I DO, WHY YOU

                                                

Of late, the overall political scene in the country has suddenly turned hot on the issue of conversion. So far it was going on silently. The missionary religions like Islam and  Christianity in particular were having a field day in India. They applied all types of tricks and allurements to lead the lower strata of the Hindu society to garden path to come to their fold. Thus the Muslim population rose so fast that they carved out two separate  Islamic countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh with over 400 million Muslims. In Kerala they forced the state govt to make a Muslim majority area a separate district of Mallapuram. Entire Northeast is almost converted to Christianity and these neo-converts are so intolerant that they create problems for non-Christians. The situation in the hilly belt of MP, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal is worse where the Christian missionaries with well established educational, health and other institutions  have enjoyed a field day so far as the conversion is concerned.

To the dismay of these missionaries, now the Hindus have realized that if they remained in slumber, the 82% Hindus will be reduced to 42% in near future. The Christians and Muslims took advantage of the Sanatan Dharm not giving entry to other religionists. The Arya Samaj took a lead by starting the movement of ‘shuddhikaran’ under which a non-Hindu could be ritually purified and readmitted to its fold.  The Arya Samaj, RSS and many such outfits spead in far-flung areas and started educating the locals about their own  great culture and warning against misleading propaganda of others. Meanwhile it has transpired that huge money is being pumped into missionaries in India by different churches in the West to carry on large scale conversion.

The Hindu outfits know that the present Muslims and Christians are all Hindu converts. So they are reminded of their past and persuaded to come back. This call is called ‘ghar vapsi’ (home coming). This has antagonized the above missionaries. Their job has become tougher because they are not finding new preys easily and facing the problem of keeping the old flock together. They charge that the Hindus are doing so under duress. Arun Shourrie, the then BJP/MP had placed Christian texts in the Rajya Sabha to prove how the illiterate and poor Hindus were cunningly made Christians. The real cause of Cristian and Muslim anger is ‘I do, why you”.    

DOES IT CONCERN ANYBODY

Some developments of the last week in the world have connotations which may disturb any thinking mind. However, I personally feel that present generation, particularly down with the hit of opium (‘religion), cares a fig for the other social sensibilities. Where this crude thinking will lead us to, have we ever cared to gauge?

What happened on Dec 16 in a Peshawar army school? Just cold blooded massacre of 132 innocent students. In today’s educated families, where one or two-child norm is practiced, losing such a priceless issue simply brings killing shocks to the parents. What were the crimes of those minors except that they were the wards of militarymen? Some of them could have shown their talents and made Pakistan proud. Are not these butchers worse than the Nazis? Pak army has gone whole hog for reprisals. India has assured its moral support. Afghanistan is also ready to cooperate. Pak Govt. has forsaken its hesitant attitude and ordered quick hanging of over 8,000 such convicts. But the lingering question is are these sufficient? It is a global problem and the matter requires global reprehension.

We know that the present Govt in India enjoys a clear-cut majority in the Lower House. But against 132 opposition strength, it has only 88 seats in the Upper House. As a result, the sullen opposition has made it a point to chastise the ruling party on every issue. In this funny tug-of-war who wins? Ultimately the nation loses and the voters are just flabbergasted.

Today when the West Asia is suffering under prolonged social and political upheavals, Europe almost kneels down due to economy melt down and South East Asia is also perturbed by the sluggish economic growth, there are countries engrossed in other games. While China is spreading its wings to deserve a super power status, Russia is caught in an unprecedented economic collapse. The China-like chase for super power position for the USSR/Russia has brought the country to this sorry state of affairs. Its Rouble has crashed so badly that the country is on the brink of an imminent break-down. Is it not like a joke to hear from President Putin that he is presently in love? Putin, an ex-KGB professional is  one of the top rich in the country. We wish him to decide which should get preference, love, personal business or national economy. 

SIDELINES OF MARRIAGE

                                  

There is an old saying that marriages are decided in heaven. Who and when said this? Imagine about our forefathers of lakhs of years ago leading a bestial life and hardly ever thinking that in future, sex life of human beings will be channelized by an institution, known as marriage. Where was that heaven or God those days?  If the first man was born (according to some historians) some 14 crore years back, where was this superman then and why he could not conceive the idea in the heaven of finalizing marriages?

By far the marriage was brought into vogue by the men who left the forest life in third millennium BC, had his own house and decided to lead a family life. In entire human history, the God, whether He is there or not, has proved to be the oldest and greatest policeman. Even today, several crimes are not perpetrated because it is construed that He punishes such anti-social elements. As a matter of fact these early men wisely thought that the open sex would disturb social equilibrium and so decided to allot one woman to every man. So that each remained loyal to the other, they applied sacrosance to this institution by declaring it to be the heavenly will. It was such a lopsided decision that the husband was supposed to be next to God and the wife could arrange her deliverance by  ungrudgingly serving him. In last two hundred years, the advent of modern education has encouraged the fairsex, always at the receiving end to challenge this injustice.

A man in most of communities can practise polygamy but not a woman. On the death of the wife, the man can easily re-marry. If the husband dies even two days after the marriage, the innocent Hindu bride will have to lead a stoic way of living lifelong. What is her fault if the bridegroom died in an accident or some natural calamity? Widows in such societies are hated like a cursed lot and are forcibly kept away from festive occasions. Remember the inhuman ‘Sati”. They cannot opt for any colour other than white, cannot touch non-veg food and cannot make-up to make themselves presentable. Can a man be subjected to these cruelties whose wife died? Obviously the womenfolk are so outraged as they being physically inferior, cannot resist. Moreover, due to lack of education and being shrouded in blidfaith, they  tune themselves to thinking that the heaven had fated them to be so.

Let the society come boldly forward to relieve them from this predicament. We will have to realize that if there is any God in this nuptial knot, He cannot be only for men. Marriage is just a social institution consummated by men for its smooth running without any providential interference. If meeting together of a boy and girl is welcome, why when they cannot smoothly go ahead, separation should be equally easy and healthy? If the man is fatally diseased, morally wretched or having some highly objectionable traits in his personality, the other party has every right to bid adieu. The modern marriages are done in courts and so are the divorce cases. Unfortunately, the divorce is not treared honourably in our society. It is a legal arrangement to come out of a problematic wedlock which has gone beyond redemption.

To conclude, we wish every boy and girl to be happily married but also suggest that in the eventuality of disturbed conjugal life, there is no harm in trying peaceful and legal separation. So, if marriage is heavenly, so is the divorce.    

CONFUSIONS ON ECONOMIC FRONT

                                                Since Narendra Modi came to power on May 26, 2014, the opposition has been castigating the regime for not ushering in the ‘achchhe din’. The opposition has a role of criticizing the government, but that does not mean that nothing really has been achieved on the ground.

