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A lame duck Life for lifers |
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Coach vs Captain
King’s actions,
intentions
Second life
Navigating Galileo If the heart beats
too fast Chatterati
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Life for lifers THE Supreme Court ruling that a person convicted of life sentence will have to remain in jail for the rest of his life is timely in the context of differing interpretations on this issue. It has now very clearly ruled that a life sentence does not imply a sentence of 14 or 20 years unless, of course, the state remits the sentence, at its discretion, after a period of time. The ruling follows a petition by a life convict from West Bengal who sought relief on the ground that he had already served a sentence of 21 years and that any further incarceration was illegal and unjust. Even though one cannot lose sight of the rationale and wisdom behind the very purpose of life sentence, it would be just and fair if the sentence is subjected to periodic review by the government. If a convict has to be given a chance to reform as a good citizen, the person deserves to be given a remission of sentence (of course, only after 14 years, in accordance with the law) on the basis of his proven conduct in jail. The ruling is bound to act as a reference point because the Supreme Court, in the coming weeks, will be hearing a number of petitions on the same issue. It served a notice on the West Bengal government the other day while taking up petitions by 23 life convicts who have spent 14 years in various prisons of the state and sought release. Even though the latest ruling is bound to act as a deterrent, one needs to take a humanitarian view of the issue because life convicts in India have to pass through a harrowing time. For instance, most of them complain that they are denied of basic facilities, medicines and proper food in jails. This is a violation of human rights as also of their fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. The state governments concerned — and the courts — would do well to keep this in view while taking up cases for remission (or release) from time to time. |
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Coach vs Captain CLEARLY, Sourav Ganguly is a man who is being shown the door. Equally clearly, he does not want to go quietly into the night. Nobody can take away the contributions that Ganguly has made to Indian cricket, both as a batsman and as the most successful captain. But nothing can justify his petulance in reaction to a suggestion from coach Greg Chappell that as a man out of form, he should be the one to sit out the first Test against Zimbabwe. It is even more unfortunate that he thought that a laboured century against a pedestrian attack gave him the legitimacy to go public. The knock is no vindication of anything, and the whole episode is a sorry commentary on how the system is more about privilege and cronyism than performance and professionalism. Some would feel that Chappell was out of line here. And indeed, once appointed, a captain needs the coach’s support. If the coach thinks otherwise, maybe he should be talking to the selectors. But reports indicate that as a suggestion, it was legitimate enough and made in good faith. Chappell and Ganguly, after all, have had a good relationship. Chappell is supposed to have helped him out with his batting in Australia, and the word was that his candidature for coach had the strong backing of Ganguly. When Ganguly led the Indian team out at Bulawayo, it was his 48th Test as a captain. He left behind both Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin, who captained 47 each. He has 20 wins, more than any other Indian skipper. Maybe, he thinks he should be the first Indian to go past 50 Tests as a captain. Perhaps, he even thinks he can beat Allan Border’s record of 93 Tests as captain. But even Steven Waugh, who won 41 of his 57 Tests as captain, had to go, at a point when he had a better case than Ganguly of staying in the 11. There is no ignominy in that. The Prince needs to realise that, and in the meantime, he should let his game speak for him.
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It is impossible to live in a country which is continually under hatches... Rain! Rain! Rain!
