China critic is Taiwan`s first woman president

RNI No. GUJENG/2014/57876
GARVI GUJARAT
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GARVI GUJARAT
(Published Daily from Ahmedabad)
EDITOR: ASHVINKUMAR KESHAVLAL RAMI
Regd. Office: 131, Dharmnagar Society, Highway Road, Sabarmati, Ahmedabad-380 005. Gujarat, India.
Phone/Fax: (079) 2757 3307, (M) 93283 33307, 94266 33307, 98253 33307,
Volume-02
Issue-165
Email : [email protected] • Email : [email protected] • Website : www.garvigujarat.co.in
Dt. 17-01-2016 Sunday
V.S. 2072
Posh Sud -08
Page-04
Rs. 00.50 paisa
PM starts up new biz era with tax breaks, mega fund
Qaida siege kills
27 in Burkina, 2
Indians freed
Ouagadougou: Two
Indians were among over
120 people freed from a
four-star hotel and a
nearby restaurant in
Burkina Faso's capital in
Ouagadougou on Saturday
during a siege by four al
Qaeda-linked gunmen who
killed at least 23 people
from 18 countries before
being gunned down. A
total of 126 people were
freed, including 33
wounded, from Splendid
hotel, popular with
Westerners and UN
personnel, after security
forces retook the 147room facility and the
Cappuccino restaurant in
the early hours, interior
minister Simon Compaore
said. A security source
said the toll could rise.
Four jihadists, including
two women, were killed in
the counter-assault. AlQaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM) claimed
responsibility for the attack
saying it was “revenge
against France and the
disbelieving West“,
according to a statement
carried by US-based
monitoring group SITE.
GST will be done in
15 minutes if govt
agrees to our
terms: Rahul
Mumbai: Rahul Gandhi on
Saturday said that the
Goods and Service Taxes
(GST) bill will be passed in
Par liament in just “15
minutes“ with the support
of Congress once the
Narendra Modi government accepts the conditions set by his party .
During an interaction with
management students
here, Rahul accused the
Centre of not taking on
board the concerns of the
opposition on GST. “A
compromise with the
government is possible on
GST and it is by sitting
across the table, but the
government is not willing
to do so,“ said Rahul.“The
day the conditions are
accepted, we will pass the
GST (in Parliament). It will
take just 15 minutes,“ he
added. “We don't want a
GST where there's no cap
on taxes.We want a
limitation on the maximum
tax that can be charged.
Also, dispute resolution
must be fair and neutral. I
don't think its wrong of us
to say that,“ Rahul said
while explaining the
conditions put by Congress
to back GST.
New Delhi: The government on Saturday unveiled a
raft of measures - ranging
from tax waiver for three
years, ending inspector raj and
a mega fund -to help boost the
start-up eco-system. The 19point action plan, which was
announced by Prime Minister
Ahmedabad: City crime
branch sleuths and a
Telangana police team on
Saturday nabbed two persons
-Dilip Chauhan and Suresh
Prajapati -in connection with
a multi-crore international kidney transplant racket. The
Telangana police had busted
the racket in February 2015.
The arrested persons have
admitted to getting medical
check-up of over 100 people
done at a diagnostic labora-
tory referred to them by one
Dhawal Daruwala who has a
visa and travel business in
Mumbai. Those who underwent medical check-up belong to Delhi, Andhra Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu. Chauhan,
however, has denied any
knowledge of his liasoning job
being part of a kidney scam.
He said it was just seven days
back that Da ruwala had asked
him to remain silent if the
police asked him questions.
Chauhan has also told the
police hat he was not aware of
Daruwala's involvement in a
kidney transplant racket.
Crime branch DCP Deepan
Bhadran said a team led by
Inspector SL Chaudhary and
Sub-Inspector CB Chaudhary
nabbed Chauhan and Prajapati
from Gota crossroads on Saturday. “We have handed them
over to the Telangana police
team which will escort them
back to their state,“ said DCP
Narendra Modi after a daylong event, came with the
promise that the government
will only play the role of a
facilitator and not burden entrepreneurs with complicated
compliance requirements. “If
the government doesn't do
anything, so much will happen. We have done a lot for 70
years.Where have we
reached? Please tell us what
not to do.If we decide not do
anything, they (entrepreneurs)
will take us places,“ Modi said
at a jam-packed Vigyan
Bhawan in the Capital. The
prime minister had announced
the Start Up India campaign in
his Independence Day speech
last year to accelerate the pace
of creating jobs at a time when
employment growth in the
government and the brick-andmortar economy remained
slow. On Saturday, Modi who
shared the dais with prominent names from Indian startups as well as global giants
such as Uber founder Travis
Kalanick and SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son
-put in place the first building
Telangana kidney racket: Two
suspects nabbed from city
IIT prof's son kills
self after spat at home
Mumbai: The IIT Bombay
campus witnessed a gory suicide on Friday afternoon when
a 20-year-old student, the
adopted son of a senior professor of the institute, stabbed
himself during the course of
an argument with his adoptive
parents and sister. The Powai
police have, after talking to his
parents and a married elder
sister who was present at
home during the incident, ruled
out foul play and registered a
case of accidental death. While
family friends suggested that
the argument had started over
a post on a social networking
site, the police said that the
sister was counselling the boy
when he flared up. “His sister
was trying to make him understand that he was now
grown up and needed to take
TMC neta's son
was behind Audi
that killed IAF
soldier: SIT
Kolkata: Sambia Sohrab, the 24year-old son of Trinamool
Congress member Md Sohrab, was behind the wheel of the
Audi that killed an IAF corporal during R-Day rehearsal on Red
Road, the SIT said on Saturday .This is the first time police
named Sambia as a suspect in the accident, which took place
four days ago. Sambia is a businessman and spends most of his
time in China. Police have raided 10 locations in Kolkata,
including residences of his acquaintances and friends, but
found no trace of him. Trinamool was quick to distance itself
from Md Sohrab.“The owner of the car has no connection with
TMC. His father is a minor political activist elected to the state
assembly with the support of the Left Front in 2006.The culprits
must be booked,“ the party said. Police say they have clinching
evidence against Sambia.The first is the statement of a
constable from south traffic guard. “It was with this constable
that Sambia had an argument,“ said a source. Second, Sambia's
mobile phone has been tracked in the vicinity of the accident site.
care of his parents when the
youngster got angry . He went
into a room and stabbed himself in the chest before anybody could react,“ said B K
Madheshwar, senior inspector of the Powai police station.
The boy was barely four years
old when he adopted by his
maternal aunt on his parents
deaths. His aunt is married to
a senior professor in IIT
Bombay who told TOI over the
phone that “it is a personal
matter“ and he wouldn't like
to talk about it. According to
the police and family friends,
the discussion on Friday afternoon turned so heated
that the boy first tried to hit
his father. He then challenged his family saying “do
you know what I can do to
myself“ and stabbed
K'taka CM says
he didn't slap
official
(Agency) Ballari: Did
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah slap
Ballari city corpora tion commis
sioner P G Ra mesh or did he
stop him from tripping dur ing a
function in Ballari on Saturday?
TV
footage
showed
Siddaramaiah's hand near
Ramesh's cheek. But eyewitnesses, including many
mediapersons, said Ramesh,
accompanied by Ballari city
mayor Nagamma, came rushing
to the CM with a bouquet. In
the hurry , he didn't notice that
the lace of his shoe had come
loose. Trying to get close to
the CM, who was mobbed by
the crowd also trying to garland
him, the officer stepped on the
lace, lost balance and was about
to fall when Siddaramaiah tried
to hold him saying: “Don't you
know you should come slowly?“
Some people thought the CM
had slapped Ramesh.
himself.He was rushed to the
nearby Hiranandani Hospital,
but he was declared dead on
admission “due to serious
internal injuries“. The police have ruled out any property dispute or foul play ,
saying that the IIT professor had, in fact, made the
boy his nominee in all property matters. The police are
recording statements of his
friends and relatives to know
the exact cause of his act.
While some friends and
neighbours in the IIT campus
said that the boy was “always
irritable“, others said that he
was depressed.“The bizarreness of the incident shocks
and points to disturbances
within that are not easily visible to others,“ said psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty .
Bhadran. Crime branch officials said the arrested suspects were part of the scam in
which a Telangana-based doctor and his associates had
identified donors from Delhi,
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil
Nadu for patients of kidney
failure. They would arrange
for passport and tourist visa
for the donors who were sent
to Sri Lanka where illegal kidney transplant was carried out.
“Those accused have allegedly organized about 30 such
illegal transplants in Sri Lanka,
charging Rs 27 to Rs 30 lakh
for each transplant,“ said a
senior crime branch official.
blocks, by defining a startups
and detailing the action plan
to help these businesses grow.
To begin with, any entity which
has been around for less than
five years and has a turnover
of less than 25 crore qualifies
to be defined as a start-up,
provided it is working towards
innovation, development, deployment or commercial of
new products, process or services that are driven by technology or intellectual property
. If a company clears the test
conducted by a government
board, it will be entitled to
several benefits including a
three-year income tax holiday
. In addition, the government
announced capital gains tax
benefits.Although the plan has
been unveiled some of the
measures can only be implemented after the budget is
cleared by Parliament. The
policy recognises the potential that start-ups can play in
the coming years after a recent spurt which saw the number of in the technology space
jump over nine times from
501 entities in 2010 to over
4,500 last year. The increase
has come with the rise of
Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola Cabs
and Paytm, which have become household names and
attracted huge investor
interest.Currently , Indian en-
trepreneurs depend on overseas investors for over 90% of
the funding, which has been a
major area of concern.The
government sought to address
this partly through a Rs 10,000
crore fund of funds and a Rs
2,000 crore credit guarantee
fund. While the corpus was
seen to be small, industrial
promotion and policy secretary Amitabh Kant said
that the steps announced
on Saturday were just the
beginning. But even before
a start-up can claim benefits, the government promised to set up a forum for
handholding apart from
aiding patent applications.
