This is not the first time the ruling combine will be benefiting from the Opposition disunity. The Congress had been winning election after election mainly because of the division of Opposition votes. Those days it was not unusual for it to clandestinely support some Opposition candidates mainly to divide the anti-Congress votes in certain key constituencies. Whether the BJP has employed this strategy or not, the disunity in the Opposition ranks has strengthened its position, at least in Uttar Pradesh. That it would have been difficult for the BJP to face a combined onslaught from the Opposition is borne out by the fact that in the last elections, Mr Joshi won by a wafer-thin margin in Allahabad. It is a truism that multi-cornered contests have always benefited the ruling party.

Mr Aznar's party has paid the price for his indifference to the people's sentiments, though it fought the elections under a new leader. The opposition victory is contrary to what most opinion polls had predicted. The situation changed as the train blasts turned the elections into a "referendum on terrorism". The Spaniards decided to punish the government, which they believed had invited the terrorist menace to their country by its involvement in the Iraq war. Mr Aznar tried to convince them that the Basque separatist organisation, ETA, was behind the train bombings but this further raised the people's anger. There were few takers for his theory when media reports showed that the incident had the hallmark of Al-Qaida.

However, the fact of the matter is that a provincial government in central China recently scrapped a law that insisted that its civil servants should appear "symmetrical" during office hours. For seven years the rule remained in force in Hunan. Sherlock Holmes would have had to park himself outside the rest rooms for unravelling the mystery of the missing gender at the workplace. It was a spunky woman graduate who literally raised the issue in front of an amused group of reporters that forced the authorities to give up the bogus notion that "gender symmetry" created a more equitable work environment.

The 2003-04 budget target for the proceeds of disinvestment is Rs 13,200 crore. Till November 30, 2003, the amount actually realised was Rs 1,335 crore. The government will, however, be able to raise more than Rs 14,000 crore through the public offers of sales of shares of six companies. Besides the ONGC, the other PSUs are GAIL (formerly Gas Authority of India Limited), Dredging Corporation of India Limited and IBP Limited (earlier Indo-Burma Petroleum, now controlled by the Indian Oil Corporation) and the former PSUs in which the government’s residual equity has been sold are CMC (formerly the Computer Maintenance Corporation, now controlled by the Tata group) and IPCL (Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, now a part of the Reliance empire). The budget target for disinvestment proceeds is thus likely to be exceeded by more than Rs 900 crore.

The biggest-ever public issue of equity shares in India’s capital markets was a resounding success the day it opened on March 5. The ONGC’s public offer of 10 per cent of its equity shares was over-subscribed in less than 15 minutes. Union Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie described the development as a “milestone” for the country, while Mr Uday Kotak, head of the Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, one of the lead managers, said the issue had “created history”.

Even as the compliments were pouring in, Crisil Marketwire put out a report quoting unnamed sources among the lead managers of the issue saying that Mr Warren Buffett, chief executive officer, Berkshire Hathway Incorporated, said to be the second richest person in the world, had invested one billion US dollars in the ONGC issue. This report was, however, subsequently denied. Another controversy erupted when the Bombay Stock Exchange authorities conceded that due to a software glitch, there had been double-counting resulting in a higher than actual over-subscription figure.

The ONGC is not just the largest explorer and producer of hydrocarbon resources in the country. It is also the company with the highest market capitalisation in India. One indication of the size of the ONGC can be gauged from the following calculation: if all the shares of the ONGC were sold at the currently prevailing market prices, sufficient money would be raised to buy three corporate giants, India’s largest steel manufacturer, Steel Authority of India Limited, the country’s largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Lever Limited, and India’s most prestigious information technology company, Infosys Technologies.

During 2002-03, the ONGC earned a profit of Rs 10,529 crore or more than 30 per cent of its turnover. It is responsible for more than three-fourths of India’s crude oil output and over 80 per cent of the country’s production of natural gas. There are many reasons why the ONGC has been able to earn such high profits in an industry fraught with uncertainty, namely, oil and gas exploration. One important reason is that the world oil prices have been high, which, in turn, has helped the ONGC in the aftermath of the dismantling of the administered pricing mechanism. The ONGC’s importance to the Indian economy can hardly be underscored given the fact that crude oil production in the country has stagnated or declined since the mid-1990s — from importing 30 per cent of our requirement of crude oil and petroleum products in 1991, we are currently importing close to 75 per cent of the country’s demand for crude oil and petroleum products.

Given its size and its stature, it is hardly surprising that the ONGC’s public issue met with such a positive response from investors. What was indeed surprising was the speed with which the issue was over-subscribed. All the other issues were also over-subscribed although the offers had been bunched over a short period. Mr Shourie has pointed out that the amount raised through these issues over six weeks was 3.5 times the amount raised over the last three years.

The minister had earlier screamed blue murder at what he alleged was a conspiracy of sorts by a group of market manipulators to hammer down share values. He threatened to name and shame the alleged members of the bear cartel whose activities were making the government’s India Shining advertising campaign appear rather dull. Not everybody was taken in by Mr Shourie’s outburst, and many argued that share prices had come down simply because investors wanted to release funds to subscribe to the shares being offered at discounted prices.

