E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Our pampered pilots
The Air-India pilots’ decision to withdraw their strike was not entirely unexpected, given the tough stand taken by both the management and the Union Government. The strike on the issue of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was unwarranted. It has caused immense hardship to thousands of passengers, apart from inflicting huge losses on the airlines which has been in the red.

CM-Governor spat
It is rare to find states where the governors and the chief ministers have the best of relationship. Yet, the high dignitaries do maintain the façade of amiability in most states. Not so in Haryana. The tussle between the two has been out in the open for long and it has been turning ugly by the day.

Hello, anyone there?
Anyone who claims to have understood the new telephone tariff for a range of services offered by cell phone and landline operators deserves to be accorded the status of genius. The confusion that the new rules and tariff, that were supposed to become effective from May 1, have caused is reflected in the headlines and content of most reports.

Population policy and Tenth Plan
There is glaring disparity between the two
K.B. Sahay
After years of debates and deliberations the Government of India could finally formulate a National Population Policy (NPP) and announced it in February, 2000.

Inter-faith Faith
Harkishan Singh
A century back there was no school in our village. Luckily, by the time my father got to be of age for formal education, there opened a district board primary school in the village. My father attended to his studies with diligence under the care of the sole school teacher, Sandhe Khan.

Jacob: I was not doing it all for publicity
A.S. Prashar
Lieut-Gen Jack Frederick Ralph Jacob (retd), the outgoing Governor of Punjab and Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, was born in Calcutta and commissioned into the Indian Artillery in June, 1942. He saw active service with his regiment during World War II in West Asia, Burma and later in Sumatra.

SIGHT & SOUND

Life without television
Amita Malik
Moving house is a horrifying business at the best of times, but moving the media is even worse. First one was without newspapers for four days. And TV took five days, for reasons into which one need not enter, except that cable operators are an elusive lot and it is difficult, when they eventually come, to explain that one watches TV for professional purposes and one is more interested in the news and main entertainment channels than the local filmic one.

Are you emotional masochist?
Charlotte Williamson
Emotional masochists seek out complicated relationships time and time again. They believe that fear — often the fear of losing someone — ignites passion and desire. Familiarity spoils the fantasy of falling in love — a challenge, however, keeps those senses in overload.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Our pampered pilots

The Air-India pilots’ decision to withdraw their strike was not entirely unexpected, given the tough stand taken by both the management and the Union Government. The strike on the issue of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was unwarranted. It has caused immense hardship to thousands of passengers, apart from inflicting huge losses on the airlines which has been in the red. The 200-odd pilots’ stand on SARS ringed hollow from the very beginning. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had told a meeting of the airlines of the Asia Pacific region that over 200 million passengers had boarded planes since the outbreak of SARS and that there had been less than five cases of possible transmission of the disease in the cabin. Even these cases had occurred before the screening procedures were put in place at various international airports. However, the pilots refused to see reason. Mercifully, this time, neither Air-India nor the government buckled under pressure. For a change, it was the pilots who had to fall in line. The suspension of as many as 45 pilots, the derecognition of the Indian Pilots Guild, and the refusal of the management to hold talks with the striking pilots have all worked.

Now that the strike has been called off, the management and the government should take every possible step to restore the normal operations of the airlines. The authorities would do well to continue their tough approach towards the pilots who should be made accountable for the losses caused to the airlines. Unfortunately, owing to the kidglove approach of the Air-India management over the years, the pilots have become a law unto themselves. They have the dubious distinction of going on catcall strikes at the drop of a hat and holding the organisation to ransom. This, despite the fact that they are the most pampered lot compared with their counterparts in other airlines, not to mention those in the Indian Air Force. An Air-India pilot draws a salary of Rs 5-8 lakh, is entitled to attractive perks and incidentals, including accommodation in the finest hotels, conveyance and entertainment. Compared to them, a fighter pilot gets peanuts by way of salary while his working conditions are far more strenuous. As if this is not enough, each Air-India pilot is now sought to be paid a whopping Rs 75,000 if he agrees to get trained for landing aircraft in foggy conditions in places like Delhi with the aid of the hi-tech CAT III. Aren’t they expected to be accountable to Air-India and do their work sincerely for the perks and benefits they get?

