ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends Come October, it’s a reminder, that we have completed another eventful year. Yes we have just turned 11 years young in the print media. A big THANK YOU to all our readers, patrons, friends & well wishers. Having started in Nov. 2000, it has been an extremely bumpy ride with its own highs and lows. During all these 11 summers, winters and monsoons and an occasional tsunami thrown in, we had our share of disappointments and feelings of exhilaration. It was in Nov. 2009, that Doordarshan Kendra in Bangalore, CHANDANA, called us for a live interview in their programme BELAGU (meaning the DAWN) after some readers of I & C with the in-depth knowledge of our activities informed the TV channel. Kind souls, who witnessed the interlocution with an extremely competent anchor Dr Chaitra, a practicing dental surgeon, came back with their response “Super”. It made us feel deeply satisfied and goaded us to raise the bar of our own standard of commitment. Of course there were those, wh...

OCTOBER 2nd - MK GANDHI TO MAHATHMA GANDHI Sometime in May 1893, the westernised suited booted young lawyer, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was travelling in a train, from Transvaal to Pretoria, in South Africa, on a first class ticket. On the way, in comes a railway ticket checker (TC). Finding the Indian coloured barrister, the white T.C. gives him a sharp stare. Yes he was occupying, the whites only territory. Young Gandhi tells the T.C. ‘I am holding a first class ticket’ while showing the ticket. He had a ‘ration card’ alright, but the cold stare of the T.C. conveyed ‘you are a squatter’. As the Pietermaritzburg station was approaching, a railway constable opened the door of the compartment wherein Gandhi was sitting. As the train pulled up at the station, he was thrown out of the train ‘lock, stock & barrel’, for his refusal to move into 3rd class compartment. It was past midnight. Sitting on the platform, in the cold shivering night, he wrestled within himself, having endured t...

The business called education. Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com With the going rate for a single vote in the show of strength in the Parliament and assemblies by the ruling kichdi at crores, one might wonder where does this kind of money come from in a country where the majority are still below the poverty line and the daily loss of child life due to malnutrition alone is at its peak at 6000 deaths. Each party is blaming the other for horse trading but, for the poor people all parties are the same actors on the political canvas. They all belong to one party-money making and power grabbing party-least bothered about the poor and the less fortunate. Today an honest, conscientious person can never dream of getting elected what with the established actors spending millions of rupees to get votes. No self respecting human being would venture into that arena. It will be like the puny fellow getting into the ring with a sumo wrestler. I must admit that we have had a quantum jump in our GD...

GANG LEADER FOR A DAY The Hustler and the Hustled I found it unconscionable that such a regime existed, but I wasn’t going to confront Ms. Bailey either. She was too powerful. And so while the women’s anger turned into despair, my disgust began to morph into bitterness. The Women’s list of survival techniques went well beyond ten. Keep cigarettes in your apartment so you can pay off a squatter to fix things when they break. Let your child pee in the stairwell to keep prostitutes from congregating there at night. Let the gangs pay you to store drugs and cash in your apartment. (The risk of apprehension, the women concurred, was slim.) Then there were all the resources to be procured in exchange for sex: groceries from the bodega owner, rent forgiveness from the CHA, assistance from a welfare bureaucrat, preferential treatment from a police officer for a jailed relative. The women’s explanation for using sex as currency was consistent and pragmatic: If your child was in danger of going h...

Absolute Pawar Recently, the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the Maratha strongman, not only in politics but also in wealth, acquired rightly or wrongly, had declared his wealth for public consumption. However he didn’t really know what he was getting into, when he declared his assets worth Rs. 12 crore. Response of netizens are to be read to be believed. Read on-courtesy-Delhi Times Sharad Pawar saying he has just 12 crores is like Shakti Kapoor in his films saying “All women are my sisters”. Jhunjunwala After hearing that Sharad Pawar has only 12 crores, Kim Kadarshian have also declared her assets. 36-24-36 mill microns. #fakingNews. Amaresh80 Sharad Pawar had declared he has only 12 crores. So sad. Maybe we can all send him some money… Bechara nek insaan. Tch tch tch… Actor_Siddharth Sharad Pawar declares assets of Rs. 12 crores. Funny. But in a British sort of way. Very understated. Ramesh Srivats Raju Srivastava to move priviledge motion against Shar...

Railway stunt boys attack cops with belts For train commuters, the slight of teenagers pulling off silly stunts on the moving local trains is a common sight. However, both passengers as well as railway cops have been reporting and nabbing such juvenile daredevils. Not only do these ‘stuntmen’ put their own lives in danger but also pose a hazard for other fellow passengers. And often they are brash and rude to the passengers who try to stop them from performing these crazy stunts. However, one such acrobatic duo went a step further than just being a rude bunch. The two teens attacked a constable on duty with a leather belt giving the official a grievous gash on his head. When a fellow constable attempted to stop the attack, the duo turned on him and rained blows before trying to flee. The incident took place onboard a CST-bound Thane local. Mohsin Shaikh (19) and Shahrukh Khan (20) were travelling on the CST-bound local and jumping from the gate to the top of the train by using the wind...