Jaipur: Defence minister
Manohar Parrikar on Saturday ruled out allowing Pakistani investigators access the
Pathankot airbase days after
Islamabad proposed to send a
team to investigate the attack
on the air force station. “None
is coming. Nobody can come
without any information to us.
Rather, India should be allowed access to places in
Pakistan from where perpetrators had come to our
land,“ said Parrikar. The
statement came two days
after external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup
said India would “extend all
help'' to the Pakistani investigators. It came in response to
a query about how safe it
would be to share details of a
strategic defense location with
Pakistan. Parrikar said India
was attacked, lost precious
lives and has lost patience. He
added it was high time Pakistan contained terror outfits
operating from its soil. “At
least, I am short of patience
as defence minister and we
cannot tolerate it anymore,“
he added Parrikar, who was in
Jaipur for feedback ahead of
the budget, told reporters India was waiting and watching
Pakistan's crackdown on JeM
and arrests of its members.
“We are aware what is to be
done. Keep trust on us. We
cannot share everything but
we are confident about action against enemies of the
country.'' He reiterated
those harming the country
should feel the pain and
added he expects Pakistan
to take terrorists to task. “We
have taken strong steps and
you will see the difference
soon.'' Parrikar said several
measures including security
audit have been started following the Pathankot attack.
“We are conducting security
audit in two phases. Initially,
unit heads have been asked
to identify vulnerable places
from where breach could
happen and block them immediately,'' he said. “Once
units inform that they have
done the job, team of technical experts will review and
take further measures if
need be.'' Parrikar called
incidents like honey trapping of an airman “very few''
and added measures have
been taken to prevent them. “I
do not think that such things
(espionage) are at high level.
Few things came to light but
they were at lower level and
we have taken measures,“ he
said. He said ploys like honey
trap could be avoided if unit
heads are alert. “We should
be alert all the time. We take
care of it at the time of recruitment and training. There are
also clear guidelines and code
of conduct to deal with social
networking sites.'' Parrikar said
a helicopter or fighter plane
manufactur ing unit would be
set up somewhere in
Rajasthan near Delhi. He
added a final decision in this
regard will be taken by June.
He referred to online applications for recruitment rallies
and said it was feared the
number of candidates might
drop. “But the number of candidates has gone up instead,“
said Parrikar after inaugurating an Army recruitment rally.
India office, said he envisages
a triad of sectors which will
benefit from the think tank “foreign policy and security ,
politics of India's economic reforms and the rapidly developing technology policymaking
space.“ Indian think tanks too
are evolving rapidly . The best
known, Observer Research
Foundation (ORF) and Centre
for Policy Research (CPR) will
inundate your inbox, and have
increased their government
footprint in recent years. Their
playing fields mostly remain in
the realm of foreign and security policy with a clutch of
former diplomats and military
officers taking the lead in the
ideas and opinions bazaar.
There are also a growing number of organizations, like the
MEA-MOD sponsored IDSA
and ICWA, working closely
with the government in its public diplomacy outreach. But this
year MEA is working with ORF
to execute one of its three flagship events - the Raisina Dialogues in spring, and with
Mumbai-based Gateway
House for the Gateway of India
Dialogues on geo-strategic
and geo-economic issues respectively. Samir Saran of ORF
said the Raisina Dialogues this
year would feature about 100
speakers
from
30
countries.ORF has also got into
the pleasurable business of
Track 1.5 dialogues with
France, Australia, BRICS and
now Egypt.The frontrunner in
this area is the Ananta Aspen
Centre which has been running the longest and possibly
most influential dialogues with
US, China, Israel and Turkey ,
Singapore and Bhutan and an
India-Japan-US trilateral, which
paved the way for the official dialogue that started a few years
later. The government used think
tanks extensively during climate
change negotiations, where, the
space is filled by specialised organizations like CEEW, CSE and
TERI. How does the government
evaluate the inputs from think
tanks? The foreign ministry is
the biggest consumer of these
ideas from `outside'.In the last
year, foreign secretary S
Jaishankar has placed additional
responsibility on a virtually defunct
Policy Planning division. The
ministry has broken new
ground by hiring consultants
not employed by the
government.But in the new atmosphere of the state interacting with think tanks, the experience for government has not
been one of unalloyed satisfaction.
independence activities. “On
important issues of principle like
protecting the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity,
our will is as hard as rock,“ it
said. REUTERS Censor in China
worked swiftly to block any mention of the Beijing-wary politician, Tsai Ing-wen, after she
was
elected
on
Saturday.Searches for “Tsai
Ing-wen“ and “Taiwan elections“ on the Twitter-like Weibo
network turned up a message
that read: “According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, the results for this search
cannot be shown.“ AFP
Mumbai: Seven caves have
been discovered in the forests
of the sprawling Sanjay Gandhi
National Park, Borivli, on the
northern fringes of the city .
The caves are Buddhist
`viharas' (residences for
monks) with only one of them
showing the remains of a
`harmika' (the top railing of a
stupa). They are believed to
have been constructed before
the Kanheri Caves nearby and
probably served as a monsoon shelter for the monks.
While a formal approval from
the Archaeological Sur vey of
India (ASI) is awaited for detailed exploration and documentation of the new caves,
the team that has discovered
the caves date them between
1st century BC and 5th-6th
century AD.
‘Won't give Pak team
access to Pathankot base'
‘Outside ideas’ trickle in as think tanks set up base
New Delhi: With top US
think tanks setting up offices in
India, the Indian marketplace
for ideas is beginning to buzz.
This week, Carnegie En dowment announced it would be
opening its India office. It will
follow Brookings Institution
which has been around for a
couple of years now. As policymaking and the international
context evolves rapidly, the
hope is that these outside “inputs“ would help to create
more “informed“ decisions by
government. These think tanks
are coming into India at a time
when there is a flowering of
research
organisations
here.The government, for long
operating with brahminical inscrutability, is more welcoming
of ideas, inputs and research
from outside. C Raja Mohan,
founder-di rector of Carnegie's
China critic is Taiwan’s
first woman president
Taipei REUTERS: Taiwan's
independence-leaning opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen won a
convincing victory in presidential elections on Saturday and
pledged to maintain peace with
giant neighbour China, which
warned it would oppose any
move towards independence.
Tsai, leader of the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP), will be
thrust into one of Asia's toughest and most dangerous jobs,
with China pointing hundreds of
missiles at the island it claims,
decades after losing Nationalists fled from Mao Zedong's
Communists to Taiwan in the
Chinese civil war in 1949. Tsai
said she would establish “consistent, predictable and sustainable“ relations with China and
not be provocative, to ensure
the status quo.She risks
antagonising China if she attempts to forcefully as sert
Taiwan's sovereignty and reverses eight years of warming
China ties under incumbent
President Ma Ying-jeou of the
Nationalists. “Both sides have a
responsibility to do their utmost
to find mutually acceptable
ways to interact with respect
and re ciprocity and ensure no
provocation and no surprises,“
Tsai added, having taken
around 56% of the vote. She
added, however, that she would
defend Taiwan's interests and
its sovereignty .China has not
renounced the use of force to
ensure eventual unification with
the island. “Our democracy ,
national identity and international space must be fully respected and any suppression
would undermine the stability of
crossStrait relations,“ she said.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office
said the achievements and
peace of the past eight years
should be cherished, and that it
would not tolerate any Taiwan
7 ancient
Buddhist caves
found in Mum
2
Ahmedabad. Dt. 17-01-2016 Sunday
Editorial
China avalanche
stokes fears of
global recession
An avalanche of dollars exiting China threatens to smother
all emerging markets (EMs), including India, and cause a
global recession. Almost $ 600 billion have exited China in
the last six months, a mammoth $100 billion per month.This
would have emptied the forex reserves of almost any other
country , but China still has $3.3 trillion left. However, it
cannot afford a continuing outflow at this rate. Its government placed curbs on stock markets to combat crashing
values, but withdrew
these when they
proved ineffective. It
is committed to
making the yuan a
reserve currency like
the dollar. But this
obliges it to allow
capital to enter and
exit reasonably freely,
and hence risks
further capital flight. For decades the Communist Party has
firmly controlled the economy . But no more. The Chinese
avalanche has helped accelerate dollar outflows from all
EMs (emerging markets). The Sensex is down from 30,000
to 24,400. The rupee has gone from Rs 62 to Rs 67.70 to
the dollar. Yet India is the best EM performer: others are
truly battered. Worse, the prices of oil and other commodities keep falling, a recessionary portent. China has been
slowing for two years. Pessimists like Ruchir Sharma of
Morgan Stanley have long worried that total debt in China,
induced by government stimuli, has shot up from 150% of
GDP to 250%. History suggests that this will end in tears.
The pessimists sneer at official Chinese figures showing
almost 7% growth. Using alternative indicators like electricity consumption and rail freight, they argue that true growth
could be just 4-5%. However, optimists like Nicholas Lardy
of the Peterson Institute say China is simply rebalancing its
economy.Earlier, growth was driven by industrial exports
and investment. But now China wants, correctly, to switch
to an economy driven more by domestic consumption and
services. This means slower GDP, but 6-7% growth is very
respectable for an economy that in PPP terms is now the
largest in the world. The optimists say indicators like rail
freight and electricity may suggest slowing industry, but that
is exactly what the Chinese government aims for by emphasizing services. So, the optimists say, there is no crisis, just
sensible rebalancing. Six months ago, one could take either
view. But now the Chinese are voting for the pessimist's
version through capital flight. Individuals can remit $50,000
a year abroad.Some Chinese companies are investing
abroad. But over half the outflow has a political explanation.