CM-Governor spat

It is rare to find states where the governors and the chief ministers have the best of relationship. Yet, the high dignitaries do maintain the façade of amiability in most states. Not so in Haryana. The tussle between the two has been out in the open for long and it has been turning ugly by the day. Some of the decisions taken by the government in this battle of attrition are hardly in good taste. Take, for instance, the latest salvo. The Governor has been enjoying ever since the post was created the power of taking a decision on memorials submitted to him by state government employees who may feel aggrieved by any decision of the government in the matter of employment. This memorial is something like a mercy petition filed by a convict before the President after all his appeals have been turned down by the courts of law. But the Haryana Cabinet has inexplicably withdrawn this power and vested it in a Cabinet subcommittee. The decision is not only unpleasant, but is also a violation of the principles of natural justice. This is a none-too-graceful way of getting even with a recalcitrant Governor who had refused to give assent to the controversial Haryana Casino Bill and some other Bills. The Governor cannot really be accused of outstepping his authority, but the government has sought to unceremoniously clip his wings.

This is not the first time that such friction has developed. Recently, the Governor, Babu Parmanand, appointed Mr Dhara Singh Hooda the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University. The Governor being the Chancellor of the university was authorised to do so, but the Chautala government was cut up for two reasons. One, he had done so without “consulting” the government, and, two, the PVC happened to be a relative of a BJP MP who earlier belonged to Mr Chautala’s INLD. The Chautala government hit back by abolishing the post of PVC in all the three universities of the state. This was done in the name of austerity. Such a tussle diminishes the dignity of the high office that Mr Om Prakash Chautala holds. He has regular avenues of redressal of his grievances if the Governor oversteps his authority. But to get even through dubious moves is just not done. A Governor is not supposed to be a rival centre of power. However, that does not mean he should only be a ceremonial rubber-stamp. Various Bills go to him for assent so that he could moderate the state government’s action through his sagacity. Even the delay in giving his assent is a device to ensure that no hasty or wrong decision is taken.

Hello, anyone there?

Anyone who claims to have understood the new telephone tariff for a range of services offered by cell phone and landline operators deserves to be accorded the status of genius. The confusion that the new rules and tariff, that were supposed to become effective from May 1, have caused is reflected in the headlines and content of most reports. The policy, approved by the Telephone Regulatory Authority of India, was supposed to create a level playing field for the service providers. But the regulator evidently overlooked the principle that the interest of the subscribers should never be compromised. Unfortunately, that is what has happened with the introduction of the new rates from May 1. Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Reliance were among the service providers that issued ads in leading newspapers explaining in confusing detail the price of the various products. Yet, for reasons not explained to the thousands of subscribers, they have postponed the introduction of the new tariff. The pay phone operators were not wrong in protesting when the meters continued to show the old reading on Thursday. Neither the PCO owners nor ordinary subscribers were informed by BSNL about the decision to postpone the introduction of the new rates.

TRAI and the service providers are both guilty of letting the subscribers down. Who has the time and the patience to read the small print in full page advertisements for understanding how much an individual subscriber will have to pay for the inefficient range of services provided by BSNL and cell phone operators? There is one set of tariff plan for rural subscribers and another for urban users of landline services. The cell phone operators have added their own sale pitch to add to the bedlam. The general impression is that from May 1 all incoming calls on mobile phones will be free. It may not be so. Will the service providers kindly come clean and read out the small print loudly over their networks? Where should the subscribers begin, for understanding how much they would have to pay for the different categories of products on sale? BSNL has evolved a system of circle for selling its range of services. The cell operators define their operations in terms of regions. What is the difference between a circle and a region? Is it a fact that under the new "95" regime Shimla will no longer be available at local rates from Chandigarh? If it is so, why? The amazing advances in the telecommunication sector were, presumably, meant to usher in a more consumer-friendly regime. The new rates and services that were introduced on May 1 are by no stretch of the imagination anywhere near being subscriber-friendly.