After six months, one can find different perceptible encouraging indications on the economic front. In the beginning, onion tried to make consumers weep like one had seen in Delhi when Smt Sushma Swaraj was the Chief minister. However, the NDA Govt at the centre took some emergent efforts including an effective ceiling on its export and detrreents on its hoarding which kept the consumers smiling. The sky rocketing prices of consumer goods did not immediately go down which allowed the critics to further murmur. Once again the regime threw itself whole hog into the task and thus favourable results started accruing.

Not only the availability of household goods but their prices too stagnated for sometime and started going down. This trend fortunately continues.Prices of petrol and petroleum products which were harassing the people, have gone down at least four times under the present regime. The work culture including punctuality  in offices is a welcome change which has among others been also appreciated by the US President. If the militancy in J&K and the mischief of Left extremists are ignored, the overall social peace is paving the way for developments on all fronts. The Sunsex, roving above 28,000 mark can make the nation proud. The only objectionable angle is the losing cost of public sector shares. Does not the govt need tightening the grip over this sector? Inflation has definitely fallen appreciably but the industrial growth deserves further augmentation.

Despite this almost rosy picture, what is disturbing the people is that the real benefits of these salubrious indications are not reaching the mass in right measure. In this backdrop, we can simply pat on the back of the policy makers but at the same time urge upon their implementation wing to improve the ground level distribution mechanism.

WHY GITA ALONE

                                                                                                                 -Bageshwar Jha

Hailing from a pious Brahmin family, even though cursorily, I stand exposed to common household Sanatan Dharm scriptures including the Shrimadbhagvat Gita from my childhood. At that immature stage, to me they were just sacrosanct and nothing beyond. In my daily routine was invariably included recitation from these religious texts as well as several other ‘mantras’. As a gullible lad this brief daily recital convinced me that the Lord would remain kind and shower boons on me.

However, since I had gone across teens, one serious doubt started harassing me as to why all mantras ended with  some demand to be fulfilled by the divinity by virtue of singing the same. Why one should always pray for some material gains? Does not that beget a cult of beggary? Is not the Lord all-knowing and omnipresent? Then why should a true follower remind Him of his each need? You talk about any mythological classic including the Rigveda, they have nothing more than praises of the deity and benefits of their recital. Will only the recital of scriptural texts build a nation? Recently an Indian philosopher deeply lamented that these ‘bhajans’ had hardly any constructive aspect for the solution of people’s problems and nation-building.

In the backdrop of above syndrome, the Gita stands alone because the thrust point dealt in there is allaying of confusion of Arjuna who represents the community as a  whole. This new interpretation dawned at me when in mid-sixties I read Gandhi’s commentary on this masterpiece (in Gujarati), translated into English by his secretary Mahadev Desai. Krishna just advises him to go  for the unattached karma. But he warns that ‘kin karma kin karmeti kaviyopyatra mohitah’ meaning that even the wise are confused about the real colour of karma and akarma. So long the man assumes that he is the doer, he is swayed by its good and bad results. He should think that only action is his right (karmanyevadhikaraste) without any attachment to the result (mafalesukadachana). This great message looks very simple but is very difficult to practise. Obviously in our daily life we just start any work only after foreseeing the result. Gita tells us just to reverse the order. It is difficult but possible through practice.

The scholars say that the Ramcharit Manas starts with ‘bhakti’ and ends with ‘gyan’ (Uttarkand). Quite contrarily, the Gita starts with ‘gyan’ and ends with bhakti viz. total surrender (mamekansharnambrja). Let us not once again get involved in complicated jargons. We have to simply remember to do karma (only which we can do) and remain detached from the result (which is beyond our competence). It will make our life simple and smooth. Gita does not falsely assure that its recital will make you happy. It prescribes no escape from duty. That is why it is emphasized: ‘gitasugitakartavyaih kimnyaishastravistaraih’. Do not go to the details of different shastras, just follow Gita alone! 

WHILE ON MY HOME TURF

                             

                                                -Bageshwar  Jha

Hi, I am back to the national capital after a nearly two-month long sojourn to my native village in Bihar, perhaps the longest stint there since I left the village for studies in a high school in 1954. Believe me, during this period I missed you all, all the time. The purpose was to get constructed my house as after partition with brothers, I was given a vacant piece of land reducing me to the status of a person without a roof on his head. But the stay was eventful in many ways.

In fifties, only a counted few had shoes or woollens. Today you cannot see anybody without a chappal at least. The colourful pullovers put on by males and females of all ages has added colour to the life of the community. Previously every landlord, big or small had bullocks to plough the arable lands. Today, about forty tractors have banished the oxes. Labour being costly and scarce due to their flocking to Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra, the landlords have stopped cultivation. The people of lower rung of the society have adopted the agricultural work on the condition of getting half of the product (bataidari). As a result, the landowners have started disposing of their land to maintain themselves and neglected lot are purchasing them. They call it ditch being higher than the dam. Moreover, the distribution of foodgrains by the government on highly subsidized rates has helped the beneficiaries to avoid hard labour oriented work.

The village has metalled roads and electricity is available for nearly twenty hours a day. The economically stable families are owning TV, fridge and other electronic household gadgets. The most encouraging development from the Sulabh point of view is that the houses being constructed are invariably provided with lavatories. Attendance in schools has unprecedently gone up as the students get bicycles, mid-day meal and cash for dress and study materials. Moreover, provision of toilets in schools has reduced to the minimum the drop out syndrome, particularly of girl students. People of all shades appear trained in parliamentary system and they have become cunning enough to teach a bitter lesson to non-performing politicians. The new crop in politics has realized that they cannot exist without delivering. The erstwhile downtrodden have turned so self-respect minded that even the affluent ones cannot dictate terms. Are not these small things indicative of India having progressed during last over six decades of independence?

Yet there is one more point, I would like to mention here. I have been attending Vidyapati jayanti celebrations in different cities of India either as an audience or an important somebody on the dias. However, I had never an opportunity to attend this function at Darbhanga, the heart of Mithila. Being a small time writer with publications in Maithili, the literary people there know me. So I was invited to attend that 3-day function on the second day, viz Nov.5, 2014. It was a national seminar in which I was to make a presentation on the history of Maithili dramas in and around my native village. Some other forty scholars had also made similar presentations which were all published in book form and released there by Justice Dharni Dhar Jha of Patna High Court. We also spoke on the theme before the august audience.

In hindsight, thus I realize to have missed a lot on account of this disconnection with my birth place. Did I do so deliberately? I would like to quote a sher of a famous Pakistani poet: ‘duniyan ne tere ishk se begana kar diya, tujh se bhi dilphareb hai gam rozgar ke’.    