The fleeing billions are probably the ill-gotten gains of
former Communist Party officials and their super-brats
(often called “princelings“). They are being targeted by
Communist Party chief Xi Jinping for corruption. Former
security chief Zhou Yonkang and his colleagues have been
arrested. Xi's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, and his two sons
have been placed “under control“, suggesting they may
eventually be arrested. Xi is perhaps targeting the entire top
leadership of the Jiang era. The resulting political struggle
could have serious economic consequences. Meanwhile
Global Economic Prospects (GEP), the World Bank report on
the world economy , has flagged the risk of a coming
recession. The bank is too political (all its members are
governments) to actually predict a recession. So, GEP
forecasts world GDP growth rising from 2.4% in 2015 to
2.9% in 2016, and says the chances of a recession are
low.But it then admits that EM growth has fallen below
forecast levels for years. It says that if in 2016 the EMs
underperform as much as in 2010-14, and if financial panic
like the “taper tantrum“ of summer 2013 recurs, then global
growth could collapse to just 1.8%. This will be below
the 2% widely used to benchmark a global recession.
Ultra-low interest rates in advanced economies have in
recent years led trillions of dollars to flow to EMs in
search of higher yields. A return to normal interest
rates in advanced countries could induce a huge
reverse flow out of EMs. That process seems to have
begun with the raising of US interest rates. In the
2000s, China accounted for half of all incremental
world demand for commodities. Its slowing has caused
the global demand for -and price of -commodities to
collapse. Oil is now under $30barrel, one-third of its
rate in 2014. Commodity exporting economies are in
dire straits.Brazil and Russia are in recession. Many
Asian manufacturing economies are part of global
value chains using China as an assembler, and have
also been hard hit by China's slowdown. India has been a
resilient exception since it is a net commodity importer, and
is not part of world value chains. But if the world falls into
recession, India will be dragged down too.
Garvi Gujarat
2
Amma, Didi, Behenji, Baji... and
the method in their moodiness
Mehbooba Mufti (Baji or
elder sister as she's called)
has now kept the BJP waiting
for over a week. Day after
fretful day the BJP and her own
party, the PDP, look for indications of her intent but no one
really knows when she will
take the oath as CM. The wind
in the bare chinars of Kashmir
is becoming colder by the day.
In Mehbooba's by now obvious
reluctance to take oath, in the
fast-growing stand-off between the alliance partners, in
the battle of nerves that she is
silently waging against the BJP,
the contrast between father
and daughter couldn't be
greater.Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed may have been a sharp
politician but he was a genial,
genteel paterfamilias, always
ready for consensus.
Mehbooba by contrast is angrier and less inclined to be
accom modating. But hang on
a second, how many times
have you heard the adjectives,
`mercurial', `volatile' and `unpredictable' to describe India's
women politicians from
Mamata Banerjee to Mayawati
to Jayalalithaa? Underlying the
contrast between Mufti and
Mehbooba, is perhaps a more
complex reality about women
who wield political power in
India.Notwithstanding pious
declarations of women's empowerment by netas, politics
is such a closed bastion of
male networks, and so feudal
in consigning women to the
bahu-beti trap that women can
hardly rise through the normal
route.
Instead,
unpredictability is their
weapon. They must embrace
madness and deploy a designer insanity as a tactical
ploy . By keeping people guessing they keep cadres and opponents in line. To be volatile
is to be feared and to be feared
is to rule. To keep a fractious
coalition together, Mehbooba
knows that she will have to
signal that she is no pushover
and is her own tough self. To
tame the BJP and perhaps even
dissenters in her own party ,
irrationality makes for perfect
rationality. Powerful women
in India are judged in the
harshest of terms. Mamata
Banerjee battled the Left for
decades, suffering near-fatal
blows to the head and gaining
the
image
of
a
“streetfighter“.Jayalalithaa
defied obituary writers time
and time again, enduring jail
terms to emerge as the inscrutable “amma“ of Tamil
Nadu. Mayawati's clothes were
the object of sneering male
editors who ridiculed her pink
salwar suits. A 56-inchchestflaunting male politician is
admired, yet a similarly powerful female leader is invariably dubbed a tyrannical despot. Mamata, Jaya and
Mayawati have often acted with
what might be seen as brazen
disregard for “normal“
behaviour, normal of course
defined by a male set-up
where women must be confined to the zenana of the
mahila morcha. Across the
subcontinent, those who break
out of the ladies compartment
mostly do it through the syndrome Ali Mazrui described as
“female accession to male
martyrdom“, like Sonia
Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto,
Sirimavo Bandarnaike, Sheikh
Hasina and Khaleda Zia. For
those who have to fight their
way up, the occasional rampaging Kali avatar is excellent
strategy . After all, Sita can be
ordered not to cross the
lakshman rekha, but nobody
dares to tell Kali what to do.
So the ascent of women leaders in India has nothing to do
with women's empowerment
but everything to do with
herculean, life-altering effort
and the de-womanising roles
that political women have had
to play if they want to win in
public life. This is probably the
reason none of them can afford to be seen as gendersensitive or womanfriendly.
How can they when the acceptance of womanhood is an
admission of weakness?
Mayawati and Mamata have
both been in lifethreatening
situations, Jayalalithaa was
physically attacked in public,
and all of them have been at
the receiving end of vicious
verbal abuse. The lives of
India's women leaders reveal
the patriarchy and feudalism
of our society rather than its
progressive values. Mehbooba
is no born-to-privilege dynast.
Sure, as Mufti's daughter, she
can claim a minted political legacy.
But she also has the image of a
strongsinglewomananddoughty
grassroots worker who built her
party from ground up. Clambering atop her beat-up Ambas-
The right to freedom of
expression is part of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and this right is incorporated in the Indian Constitution. Yet, week after week it is
being violated by what are
euphemistically called “fringe
groups.” This allows those who
govern to remain unconcerned. It is, therefore, a matter that concerns civil society
now. We have to react irrespective of promises from the
government. It is incumbent
on us to protect our rights.
This right has to be discussed
openly and fully because it
sustains the autonomy of the
individual in society. We are,
after all, human beings and
not robots. This is especially
so since the claim is always
made that what is objected to
hurts the religious sentiments
of the community stating the
objection. But this raises important questions that are neither asked nor answered. Does
the objection reflect the sentiments of the entire community
or only a small fraction of it?
Who constitutes this community and represents it? It is
time now that we all start asserting that we too represent
a community in society, and
that our sentiments are deeply
hurt when freedom of expression is denied to us. We do not
stamp out other people’s
rights, but we do have to defend our right to express our-
selves. We also have to question what may be the real
reason for the “hurt sentiment.” Is it really caused by a
slur on religion or is religion
being used as a mask for other
reasons more closely related
to our social values? What is
Perumal Murugan addressing
in Madhorubhagan? It is a human predicament — a childless couple desiring a child —
depicted with admirable sensitivity, anguish and gentleness. So, are there other
themes implicit in the story? Is
the objection really concerned
with the revival of a past Hindu
religious tradition that is no
longer legitimate from the
perspective of the laws of the
land, or is there an objection
to the novel because it casts a
slur on a religious tradition?
What is implicit in the narrative is the juxtaposition of the
individual to society. The main
characters are happy as a
couple but are taunted for
being childless by the family
and the community. As always it is the woman who is
blamed more than the man,
and has to find a solution. She
is advised to resort to what
was regarded as a legitimate
solution in traditional terms. It
was not regarded as immoral.
Was this perhaps a kinder way
of resolving childlessness in
the days gone by? Consensual
sex with a stranger for purposes of conception on a par-
ticular religious occasion
would not have been considered adultery but accepted as
a sanctioned religious custom.
People today do not recognise
the fact that in past times,
customary law that was outside the social code of
brahmanical law was regarded
as quite legitimate, as long as
it had the sanction of the community, and this sanction is
made explicit in the novel. Is
the objection to this action
because it is a custom that
was once permitted but is now
contrary to the law, and therefore should not be legitimised
in a novel? But the objection is
to depicting it as sanctioned
by Hindu religion. But to write
about an activity that was current in the past is not an endorsement of what is today,
contrary to contemporary law.
Nor is it in any way a slur on
religion, since it is an activity
that is regarded as legitimate
by the community, as the novel
makes clear. Is there some
other reason? The solution
suggested could be a slur on
the husband, for if the wife
conceives with a stranger, then
it reflects on the impotency of
the husband. This is unacceptable in a male chauvinist
society where the woman is
always at fault. In a highly
patriarchal society such as our
present-day society, such a
slur would be unacceptable.
Ultimately the woman takes
an independent decision in this
action, as the husband’s consent remains somewhat ambiguous until the very end. Is
all this seen as contrary to
patriarchy? And is that the
underlying reason for the objection? Is the objection then
to the novel evoking a religious ritual that is degrading
to the Hindu religion, or just a
mask for the real objection,
which is the right of a woman
to take a decision in a matter
that is of importance to the
husband, his family and the
community ? Is it an out-ofdate custom associated in
past times with the communities of the region? If the
purpose of the objection is
to deny independence of
action to women, and condemn what is depicted as a
normal and affectionate
marital relationship, then
why drag religion into it and
speak of it as maligning Hinduism — only because that
will bring in more publicity
in current times? The action taken is to effectively
silence the writer. There
are many ways of silencing
people. The resort to physical violence is immoral and
unethical in any situation of
confrontation. The alternative is emotional and intellectual silencing: silence the
author by accusing him of
having degraded a religion.
Murugan’s sensitivity has
showed in the way he has
silenced himself. The demand that a book be pulped,
banned or burnt is becoming a
regular agenda in this country. In
the name of hurt religious sentiments, the real attempt is to
prevent the emergence of a society that can think for itself, that
can openly discuss the issues
that confront it, that can effectively understand the massive
process of historical change that
it is undergoing. This is a process that will force us to face
more changes and more confrontations. Therefore, we
need to understand the process and not give in to those
wishing to take it in their own
direction. So what can we do?
Do we condone Murugan’s selfcensorship? Or do we stand
by him, as I think we should,
and as many of us do, and
invite him to retract his decision to write no more? We
need to assure him that he
must go on writing and assert
this right to freedom of expression. His shift to Chennai
is a form of exile. We don’t
want him to exile himself.
