It also has its echoes in the mystic verses of Shah Hussain, Buleh Shah and Ghulam Qadir. Even the Tenth Sikh Guru has used it as a magnificent metaphor in his Dasam Granth. Thus, Waris Shah taking up this 15th century love story knew that he had to dissipate “the anxiety of influence” (Harold Bloom’s famous phrase regarding the poet’s Freudian need to “kill” the stronger poets before him) and become thus a historian of the Punjabi heart and a chronicler of its corporate consciousness. There are many familial enmities and scores of other obstructions in the way of the youthful lovers, but the sheer beauty (or shall we call it sublimity?) of their passion has a surpassing magnificence about it. Here is Ranjha’s resolve to reach Heer even if that means insurmountable ordeals: Should’st Heer be waiting across the seas, I would empty all the water with bare hands, Should’st she be lodged in lofty Tibet, I would tear my way through the high Himalayas. Before such a cry of the heart, one cannot but bow one’s head in reverence. Of Shakespeare’s love tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra has all the elements of sublimity that we have posited in a love that throws away empires and thrones to reach its goal. This Roman play is, of course, a political drama also, but as the battle scenes proceed, and young Caesar’s armies have pushed Mark Antony into the warm embrace of his beloved, Cleopatra, the queen of his heart, disregarding all Roman considerations, throwing caution to the winds. And in the closing scenes, Shakespeare’s poetry of love had a transcendent quality, a perfect correlative to the pitch of the lover’s lore — play even in the face of imminent cease or death. Indeed, death appears to come veiled as a bride in full finery. Both these lovers supreme now are beyond the pale of day-light morality: “Eternity was in our lips, and eyes, Bliss in our brows’ bent; none our parts so poor, But was a race of heaven”. Sexuality of this order puts them on the side of gods themselves. The mystique of Adam-Eve love is vindicated in what Saintsbury called Shakespeare’s “grand style”. |
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60,000 died in road accidents last year Over 3,00,000 road accidents a year is no joke; it’s in fact a world record and India has the dubious distinction of holding it. Last year, 2,24,107 road accidents were reported and the death toll stood at 60,000 people. Such high number of deaths has forced the government to take up ambitious projects in the country to ensure road safety. According to experts, 70 per cent of the accidents occurred because of poor roads and bad driving. “Poor roads, bad driving and lack of traffic sense are the main reasons for the high rate of accidents. “We have mixed up traffic in India — cars, autorikshaws, two-wheelers, bullock carts, everything on the same road unlike western countries,” said T.S. Reddy, an expert on traffic and transportation at the Central Road Research Institute. “The heterogeneity of traffic results in speed difference, which leads to severity of accidents,” said Reddy, noting that the decongestion of roads is the mantra to road safety. What apparently is most appalling is the poor maintenance of roads in most cities and even in villages, where after rain the roads are in bad shape leading to rapid wear and tear of vehicles and causing mechanical failures, said Reddy. However, the latest official figures show a positive trend in the sense that the accident rate per 1,000 vehicles has come down between 1996 and 2000; but the total number of accidents has, however, increased. Tamil Nadu tops the list with 51,978 accidents followed by Kerala 36,361 and Gujarat 32,523. Even in the case of deaths in road accidents, it is Tamil Nadu with 4,407 followed by Andhra Pradesh with 2,815 and Rajasthan touching 2,455. In Delhi the worst culprit happens to be public transport buses whose drivers, in majority of the cases, were found to be either not having the licence to drive or were driving in a drunken state. “Drivers are the easily spotted. They are the culprits no doubt. But, even many owners lack the traffic sense. Even educated people drive carelessly, resulting in accidents,” asserts Reddy. Another factor attributed for the rising accidents is the increased number of passenger cars which have become easily affordable. The existing road networks in major cities are thus unable to cope with the traffic and this is another cause for the increasing road accidents, says an official report. However, Reddy differs. “Because of the increase in passenger cars, uniformity of speed is maintained. This may result in minor accidents, but it won’t contribute to major accidents or fatalities.” But one of the major hurdles in the way of checking road accidents is that there is no proper checking of drivers, especially in the metros. Reddy raises objection to the basic issue of the competence and integrity of the checking officials. He says the checking personnel do not have traffic sense and indulge in corruption, letting the culprit drivers go unchecked.