While Mr Shourie’s threats had the necessary impact on the markets that revived soon thereafter, it was also quite clear that despite all the huffing and puffing, he would not actually go to the extent of penalising those responsible for manipulating share prices. It should also be remembered that the minister had earlier opposed tooth and nail the strategy of selling equity shares of PSUs through public offers. Mr Shourie was an ardent advocate of the controversial “strategic sale” approach that entailed a change in management control of a PSU from public to private hands.

The minister’s strategy of handing over managerial control of profit-making PSUs to private entrepreneurs met with considerable opposition from within the BJP as well as the ruling NDA coalition. After the success of the Maruti Udyog share issue in June 2003, Mr Shourie did an about-turn. He realised the virtues of offering the shares of well-managed PSUs to the public at large — even if small investors managed to obtain a few pickings in the midst of large foreign institutional investors.

This methodology of divestment was certainly less controversial than handing over the assets of the PSUs that were built using funds belonging to the people of the country to family-dominated enterprises. In certain cases — for instance, the May 2002 takeover of the IPCL management by the Reliance group — what the government did in the name of privatisation was to replace a public monopoly with a private monopoly, prompting Defence Minister George Fernandes to dash off an angry letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Thereafter, the Supreme Court intervened to prevent the government from privatising Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited without obtaining the approval of Parliament.

Markets go up, come down, go up.......Boom follows bust. Chicken-and-egg dilemma, you said. Right. Whatever goes up must come down, both literally and metaphorically, suggesting some force, which regulates events and men. Cycles alone are sustainable. They betoken balance.

Who can escape the cycle of life and death? Not mortals like you and I. Buddha did, say they. God Himself (or Herself!) is best portrayed as a circle with its centre everywhere and circumference nowhere. Don’t we perform parikrama round a holy place? Or go round a holy fire or pyre!

Mother Earth is round. She revolves and rotates without her children feeling a jerk or burp. All planets rotate and revolve. Yes, the mighty Sun too rotates. Motion supports sustenance and stability. Invention of wheel was a turning point in human civilisation. Ditto for the discovery of zero. If you go on extending a straight line, it would no longer look straight. It gets curved, to become part of the circumference of a circle, explained Einstein.

As one journeys into life, adulthood follows childhood, and is followed by old age. Have you noticed a very old man appearing as impatient, attention — hungry and adamant as a child? Little wonder, grandparents and grandchildren make grand company for one another. Son is like “principal” they say, and grandson like “interest”. No prizes for guessing who is prized more.

History is witness to rise and fall of empires and dynasties. Ruin and rise of Delhi marked its journey from Indraprastha of yore to date.

Historically hailed as Sone Ki Chidiya the world over, Mera Bharat Mahan, having hit the abyss of decline, seems set to stride the world like a colossus. Who is unaware of the European age of darkness, a few centuries ago? None could escape the inexorable laws of nature.

Who likes a straightforward person? A well-rounded personality is welcome. An all-rounder is preferred.

Cycles of was and peace have marked international relations. Friends turn foes to become friends again. Corporates, governments and organisations see ups and downs. They re-engineer and re-invent themselves and get rejuvenated. If good times didn’t last, bad patch will also pass.

The other aspect that kept getting clearer is that even at 90 Khushwant Singh is so comfortable describing those vivid sexual encounters and love-making sessions that I actually read and re-read them with this thought hitting me: My God, can a 90-year-old man be actually so explicit and much more?

Landing at his place at sharp 7 on that Monday evening, the first two queries that I shot were exactly these: at 90 what keeps him going, going enough to write this novel? Let’s not overlook the fact that he does two weekly columns, plus several book reviews and articles. And also the fact that the sexual descriptions being so quick and accurate, is he still at it or it is all from memories.

And with a grin and with a glint in his eye, Khushwant shot back: “Nobody has invented a condom for the pen. My pen is still sexy. Of course, my mind is still very active. Though I am not doing it any longer, surely I can write all that. All men, if they are honest, would admit that sex is definitely on their mind whether they are old or not.”

And with that we move on though, not very far from the topic: why are the sexual scenes short and crisp without much of the foreplay? “Because some of them are meant to be quickies.” And as we move on to the seriousness of the novel. The central character, Victor Jai Bhagwan, is, or seems, none other than Jawaharlal Nehru. Together with him is ebbed that controversial love tale that Mathai had once written about, that is, Nehru’s love affair with that tantric woman, Shraddha Mata (in this novel called Durgeshwari).

And to this Khushwant has this to say: “Yes, the inspiration for the central character is Nehru, whom I’d admired very much, especially because he was so secular. And his love affair with Shraddha Mata is well known. Mathai wrote about it and I’d myself met Shraddha Mata in Jaipur and I’d written about her.”

Did she try to seduce him? “I was spending that night at the Jaipur fort and Raghu Rai was also there. I met her there. No there was nothing between her and me and though she was physically attractive but wore that tiger skin garb.”