There is perhaps no absolute
freedom of speech. But it is
necessary for us to assert that
such a freedom should be determined by responsible
people who share the
author’s profession. At least
that would ensure a sensible debate on the subject.
This is not to deny any
organisation the right to object to what anyone is writing,
but to insist that no body of
people can silence an author.
But if self-censorship is to be
the answer then where does
one draw the line even in that?
It should be in the hands of
those who are professionally
involved, and not in the hands
of the “fringe elements” of
political parties — the kinds of
organisations that threaten
individuals with violence and
demand they be silenced, irrespective of how this is done.
Authors and publishers have
been threatened and acted
against. Are we to become a
silent society? Can we think of
a more effective way of handling such threats? It would
help if there were to be an
organisation committed to
defending the right of free
expression, especially of authors. It could be constituted
of lawyers, publishers and
some authors, set up to challenge those who threaten and
abuse authors. This would involve naming organisations
that threaten in this manner,
and their individual members,
so that they are also known as
being among those that
threaten authors. If court action is required, that could
also be considered. A statement coming from such an
organisation would also give
courage to many others who
tend to fear controversies.
eight-member team at
Harvard, has been nominated for the $100,000 BWH
Bright Futures Prize for research. His team has made
it to the list of top three
finalists. Think about it —
Khetani was sent off to a
boarding school in Panchgani
near Mumbai when he was
just four years old! He lived
in hostels throughout his student years before getting into
Harvard for a master’s degree in bio-medical engineering. He readily acknowledges his gratitude to the
Khoja Ismaili trusts that
funded his education. He says
he small! This is quite a feat
given our earlier obsession
with size. When India was
much younger, the few things
we were happy to flaunt were
invariably plus-sized. This
extended to every aspect of
our lives -especially the movies, which got even bigger, if
not necessarily better! It was
always children from `big'
families who hit the headlines (sometimes for the
wrong reasons). Our dams
were big. Our industries were
big. Our dreams were big.
There was just no place for
small -whether it concerned
people,
projects
or
thoughts.We were brainwashed into `thinking big'.
But now, we are finally getting to understand and appreciate small, as we proudly
share narratives about people
who started small and made it
big. And the young of the land
are responding very well to
this changed perspective of
success. India's most wellknown `chho ta aadmi' has
fired our collective imagination. Take this lovely story: It
also starts in Gujarat. (Hard to
resist a joke here: is it the
dhokla-thepla-khakra diet that
is responsible for this phenomenon?) Sultan Khetani is
the son of a grocer from a tiny
village called Dharagani in
Gujarat's Amreli district. And
what an amazing tale he has
to share with the world!
Khetani, who's part of an eightmember team at Harvard, has
been nominated for the
$100,000 BWH Bright Futures
Prize for research. His team
has made it to the list of top
three finalists. Think about it Khetani was sent off to a
boarding school in Panchgani
near Mumbai when he was
just four years old! He lived in
hostels throughout his student
years before getting into
Harvard for a master's degree
in bio-medical engineering.He
readily acknowledges his
gratitude to the Khoja Ismaili
trusts that funded his education. He says he was fortunate
to be helped by people who
believed in the need for a
good education. Armed with
the knowledge, Sultan has
been immersed in the creation of a low-cost, flexible
microchip capable of detecting HIV at the point of
diagnosis. He said he discovered his passion for biomedical engineering while
studying in Mumbai. It was
then that he decided he wanted
to pursue an area that involved both the human body
and machines. How fortunate
for Sultan that his passion
for delving deeper into the
subject led him to his
present position, where he
stands poised to win a significant international award, if
his team wins. Can we rightfully claim Sultan represents
yet another success story out
of small-town India? Why not?
It is a great story and let’s not
be defensive in this case. Conceded, Sultan was not an ordinary little boy — even at the
tender age of four, he must
have demonstrated certain
exceptional abilities to attract
the attention of community
leaders. What made his
humble parents decide to grab
this God-sent opportunity and
send off their baby son to a
distant boarding school? That
takes guts and faith in equal
measure. What does a child of
four know about hisher own
talent or potential? And yet,
there was Sultan, steadily
working his way up the academic ladder, achieving his
goals, and making his parents
proud. His mentors must be
revelling in his current success and deriving a rare satisfaction from sharing in their
protégé’s incredible achievement. Sultan is one of many
outstanding young minds in
our country. He was blessed
to get such a phenomenal opportunity to shine in an overcrowded, competitive field.
Years from now, Sultan
Khetani, like Narendra Modi,
will look back at the starting
block in his modest village back
home, and presumably repay
his debt to all those supportive
people who stood behind him
while he was still studying.
The two trusts (Fidal Trust
and Life Trust) which invested
in Sultan are continuing their
excellent work, which focuses
on growth and improvement
of the community via education. Sultan’s life was transformed by their generous
funds. There are several other
equally gifted kids across India, waiting for that magical
chance to show the stuff they
are made of. Sultan’s story is
sure to inspire other ambitious students (and trusts, too)
who have the brains but not
the financial resources to push
ahead in life. Moral of the
story: Starting small was never
a sin. Staying small even after
getting a big opportunity, definitely is! their baby son to a
distant boarding school? That
takes guts and faith in equal
measure. What does a child of
four know about hisher own
talent or potential? And yet,
there was Sul tan, steadily
working his way up the academic ladder, achieving his
goals, and making his parents proud. His mentors
must be revelling in his cur
rent success and deriving a
rare sat isfaction from sharing in their pro tégé's incredible achievement. Sultan is
one of many outstand ing
young minds in our country .
He was blessed to get such a
phenome nal opportunity to
shine in an over crowded, competitive field. Years from now,
Sultan Khetani, like Narendra
Modi, will look back at the
starting block in his modest
village back home, and presumably repay his debt to
all those supportive peo ple
who stood behind him while
he was still studying. The
two trusts (Fidal Trust and
Life Trust) which in vested in
Sultan are continuing their
excellent work, which focuses
on growth and improvement
of the com munity via education. Sultan's life was transformed by their generous
funds. There are several other
equally gifted kids across India, waiting for that magical
chance to show the stuff they
are made of. Sultan's story is
sure to inspire other ambitious students (and trusts,
too) who have the brains
but not the financial resources to push ahead in life.
sador during campaigns,
tramping through miles of
snow, journeying to tense villages where militants lurked
in almost every house, she
has hugged orphans and
cradled widows the way her
father never did. Like Mamata,
she's a warhorse, an exceptional virago, unable to be
gentle and consensual like her
father. We may justly celebrate J&K's first woman CM
when (or if) Mehbooba finally
takes oath but let's not fool
ourselves that yet another
glass ceiling has been
broken.Women politicians
succeed in India despite the
system, not because of it.
How ugly are you by some
other country's standards?
If there's anything the internet loves it is narcissism. Just take a look a all those quizzes - from
Buzzfeed to a thousand other sites. Which Jedi are you? Which 90s sitcom are you? Which
vampire are you? Which Stephen King monster? And so on, ad inifinitum Then there are
the more explicitly nar cissitic apps. There
was Microsoft's ridiculously inaccurate agedetermi nation app. There was the Twitter
`selfie-bot', where you could just twee your
selfie to @deepselfie, and the bo would
would return in what percentile of attractiveness your photo ranked And now, the latest
craze is for a site that tells you how hot you
are, based on your photos. TechCrunch reports that Swiss dat ing app Blinq launched
the site las week, and it drew more than 2
million unique views in its first two days. Its
appeal is obvious: Why leave the criti cal
question of sex appeal up to human error on
Hot or Not when a purely ob jective, infallible
computer algorithm can offer a definitive
answer? “Human intelligence did play a small
role in the howhot.io method: Blinq calibrated its algorithm based on its users' preferences. Co-founder Jan Berchtold claims the
company took more than 100,000 photos, including celebrity images, and more than 20 million
responses into account,“ reports Christina Cauterucci at Slate.com. Unfortunately for her, the
app was less than impressed with her looks, evaluating her photograph with a dubious “Hmm...“.
The real reasons for hurt sentiments
Why small is suddenly the new big
It started with Narendra
Modi (don’t most things these
days?). Ever since he became Prime Minister of the
world’s biggest democracy,
he has obviously decided to
shrink himself…and play
down his achievements. So
many of his speeches are
about being a ‘small man’
with big dreams. Each time
he repeats that line, he receives thunderous applause.
In America, he frequently
reminded his fawning fans
about his ‘small’ beginnings
as a chaiwallah, adding it
was his experience of running a chai stall that made
him aware of ‘small things’,
and small details, that need
attention. The symbolism
wasn’t lost on anyone. Virtually overnight, small became
the new big in India. People
are starting to get the idea
of small, without feeling
small! This is quite a feat
given our earlier obsession
with size. When India was
much younger, the few things
we were happy to flaunt were
invariably plus-sized. This
extended to every aspect of
our lives — especially the
movies, which got even big-
ger, if not necessarily better! It was always children
from ‘big’ families who hit
the headlines (sometimes for
the wrong reasons). Our
dams were big. Our industries were big. Our dreams
were big. There was just no
place for small — whether it
concerned people, projects
or thoughts. We were brainwashed into ‘thinking big’.
But now, we are finally getting to understand and appreciate small, as we proudly
share narratives about
people who started small and
made it big. And the young
of the land are responding
very well to this changed
perspective of success.
India’s most well-known
‘chhota aadmi’ has fired our
collective imagination. Take
this lovely story: It also starts
in Gujarat. (Hard to resist a
joke here: is it the dhoklathepla-khakra diet that is
responsible for this phenomenon?) Sultan Khetani is the
son of a grocer from a tiny
village called Dharagani in
Gujarat’s Amreli district. And
what an amazing tale he has
to share with the world!