INADEQUACY OF A YEAR

                                               

The 28^th of September alone every year  is famous for different national and internal events. We know that melody queen Lata Mangeshkar was born on this day. Shahid-e-Azam Bhagat Singh’s  birth day also falls on this date. Recently we have declared to observe it as the ‘Daughters Day’. Somebody was referring two more events related to this date.  Similarly there may be several more dates having over a dozen of important events associated with each date. Who will remember them and organize functions accordingly?  The question arises, are we making a fun of observing a date?  

There are 365 days in a year. Everybody has to observe birth and death days of himself’ his family members and relatives. Then add to them national and international days. In addition to that in Sanatan Dharma, almost every day of the week is associated with some deities or rituals. Additionally, if he has faith in astrology, which in general most of us have, he will have to trace the connotations of a day from these angles. If it is Bhadra, no auspicious work will be started. On a particular day, one should avoid journey southward. Similarly it applies to all directions. Thus, the total events of a year will rise to thousands, each date having the share of about a dozen or so.

Despite Valentine Day, Mothers Day’ Fathers Day so on and so forth, do we find that love, respect and compatiability in the family and society have increased? Say when the observance of these days was not in fashion, people lacked love and respect and were always fighting against each other? Delhi, which of late has started becoming highly festive on New Year Day, Valentine and Sisters Day, has also become notorious as the rape capital. Why this contradiction?

Some days back, I was reading a spiritual commentary in which the writer tried to explain that instead of adopting some good qualities in our day-to-day behaviour, we stage a ‘tamasha’ and be happy. We cannot adopt truthfulness and compassion of Gandhi and Buddha and  so we idolize them and put in the category of divinity to falsely convince ourselves that these qualities are not for human beings.  

JEALOUSY THY NAME IS HELL

                                  

Jealousy is a common trait of majority of mankind. What is it ? In the world, broadly speaking , there are two categories – one performs and the other decries.  When somebody is succeeding and the other, who lags behind, does not like the performer, he is the example of a jealous person.  Such persons either do not work or their effort lacks the dedication which takes one to the summit. Instead of honest attempts, they also take resort to shortcuts. Most of this lot does not accept the challenge of trying again and again and simply turn into a jealous class.

When there is a game or sport, say sprint, the hardest trying player wins gold. Somebody had said, ‘We do not get silver, instead we lose the gold’. The losing ones go back to their club and increase their efforts to come up on the top next time. On the other hand, many of them complain that the judge/umpire was biased, rules did not suit them, the climate was bad, the crowd was parochial, so no and so forth. Sometimes a few charges could be true but not all. Such decriers may be treated as jealous.

The best example of this scenario can be seen in history when the courtiers of a monarch were proverbially jealous of one another. The king kept the best brains in the court who could give the best suggestions for enhancing governance. One thing was very clear that they tried their best to block the entry of any new talent in the court and pulled the legs of the co-courtiers so that they could not succeed in going in the goodbook of the king. Particularly in the courts of the Mughal emperors, we hear and read the story of secret plots to defame the competitors and ensure their banishment from the court. Often the queens, harem ladies, eunuchs and other such personnel having access in the durbar were involved in such well planned conspiracies. One courtier was willing to be one-eyed if it turned the enemy blind.

Jealousy has triggered off wars in the history of mankind. If we do not wake up to restrain this self- destructive feeling, the devastating encounters will continue to torment mankind. So it requires to be curbed.

STAND UP AND SIT DOWN

                            

You may be knowing that the elephant is the strongest and  the horse is the animal with the best stamina. But both of them do not sit or lie down during day time. Can we affod to do so? If we try, we can definitely do that but at the cost of  bodily injuries. The above two animals are doing so because of their genes. The nature has endowed them with this quality. On the other hand, the man has activities involving both sitting and standing. However, when the balance between the two is disturbed, it brings in its wake pain, stiffness and several physical and mental ailments.  

Acharya Rajneesh once said that behind every physical labour, there is a defective notion that the individual thus would amass so much of wealth that not only himself but his children would also gracefully live without moving their hands and legs. So he struggles for years, earns sufficiently and then loves to be sedentary which begets multiple diseases, denying him the happiness from his hard earned money. Unfortunately heavy body and no work in our society, till recently, were treated as the traits of belonging to an opulent family. People around him appreciate his this extraneous show off.

The modern medical science says that the sedentary and cosy living invites several life-style diseases. What happens is that while working, our metabolism is activated. On the other hand while sitting or sleeping, body functions like respiration, blood circulation, digestion etc. become slow. If this situation is allowed to prevail for long, these bodyl mechanisms start gowing weak and ultimately malfunctioning. That is why, you might have seen high executives standing up from the chair and reading papers. They develop a healthy habit of avoiding lifts, if possible and attending calls on mobile in standing or moving position. The prolonged sitting, which was slowing the body functions, start getting reactivated. If one sits continuously for more than an hour, he should get up or move for at least a couple of minutes. People who exercise for an hour, are in a false world of satisfaction and keep on sitting or sleeping for the remaining hours of the day. They should also several times  reverse the order by standing up. Post- lunch stroll is a good habit.

   Similarly, due to professional compulsions or reasons otherwise, the people who stand longer, are suggested to sit down. In 1970s, when I was in Jamshedpur, I had seen workers of machine tools section, Tisco and assembly section of Telco doing their duty by and large in a standing position. I personally know that most of them had joint pains in feet and waist. There was hardly any even working arrangement to provide the break. I have read about a similar situation in Europe at the time when the first World War started in 1914. The workers in ordnance factories were ordered to multiply production of arms and ammunitions, of course on war footing. As a result, they kept on working in standing position for a much longer period beyond the stipulated duty hours. There the hospitals were full of patients suffering from body stiffness, joint pains, mental heaviness and several other ailments. The govt., under pressure had to provide stools, benches and such other things so that the workers could take brief rests and revive their energy.

The above brief account is there to emphasise that for men, there should be a balance between activity and rest. So if you are sedentary, stand up and if you are the standing lot, sit down. Follow this small tip and ‘khul kar jiyo’.

SAY NO TO STRESS

                                                  

Thinking  is a part of our mind. Thousands of thoughts come and go daily. It is a continuous process of a living mind. But when an individual is over obsessed with a particular thought, on mental level, he is virtually cut off from the world around and he is treated as a stressed man. He knows that by simply remaining shrouded in that particular idea will neither minimize nor remove the problem, but somehow he just cannot come out of that mental labyrinth.