OPINION

Population policy and Tenth Plan
There is glaring disparity between the two
K.B. Sahay

After years of debates and deliberations the Government of India could finally formulate a National Population Policy (NPP) and announced it in February, 2000.

The government set therein the short, medium and long term objectives for the country to control its rapid population growth. The government considers this NPP formulation such an important and major achievement that even after about three years of its announcement, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in its full-page advertisement published on the occasion of the birthday of the Prime Minister in most of the country’s newspapers projects this as the ministry’s topmost initiative and achievement.

The NPP also requires to set up a National Commission on Population (NCP) to ensure better consideration of planning and implementation of the programme related to population stabilisation. This NCP, headed by the Prime Minister and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission as Vice-Chairman, came into being in the years 2000 itself; and the Ministry of Health announces this NCP to be its second most notable achievement in the full-page advertisement referred above.

The immediate objective of the NPP is to address the unmet needs for contraception, healthcare infrastructure and health personnel, and to provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child healthcare. The medium-term objective is to bring the total fertility rate (TFR) to replacement level by 2010, through vigorous implementation of inter-sectoral strategies. The long-term objective is to achieve a stable population by 2045 at a level consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development and environmental protection.

The NPP asserts that if TFR is 2.1 (i.e the replacement level) is achieved by 2010 as stipulated in the policy, the country’s population would be restricted to 1107 million by 2010 (that is to about 1119 million by 2011 A.D.). This means that the NPP stipulates to bring down the decadel growth rate of our population from 21.3 per cent in 1991-2001 to about 10.6 per cent during 2001-2011.

Now comes the country’s Tenth Five Year Plan prepared by the Planning Commission. The Tenth Plan sets a target to restrict the decadel rate of population growth between 2001 and 2011 to only16.2 per cent implying a population of 1193 million in 2011 instead of 1119 million as stipulated in the NPP. Thus the Tenth Plan is clearly negating the objectives of the NPP.

It must be understood that by extending the target for the reduction in the decadel population growth as explained above the Planning Commission has not only jeopardised the medium-term objective of the NPP but also by implication its long-term objective, that is, to achieve a stable population by 2045.

Recently the Prime Minister convened a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (BIMARU) and reportedly asked the four Chief Ministers to achieve the population control target of TFR of 2.1 by 2010 as set in the National Population Policy. This is simply ridiculous. When the Planning Commission headed by the Prime Minister himself is not caring for the targets as set in the NPP what moral authority remains for the Prime Minister to ask anybody else to honour and achieve the goals set in the NPP?

But why blame only the politicians and the bureaucracy? Apathy towards the population issue is a national phenomenon. The media too, barring a few exceptions, is equally to be blamed for their apathy towards the country’s most serious problem of population explosion. The Tenth Plan did attract a lot of attention for the media, but only regarding the issue of growth rate of the GDP, as if, the GDP is the only matter for concern in a Five Year Plan. Also, the silence of our media-savvy neo-Marxists on this violation of NPP by the Planning Commission has been quite intriguing. This very vocal group of neo-Marxists had raised a lot of hue and cry and had even complained to the NHRC for violation of the NPP when a few states — though very rightly — decided to introduce disincentives to make the state’s population control programmes truly effective as required.

But then the apathy of the neo-Marxists towards population control is well known. For them population control is acceptable only as a byproduct of development. No wonder, therefore, the two Marxist dominated States namely Kerala and West Bengal, have been the most densely populated States in India.

It is unfortunate and deplorable that not one of the over-hundred members of the National Commission on Population who are supposed to make the NPP a success has cared to object to the Tenth Plan’s negation of the NPP or has thought it proper to resign from the NCP in disgust.

Despite the fact that the biggest hurdle in India’s desired development is its burgeoning population, the Central Government’s stubborn stand remains that population stabilisation ought to be a byproduct of development alone. This stand has prompted the authorities to put many rosy “visions” and “plans” for development such as creation of 10 million additional jobs per year for 20 years to remove unemployment and poverty; inter-linking of the rivers urgently (in 10 years) even if at a phenomenal cost and ecological uncertainties and risks; doubling the rate of increase of our foodgrain production despite increasing soil erosion and degradation; and also dangerously rising water stress both in terms of quality and quantity, etc.