Khetani, who’s part of an
3
Between reality
and illusion
On the desert fossil trail in Morocco, Amy Gigi
Alexander stumbles into the barren city of Ouarzazate,
and traverses through time at its Atlas Studios
At the end of a long arduous drive through the south of
Morocco on a journey to collect ancient fossils, I was tired
of the view: sand, sand again,
sand yet again, and blurred
oasis. The heat was oppressive. And yet, even in the
middle of it all, one was not
alone. In the most barren dust,
a man in a brilliant azure
Tuareg costume appeared out
of thin air, holding a plate of
fake fossils for sale, carrying
his tray as though offering the
finest of desserts. I longed for
a place to simply walk and
drink in a different scene,
cooler air, and be uninterrupted by touts and sun so
strong it made me feverish. I
needed to linger, savour, wander. When one is in the same
landscape for days, it can
scramble the mind. It is hard
to know what is real, and the
desert, in particular, is relentless in its silence and constant
surreal glimpses of happenings around you. A woman,
bent against the wind,
swathed in black, slowly moving along the side the road
against a backdrop bereft of
human habitation for 20 miles.
The sight of three camels without their keeper, tied together
with red ropes and bells, unconcerned that you wait as
they cross the road. Ruins
made of buff-coloured earth
and red clay, half crumbling,
small windows pitted out with
ancient eyes behind them. I
needed to look upon something different, for the desert,
which at first had seemed inviting and intoxicating, wore
me out with its repetition. I
chose a site just outside of
one of the southernmost cities
on the fossil trail in Morocco:
Ouarzazate. Famous for being a gathering place for fossil
hunters, as well as dealers, it
had something else that attracted me: the famous Atlas
Studios, the largest movie studio in the world. Created in
the early 1980s, the Studio
stretched across the South of
Morocco, spanning 3,22,000
miles, a landscape empty of
anything except a few villages
and, of course, an endless
supply of sand. Ouarzazate is
what inspired the idea of the
movie Studios: the town was
the setting for Lawrence of
Arabia in 1962. I pulled up into
the Studio lot. The gates were
polished and brassy, the letters ATLAS spelled out in blue,
and at the entrance, there
were no fossil-selling touts.
Instead, I was greeted by men
in theatrical costumes: gladiators, soldiers, Greek noble-
men in togas, and a mummy.
Here was a surreal scene I
welcomed gladly, and once
inside, to my great joy, there
were gardens, lush with fountains and swimming pools,
tangerine trees and green
everywhere. I could have
stayed by that swimming pool
all day and waited for a peek
at some movie star leaving
their hotel room, but I wasn’t
there to catch a glimpse of
Russell Crowe or Leonardo
DiCaprio. I was there to be
transported to another place
in time. And not just one, but
many. The Studio tour began,
and the tour group was led
from one film set to the next.
We began at The Jewel of the
Nile, and I was rushed into the
jungle by a rickety plane. Then
I was thrust into the world of
Babel, where the Studio
seemed to have combined
crumbling sets with an Egyptian theme and what looked
like old-world Greece. Walking through double Tibetan
doors of red and pink with
saffron scrolls, I found myself
on the set of The Mummy, and
wandered through halls
painted with hieroglyphics as I
was watched by a sphinx.
Around a corner, there was
the set of Gladiator: the arena
where battles were fought,
the rooms of mud-brick where
the gladiators had slept, the
cots still standing. I could still
hear the shouts of the crowd
watching the men fight as I
walked off the main sets into
what seemed be a wasteland
of used sculptures and set
props. Suddenly, I realised that
this was no junkyard: it was
the set of Star Wars. As I
walked back through the set
tour, the idea that all of this
was out here, in this remote
place was difficult to believe:
that these structures, buildings and props were actually
solid stone. It was then that I
touched those Tibetan doors
again, and realised they were
Styrofoam. I revisited every
set, touching each statue and
wall, and each time, my fingers gave way to something
soft and temporary: jute, paper, plastic. Stairs could not
be climbed upon. Doors did
not open. Towns were flat
three-dimensional paintings.
Statues, which looked to be of
fine marble, were foam pitted
with sand. None of this was
real. These movie sets were
an illusion, one built right on
top of the other, fashioned out
of materials that would
crumble and be eaten by the
desert itself. But it was an
illusion I needed, at least
for an afternoon. Getting
back into my car, I felt satiated and ready. The road
to Marrakesh awaited me.
Hidden histories: Taking
tennis to the people
The Chennai Open is
now a much-sought-after
fixture in our city’s calendar, replacing the annual
cricket test matches during
the week before Pongal. All
the action of Chennai Open
is
centred
at
the
Nungambakkam Tennis
Stadium, designed in 1995.
Not far from there, in
Egmore, stands the first
public tennis stadium of the
city, and in not a very good
state at that. Built in 1946,
the Egmore stadium owes
its existence to J.P.L.
Shenoy ICS who was the
Commissioner of the Corporation between 1944 and
1947. A keen sportsman
himself, he played his daily
quota of tennis at the Presidency Club, of which he
was a member. His ambition was to ensure a proper
facility for tennis enthusiasts, and top ranking players. At that time, almost all
the tennis courts in the city
were in private hands. The
oldest were those of the
Madras Cricket Club laid out
in 1883. By the time the
Madras Provincial Lawn
Tennis Association was inaugurated in 1926, several
other clubs in the city had
facilities, but none was
open to the public. Having
decided in 1946 that the
city needed a tennis stadium, Shenoy moved
quickly. He chose the
Egmore playground set up
by the Corporation in 1928
as a suitable site. He sought
the military’s help for quick
execution of his plan. Under the supervision of Corporation Engineer M.
Meeran, work on the stadium began on November
10, 1946 and was completed on December 30 the
same year. The facility,
creasing, Davis Cup tournaments began to be held
at a makeshift facility put
up on the Island Grounds.
The Egmore stadium continued to be used for training — this was where the
Amritraj Brothers were
taught the nuances by
with three tennis courts and
concrete galleries that could
seat around a 1,000 people,
was declared open on December 31, 1946, by the
Gaekwad of Baroda in the
presence of the Mayor of
Madras, T. Sundara Rao
Naidu. The Madras (later
Tamil Nadu) Provincial
Lawn Tennis Association
moved into the clubhouse
that was built alongside. It
was here that the Davis Cup
matches were played in the
1950s, all of them featuring the Madras-based international tennis legend R.
Krishnan. In the 1960s and
1970s, with crowds in-
famed coach T.A. Rama
Rao. With the SDAT constructing
the
Nungambakkam facility,
tennis moved away from
here forever. A vast
hockey stadium was constructed at the rear and
named after former
Mayor M. Radhakrishna
Pillai. It overshadows the
old tennis stadium, parts
of which, along with the
clubhouse, have been
taken over by the Tamil
Nadu Volleyball Association. What is left could
do with better maintenance as part of our
sports heritage.
Garvi Gujarat
Travel the
world
through pix
Do you know which are
the UNESCO World Heritage
sites in India? At least 10 of
them? No? Then maybe it’s a
good idea to peek into an
exhibition of photographs
‘UNESCO World Heritage
Sites in India and abroad’
which is on his weekend at
the Alliance Francaise.
Conceptualised and curated
by travel writer and photographer Susheela Nair, the
exhibition will feature about
125 photographs. “I’ve been
hosting such photography
exhibitions on the theme of
adventure sports for the last
two years. For a change, I
wanted to do a series on
heritage sites. But there are
so many heritage sites, so I
decided to zero in on UNESCO
World Heritage Sites. The
idea is to create an awareness on the 32 sites in India.
There are two in Karnataka
– Hampi and Pattadakal,”
says Susheela. She has visited about 24 of these sites
and ten of her photographs
also appear in the exhibition. Among the natural sites
featured from India are the
Manas
Sarovar,
the
Kaziranga National Park,
Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary,
the Greater Himalayan Region. The exhibition is being
presented across three categories — Cultural (Heritage)
Sites, Natural Sites and Looking Beyond India. The Natural Sites section includes
breathtaking photos of the
exotic flora and fauna of the
Western Ghats, Komodo
dragons in Indonesia, Great
Himalayan National Park, the
spectacular Nanda Devi Biosphere, etc. The exhibition
has photos from heritage
sites across 20 countries.
“We called for entries in
October 2014. Many of the
photographers were not
aware of the sites which
qualify. We got nearly 250
entries, and are exhibiting
125 of them. The tourism
boards of Indonesia and
Spain are also participating.
Some of the photographers
are amateurs, some professionals; most are regular
travellers. The idea is not so
much about competition as
it is about creating awareness. For example, the Kaas
plateau in Maharashtra, is
like the Valley of Flowers but
not well known because it’s
off the tourist circuit. Ashok
Mansur has sent in pictures
of the place.” Hampi, the
Chola Temples in Thanjavur,
the imposing hill forts of
Rajasthan, the ancient Mountain Railways, erotic panels
of Khajuraho, stately
churches of Goa, rock-cut
splendours of Ajanta and
Ellora, the stunning archaeological park in ChampanerPavgadh, are some of the
highlights in the cultural section. The ‘Looking Beyond
India’ section features pictures from the walled city of
Khiva in Uzbekistan, red
sandstone monuments of
Petra, the desert landscape
of Wadi Rum, Blue Mosque
and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul,
the sculptural extravaganza
of Angkor Wat, Red Square
in Melaka, incredible monuments of Spain, Golden
Temple of Dambulla, the Historic Centre in Macao and so
on. The exhibition showcases
photographs of photographers Amar Bhaskar,
Anuradha Nadipalli, Arun
Bhat , Aruna Chandaraju,
Ashok Mansur, B.S.
Prasad, B.V. Prakash,
Charan Kumar, Dr. B.R.
Suhas, Devendra Kumar,
Dinesh Shukla, G.S.