— John Keats |
King’s actions, intentions Uneasy
lies the head that wears the crown. King Gyanendra must be feeling the heat, now that many in Nepal realise that a republican state is inevitable. Not long ago Nepalese used to say: “Hamro desh khatam chha”. The Maoists’ surprise ceasefire, organised street protests by civil society groups and political parties, the confrontation between the Supreme Court and the government, including the anti-graft Royal Commission on Corruption Control, and rumours of a military coup forced King Gyanendra to cancel his visit to the UN General Assembly. It is possibly the last chance for him to save Nepal’s 237-year-old monarchy which is bound to leave a vacuum when it goes. It is apparent to most except King Gyanendra that he will not be able to run his master plan of establishing absolute rule over the next three years. His problems began last month when US Ambassador James Moriarty, his favourite diplomat, spoke out against Nepal’s three key players: the Maoists, the political parties and the Palace (the King). This was the first time he pointed a finger at the absolute ruler, urging him to return Nepal to fully elected democracy to fight the Maoists unitedly. The King has been under increasing pressure from within and internationally to reach out to the political formations and break the stalemate with the political parties and the Maoists. Instead, he was royal-touring last month, the east and west of the country, acting as the ultimate saviour of the people, let down by Maoists and politicians. Barring the royalists, people are getting disillusioned by the day with the King’s actions and intentions. The euphoria with peace in Kathmandu is wearing out. The three-month unilateral ceasefire announced by the Maoists was a master-stroke which put King Gyanendra on the back-foot. It has pleased everyone, including the UN, which is scouting for a role in the Indian subcontinent. Last month, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, was in Delhi feeling South Block’s pulse on a UN role in Nepal. The Maoists, the political parties and civil society groups are inclined towards UN mediation. But India is strongly opposed to the idea. Ironically, it may turn out to be the King’s safety net. The seven-party political alliance has written to Mr Kofi Annan, urging him not to allow King Gyanendra to the UN as he is not the legitimate representative of Nepal. Similarly, several NGOs have also written to the UN expressing reservations about the King’s visit. Mr Annan has responded, saying that the UN is ready to help if all parties to the conflict agree. That is not all. Both the United Marxist Leninist Communist Party and the Nepali Congress (NC) no longer talk of “reconciliation with the King. The NC, the strongest votary of monarchy”, has removed the words “constitutional monarchy” from its statute. The King is being isolated and led up the garden path by his coterie spearheaded by Mr Sharad Chandra Shah. Others responsible for policy making are Mr Bharat Kesar Simha, Mr Prabhu SJBR, Mr Sachit SJBR and Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey. The country — only the 20 per cent of which is in government control — is remote-managed from the Palace by a quartet of confidants: Mr Pashupati Bhakta Maharajan, Mr Yogeshwar Karki, Mr Sagar Timilsna and Mr Gajendra Limbu, all bureaucrats. The Council of Ministers consisting of fossils is out there merely to inaugurate functions, market the King and Royal rule, bad-mouth democracy and the political class. Sanity and balance are being maintained by human rights activists, members of the bar, academics, journalists, artists et al, and they include people like Mr Krishna Pahari, Mr Shambhu Thapa, Mr Devraj Pandey and Padma Ratna Tuladhar. Maoist supremo Prachanda has clarified that the ceasefire has not been forced by India or anyone else. It is dedicated to the people of Nepal and is meant to facilitate their alliance with political parties. He has repeated that the Maoists will never talk to the King. Soon the political parties which had asked the Maoists to renounce violence could be talking to them about reviving the peace process. Mr Prachanda has suggested the formation of an interim government and holding of elections to a Constituent Assembly. Most, if not all, political parties have a similar or identical agenda. The problem is about a free and fair election. The Maoists have accepted a UN supervisory role. The Maoists have also announced countrywide protests from September 10 to December 3 against the Royal regime to run concurrent with the truce which they say is being sabotaged by the RNA. These protests are bound to overlap if not boost the protest campaign launched by political parties centred around Kathmandu’s New Road and are designed to break the red lines drawn by the government around the Narayanhity Palace. Supported by civil society groups, the protests would try to reenact the April 1999 uprising which forced King Birendra to yield on multi-party democracy. The Maoists can be expected to boost both the fire and lung power of protesters at a future date after the Dasain-Tihar festivals sometime late October or early November. A direct confrontation between the King (read RNA) and the people of Nepal will be the trigger for regime change. If 50,000 protesters surround the Narayanhity Palace, where does that leave the King ? Inside the Palace is one Brigade of RNA, sworn to the King’s protection. The King and the RNA, the two sides of the coin, have very little to show by way of military or political success in the last seven months of direct rule. Speculation about a military coup against the King is ill-founded. The RNA is a creature of the Palace. An angry and determined mob of people wanting to storm the Palace or simply lay a siege will not be easy to neutralise. The King would have three choices: order firing on the mob, seek a safe passage and seek a reconciliation. It may already be too late for the last option. In which case, like his brother Birendra, he may order shoot-to-kill but Birendra knew his red lines. Even before corpses begin littering Durbar Marg, the RNA may just cease obeying orders and firing. This is not an unrealistic scenario. Shades of it happened on April 6, 1990. It could be repeated on November 6,