May be these grand visions are realisable and also capable of providing the solutions as required. But then let us just pause for a while to reflect as to what indeed is our problem in the first place? If we carefully analyse our major problems like unemployment, poverty, disease, malnutrition, scarcity of water, ecological degradation etc we will find that our massive population is the most dominant cause of most of our miseries. Then will it not be wiser to first tackle the very root cause itself as the topmost priority?

The Tenth Plan document very rightly highlights that “It is estimated that more than 45 per cent of India’s geographical area is already affected by serious soil erosion and this proportion is increasing year after year. An even more pressing problem is that of water availability. Already, substantial parts of the country are experiencing water stress, both in terms of quantity and quality. It is felt that unless urgent measures are taken, water, for both drinking and irrigation purposes, may become the single most important problem by the end of the decade. But what the Plan document fails to say is that the only sustainable solution to our impending water crisis is drastic population control and reduction in our numbers.

The Supreme Court has rightly directed the government to take suitable and urgent steps to interlink Indian rivers. This alone can now save the country from the fast approaching widespread water famine. But this measure too will help us only for a couple of decades if we let our population grow in the “business as usual” fashion. Hence, the apex court must also consider to direct the government to implement the two-child norm by taking even hard measures wherever required so as to attain a TFR of 2.1 by 2010 without fail as stipulated in the NPP but being negated by the Tenth Five Year Plan.

The writer is a former Professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. 

MIDDLE

Inter-faith Faith
Harkishan Singh

A century back there was no school in our village. Luckily, by the time my father got to be of age for formal education, there opened a district board primary school in the village. My father attended to his studies with diligence under the care of the sole school teacher, Sandhe Khan.

Urdu was the medium of instruction. It was again his good fortune that a new Khalsa school started getting established at Sarhali, a village about two miles away from ours, when he had just finished his primary education. He saw his new school coming up brick by brick. The school teachers were highly motivated and were more of missionaries and inspired the young students and commanded respect and reverence. He considered himself blessed for getting high school education.

My father remained grateful to his teachers who had educated him and taught him good values of life. He always looked forward to meeting his teachers and considered it his privilege if he could be of some service.

One winter evening in 1945, my father’s primary school teacher Sandhe Khan reached our house at Lahore. He was our honoured guest for the night. He had come with a purpose. He said to my father that his son Ibrahim had passed his matriculation but was not getting a job. His Muslim friends and erstwhile students of the community had not been of any help. He requested my father to get his son some employment.

My father was working in the Post Master General’s office those days. He tried and was successful in getting the boy recruited in postal service. Both the father and his son remained beholden to my father for this.

Near the time of Partition of the country in 1947, the governmental employees were asked to choose between India and Pakistan for continuation of their future services. At the time Ibrahim was placed somewhere in the interior of the province. He thought that on this vital issue he should go by the advice of my father who helped him to get a start in life. With all humility he wrote to my father and sought his guidance. My father advised Ibrahim to opt for Pakistan.

THE TRIBUNE INTERVIEW

Jacob: I was not doing it all for publicity
A.S. Prashar

Lieut-Gen Jack Frederick Ralph Jacob (retd), the outgoing Governor of Punjab and Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, was born in Calcutta and commissioned into the Indian Artillery in June, 1942. He saw active service with his regiment during World War II in West Asia, Burma and later in Sumatra.

He graduated from Gunnery Staff Course in the UK and later did the advanced artillery and missile course from the Fort Sill in the USA. During his 37 years in the Army, he commanded the infantry and artillery brigades, a corps and finally the Eastern Army. He was the Chief of Staff, Eastern Army, during the critical period prior to and during the operation for the liberation of Bangladesh, being awarded the PVSM for his "pivotal role" there. He retired from the Army on July 31, 1978.

General Jacob writes and lectures on international affairs and defence related matters. He has written a book "Surrender at Dacca - Birth of a Nation". He was appointed the Governor of Goa on April 18, 1998, and remained there till November 26, 1999. He assumed the office of Governor of Punjab on November 27, 1999.