In this connection, while reading a Hindi newspaper, I came across a very good analogy defining stress. I prefer to share with others who might have missed the daily. The teacher had to explain stress to his students. He held a glass of water in his hand. He held it for a minute and put it back. Nothing happened. Then he said that if he held the glass for an hour, he would have got stiffness and pain in his hands. He added, if he kept the glass in his hand for 24 hours, he might get pain, stiffness or even that part of the body could have got paralysed. Similarly, he advised, if a stressful situation overtakes you, drop it as quickly as you could. Nothing will happen. But if you allowed yourself to be haunted by that incident/thought indefinitely, you would start going closer to your end. You will have to convince yourself  that just continuously thinking about a problem brings no solution.

The Sanskrit word for stress is ‘chinta’. The word basically means thinking as well as over thinking on any situation. Our ancestors were aware of this silent but killing ailment. Therefore they said, “chinta chita samakhyata”, meaning that the stress ultimately takes one to crematorium. Though to start with it is just a thought, prolongation of which is sanguine. Every sane person has to remain ever alert against this sugar- coated poisonous pill.

NECTAR FROM GITA

                                                               

From my student days itself I have been reading this great inspiring book and every time I read it, the realization dawned that earlier I knew nothing. I agree, those days I recited its ‘shlokas’ just as a part of the daily religious chore.  In this context I read the most authentic Shankarbhashya and books by Gandhi, Vinoba, Tilak (only partly) and listened to scholarly discourses by several eminent persons including Swami Chinmayanand. The most recent link in the chain was the discourse by Smt. Jaya Rao, in the Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi. Without any attempt of devaluating the views of the above scholars, I admit that her simple style of interpreting the verses of the chapter XiV of the epic, almost overwhelmed me.   

According to her, the Bhagvad Gita helps achieve excellence in the world. It also takes us beyond, to the state of Enlightenment. It makes a thorough analysis of human being, identifies the areas of weakness and removes them.

Every human being is made of matter and spirit. Matter is of three distinct hues called gunas or qualities. They are sattva (purity), rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance). The gunas determine the qualities of thoughts, emotions and actions in a person. Together they bind us to the world. Like the three primary colours red, yellow and blue that mix to create all colours, the combination of the gunas create the infinite variety of beings in the world.

Tamas is the state of inertia and indifference. In this state the best qualities get shrouded and our inherent talent is prevented from manifesting. Rajas is a state of stress and agitation brought about by greed , craving and lust. The incessant desire-driven activity and the resultant agitation of the mind result in mediocrity. Sattva is tranqullity of mind when one functions at one’s best. This is the state that all executives, , sportspersons and professionals in every field of activity strive for being in the ‘zone’, performing at peak levels. However, nobody knows how to achieve it. The Bhagwad Gita spells it out clearly and simply so that every one can operate out of one’s sattva while marginalizing and eventually eliminating the rajas and tamas within.

Quite interestingly, she also explained Gita’s four castes (Chaturvarnyan maya sristan gunkarmvibhagshah) in the light of three gunas. One who is satisfied in his intellectual pursuit and distributing that is a Brahmin. The person who is in greed and arrogance, indulges in actions and is defined as a Kshatriya/Vaishya. On the other hand one who does not know what he is doing and roams in his state of ignorance is a shudra. She lamented that this quality based social division deteriorated later into determination of caste by birth.

Every being has three gunas. You come up with peak performance when sattva predominates. When rajas prevails greed, disquiet and hankering weigh you down. And when tamas reigns supreme, you are overcome with delusion, heedlessness and inertia. One step ahead, the relative strengths of the gunas also determine the environment one goes to after death. A sattvika  person progresses, the rajsik one moves within a narrow band while a tamasika person goes downhill.

( What I feel, this magnum opus of Vyas, if exposed to the public at large in such a persuasive and easily comprehensible manner, the message will easily reach the entire globe).   

MOBILE'S DANGEROUS PROFILE

                                                

A couple of years back, when I was at my native village in Bihar, I was surprised to know from my co-villagers that of late the region had been losing some birds like crows, sparrows and ‘neelkanth’.  When I enquired about the likely reason, they emphatically mentioned that the syndrome was caused after the mobile towers were installed. Subsequently I learnt from other sources that the people living close to such towers were getting exposed to carcinogenic complications. As a history student, I cannot boast of the  knowledge of the involved  biological technicalities. However, the issue kept on haunting me since then till I attended a talk by an internationally acclaimed expert on the topic.

Under the auspices of the Synergy Environics Ltd, New Delhi, this talk was organized in the local India International Centre auditorium on Sept.15, 2014 evening with its Managing Director, Shri Ajay Poddar in the  chair. The speaker was Dr. Dariusz Leszczynski, an expert on biological/health effects of mobile phone radiation and one of the experts of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) involved in classification of cell phone radiation carcinogenicity. He is also an Adjunct Prof. Of University of Helsinki, Finland. The topic of his speech was “Cell Tower and Moble Radiations – Perceptions, Threats and Solutions”. At the outset Shri Poddar introduced the speaker to the august gathering consisting of knowledgeable persons of the discipline as well as several executives of mobile operating agencies.

 In his scholarly talk, Dr. Dariusz said that every week, there are media reports in India on the issue of Electromagnetic Radiations from mobile Transmission Towers and Mobile Phones being harmful to human health and constant exposure to them causing Cancer etc. We also come across articles presenting a completely different side of the story, which say that there is no conclusive evidence on any harm to health from these radiations. This creates a lot of confusion in the minds of people as they don’t know what to believe. So much more clarity is required on this front, he added.

He further mentioned that due to the mounting concern about the possibility of adverse health effects resulting from exposure the wireless communication devices like cell phones and towers in the world, a Working group of 31 scientists and experts from 14 countries was formed in 2011 and they met in France to assess the potential health hazards due to such radiations. In May 2011, based on the data and studies presented by them , the IARC, a part of the World Health Organisation (WHO} classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans, based on increased risk of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use.

The speaker, who has been working in this field since 1996 revealed that there have been two more such authentic researches which concluded that the information collected were not conclusive. However, there are several indications to ascertain risk factors. He said that health meant both physical and mental wellness and the heat from such communication radiation was generating risk factors. Sh. Arvind Sawant, MP/RS/Shivsena who came to release a sticker to be pasted on mobiles like the warning on cigarette packets, informed that he knew a family of three sisters in Maharashtra, who caught cancer after they allowed a relay tower to be installed on their house.

Based on the above slightly jargonic account, I am quoting some dos and donts for the common users so that they can observe  necessary precaution. As the speaker himself said that our society has gone too far with the moble and so any return is unimaginable. So precautions are the best option. According to him, for some money, we should not permit towers to be built on our buildings. Vicinity  to them has added dangers. In Europe, such towers are permitted in areas beyond human habitation. We were surprised to know that mobile’s radiation is more harming than the cell towers due to distance. Therefore, we should, as far as possible keep the instrument away from the body. At no cost school children be permitted to carry the mobile in their pockets as their physique being comparatively more tender, they are prone to be the worse victim. He also advised that besides the name being laptop, the user should observe restraint and keep it on a table avoiding more body touches. He gave a clarion call to the society to be careful with their mobiles.