Krishnamurthy, Indonesia
Tourism
Board,
Indrakumar Dastaenavar,
Jayaram K, Jayan N.P.,
Judhajit B a g c h i , K u m a r
M angwani,K. Nallatambi,
Nagesh Hegde, Prithwiraj
Dhang, Rahul Gajjar, Raj
Kamal Sahu, Ramakanth,
Ranadeep Bhattacharyya,
Susheela
Nair,
Satyanarayana
C.R,
Shankar
Adisesh,
Shivananda Kumar, Shivu
K., Sohil Laad, Spain Tourism
Board,
Suresh
Raman,and Shashi Kumar.
The four best entries that
have been awarded prizes
include — first prize to Rahul
Gajjar (Baroda) – for his dramatic picture, ‘Moon Rise at
Saat Kaman in ChampanerPavgadh’, second to the
Spain Tourism Board for the
picture ‘Between Walls in
Caceres’, third to Shivu K.
for his picture of school children in Pattadakal, and the
jury’s Special Mention Award
to N.P. Jayan for his stunning
landscape of the Silent Valley.
Ahmedabad. Dt. 17-01-2016 Sunday
3
New proposed particle may
help detect dark matter
The particle, which is
proposed to have 0.02 per
cent of an electron’s mass,
does not interact with light
and may not penetrate the
Earth’s atmosphere but will
be detected through a
space experiment. Researchers have proposed a
new fundamental particle
which could explain why no
one has managed to detect
the elusive ‘dark matter’
that makes up 85 per cent
of the universe’s mass.
Dark matter is conjectured
to exist as a consequence
of its gravitational effects
on stars and galaxies,
gravitational lensing (the
bending of light rays)
around these celestial objects, and through its imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background (the afterglow of the Big Bang).
Despite compelling indirect
evidence and considerable experimental effort,
dark matter has never
been detected directly.
Particle physics gives
clues to what dark matter might be, and the
standard view is that dark
matter particles have,
researchers say, a very
large mass for fundamental particles — comparable to that of heavy atoms. Lighter dark matter
particles are considered
less likely for astrophysical reasons, although exceptions are known, and
this research highlights a
previously unknown window
where they could exist and,
with very general arguments from particle physics, derives some surprising results, according to researchers from the University of Southampton. They
have proposed a new particle that has a mass only
about 0.02 per cent that of
an electron. While it does
not interact with light, as
required for dark matter, it
does interact surprisingly
strongly with normal matter. Indeed, in stark contrast to other candidates, it
to the flow of dark matter,
will be pushed downstream. Sensitive monitoring of this particle’s position will reveal information
about the nature of this dark
ics, and we hope that our
suggestion will inspire others to develop detailed particle theory and even experimental tests,” he said.
“At the moment, experi-
may not even penetrate
Earth’s atmosphere, researchers said. Earthbound detection is therefore not likely, so the researchers plan to incorporate searches into a space
experiment planned by the
Macroscopic quantum resonators (MAQRO) consortium, with whom they are
already involved. A
nanoparticle, suspended in
space and exposed directly
matter particle, if it exists,
researchers said. “Our candidate particle sounds
crazy, but currently there
seem to be no experiments
or observations which
could rule it out,” said Dr
James Bateman, from Physics and Astronomy at the
University of Southampton
and co-author of the study.
“Dark matter is one of the
most important unsolved
problems in modern phys-
ments on dark matter do
not point in a clear direction and, given also that
the Large Hadron Collider
at CERN has not found
any signs of new physics
yet, it may be time that
we shift our paradigm
towards alternative candidates for dark matter,”
said Dr Alexander Merle,
co-author from the Max
Planck Institute in
Munich, Germany.
Home is where the stories are
Gautham Vasudev Menon
became a filmmaker at a time
when the Tamil heroe had
already elevated stalking to
an accepted social principle
and moral policing of women
became his fundamental duty.
In slow, incremental steps,
Gautham Menon began resketching the male protagonist as a chivalrous and courteous human being, who is
respectful towards women. As
a result, he became a big hit
with the women. The liberal
attitudes and slick style that
permeates his films were
deemed an ideal foil for actor
Ajith, who is also identified as
a stylish, dignified and chivalrous human being by his fans
and the public at large. After
several unsuccessful attempts
to team up, Gautham’s third
instalment of what is now being called his ‘cop trilogy’ (the
first two were Kaakha Kaakha
and Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu),
Yennai Arindhal, is ready for
release on February 5. “I was
asked if I could start work on
the film right away while I was
still working on the Simbu film.
Yennai Arindhaal is perhaps
the quickest film in my career.
And this is also a film which
was written for Ajith,” says
Gautham at Harris Jayaraj’s
recording studio. Despite being explicitly asked by Ajith to
not include anything to massage his ‘superstar’ status,
Gautham guarantees that
there are at least five ‘applause’ moments in this film.
“In Arrambam, there is a moment when he looks sharply at
someone touching his shoulder. I have loved some of the
moments from his earlier
films. These are there but the
audience will forget they are
watching an Ajith film 15 minutes into it. This is by far his
best work,” he adds. The tension between the desire to do
a movie with Gautham’s sensibilities and at the same time
contain the urge to exploit his
image was resolved, he says,
by incorporating real-life traits
of Ajith into the narrative. “I
know what he would do if
there was a woman walking
beside him towards a door.
We have put him in clothes
that he would probably wear
in real life himself. In this way,
the audience doesn’t’ have to
really suspend their disbelief,”
he reveals. While he hesitates
a bit before admitting that the
‘cop trilogy is complete’, he
describes the film as a biography of Sathyadev from the
age of 13. “I can’t tell you what
he plays in the film because
that is what the film is about.
Although there is no scene like
this, I would say that it is the
story of a 13-year-old boy who
wanted to become a doctor
but ended up being someone
else,” he says. The first two
earlier cop films made by
Gautham — Kaakha Kaakha
with actor Suriya and
Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu starring
Kamal Haasan — were runaway successes and instantly
caught the public imagination.
They are also now part of
pop-culture. However, they
also attracted sharp criticism
for ‘glorifying encounter and
extra-judicial killings’. Suriya
plays a daring ‘encounter specialist’ in Kaakha Kaakha and
the film is said to have given
policemen a PR make-over.
Gautham defends his creative
decision: “There are good
people and bad people everywhere. There are people
within the system who are
trying to change it and doing
good work. I understand that
bureaucracy, hierarchy and
managing politics is not easy.
But I respect the fact that they
are at least out there, doing
stuff. Also, I wasn’t trying to
justify encounters. I was presenting a cop’s perspective
and this does not necessarily
mean it has the author’s endorsement.” He further states,
“If my tale has to revolve
around a protagonist and there
is action around him, I can
only imagine him to be someone from the police or the
Army. People like us don’t
encounter violence on a daily
basis unless they are in a roadrage situation or are in college
fighting over a girl.” While many
would still disagree with his
argument, it is a fact that
Gautham Menon’s movies are
regulated by a matrix of strong
middle-class values. There is
a ‘biographical’ element to all of
his films which, he says, can be
traced back to growing up in a
middle-class household. “Everything that I write is mostly what I
have experienced with my father, growing up,” he declares.
Specifically talking about the
much-loved romance sequences in his films, he credits his father for it. “Most of the
romance in my films has been
inspired by my father. I have
seen him holding my mother’s
feet and talking to her. A lot of
Neethane En Ponvasantham,
a lot of Vinnai Thaandi
Varuvaaya and a lot of
Vaaranam Aayiram came from
him. My knowledge of books,
the way I speak, have all been
from him. Vaaranam Aayiram,
in a way, was catharsis, my
way of holding on to his memories.” While this has been
Gautham Menon’s trademark,
so to speak, it has also been a
constant source of criticism.
He has been called out for
being cocooned in the comforts of the middle-class, unwilling to look at the harsh
realities of life. “That’s how I
like it. Take romance for instance: My parents have never
been a problem in my life. I
had the kind of father who
would say ‘Don’t stand and
talk to the girl on the street.
Bring her home’. I have never
sat and analysed a scene when
I have to write a romantic one.
It just flows,” he says. Yet, he
is well aware that he has come
to represent a certain kind of
values through his films. In
the next 10 years, Gautham
Menon says that he wants to
move into a ‘different zone’.
“If people are expecting only a
certain kind of films from me,
I want to change that. I want
to make shorter films (around
two hours) — in different
genres. I would have done it
with Dhruva Natchathiram itself, but Suriya didn’t let that
happen. But there are also
people who say that there are
takers for the way I represent,
for instance, women in my
movies. They say, ‘why are
you bothered about few people
who say they don’t like it?’ I
don’t want to be predictable,
but that doesn’t mean it is
necessarily going to be about
people in the slums.” He reveals that he is already testing
waters with Yennai Arindhaal
despite the fact that he was
told that it might not go well
with a section of the audience.
“I have made a couple of bold
moves in this film, which is in
the modern space. Even
though we haven’t shown anything happening and it has
been left to the audience’s
imagination,” he hints. But
there are a few things he
would never do in his movies.
“Even if I am writing the character of a woman who is a bad
person, I would never expose it
to the audience,” he says. The
next is the obvious one: “I can’t
take it when fathers are being
made villains. I wept when I saw
Thavamaai Thavamirundhu
even though the father was a
lot different from mine. I just
couldn’t take it when the father in Maattraan was made
the villain. I couldn’t stand it.”
4
Ahmedabad. Dt. 17-01-2016 Sunday
FB spills beans on
not-so-poor hubby!