The following are excerpts from an interview he granted to the Tribune News Service:

The assignment was challenging. In Punjab I had to play a constitutional role, while in Chandigarh I had to function as the head of the administration. On the whole, it was a very enjoyable stay because I like to work and face challenges.

I like Punjab and the Punjabis. In the Army I was in the Sikh Regiment. I had the best of relations with both Mr Badal and Capt Amarinder Singh. I used to convey my views to them on various issues, as and when required. As regards who is better of the two, I think comparisons are odious and are best avoided.

I am against corruption.

In Chandigarh I was basically focusing on improving the quality of life for the average man. My attempt has been to provide an administration with a human face. For this, I had to concentrate on creating a people-friendly environment for governance. With this end in view, I undertook a large number of measures covering almost every aspect of life in the city. I wanted to change Chandigarh from being a city of retired and tired people to a vibrant city full of youthful vigour. For enlivening the nightlife in the city, an extension in the timings was allowed to discos up to 1 a.m. and cyber cafes up to 2 a.m. on weekends. The opening of shops on Sundays was also allowed. Kalagram was inaugurated, making it a hub of cultural activities in the city. Serving of liquor was allowed in two-star hotels.

The amendments to the Rent Control Act and changes in the archaic building byelaws. Projection and development of Chandigarh as a preferred IT destination is another important milestone.

I think that is a nasty question. Do you think I was doing it all for publicity? I have been going about doing whatever I think was necessary to do in the city. A lot has been done. Publicity had nothing to do with it. If media men have been covering my activities extensively, they have been doing it on their own.

I will go back to my flat in Delhi. I don’t need a big accommodation. The Raj Bhavan is big but I have lived in just two rooms: one bedroom, one sitting room and, of course, a bathroom. The rest of the rooms in the Raj Bhavan have remained locked.

It was certainly not due to lack of inclination on my part. But whenever I tried, there always were some obstacles in the way. It is too late now. I am now 80 years old.

I joined the BJP in 1991 and was appointed the head of the BJP’s Defence Cell. I think the BJP is a very good party.

Not really. I don’t see myself involved in anything other than writing and giving lectures and contributing articles to newspapers and magazines on defence and international affairs. I plan to write memoirs. But I have not really made up my mind.

The NDA government has done a lot for the armed forces and the ex-servicemen. Latest equipment has been procured for them. A housing scheme has also been framed for the soldiers. As regards ex-servicemen, a large number of medical facilities have been made available to them.

I don’t want to enter into a controversy on the issue now. But for a true account of who did what in the Bangladesh war, you have to read my book "Surrender at Dacca—Birth of a Nation". Start from page 158 of the book. Here are excerpts:

"There are many lessons to be learnt from the operations of 1971. First, for any campaign to be successful it is imperative that the aim or mission be spelt out clearly. Only when clear directives regarding the aim are given, can objectives be selected. This was not the case in 1971. Army Headquarters’ aim and presumably the aim given by the Government was to liberate as much territory as possible to set up a provisional Bangladesh Government. The importance of Dacca, the final objective, was not even considered by the Chiefs of Staff at Delhi. They were more concerned with the capture of towns and territory. The capture of towns is time consuming and costly in lives. At Command Headquarters the General Staff, with the backing of Inder Gill, selected Dacca as the final objective and Pakistani command and communication centres as subsidiary objectives because they would facilitate our approach to the capital. Our strategy at Command Headquarters was to draw the enemy to the border and commit them to the defence of towns and then bypass those towns by using subsidiary axes. The axes of maintenance could be opened later.

"Manekshaw’s strategy, endorsed by Aurora, however, was designed to capture maximum territory to include what he termed the ‘entry’ ports of Khulna and Chittagong. Dacca was not on his agenda. Later, on 13 December, when we were on the outskirts of Dacca he issued orders to capture all the towns in Bangladesh that we had bypassed. Dacca was still not included in this list. Perhaps Manekshaw felt that we should take as many towns as possible in case the Security Council imposed a ceasefire.