HINDI DAY

                                                

Sept. 14, is every year celebrated as the Hindi Day in India and its offices elsewhere. The celebration starts a week earlier which concludes on the 14^th day of the month. Seminars, lectures, debates etc are organized to popularize the language and impress upon the people to take pride in talking in their national language. On this great occasion, let us take a bird’s eyeview of the progress made in this regard over the years.

On the international plane, depending on the number of speakers, Hindi stands on the fourth position. The  Chinese Mandarin with 955 million people, accounting for over 14% of the world population is on the top as per a survey of 2010. It is followed by the Spanish with 405 million speakers, grabbing the second position. You will be surprised to know that the worldwide known English, being spoken by 360 m. people (5.4% of the world population) occupies the third position. Since several regional dialects were recently given language status, the number of Hindi speakers dwindled.  The above language census accords fourth position to Hindi with 310 m. speakers (4.7%). Thus every time a regional dialect is recognized as a language, Hindi loses the number of its speakers. Unfortunately, under- vote bank politics, on election eves, some dialect is included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, though it may not qualify the parameters set for transforming a dialect into language status.

  The official annual functions are completed just as a formality. So it could not carve any nitche till ten years ago. However, some other reasons have sent Hindi sky rocketing. The first place in this regard goes to Bollywood. Due to highly entertaining and sensuous Hindi films, the language started becoming globally popular. Already popular in West Asia, Hindi is grabbing space in farflung USA, UK, Russia and South East Asian countries. The second reason is India having emerged as a huge market. Corporates over the world are encouraging their executives to learn Hindi. Thirdly, Indian garments, food and other aspects of culture are being imbibed even in developed countries. Our competitive education system is also attracting students from developing countries as it is costly in the West. Due to high costing medical facilities in Europe and America, patients from Afro-Asian countries are flocking to Indian hospitals. These new trends are not only generating added forex from these tourists but also giving them opportunities to pick up working knowledge of Hindi.

Our present PM, having spoken in Hindi in some foreign countries, has popularized Hindi beyond the precincts of India. We hope, he will do so even in course of his upcoming US visit. The sumtotal of all these developments is bound to procure the desired official status to Hindi in the UNO.  

NON-ALIGNMENT AND INDIA

                                         

Non-alignment has remained an integral part of our foreign policy. Despite  changes in governments, it was not allowed to be eroded. When India became free in 1947, the world politics was bipolar with the erstwhile USSR and the USA at opposite ends. By mid-fifties, the accumulating tensions between both the nuclear superpowers became known as cold war. Both the groups, either by persuasion or force tried to bring maximum number of countries in their camps. Even our next door neighbor, Pakistan joined the military groups known as NATO and SEATO, led by the USA. Despite acute political pressures from both the rival camps, India preferred to maintain equi-distance, christened as non-alignment.

However, in the wake of the aggressive border skirmishes with China in 1962, it became clear that non-alignment also somehow meant a state of friendlessness. Since then, this type of foreign policy has been getting vetted from different angles. It has been realized that even without joining any camp, we can have friendship and bilateral affinity with different countries. Our old friendship with the then USSR was fostered with this end in view. It is this remarkable change in attitude that of late we adopted a proactive policy of befriending US and sidelinig their close friend Pakistan.

In this backdrop, fresh power games have started to carve out new power centres. Today four major countries are in the race, namely USA, Russia, China and India. Some other second line stakeholders are Japan, Brazil and South Africa. China has been known for its aggressive foreign policy. Even today it has border disputes with neighbours like India, Japan and Vietnam. With its huge military might, china wants to emerge as the leader of Asia with an important role in the international politics. As a result, its neighbouring countries are feeling disturbed. As a matter of fact, at present China is being seen with suspicion about its bullying tactics. Russia, USA and India are not its friends. She wants to befriend the USA to remain unchallenged in the region. She sees india as a competitor in matters of population, polity, military, economic progress so on and so forth. So through violations of the international borders, she wants to demoralize india.

In this background, India wants the support of at least Japan and Vietnam so that it can capably take on China. In his just completed Japanese state visit, Narendra Modi lamented that even in 21^st century, when development was the need of the hour, there are some countries resorting to the expansionism of the 18^th century. His pointed efforts to impress the Japanese rulers and ensure their support are bound to leave a clear message for China. Thus, it appears quite pragmatic to follow non-alignment only to the extent that India, in the hours of need, was not left friendless.

TOILETS TOO TELL TALES

                            

Since the Prime Minister emphasized the need of toilets on the last Independence Day, the subject has assumed new proportions. Generally the neglected and least talked about toilet is suddenly catapulted into the vortex of national policy making. He advised the legislators both at central and state levels to spare their constituencies developmental funds for this urgent requirement so that within a year, at least all schools were provided with toilets. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation Movement, in his editorial of the sulabh india (monthly periodical/July 2014 issue) has given an apt and catchy slogan, ‘Let poo go to loo’. The Finance Minister has assured that by the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019, the country, which accounts for 60% of the defecation al fresco, will get rid of this bane, a cause, so dear to that great man.

A few days back, a team of documentary producers landed in the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets to do a story for the History Channel. They laid stress on me to give an authentic  data oriented presentation. I feel to share some of such interesting data with my friends. According to a World Bank survey, India is financially losing 5,400 crore dollars per year due to poor sanitation which mainly includes lack of toilets and clean potable water. It is understandable that insanitation leads to multiple diseases causing losses in productivity and  more expenses on medication. Till a decade back, 63% people in india resorted to open defecation. By now it has come down to 54%. Still the country has to go a long way. A Japanese minister, some years back had expressed that like defence, investment in sanitation is also necessary. An estimate has been made that every dollar spent on sanitation gives back eight times more benefits by way of improved health, decreased absenteesm  and saving on medical bills. Yet one interesting figure says that they who go for open evacuation, spend some time to search a spot with privacy and the sumtotal of that time means that he loses 2.5 days of his life per year. An official of UNICEF has recently said that if a school bus meets with an accident and twenty children die, it makes a front page news in all national dailies. However, he wondered that it causes no concern despite knowing that 1,400 children under five die every day in the world due to insanitation related diseases including diarrhoea which is generated by contaminated water. A recent survey in Bangladesh has revealed that lack of toilet and clean water are badly affecting the height of children.

So what is the tale that the toilet tells?