And besides Shraddha Mata, the other absolutely thinly concealed characters in this novel are Nehru’s father and mother, his wife and daughter with the socio-historical era not shifting the characters all stare at you, webbed that they are in this tale which reads in that simple and no fuss style that Khushwant is so well blessed with. The novel starts off on that familiar note of the Indo-British turmoil of the pre-Independence era.

I quote from this novel: “Jai Bhagwan’s father , Krishan Lal Mattoo, wanted to bring up his only son as an English aristocrat. He often told his wife (semi-literate to him since she could only read and write Hindi) and children that in order to deal with the British, one had to speak English like them, mix with them socially as an equal, learn to eat their kind of food on expensive china using forks and knives and serve them premium Scotch and vintage wines of better quality than they could afford. Then one should tell them on their faces that it was time for them to buzz off from India and let Indians manage their own affairs.”

Of course, inter webbed with all this was are vivid descriptions of Mattoo’s own affair with the English governess he had hired for his four children. I quote once again: “In fact, it was several months after the girls had christened their governess FBB that Mattoo and Valerie became truly intimate. One evening, after a particularly busy day, Mattoo requested Valerie to make him larger drinks than usual. By the third drink he had become maudlin and was telling her how lonely he was because he had married the wrong woman. Valerie protested that he was being unfair to madam. She also urged him to lower his voice; his family and servants should not hear him say these things. Mattoo responded by walking to the door and bolting it shut. He walked back to the sofa and dropped heavily to his knees before her. ‘I m a lonely man’ he wept, ‘help me’. Because Valerie’s heart went out to him, she unbuttoned her blouse. Her breasts spilled out and a grateful Mattoo buried his face in them with a sigh.”

In fact, once I picked up the novel I only kept it back after a stretch of good three and a half hours after having finished reading it and then tried to mix and match fiction with history. The characters stood out as real and the thin-veil stood ruptured the minute Khushwant’s words spread out, weaving the tale.

And later that evening while I sat interviewing him a long-distance call from the BBC, London, came and the caller made similar queries. There was Khushwant as patiently as ever explaining that it is a writer’s right to web stories around public figures about whom they know a pretty lot.

And if you were to ask him that whatever happened to the novel he was writing about the right-wing intolerance, Khushwant says: “They are basically short stories, each rotating around the right wing communal forces, which are causing havoc in the country and the superstitions at large. These stories are complete and will be published by September.”

And there can be much more from this 90-plus man who has been in the limelight for so long. He was the founder-editor of Yojna, editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, The National Herald and The Hindustan Times. He is also the author of several books and novels, among them being “Train To Pakistan” , “I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale”, “Delhi”, “The Company of Women”, the two volumes of “A History of the Sikhs” and, of course, his autobiography “Truth, Love And A Little Malice” which bares so much of his own life and times.

And above all this what I find so different about him is that he is perhaps one of the few around who live life at their own terms without facades and frills. He has the grit to write what he feels strongly about, without really bothering about the after-effects and he is one of those who returned the Padma Bhushan (awarded in 1974) in 1984 in protest against the storming of the Golden Temple by the Indian Army.

I think it’s his bold, uncomplicated, straight forward approach that has kept him going strong. He talks and writes straight from his heart. That’s why he looks much younger than his 90 years. Writing continuously day after day and for most part of the day. Writings which relate to us. And that makes him so popular. The novel will be released in New Delhi in the evening on March 17.

Hypnotherapy’s main purpose is to entice the mind of the person you're treating — that can be yourself — to turn inwards and connect with the deeper levels of consciousness normally unavailable, hence conventionally referred to as the unconscious, where all your real choices are made — including choosing between being healthy or sick. If you can induce someone to enter this realm, you have them optimally poised for a healing, whether the symptoms are physical, mental, emotional or life-directional.

Ironically, the normal waking state is actually the trance state, and what’s conventionally termed the trance state is actually the waking state. Let me explain. Those people on the streets of London appeared, at least to the naked eye, completely caught up in the illusion the city creates — bright lights, highly signed, thickly regulated roads and colourful goodies beckoning your plastic. In short, they were entranced. I, on the other hand, having auto-suggested (entranced) myself into a state of pure consciousness, calm and equipoise prior to entering the urban fray, was not at all in a trance. Indeed, I was clear as a bell, awake as a cockerel, veritably flying on my feet and feeling naturally high as a kite simply to be alive to see it all.

So you use trance techniques to break the trance you probably didn’t even realise you were in. Once you wake up from the trance of the everyday into the deeper, more universally cognisant state, your vision literally brightens, your relationship with reality takes on a whole new perspective and your ease of communicating your needs and accomplishing your goals increases exponentially.

The efficacy of affirmations as a self-hypnotic tool for implanting a positive thought in the unconscious depends largely on the way they’re delivered. For example, repeat the following out loud resonantly, deeply and sexily, making subtle melody with the musical tones of each syllable, allowing the sound to vibrate your chest and skull: ‘I choose to feel peace in my heart and my soul, I choose to feel peace in my heart and my soul, I choose to feel calm in my body — yeah, yeah — I choose to feel calm in my body.’ Do it three, four or more times through and note how it's making you feel — peaceful and calm on a visceral level, I’d wager.