(Agency) Ahmedabad:
Bragging about his status on
social media proved costly to
a local builder Mohammed
Javed Shaikh. Acknowledging
Shaikh's posts on Facebook
that showed him flaunting a
Rado watch, an expensive
sportsbike and his future
projects, a family court concluded that he is not so `poor'
as shown in the legal documents and ordered him to pay
an alimony of Rs 27,000 for
the upkeep of his wife and
only child, living separately for
last seven years. A family court
passed the order twice - first
in February 2015 and later
confirmed it last week. The
family court last year asked
Shaikh to pay Rs 27,000 every
month to his wife Arefa and
daughter Humaira for maintenance. This order came
against Shaikh's claims that
he was earning meager Rs
4,500 per month as a supervisor with a local builder's office
- Aman Developers. However,
Shaikh's wife supplied his pictures sporting a luxury wrist
watch, jewellery and even
riding a sports bike. She also
supplied a pamphlet that revealed her husband was no
supervisor but a builder himself. Interestingly , the evidence could not be contested by Shaikh as it was
uploaded by himself on his
FB account. Shaikh moved
Gujarat high court against
the family court's order citing that lower court did not
give him an opportunity to
defend the case and admitted photographs from his social media account without
following any procedure. On
the other hand, the wife too
approached the HC complaining that her husband did not
shell out any money and she
could not even afford child's
education. She sought recovery of Rs 4.45 lakh. The HC
sent the case back to the family court for fresh adjudication
on condition that the husband
should first pay Rs 2 lakh to
the wife. Accordingly,
Shaikh paid the amount and
argued his case out before
the family court, but it reiterated its stand and recently
confirmed the order of
maintenance of Rs 27,000
to his wife and daughter.
Ahmedabad: Former
deputy Prime Minister and
Gandhinagar Lok Sabha MP LK
Advani has recommended removal of the segregated cycle
tracks along the BRTS corridor to ease traffic flow between
Manekbaug,
Nehrunagar, Shivranjani towards Mansi Tower in
Vastrapur. Advani placed this
suggestion on the agenda of
the MP , MLA steering committee of the Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation (AMC)
scheduled on January 28 . “No
cyclist rides in this cycle track,
only encroaching lari-gallas
stand in the track... At many
places, commercial complexes
have broken the cement
segregator,“ stated Advani.
“By removing the cement
segregator, there will be more
road space available for traffic coming from Manekbaugh,
going via Nehrunagar,
Shivaran ji towards Mansi society ,“ the senior leader has
suggested. Advani's recommendation is a telling comment on the sorry state of
affairs of cycle tracks, part of
the award winning BRT corridor, that was aimed at enhancing the green mobility
quotient of a polluted city like
Ahmedabad. The ground
breaking ceremony for Metro
rail's north-south corridor will
be held at Jivraj Park crossroads on Sunday. Chief minister Anandiben Patel will lead
the ceremony along with senior cabinet ministers Nitin Patel,
Saurabh Patel, Pradeepsinh
Jadeja and MoS urban development Shankar Chaudhary.
Ahmedabad: Common
Coots, Common Pochard, Ferruginous Pochard, Garhwal,
Wigeon and other endangered
tion,“ said a forest official.
Sources said that the birds
were to be sold in the open
market and to villagers in
Nalsarovar, R G Prajapati, said:
“On Wednesday we spotted a
boat with birds and our staff
chased after it. The boatman
abandoned the vessel and and
escaped through marshy parts
of the lake. The team found 63
birds of which there were 25
coots whose legs were broken,“ said Prajapati.He added
that acting on a tipoff a team
of forest officers raided the
residence of the su spect and
his relatives in Bagodara but
he is not traceable. In December 2013 a major poaching
incident from Maliya Miyana in
Rajkot district was busted. Investigations had revealed that
meat of endangered birds was
sold to big hotels and was
transported to hotels in
Ahmedabad. Prajapati said
that this month the department has recovered 532 nets
which was about 82 nets more
than what was seized in December. As a part of Operation the
department since November
has recovered 1382 nets and
has freeds birds in thousands.
Advani for removal of cycle
tracks along BRT corridor
63 endangered birds
rescued at Nalsarovar
birds were among 63 rescued
by the forest department from
a boat in Nalsarovar Lake, the
only Ramsar Site of Gujarat,
on Friday . Some of the Coots
had been tortured by the
poachers.Senior forest officials who recovered the birds
said that the poachers had
broken the legs of 25 coots
and wings of the remaining 38
birds were twisted and locked
behind to prevent them from
flying off. Forest officials said
that this is the first time that
they have come across such a
brutal technique to prevent
the birds from escaping. “We
suspect that the 63 birds were
meant for sale in open market
and also for local consump-
nearby Ranagadh. The officials said that the tortured
Coots with broken legs and
wings have been sent to
Jivdaya for treatment. Deputy
conservator of forest,
Yarn factory gutted
at Pipodara GIDC
Surat: A major fire broke out at a synthetic yarn manufacturing company at Pipodara GIDC, some 30 km from Surat on
Saturday . Sources in the fire and emergency department said
yarn and other synthetic material were gutted in the fire. It took
around half-anhour for fire fighters to reach the spot. The
company , IPL Industries is located in Pipodara GIDC, on the
city's outskirts. Around five fire tenders rushed to the spot to
douse fire. It took more than six hours for the fire tenders to
gain control on the fire.
Garvi Gujarat
NGT quashes green nod
for Adani Hazira Port
Ahmedabad: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set
aside the green clearance granted to Adani Hazira Port and
Adani Infrastructure Pvt Ltd for expansion of port activities at
Hazira in Surat district. The tribunal has also asked the
companies to deposit Rs 25 crore with Surat collector within
four weeks. The amount will be kept in escrow account till the
tribunal's further order. In case of default, it orde In case of
default, it ordered the district collector to demolish the work
carried out on reclamation of 25-hectare area and restore
the land back. The NGT ordered so in response to application
filed by Hazira Machhimar Samiti, which questioned the 2013
environment clearance granted to the companies by the
ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). The tribunal
also asked the Directorate of Settlement & Land Records to
come up with areport in six weeks after verifying whether
green norms were followed like afforestation of mangroves.
In case of failure on part of the company , further construction
activity or expansion of port activity would be stalled.
VMC faces ARV shortage
Vadodara: While the city continues to be terrorized by
canines, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has run
out of anti-rabies vaccine (ARV).VMC does not have stock of the
ARV since last three days and is referring cases to the SSG
Hospital (SSGH) that has the ARV vaccine, but no rabies
immunoglobulin to treat severe cases. The issue of shortage of
ARV at the VMC was exposed by the opposition Congress when
it received complaints regarding the unavailability of vaccines
there. The opposition claimed that the incident was an example
of how the VMC administration functioned. Former opposition
leader Chirag Zaveri said the complications began after the
existing supplier of vaccines stopped supplying them as his
outstanding amount of Rs five lakh was not cleared. “On the one
end, people are being bitten by stray dogs. At the other end, the
VMC does not have the necessary vaccines and directs patients
to the SSGH or the Jamnabai Hospital,“ said Zaveri.
7-year-old boy run over
by speeding car in Vadodara
Vadodara: A seven-yearold boy died and three others
were injured in a hit-and-run
incident on Friday night near
Kalali Bridge. The deceased
boy identified as Sunil Dhantani
was standing near a food cart
with his mother Jasu Dhantani
when a speeding car knocked
him down at around 8pm. the
car also damaged two food
carts. The area near Kalali
Bridge is flanked by such street
food vendors. Locals said that
the driver fled from the spot
immediately after gaining control over the vehicle. After the
incident one of the locals informed the 108 emergency
services. While the boy died
on the spot, the other three
injured are being treated at
the SSG hospital. Jasu sustained fractures on her hand
and feet, two others Kishore
Rami and Rajkumar Sharma
sustained minor abrasions.
“The car ran over the boy
killing him on the spot. His
mother was selling balloons
near the stall. Although locals
tried to stop the car, but the
driver managed to escape. We
have got the licence plate number and we will track down the
culprit soon,“ said Manjalpur
assistant sub inspector
Udaysinh Raiji.
Surat: At least 150 technical and non-technical employees of Bharuch-Dahej Railway
Company Ltd (BDRCL) threatened to launch an agitation
after they were handed over
their termination letters in
Dahej on Saturday . The agitating employees, mostly linemen and other technical staff,
said BharuchDahej broad
gauge line project was developed on a public-private-partnership mode and executed
by BDRCL, which was floated
by the ministry of railways.
The first goods train transporting coal from Adani's
Dahej port was commissioned
in 2011. Since the contract is
over now, Indian Railways has
started the takeover process.
Only 45 employees from other
states were employed by the
Indian Railways. A memorandum was given to transport
inspector of BDRCL by the agitating employees who wanted
the termi nation orders to be
revoked. Bharuch Congress
unit general secretary Zulfikar
Ali Saiyed told TOI, “Indian
Railways has taken the responsibility of operation and
maintenance of BharuchDahej broad gauge line. It is
Indian Railways' responsibil-
ity to see that the 150 employees do not lose their job.“
Ismail Solanki, a pointscumgateman with BDRCL, said
“We were employed with the
company for the last four
years. We have our families to
feed. Where will we go?“ An
Indian Railways officer said,
“Rules say only qualified candidates should be given
chance. Thus, new employees have been appointed for
smooth operation of BharuchDahej broad gauge line.It is
now in the hands of the railway board.“
BDRCL employees threaten
agitation over termination
4
Canine menace grips
Baroda's SSG Hospital
(Agency( Vadodara: You
might go rushing to the staterun SSG Hospital after an encounter with one of the many
ferocious canines in the city,
but the unfortunate truth is
that you are not even safe in
the hospital premises itself.
The dog menace peaked on
Saturday morning when a resident doctor became victim of
a snarling canine right in the
lobby in front of his own ward
in out-patient department
(OPD). Senior resident Dr
Vishal Pawar from the department of general medicine was
bitten near ward number six
around 8 am when he was
atten ding to early morning
patients wai ting outside the
ward. Various buildings and
wards of the sprawling SSG
Hospital serve as homes for
generations of dogs. According to sources in the hospital,
Pawar was saved by his choice
of clothing from what could
have been a very serious
injury.“He was wearing a loose
denim jeans and the dog could
not harm him much. But the
severity of the bite could be
gauged by the fact that the
dog did tear into the fabric and
also chipped a tooth in the
process,“ a doctor from the
department of general medicine said. The number of dogs
in the SSG premise has been
on the rise and the authority
has been repeatedly criticised
for the negligence. “This is the
first case of dog-bite reported
in the hospital compound.