“ It is never late to have a toilet”.  What the toilet demands?

“Use me well and keep me clean, I will not tell what I have seen”.

  

SWARMUDRA

                                                    

The Swarmudra is a journal, published by the Raza Foundation on classical music and classical dance. It holds quarterly academic programmes, touching upon the above subjects on regular basis. In this chain, a new link was a panel discussion on a recent publication, named Sangeet Aur  Sanskriti on Aug. 23,2014 in the India International Centre. The book, authored by Mukund Lath was published by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. The gathering (100) included celebrities of the field including journalists and art critics like Dr.Ashok Vajpayi, Manjari Sinha, Udayan Vajpeyi, Shanta sarabjit Singh and Prerna Shrimali. Despite not keeping well, the wheelchair bound Syed Haider Raza also took trouble to grace the occasion for some time. The arrangement was that in order to introduce the book, Dr. Ashok Vajpayi  would raise questions and the author, present on the dias would respond.

Talking about the author, Dr Vajpayi informed that Shri Mukund Lath, born in 1939 in Calcutta, a professional versatile musicion is the disciple of vocal music doyen Pt. Jasraj. Writer of several books, he was awarded with ‘Padmashri’ in 2010.  Dr Vajpaayi expressed that at least in last 50 years, no such authentic and exhaustive book has been written on classical music and dance. Moreover, it is a trend setter in Hindi prose-writing, he argued. Since there was no trend of history writing in Indian tradition like in China and Greece, the present book would prove a great help to all types of professionals in the field of this audio-visual media. He mentioned that the book contains 17 chapters which leave no branch untouched. Dr. Vajpeyi wanted to know about the origin of ‘aalap’, ‘ragas’, ‘that’s’ etc. Shri Lath admitted that there were no literary sources to throw light on these aspects which were not possible as well. Once it is learnt that the ‘Swaras’ and ‘ragas’ were born of Shiva and Brahma, there are no further details.

After that the panellists like Manjari Sinha, Udayan Vajpeyi, Prerna Shrimali and Yatindra Mishra went in depth of the music and tried to explain the rich contribution of the author through the said book. At the end, some persons from the audience also raised their questions mostly about the waning popularity of our Classical music and dances which were adequately replied by sh. Lath. AT the end, the organizers informed the gathering that a similar function would be staged at the same venue after three months.    

NAMO'S INDEPENDENCE DAY (2014) ADDRESS

                                  

During  the electioneering before the last general election, when Narendra Modi addressed a gathering in Madhya Pradesh from a dais, made in the shape of the Red Fort, many of his critics including Lalu Yadav laughed it away like a pipe dream which will never be fulfilled.  A committed Modi today addressed the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort compelling  his such bête noires to lick the dust. As usual, the budget and the I-Day address of the PM are appreciated by the Parties in the govt and castigated by the opposition leaders. I was surprised to see that a TV anchor, who turned a politician some months back knows everything about politics and has claims to teach a few lessons to NaMo. Let us see the newness in Modi’s  I-Day address.

First of all he deviated from visiting every funeral place of different political leaders. He paid his tributes to the Father of the Nation and straightway drove to the venue of the main function. He avoided the protection of a bullet-proof glass enclosure and the umbrella if it rained to give a message to the gathering that he preferred to stand like any other common man. Normally Pt. Nehru was known for making extempore speeches even from international fora. Mrs. Indira Gandhi also avoided reading any written script. After her, for the first time, it was Modi who spoke extempore. Like Bill Clinton, he had important points before him which he must be glancing occasionally, obviously to ensure that nothing was left out and the sequence of topics was maintained. Of course, by now he has proved that he is one of the finest orators in the Indian politics today. The massive crowd turnout in his meetings prove it beyond doubt. Earlier similar enchanting speaker was A.B. Vajpayee.

I had seen and heard Pt. Nehru giving I-Day speech in 1963. Since then I never heard any PM not referring to Pakistan for pinpricks on borders and claiming that the Indian army was capable of giving befitting reply. Modi did not speak anything like that. He showed his magnanimity by thanking all the previous PMs due to whose efforts India stands  boldly today. He referred to only Gandhi, Sardar Patel and L.B. Shastri for their contributions and avoided to praise others just to prove his loyalty. We hope, his this boldness, commitment and farsightedness will definitely stand him in good stead to usher in ‘achchhe din’.   

KNOW THESE SUFFERERS TOO

                                 

Earlier in a post, I had briefly mentioned about the internecine war in Iraq, spearheaded by a religious fanatic group of Sunni Muslims with the objective of capturing pro-USA  Shia govt of Iraq and either to chase away the minorities or to convert them into Islam. The main minorities are the Christians and Yazidis. I am sure, some of my pageviewers may not be aware of the Yazidis without which the problem cannot be assessed in right perspective. Yazdis are basically non-Arab and an ancient group which has roots in the old Mesopotamium civilization and came to be known as a separate religion in 1,500 BC. They believe in the authority of one God and worship that. As a result, the Muslims call them ‘devil worshippers’. It is in their fate that like the Jews, they have been subjected to harsh persecutions in different countries since olden days.

Though there is no exact head counting, but it is believed that their population may vary from 50,000 to 6,00,000 and they are scattered over iran, Iraq, Turkey, Kurdistan and Syria. Irbil, the capital of autonomous Kurdistan, is the ISIS target today as it has an American consulate and the concentration of minorities like Christians and Yazidis. The ISIS supremo has not only imposed harsh restrictions of the middle ages on womenfolk, but have also stopped minors from going to schools and they are being forced to learn martial arts. They have threatened the minorities either to get converted into Islam or pay a heavy tax (like Zazia in the Mughal India) or face the bullets.

A number of yazidis have been killed, a big section fled Irbil and the rest are hiding in foothills of Syria. The ISIS demands that the Sunni dominated areas in Iraq, Syria and Kurdistan should be given to them as a separate Islamic country with no space for the followers of other faiths. The Yazidis are Kurdish speaking people who want to just live peacefully. Despite deterrent bombings of ISIS camps by the USA, the ISIS onslaughts go on unabated. Today’s news says that they have already captured the Mosul Dam and are threatening Irbil. Things are definitely taking a dangerous turn and should cause a deep concern in the peace loving people. If this Islamic anti-Christianity, ant-Shia and anti-Yazidi  fanaticism goes on unrestricted, Iraq will be destroyed beyond any quick recovery and the already thinning Yazidi population will be extinct.      