2005. The real question is, what after that?
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Second life The
defence correspondents’ course (DCC) 2005 for journalists at Pune was my passport to living a “second lifetime”. It meant an altogether new life packed within the content that I was living by pursuing my “other passion”. I deliberately mentioned “other” because the army was and continues to be my first love. As a teenager I was fired with the mission to join the army, don the olive green, though journalistic interests lurked around as well. However, when I did “come of age”, I realised the army was not keen on women soldiers. Instead, the force would keep me cocooned in its education or signals corps. I would not be in the “thick of things”, so to say. And, I certainly wasn’t game for what was on offer. Naturally, I opted for the next most “happening” field, also my “second love” — journalism. It excited me as much, gave me the thrill the adventurer in me was looking for and, I secretly hoped, it would, one day, serve as a ladder to my destination — the army. And, six years down the line in the profession, it gave me the first brush with my first love — a feel of the army packaged with the navy and the air force as well through the DCC-2005. It was what I had always wanted and my editor had given it to me on a platter. In Pune, I alighted from the train not to attend just another course but to realise a dream. As the car wound its way through unknown roads and unfamiliar ways, I waited with bated breath and with butterflies in my stomach to enter the hallowed portals of the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla. Only a few kilometres of road separated me from my “dream destination”. A board announcing the “rising” of the NDA on the horizon a few metres away, the “No horn” boards, a barrier ahead and I was inside the campus just like that — inside the NDA that churns out men of substance, men every Indian holds in high esteem. Our car rambled on. Fellow journalists in the car continued with their banal talk, introductions et al, unmindful of how the first glimpse of NDA’s Sudan Block on the horizon was affecting me. Sitting next to them, I was experiencing a new high, was overwhelmed by my surroundings that inspired a lot of awe and admiration. Groups of cadets trudging back to the campus after a punishment trip to Singhgarh fort, boards showing pictures of birds and flowers found on the NDA campus, manicured lawns and more — everything about the place cast a spell on me. The NDA’s insignia accompanied by the motto “Cradle for military leadership” whizzed past. I thought to myself: “It could well have been ‘my cradle’ if only I was born a man.” In that one drive through the NDA, for the first time in my life and probably the last one as well, I regretted being born a
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Navigating Galileo India‘s bid to join the Galileo satellite navigation project promoted by the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA), if successful, is likely to result in several economic, scientific and strategic spin-offs for the country. The sixth India-EU summit in New Delhi recently saw the two partners sign a “framework agreement” on India’s participation. Full details are yet to be worked out, especially about the extent of India’s participation. Estimated to cost about 3 billion euros (around Rs 15,000 crore), the project aims to put 30 satellites in the medium earth orbit at an altitude of 23,616 kilometres to facilitate satellite radio positioning and navigation. Galileo is being created as an alternative to the American Navstar-Global Positioning System (GPS) and is expected to reach full operational clearance in 2008. The first satellite is in the test bed and is being readied for a December 2005 launch. The GPS has by now entered the day-to-day lexicon and in the West, GPS devices are ubiquitous, having found their way into cars, handheld computers and even mobile phones. What satellite radio navigation enables is the precise positioning of a user’s location anywhere on earth. These satellites carry highly precise atomic clocks on board, and the location and orbital paths of all the satellites are fed into the GPS device. The satellites emit radio signals and the time taken for these signals to reach the device is calculated with great precision. Such inputs from at least four satellites are collated and the users’ location can be pinpointed. Atomic clocks calculate time very precisely (they gain or lose a second in periods upwards of 30,000 years!) and can thus be used to accurately calculate your position to within a metre. Even more accurate clocks are being built. Soon, if you move the hand holding the device one foot from left to right, the satellite will know. The American GPS was developed as a military application, and was initially available to civilian users with deliberate performance degradation. The most accurate measurements were reserved for the US military. This is no longer the case. Though the services are free, there is essentially no guarantee. The US is not obliged to provide accurate services, or services at all times, or even tell you when the signals are going wrong because of atomic clock `drift’ or other reasons. “Denial-of-service” in fact, is a key character of a military system of this nature. Galileo, on the other hand, is intended to be a civilian commercial application, offering professional and certified services, with integrity and redundancy built in. The aviation sector is particularly expected to benefit. Satellite navigation can be used for