PTI |
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Magic of Indian black tea! Scientists at the Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences in New Delhi have discovered, what they claim to be, a “remarkable” and “hitherto unknown” use of Indian black tea. They say it prevents frostbite, the severest form of cold injury, which is a serious medical problem for the armed forces in high altitude areas. Amputation of the affected limb is the only remedy for frostbite if not treated in time. The DIPAS team led by W Selvamurthi found that rapid rewarming of the affected limb in tea decoction at 39 degrees C with simultaneous drinking of black tea followed by the intake of aspirin and high dose of vitamin C can prevent frostbite. The scientists are now carrying out clinical trials on soldiers after successful tests on rats with experimentally induced frostbite.
PTI |
Feeling drunk on flat tonic water? The effects of alcohol are partly psychological, say researchers, reporting the results of a study showing that memory can be affected by plain water if people think they are drinking alcohol. “We have made people’s memory worse by telling them that they were intoxicated even though they had drunk nothing stronger than plain flat tonic water with limes,” said Dr Maryanne Garry, senior psychology lecturer at Wellington’s Victoria University. Dr Garry and her student Seema Assefi split 148 undergraduates into two groups, telling half they were getting vodka and tonic and the rest just tonic water. But in reality the “drinkers” also got plain tonic water poured from sealed vodka bottles that appeared brand new. Assefi said all the students then watched a sequence of slides depicting a crime and read a summary that was deliberately riddled with misleading information. “We found people who thought they were intoxicated were more suggestible and made worse eyewitnesses compared to those who thought they were sober,” she said. In fact, the vodka and tonic students acted drunk, some even showing physical signs of intoxication. “When told the true nature of the experiment, many were amazed that they had only received plain tonic, insisting they had felt drunk at the time,” Ms Assefi said. Dr Garry said the research had given new insights into how human memory works and how both social and non-social influences can affect a person’s recall of events. “Those who believed they had consumed alcohol were more swayed by misleading information and more certain their memory was correct than those who were told they were drinking tonic water.”
DPA |
Upto now mankind has thought of love in terms of petty relationship — relationship between two persons. We have yet to know love that is a state of mind, and not just relationship.... When love enters my life and becomes my nature, then I am capable of loving any number of people. Then it is not even a question of one or many; then I am loving, and my love reaches everywhere....
*** It is unfortunate that people all around the world are trying to capture love and keep it caged in their relationships. But it is not possible to make a captive of love; the moment you try to capture it, it ceases to be love. Love is like air; you cannot hold it in your fist...
*** It is a paradox of life that when you try to imprison love, to put it in bondage, love degenerates and dies. And we have all killed love in our foolish attempts to possess it....
*** Love is a flower which once in a while blooms without any cause or purpose. It can happen to anyone who is open. And love accepts no bonds, no constraints on its freedom. But because society has fettered love in many ways we do everything to smother it, to escape it. Thus love has become so scarce, and we have to go without it. We live a loveless life....
*** Love goes on giving and it will never say it has given you enough. There is no end to love’s bounty. Love goes on pouring its gifts and yet it feels shy that it is insufficient.... If a mother brags about her sacrifices for her child, she is a nurse and not a mother. Love is always aware that a lot more needs to be done.... Love does not proclaim its gift; proclamation is the way of the ego. — From the Discourse of Acharya Shree Rajneesh (OSHO) at Manali, September 30, 1970. |
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The soft-spoken, determined, techno-savvy and result-oriented Elathavalapil Sreedharan has added another feather to his cap by making the long-awaited and at times highly controversial Delhi metro a reality. He not only maintained that 10 years was too long a period to start a metro in the national Capital, he has proved all his detractors wrong.
For 45-year-old Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder-Chairman and Group Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises Limited, life has moved by leaps and bounds from rudimentary beginnings in Ludhiana. Son of Sat Paul Mittal — politician and MP — and known as SBM to his friends and peers, Sunil Mittal’s mother believed that her son would make a good lawyer because of his good argumentative skills at home. But SBM, who believes that if there is a choice between speed and perfection, choose speed, had a different vision altogether. Little wonder, he was honoured as the “Businessman of the Year 2002” by a leading publication and has been credited by the panel “as the man who has got India talking”.