Indonesian escapes Saudi execution; Returns to riches & is hated Trungtum: An Indonesian maid is beheaded in Saudi Arabia. For a second one on death row, strangers at home rally to her cause and raise tens of thousands of dollars. She not only escapes the sword, she’s now rich. And hated. Darsem binti Dawud Tawar, 22, shot to fame earlier this year in Indonesia after spending more than three years in a Saudi prison accused of killing a man who allegedly tried to rape her. But when she safely returned to her small fishing village, the public tide swiftly turned against her. She’s accused of living in luxary, building a fancy house along the dusty track that passes for Main Street, throwing around cash and draping herself in the jewels. “She acts like a bling-bling celebrity now,” said Siti Patonah, a 32-year-old vendor, scrubbing apples and watermelons at a market as five or six housewives gather. “It’s true,” one says. “Like a nut that forgot its shell.” The execution in June of ...

Money cannot buy happiness Washington: Providing people with freedom and personal autonomy appears to be more important than money in giving them good health and happiness, according to a new research, reports ANI. “Our findings provide new insights into well-being at the societal level, said researchers at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand who conducted the study. “Providing individual with more autonomy appears to be important for reducing negative psychological tests-altogether, they examined a sample of 420,599 people from 63 countries spanning nearly 40 years. Fischer and Boer statistically combined the results of the different studies, noting that their analysis was somewhat unusual in that the key variables were collected from different sources and that no single study included the two variables they were considering, i.e., wealth and individualism. (Participants only answered questions regarding one of the dependent variables of general health anxiety or bur...

Fundamentalism, its different facets J.Shriyan Some moths ago there was this news item in the print media “Sikh called ‘Osama’ and attacked in U.S”. This was the story of one Jiwan Singh, a 59 year old employee of Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), who was attacked in a moving train, travelling from Richmond Hill to work in Brooklyn, on 30th May, the U.S. Memorial Day. He has been working in the U.S. for over 30 years and fathered some 5 children, all living in the U.S. But despite living in the U.S. for over 3 decades he did not compromise his practices of Sikh code of physical attributes, like turban, flowing beard etc. We have always blamed Muslims for burqua or veil. Of course all face covering veil can be a security risk. However there is a single bottom line that is identifiable by these attributes of religious diktats is the identity politics. Centuries ago when these religious beliefs started, the need for such marks of identification was felt for a particular purpos...

Fruits could help make ‘green’ cars! Washington: Scientists have developed a new way to use fibres from bananas, pineapples and other fruits to make a new generation of green vehicles. Nano-cellulose material from bananas, pineapples and other fruit can be used to make strong, light-weight, and more sustainable motor vehicle parts, the researchers found. “The properties of these plastics are incredible”, said study lead author Alcides Leao, Sao Paulo State University College of Agriculture Sciences, Sao Paulo, Brazil. “They are light, but very strong – 30% lighter and 3 to 4 times stronger than the materials used today. We believe that lot of car parts including dashboards, bumpers, side panels, will be made of nano-sized fruit fibres in the future. “For one thing, they will help reduce the weight of the cars and that will improve fuel economy. They also will help us make more sturdy vehicles”, Leao added. Researchers find possible drug target for PTSD Chicago: People with post-trauma...

CAG raps MEA for Paris project New Delhi: Rapping the Ministry of External Affairs for delaying work in Indian Chancery in Paris, the Comptroller and Auditor General said it has blocked capital of Rs 18 crore for the past five years apart from the Mission incurring a recurring liability of Rs 26 lakh per year. “Delay in implementation of project has blocked the capital of 18 crore on purchase of new building which has been lying unused since 2006. The mission has also been forced to incur a recurring liability of Rs 26 lakh per annum on rent of the Space Wing which was envisaged to be relocated in the new building after renovation”, the CAG said in its report. Despite audit findings reported earlier and assurances given by the Ministry of Public Accounts Committee, it was noticed during audit of the Mission at Paris that it took more than four years to complete the formalities in awarding the contract for renovation work, it said. Agent helped locals steal power Thane: A power theft r...

Over 37,000 villages have no mobile phones Over 37,000 villages in the country have not got mobile phone connectivity till March 2011, according to data from the telecom department. Minister of State for communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha that “37,184 villages in the country are yet to be connected with mobile connectivity as on March 2011”. The minister also said that till July 31, the stat-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has covered all district headquarters and 33,620 cities with GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) based cellular services. About 579, 486 villages, over 97 percent of the census 2001 inhabited revenue villages, have been covered with telephone connectivity through village public telephones. Shared mobile infrastructure scheme has been launched by universal service obligation fund to provide subsidy support for setting up and managing 7,353 towers in 500 districts and over 27 states. KTCL buses for disabled Pan...

Brits waste 9 million hours a year talking about holidays London: Britons waste up to nine million hours a year telling workmates about their holiday experiences once they get back to work after a break, a study has found, PTI reports. Interestingly, 17 per cent of people lie to make the stories more interesting, according to the study across nine countries by travel website 'lastminute.com'. The Irish were the worst culprits when it came to holiday blarney, the report said. They spent an average of 26 minutes re-living their holiday adventures and 29 percent admitted that they exaggerated their stories. They were followed by the Germans who gave their colleagues the holiday lowdown for 25 minutes, and the Swedish who went on and on for 23 minutes, the study found. Mark Maddock, managing director of ‘lastminute.com', was quoted by the ‘Daily Mail’ as saying, “Describing our summer holidays is a great way to re-live the experience and best the post-holiday blues. Sometimes y...