HOTTING UP WEST ASIAN FRONT

                               

The disturbing state of affairs in Gaza and Iraq are not auguring well for the world peace. Even though Israel is ready for truce, Hamas is reluctant. Hamas does not want to give any indication of it weakness by accepting the offer of ceasefire and the request of the comity of nations to concede. Its strategy is to provoke Israel to bombard densely populated areas in Gaza killing innocent civilians and warranting international sympathy for Hamas and criticism for Israel. As a result, even the post Eid ceasefire lasted only for three days and the bloodshed is back in full form. Even the UN is failing to convince the unbending Hamas. The only hope is there that Egypt, to which belongs Gaza, may try to prevail over the Hamas desperadoes. If the war went on unabated, it is rightly feared that Israel, which devastated Hamas underground bunkers, may inflict more horrifying civilian woes.

On the otherhand, the involvement of the USA in Iraqi civil war may once again break the backbone of the region to the extent that it will take years together to limp back to an economic take off position. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is not happy with the Shia ruled and American supported regime of Iraq.Its main objective  is to create a Sunni ruled state comprising the Sunni majority areas of Iraq and Syria. With this end in view, the ISIS supremo, a hard core religious fanatic Baghdadi created a ferocious band of militia which is posing a serious threat to the armies of both the countries. In the region, they have captured a number of strategic towns and are closing in on Baghdad and Irbil which has caused a great concern in the Obama administration.

Even after three years of withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq, they are still maintaining a consulate in Irbil and a small contingent of army there. The township is under the security of Kurdish army. Obama found that the water was going above head. So on Aug 7, he signed the order for intervention. Accordingly, two fighter planes took off from a naval ship in the vicinity on Aug 8 and hit with laser bombs the ISIS militia camps, destroying their arms, ammunitions and tanks. The latest information is that even today(Aug9), the bombardment continues. The situation demands an immediate intervention in favour of peace.

New Swiss Tricks to Fleece India

                               

The lion who has tasted human blood becomes more ferocious, so goes an old saying. If we examine the attitude of the developed West towards developing Afro-Asian and Latin American countries, this saying will hundred percent come true. Since 18^th century Industrial Revolution days, when they had colonized these countries, purchased their raw materials at throw away prices and sold hem back to the original producers at a high price. Did not they force Lancashire textiles on us to finish the world famed textile industry of India including the Dacca malmal clothes. They were so  cruel that they chopped off the weaving fingers of such Indian master craftsmen to create market here for their own products. The time in last two hundred years has changed but their that exploitaing mentality stands, though with some change in the methodology.

It is a global phenomenon that when the political situation in a country becomes volatile, the affluent sections divert their earnings to the banks of safer places. This has happened mostly in newly independent countries including india. The foreign money flows to these tax havens and without any efforts, their earnings continue to mount unabated. India is one of the worst sufferers as these amounts are illegal. We virtually do not know exactly about the quantum of this huge money. Under pressure from the affected countries, they have started sharing only scant information about the particulars of such thieves. The trick is to continue delaying the process.

Of late it has come to our notice that Switzerland has evolved yet another tactic to loot or resources as they know that the secrecy about bank deposits will one day get unravelled. Now they are releasing huge mass of gold, silver and coins. Through this export, they will pay back the bank account holders without alerting the native country govts. In June 2014 alone, the Swiss export of such precious metals came to Rs.26,000 crore out of which  metals worth Rs 11,000 crore came to India. It has been estimated that 42% of this export reaches Indian shores. If left alone, this fleecing Swiss tactics will badly impoverish India. Let us wake up. 

TODAY'S IMPORTANCE

                                         

It may just be a coincidence that Aug. 04 (today) happens to be a doubly important day. While the one has religious connotations, the other pertains to the entertainment world. You cannot ignore any as both are essential for the life to thrive.

Talking about the faith, it is the last ‘somvari’ (Monday) of the Hindu month of Shravan, specially known for its connection with Lord Shiva. Every Hindu, on this day tries to worship this Lord with ‘belpatra’, aak and dhatoor flowers etc. It is said that adoration to Mahadev on this special day has qualities to fulfil  all the wishes of the devotees. It is this faith which, despite being on an official visit of Nepal, promted Narendra Modi to offer prayers in the world famous shrine of Pashupatinath in Kathmandu. There were elaborate arrangements for the peaceful worship of the Indian PM. He took about an hour to propitiate the Lord. On this occasion he offered inter alia a huge cartage of sandalwood, so dear to Shiva and a good amount of cash as well. Thus he won over the hearts of every Hindu in both the countries. I honestly wish Shiva’s boons for my FB friends.

The day also happens to be the birth anniversary of Bollywood icon, late Kishore Kumar. According to me, the Indian filmworld has yet to produce a greater multi-faceted talent. We have yet to see a better singer than Md Rafi. Naushad is yet to be paralleled in music composition. Has anybody so far superseded Salim-Javed in the field of script writing? Similarly, Sahir Ludhiyanvi, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra and Gulzar are superb lyricists. There are similar other celibrities in other fields of the celluloid world. But whom you will name having all these qualitie at one places? Of course none else than Kishore Kumar. He had been a singing hero from the very beginning but towards the last phase of his career, as a singer, he gained such a height that even the most established competitors of the time were relegated to penury in lack of work. There was a comedy film named Jhumroo, produced by him in late fifties. The credit for everything in that film goes to this great artist. I wish unending peace for his departed soul.   

ONE TONGUE AND THIRTYTWO TEETH

                               

Eversince the Jewish state of Israel was created in 1948, the country has been facing stiff and repeated onslaughts from the surrounding Islamic countries, bent upon uprooting this new-born country. The Muslims of West Asia believe that the Western powers had forcefully settled the Jews from different parts of the world there by disturbing the Muslims. So they  have been waging an unending war to wipe out Israel from the world map. Different terrorist groups like Al Fatheh, Hizbollah, Hamas etc are not allowing Israel to exist peacefully. Do you know how this small state has been braving these odds ?

Israel is surrounded by 22 Muslim countries. These countries occupy 640 times more land than Israel. Similarly populationwise also the Jewish state is precariously placed as the ratio works out to 1:50. There were occasions when all of them unitedly attacked Israel and instead of nailing Israel, countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Palestine lost land to the enemy. This is so despite the fact that Israel does not maintain a regular army. Instead, the population at large including either sex is imparted intensive military training and whenever situation demanded, the government conscripted the required number of fighting forces.

By maintaining a close rapport with the USA and other European NATO countries, Israel maintains a marked superiority in the field of arms and ammunitions of the latest grade. So they are in a position of avoiding land skirmishes and strategically bombard the enemy locations and thus avoid casualties. In 1967 war, the aircrafts of Egypt were destroyed while parked on their air bases. This broke the backbone of the enemy. The huge Sinii peninsula of Egypt was occupied by the Israelites. Moreover, they do not believe in weaknead policies and unfailingly cause deterrent harm to the enemies. This has happened on all occasions in past including the present one with the Hamas in Gaza strip. As a result, the enemies think several times before becoming aggressive which has kept Israel alive and kicking so far. Is it a lesson for some other countries also suffering from religious terrorism and political extremism?