all phases of flight, and a pilot using it to land, say, on a narrow airstrip at night, in bad weather, will want some very accurate positioning indeed. To provide the requisite levels of redundancy and integrity, Galileo will, in fact, tie up with the US GPS, and the Russian GLONASS, the other system in existence. An agreement to this effect was signed with the US in June last year. Signals and frequencies of the two systems will be harmonised so that users can use signals from any of the two constellations. Interoperability with the existing systems is a key selling point of Galileo. During the signing of the agreement, then US Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that the agreement “manages to balance the competition that is inherent in the commercial dimension of satellite navigational technology with the cooperation necessary for the security dimension.” International efforts to augment GPS and GLONASS already exist, like the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS-1) in which the European contribution is known as EGNOS — European Geostationary Satellite Overlay System. Galileo will go much further. Like GPS, Galileo will offer basic services free, while higher-end services with higher levels of guarantees, back-up and accuracy, will come at a cost Satellite navigation can be used for a variety of applications – location and navigation by road, ships and planes for routing, landing, speed control, guidance of weapons (the American J-DAM precision guided bomb uses GPS), law enforcement, customs, border management and surveillance. Specific applications are being developed for search and rescue operations. There are several leisure applications as well – adventurers, trekkers etc will
find it useful. Already, GPS devices are being used by hobbyists in a game. An object is hidden somewhere in a sprawling town, city, park and the like, and co-ordinates and other hints are posted on the Internet to help other players armed with a GPS device to try and locate it. What is more, even farmers can use it. A new generation of “precision farmers” in the US use GPS-guided tractors for delivering water, fertiliser, and pesticides to precise plots and sections of the farm — maybe even a single plant that has been identified as needing a little extra assistance! If India joins, it will be the fourth non-European country. China is already a participant as are Israel and Ukraine, and several other countries are in negotiations with the EU. |
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If the heart beats too fast Several
readers have asked recently if their hearts were beating too fast during strenuous cardio exercise. Should they worry if their heart rates exceed 90 percent of maximum? (First, the inevitable caveat: We are not, how you say, cardiologists. If you are not healthy generally — or if you have or are at elevated risk for hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol or coronary heart disease — your physician is the person best qualified to answer this question. And no matter who you are, if exercise causes dizziness or chest pain, stop what you’re doing and contact a doctor.) OK, then: In healthy, active people, the news is good. The body has mechanisms to prevent you from hurting or killing yourself by overdoing cardio exercise. If you are moving along at a fairly comfortable pace —and even punctuate it with hard sprints that make your heart spike briefly — your heart will beat in a safe range, no matter what the number on the screen says. “You cannot sustain heart rates above about 90 percent of your maximum heart rate for more than a few minutes,’’ said Barbara E. Ainsworth, a professor in the Department of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences at San Diego State University and a fellow with the American College of Sports Medicine. Fatigue will force you to stop exercising well before you have a cardiac event. The concerns about apparently off-the-chart heart rates come from the fact that the popular calculations of maximum heart rate, or HRM, are blunt instruments. The widely accepted HRM formula of 220-minus-your-age —that’s the one you see on the cardio machines at the club, which is where most of this mischief starts — can be off by a dozen or more beats per minute based on genetics: Some people’s hearts can pump quicker than others. Further, running generates a higher HRM than cycling, rowing or swimming, because running engages more muscle mass. So maxing out on a treadmill will yield an HRM up to six beats higher than that on a bicycle and up to 14 beats higher than what you could reach swimming. A formula (for running) shown to be more accurate than 220-minus-your-age is 217-minus-(0.85 x your age), but that still doesn’t account for genetics. No matter how precise the math, you still may see numbers on the treadmill’s screen that are scary-high only because your heart rate naturally differs from the norm. The bottom line is that no matter what the number says, your body will make you quit before you can do damage. It’s always safe to use the “talk test’’: If you can hold a conversation, just barely, while you’re working out, you’re in a zone that will improve your cardiovascular fitness. Once you get strong, add intervals —brief, harder bursts of effort — to make your heart-lung apparatus even more efficient. As you improve, try to add intensity or time to your intervals, and trim the recovery periods in between. But don’t worry about the number on the screen. Take it to a numerologist for a reading, or use it as your locker combination. Or bet the numbers in the lottery.