"Throughout the war Manekshaw was apprehensive that the Chinese were likely to intervene, kept 6 Mountain Division, located in North Bengal, in reserve for the defence of Bhutan despite of our repeated requests for its employment for the Dacca thrust. Since we could not employ 6 Mountain Division, we moved three brigades down from the Chinese border, two of these to reinforce troops already earmarked for the Dacca thrust. When Manekshaw got to know of these moves on 30 November, he ordered these brigades back to their original locations. It was not until 8 December, after repeated requests, that he agreed to the employment of two brigades. The third had been ordered earlier to move to the Western Theatre. Had we initially been allotted 6 Mountain Division or even later, if the employment of two brigades had not been delayed till 8 December, we would have reached Dacca much earlier. In all fairness to Manekshaw, the Soviets, the Americans military attache in Kathmandu and some of our foreign affairs and intelligence experts did not rule our Chinese intervention in support of Pakistan. Manekshaw’s perforce had to give due weightage to their views.

"In no complicated campaign can operations be planned to the last detail and to the final objective. Detailed planning is feasible only up to a certain stage, after which contingency plans should be made. Detailed plans were thus made up to the major rivers in the vicinity of Dacca and contingency plans prepared to supplement the thrust to Dacca from the north."

I have to refer you once again to my book on the conduct of war in Bangladesh and the role of individual officers.

SIGHT & SOUND

Life without television
Amita Malik

Moving house is a horrifying business at the best of times, but moving the media is even worse. First one was without newspapers for four days. And TV took five days, for reasons into which one need not enter, except that cable operators are an elusive lot and it is difficult, when they eventually come, to explain that one watches TV for professional purposes and one is more interested in the news and main entertainment channels than the local filmic one.

But looking back, it has been an interesting study of how much media is a part of our lives now. For four days, without papers and TV, one relied more on radio and that was a life-saver. At least one knew that Delhi had to face a water shortage, that Bush still had not found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that Bangladesh had lost yet another cricket match. The routine going-on in politics with Mayawati and company seemed a distant happening and only the SARS virus seemed to loom larger and nearer. It seemed the most important news at the moment. When TV finally came back most of the news channels were missing. One got Headlines Today but not NDTV, either English or Hindi, and it seemed amazing how the South Indian channels seemed to dominate over the Hindi ones. Probably a greater demand for them in my new area than in the one I left.

But the greatest discovery I made was that I missed the news papers much more than I missed TV. And when the papers finally came, it was comforting to sit over them at leisure over a cup of morning tea and catch up with what was happening in India and the rest of the world than to wade over piles of luggage to get at the TV set and find a whole new alignment of channels with several blanks in between than the orderly line-up I had had before. First of all the news channels in a row, the sports channels in a row and the better entertainment channels in a row. Getting them back into position is a tedious job and the new lad who came to help at my old residence had got used to my fussy professional demands and an occasional cup of tea and a pat on the back helped.

Yet, in spite of the prestigious complex into which I have moved with both imposing VIPs and successful young journalists, the residents seemed to be at the mercy of the cable operator. Not only were vital channels missing from his screen, the reception quality is quite appalling. And the operator seems least concerned. Now a delegation of the more important local residents is going to have a word with the cable operator to set things right. When I asked the cable boy, in my most authoritative voice, who was the head (I called him the boss) of operations, he replied:” It is our own network, we do not have any boss and you can give me your suggestions and complaints. So that was that. So if reviews are more or less non-existent this week and if, for the first time since this column started, I missed my column last week, I can only ask for forgiveness from viewers and readers and hope to do better next week.

Meanwhile, I have had a pleasant time listening to the FM channels, cheerful music, well presented and one must confess that although AIR’s newscasters are still a trifle old-fashioned, at least they read accurately and do not put on any airs or fancy accents. And that about sums up All India Radio, slow but steady and still retaining old-fashioned professional values. Their discussions also remain as before not very different from 25 years ago, but a little bolder and allowing participants to have their say, even when anti-Establishment. I once described AIR as the faithful wife and TV channels as frisky sex-pots and I stand by that definition.