DAYA KRISHNA MEMORIAL LECTURE

                               

The second Daya Krishna Memorial Lecture was organized under the auspices of The Raza  Foundation on the evening of July 31^st , 2014 in the India International Centre, New Delhi. Dr. Ashok Vajpeyi, IAS(Retd.) presided. Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President, Centre for  Policy Research was there to give his talk on the subject, “Indian Intellectual History: Between Tradition and Truth”. In the small gathering of the elite thinkers and literateurs were included Shri T.N. Chaturvedi, former Governor of Puducherry and Smt.  Mrinal Pandey, famous electronic media journalist and a known Hindi writer. Sulabh was represented by S/Shri Bageshwar Jha and Debu Chatterjee.

Dr. Vajpeyi informed the gathering about the multi-faceted activities being carrird out by The Raza Foundation including series of annual memorial lectures pertaining to several celebrities of different fields of creativity. He also briefly apprised the gathering about some important programmes of the Foundation in coming months of the running year. Dr. Vajpaye also threw light on the towering and scholarly personality of late Daya Krishna. He recalled how as an aspirant poet in his student life he would go to Dayaji for guidance. He touched upon the brilliant academic career and a number of standard publications of Dr. Mehta also.

Dr. Mehta, in his given theme based talk also highlighted the scholarship of Daya Krishna. He expressed that in his idea he had a picture of an ideal teacher and Daya Krishna fitted in it so well that he had not seen a better teacher in all respects anywhere in the world. Dr Mehta said that in the West, Indian philosophy was being criticized for not going beyond spirituality. They wondered how Indian philosophers just ignored the material aspect which is a reality. Daya Krishna was the first person who seriously thought over this state of affairs and tried to give a new interpretation so that one would like to take interest in this discipline. He agreed that most of our heritage books including the Rigveda had hardly anything useful for the common man. He referred to different schools of Indian philosophy and its doyens like Shankar, Ramanuj,Charwak, Kabir, Aurvindo so on and so forth and a number of Western thinkers to explain the need of bringing lofty philosophical Indian ideas to the door of the common man like other branches of humanities.

The programme concluded with a lively question-answer session in which half a dozen participants including me participated. I felt honoured when in appreciation of my question, Sh. T.N. Chaturvedi, in the row in front of me took a 90 degree turn and gave a charming smile to me.

TERROR FROM TRAFFIC

                                               

For last 15 years or so, there has been a perceptible improvement in the national economy, facilitating the individuals to go for luxury items. On the top of this list is a four-wheeler. Every service holder or businessman aims at owning his own car. As a result, the number of vehicles on road has multiplied so much that incidents of road rage, accidents and blockage of pedestrian tracks have become rampant. Besides casualties, road accidents are crippling a number of people daily. The state of affairs is worsening day by day because of unrestricted number of heavy vehicles, cars and two as well as three- wheelers coming on the already congested roads.

I am in Delhi continuously since 1986. At that time, the total number of vehicles on road was 13 lakh. Within next a couple of years or so, it rose to 25 lakh. As a result, due to pollution caused by these vehicles, the air in the metropolis became so polluted that it was leading to massive health hazards. The Supreme Court intervened to remove old trucks and buses from the road and encouraged three wheels and cars to opt for CNG. This brought a definite change. One American visitor told me that in this respect Delhi was better than Washington. However the multiplying number of new vehicles on road puts the situation back to the old score. According to a latest figure, the present population of Delhi is around one crore seventy lakh. On the other hand there are 85 lakh vehicles on road today out of which cars alone are 50 lakh. The roads are insufficient to take the load, parking space is pathetically less and the rate of accidents is mounting to all time high. What should be done?

The Government and the policy making thinktank must be having solutions needing strict implementation. We can take a cue from Singapore. In that island state, everybody is not entitled to purchase and drive a car despite his paying capacity. Only very senior executives and the leaders of other sectors are allowed to have  cars whether provided by office or personally purchased. To general people, the govt encourages them to use public transport. They have an excellent system of buses and metros. Before we copy them straightway, there should be a ban on purchasing cars without a parkijg space. It will give a respite to the choked up lanes, streets and pavements. Any delay in this regard may push the problem beyond redemption.     

OSHO RAJNEESH

                               

                LISTEN TO YOUR BEING. IT IS CONTINUOUSLY  GIVING YOU HINTS; IT IS A STILL, SMALL VOICE. IT DOES NOT SHOUT AT YOU, THAT IS TRUE. AND IF YOU ARE A LITTLE SILENT YOU WILL START FEELING YOUR WAY.                BE THE PERSON YOU ARE. NEVER TRY TO BE ANOTHER, AND YOU WILL BECOME MATURE. MATURITY IS ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY OF BEING ONESELF, WHARSOEVER THE COST. RISKING ALL TO BE ONESELF,THAT’S WHAT MATURITY IS ALL ABOUT.

               

ZOO ANIMALS GETTING FATTER

                                         

I remember to have put two posts on my blog pertaining to growing incidence of obesity in the modern society, leading to life style diseases and ultimately causing health hazards. I do not intend to go into details of this trend of going fatty. What has surprised me today is a research finding that the animals in zoos are gaining weight. Another research in the USA has found that all animals, pet or otherwise, living in human company are getting their bodymass heavier. Is not it strange to find animals going human way in assuming body weight?

The zoo keepers and doctors attending on the animals have revealed that these captive animals have started suffering from life style disease like their human counterparts. They have found the animals suffering from BP, diabetes, cardiac disorders so on and so forth. The trend is also in non-pet animals like dogs, cats etc living in human company. As a result, the zoo managements have not only to manage food for their captive animals but also additionally spend on their medical care. This new side effect of better food is causing a great problem in the zoo managements.

We know that the life style diseases are caused due to faulty life style of the individuals. Straightway we can say that such diseases are the result of more nutritious food intake and lack of physical labour to digest the food. Normally diabetes, BP and coronary complications are prevalent in developed societies where food is of high quality and the man is leading a sedentary life style as almost for all domestic chores, machines are available. Exactly in the same way, zoo animals have also started suffering as they get good and hygienic food and medical aid without any movement. The forest animal cannot afford gaining flab as he has to struggle for the food for subsistence and self defence.

To cope with this problem, the zoo authorities have decided to widen the enclosures and provide facilities so that the animals can play and have fun. They have also decided to stop visitors from feeding junk food to the animals. Instead they can deposit the food in a provided container to be sorted out by the zoo keepers. Is not it a lesson for us as well?