— LA Times-Washington Post |
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Chatterati Hello! All the tortured men of India! Next time if your wife tortures you in the garb of dowry or wife beating or nags you like hell day and night, in other words if the new confident liberated Indian wife is making your life living hell just grab the phone and contact the “men’s cell”. Signboards of “men’s cells” are all over the Capital. The male is of course, not quite sure how to handle the modern self-sufficient woman. The he-man is actually perturbed today. So these cells claim to be doing a great business already. The board says “Dehej kanoon kei aar main, patni saataye to hamein abhi batayen, sirf likhen milen nahin”. Expanding Parliament Since all political parties are not keen on the women’s reservation Bill, the Lok Sabha might not have to move out to a bigger place, which may be the big domed central hall. Not sacrificing their 33 per cent for women, the government floated the idea of simply increasing the size of Parliament by having extra seats for women. Not all are keen on a mammoth Lok Sabha also. To begin with, it would need a major delimitation exercise to create more constituencies. This will delay the reservation Bill itself. And then where will these 825 MPs sit. The proposal will also mean adding some 125 seats to the 250-member Rajya Sabha. So according to the Home Minister, the Rajya Sabha will move into the vacated Lok Sabha chamber, while the Lok Sabha will shift to the
central hall. The central hall is used for informal interaction between MPs and senior journalists. It is also where political gossip is picked up. Now to handle all this, wonder what the Speaker will have to do. Maybe our MPs will start behaving themselves in front of so many women. How cricketers
invest Cricket heros’ whether they perform or not, make enough through advertisements and right investments. Today’s cricketers are an intelligent lot. So they have invested their hard-earned money in interesting ventures. Sachin Tendulkar opened a restaurant called “Tendulkar” to serve his special favourite dishes to the world. A complete foodie, this batsman dispatched his chefs to London where they learnt to make lobster, spaghetti at the blaster
master’s favourite restaurant there. Saurav Ganguly opened his own Maharaja’s Durbar and made Sachin do
the opening. Zaheer Khan opened a multi-cuisine restaurant “ZKs” in Pune. Cricketers and Bollywood here wooed each other at the opening Bhajji gave his fans in Chandigarh about hair care. Now Anil Kumble has a cricket software company with his brother. His firm provides the BCCI with data. Kapil has his own hotel in Chandigarh,
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From the pages of THE MONROE DOCTRINE The Monroe Doctrine was formulated some 80 years ago with a view to protecting America against the encroachment of Europe. But within recent years it has undergone a change of meaning. It is now interpreted by several inhabitants of the United States as a legal claim to exclusive possession of the whole of the American Continent. As a matter of fact, the bulk of American opinion appears inclined to the view that the Monroe Doctrine of “America for the Americans” should apply to commerce as well as to politics. This idea found a practical manifestation in the creation in 1889 of the Pan-American Congress, which held its first Conference at Washington. This year the Pan-American Congress held its third Conference at Rio de Janeiro, the capital
of Brazil, on the 25th July last.
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There is not good in most of their private conference, except those who enjoin charity or justice
or reconciliation among people: and whoever does that, seeking the pleasure
of God, will be given a great reward. — Book of quotations on Islam Cry to the Lord with an intensely yearning heart and you will certainly see him. People shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children. They swim in tears for money. But who weeps for God? — Ramkrishna If a good thought guides your action, be sure that happiness will follow you like your shadow. — The Buddha Enjoy whatever work you do. Put your best in it. Feel happy when it is well done. When you work like this, you are doing God’s work. The satisfaction you get is the feeling of heaven. — Book of quotations on Hinduism
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