There is, as you can guess, very little I have to write about day to day programmes, except the kind of generalities which have revealed the relative values of the media. I have decided that I can live without TV but not without newspapers because newspapers do not vanish in seconds. And that with all its failings, radio still remains the most important and reliable electronic medium when all else fails. You can listen to it in the car, you can carry it from you can fix your favourite FM channels and listen to music while, reading, writing, cooking and even having a bath.

DD’s third channel, the Prasar Bharati one, has lost because it was wrongly publicised or not publicised at all. But when I have watched it, I have found some rare gems of classical performances from its archives and very interesting spoken word programmes from the past. Since DD is in the process of bettering its image and re=selling itself with the help of professional ad firms, I would like to suggest that DD’s third channel is built up as a serious channel for serious viewers because it has some very good programmes which should be re-scheduled sensibly and not put on at anytime. Some of its best programmes are on after midnight, especially the ones young or elderly people would appreciate, which is downright silly.

DD should retain its dignity and its integrity as a national asset, like the BBC or CBC, and not recklessly enter the rat race as it has so foolishly done. If the national channel remains national, the sports channel remain up-to-date and not keep on showing events which are months old. If Metro remains a good entertainment channel and Prasar Bharati an exclusive classical and archive channel, DD will establish its true identity and not have to boast only of larger viewership because it has a captive terrestrial audience but because of its quality and exclusiveness. Go for it, DD!

TRENDS & POINTERS

Are you emotional masochist? 
Charlotte Williamson

Emotional masochists seek out complicated relationships time and time again. They believe that fear — often the fear of losing someone — ignites passion and desire. Familiarity spoils the fantasy of falling in love — a challenge, however, keeps those senses in overload. Emotional masochists might be split into three categories: those who seek out challenging situations (dating a married man, for example); those who seek out challenging personalities (such as a succession of depressive partners), and those who create a challenge and who instigate splits, just for the thrill of it.

Many of us have emotionally masochistic instincts without fully realising it. ‘It’s definitely more common than we think,’ agrees Susan Quilliam, relationship therapist and author of Stop Arguing, Start Talking. ‘And it’s more often women than men, because women tend to feel less in control of a relationship.’ As with most dysfunctional behaviour, emotional masochistic characteristics start in childhood. ‘Relationship patterns usually repeat what happened when you were a child,’ explains Quilliam. ‘If a man had an emotionally vulnerable mother, for example, in adult life he is likely to find himself comfortable around similar women. He feels he can support such women. On a subconscious level, replaying that familiarity you are thinking, “Maybe this time I can make it work.’”

Janice Hiller, a psychologist specialising in dysfunctional relationships, agrees. ‘Everyone subconsciously hopes that they’ll somehow manage to undo what’s been done in the past,’ she says. ‘If they’ve seen their parents in a difficult relationship, then they’ll seek a similar relationship and try to create a happy ending.’

But what if you had a happy, functional upbringing? What if you simply enjoy the lure of a challenging relationship, the thrill of being an emotional masochist? `I strongly believe in the pleasure-pain principle,’ says Caroline, a 32-year-old London-based lawyer. ‘I believe the lower the lows, the greater the highs.’ Caroline admits that she frequently instigates arguments with her fiance Tom, ‘as something to get passionate about’. Likewise, she enjoys breaking — and then making — up. ‘It’s the drama that we might split up forever.’

So is this necessarily an unhealthy attitude? After all, some people thrive when their lives are an emotional roller coaster. ‘I’ve been out with uncomplicated men and found it boring,’ admits Caroline. Most psychologists, however, would recommend therapy. ‘Relationship patterns can often be unconscious, so you need tremendous self-knowledge to overcome them,’ says Hiller. The Guardian 

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Death is the black camel that kneels before every door.

— Sanskrit proverb

Benevolence has ruined none in the world.

— Tamil proverb

There is no austerity like forgiveness.

— Marathi proverb

Cows are auspicious purifiers;

upon cows depend the world;

cows alone make sacrificial oblations possible.

Cows take away every sin.

— Vishnu Smriti, 23,58-59