We are aware of the stray
dogs roaming in the hospital, but very attempt to control the situation has been
futile. Patients are also to
be blamed to a great extent
because they feed these
animals, making them regular in specific wards like the
OPD,“ said SSG Hospital medical supe rintendent Dr Rajiv
Da veshwar. He added, “We
ha ve written to the civic body
multiple times, but there has
been no response from them
as well.“ According to
Vadodara
Municipal
Corporation's health officer Dr
Devesh Patel, “The hospital
might have written in the past
but we have no recent corre
spondence from them. If they
approach us, we are re ady to
send our teams. Ho wever,
we can only sterilize them
and release them aga in.“
(Correspondent) Surat: A
synthetic diamond manufacturing company owned by a
Gujarati diamantaire is facing
litigation from De Beers subsidiary , Element Six Technologies Ltd, for alleged infringement of its patents related to synthetic diamond
material production. IIa Technologies Pte Ltd, co-founded
by Mumbai-based Vishal
Mehta, has been accused by
Element Six Technologies Ltd
of infringing upon its patents
for proprietary synthetic diamond products. IIa Technologies, after eight years of research and development
(R&D) in 2013, was able to
reportedly grow purest and
rarest form of diamond -called
type IIa -in a labora tory using
microwave plasma chemical
vapour deposition (MPCVD)
process. Mehta, who is also
chief executive officer (CEO)
of the company , employs
around 210 executives at IIa
Technologies Pte Ltd's
2,00,000 square feet diamond
growing laboratory in
Singapore. Element Six Technologies Ltd filed the case in
Singapore against IIa Technologies Pte Ltd on January
12.The patents in question
relate to production of material, which is desirable in optical applications such as infrared spectroscopy and highpower laser optics. Element
Six believes that IIa Technologies is exploiting its patents
for commercial gains in industrial, technology and jewellery
sectors, a statement from the
company said. It said Element
Six has invested hundreds of
millions of dollars for over 50
years to become world's leading producer of synthetic diamond material. Any use of
Element Six's patents, without its consent, negatively
impacts its ability to get a full
return from its investment and
undermines its ability to carry
out further research and development in the field. Element Six
chief executive Walter Hühn said,
“Synthetic diamond material
can be -and is -produced without infringing our patents. But
we believe this is a straightforward case of patent infringement and, as any company would do, Element Six is
also taking action to defend its
position.“ No representative from
the Singapore-based company
was available for comments.
(Agency) Ahmedabad:
Gujarat government has
moved the Supreme Court
against Gujarat high court's
verdict cancelling the appointment of advocate Raghuvir
Pandya as Vadodara's district
government pleader, following the SC's criticism of the
lawyer's role in the 2002 Best
Bakery case. The SC will hear
the case, along with an appeal
filed by Pandya himself, on
January 22. Two citizens from
Vadodara had earlier moved
the HC and demanded removal
of Pandya from the post of
Vadodara's district government pleader. They had alleged that Pandya's appointment was due to his proximity
with the ruling political party.
Advocate Pandya was the public prosecutor in the controversial Best Bakery case and
his actions had initially resulted
in acquittal of the accused.
The SC had ordered retrial
and conviction was recorded
later. While ordering retrial,
the apex court had criticized
Pandya's role and observed,
“The public prosecutor ap-
peared to have acted as defence counsel, when his duty
was to present the truth before the court.“ On October
30, 2015, Gujarat high court
had ordered removal of
Pandya from the post of public
prosecutor. Justice JB
Pardiwala had called for selection of upright people as
public prosecutors, because
their integrity determines the
credibility of the criminal justice system. Defending
Pandya's appointment, the
state government has challenged Justice Pardiwala's order before the SC. Meanwhile,
advocate Pandya, too, has
moved the SC against the HC
order sacking him from the post.
His case will be heard along with
the state government's appeal.
Firm owned by Gujarati faces
patent infringement lawsuit
Govt challenges HC
order on ‘tainted' PP
Employee flees with
jewellery worth Rs 28 lakh
(Agenc) Surat: An employee of a jewellery shop on Ghod
Dod Road disappeared with jewellery worth Rs 28 lakh from the
city in July 2015.The employee had been tasked with delivering
it to some client of the jewellery shop in south India, but his
whereabouts remain unknown. Harising Rao, a resident of
Udaipur, was booked on Friday for cheating by the police follo
wing a complaint by Rakesh Bhogar of Anushka Jewellery .The
accused, a trusted employee of Bhogar for the past four years,
was given 1kg of jewellery worth Rs 28 lakh for delivery to a
broker in Kerala. “The accused neither delivered the jewellery to
the client nor deposited money at the shop. He did not return
and it seems the accused has disappeared with the jewellery,“
police said. Investigation revealed that the accused had switched
off his mobile phone after reaching Udaipur. A police team will
leave for Rajasthan soon. “The emplo yer did not register the
complaint earlier since he was not aware about the cheating.
Go ahead, Ghalib. Be the doctor you want to be
When the history of the
dastardly Pathankot attacks
gets written, i would be sadly
incomplete withou Ghalib
Guru's poignant narrative Afzal
Guru's 17-year-old son han
dled sensitive questions abou
`azaadi' and `martyrdom' in
Kash mir with admirable equanimity , by declaring cate
gorically that he has nothing
to do with political is sues -all
he wants is to become a doctor and study at AIIMS. He has
been in the news after he
scored an impressive 95% in
the 10th standard board exams For a youngster who has
lived with intense scrutiny as
the son of the man who was
hanged in 2013 for masterminding the Parliament attack
of 2001, Ghal ib's academic
success must be lauded. Especially since his results were
announced just days after the
Pathankot strike, which the
attackers openly claimed had
been planned as a revenge for
Afzal Guru's hanging.And here
was his young son, calmly talking to the press, Tabassum,
his proud mother next to him,
and candidly admitting that
though he does not remember his father all that well, he
wants to follow in his footsteps and qualify as a doctor
his family can be proud of. “I
know my dad would have been
happy at my school results,''
he told the press, also sharing
tidbits about his other interests -his fondness for cricket,
movies and music (Hrithik
Roshan and Leonardo di
Caprio share space with
Eminem and AB de Villiers).
As the only child, growing up
in his maternal grandparents'
home, young Ghalib has had
to spend a great deal of time
on his own. When asked
whether he is religious, he
replied honestly and simply ,
“Yes, I read the Quran. My
father used to tell me to pray
, that's what I do. But I'm
mostly busy with my studies...“
Ghalib is not just another student. His life has been exceptional. He is in a unique category . It's possible he is the
only student of this generation
who has lived through as traumatic an experience as the
highly publicized, highly controversial hanging of an absentee father. A father who
remains one of the most detested figures in contemporary India.A father who was
made into an iconic figure by
Indiabaiters. A father whose
memory is being systematically exploited by enemies of
the Indian state. There are
hundreds of diligent students
who have scored equally high,
if not higher, percentage in
their board exams this year.
But they are not Ghalib. Their
lives can never be compared
to Ghalib's. extraordinary
backdrop to Ghalib's academic
achievement. And to talk about
it more widely . When I look
around me at some of the
spoilt brats appear ing for their
board exams and making parents feel they are doing the
world a huge favour, I feel like
shaming them with Ghalib's
grades. Not that they'll care a
hoot. Often, it is the
hardworking, highly paid tuition teachers of these children who deserve awards. The
grades should be given to
them! Worse, we know how
big bucks can get children of
fat-cat parents into a school
or college of their choice any
where in the world. And here
is a student from Sopore ,
Kashmir, who has overcome a
monumental tragedy (Afzal
Guru is a villain to most Indians, but in his son's eyes he
will always remain his missing
abba -the stranger he met
briefly in jail, and fi nally lost).
One wonders how he must
have dealt with the long and
lonely years, reading mixed
reports on a man he barely
knew. A man who was hanged
when Ghalib was just 12 years
old. There are other young
men and women in India,
struggling with issues that
seem almost as insurmountable as Ghalib's. Religion and
money are equally responsible
for these monstrous disparities. Muslim students face
daunting challenges that are
rarely spoken about in `polite
company'. If they come from
an underprivileged background, their woes are further compounded, from admission level itself. This is
the bitter truth we find most
uncomfortable to address,
directly or indirectly. Faced
with it, we quickly look for
excuses and alibis. Politicians trot out manufactured
data to `prove everyone
wrong'. All one has to do is
look around in schools and
colleges, offices and playgrounds. How ntegrated
and united do we look to
outsiders? Ghalib's is a very
positive and inspiring story
which needs to be acknowledged more widely . He is
which needs to be acknowledged more widely . He is
Ghalib. That's his name. He is
not Afzal. Ghalib has an identity of his own. A life that
belongs to him.Like young
people across the world, he
wants to succeed. He has the
absolute right to go ahead and
achieve his ambitions. Will
society let him do that? My
guess is, it will. Ghalib has
demonstrated the stuff he's
made of. He is not about to let
anybody rample on his
dreams. He says that if he
gets into AIIMS, he plans to
specialize in neurology and
transplant surgery . His
`khwaaish' is “to work in Kashmir because there is a shortage of doctors there....“ Let us
not crush it. That's the message Positive India should focus on and carry forward.
Departmental
proceedings ordered
against Vijoy?
Ahmedabad: Departmental proceedings have reportedly
initiated against IPS officer Vipul Vijoy for allegedly confining
policemen in the garage at his official bungalow when he was
posted at Karai Police Academy in Gandhinagar, said sources
in government. The sources said that the two-member probe
panel comprising DGP (law and order) PP Pandey and DGP
(Police Housing Corporation) Geetha Johri submitted its report
holding Vijoy responsible for confining policemen. The CM went
through the report and ordered departmental proceedings,
claim sources.
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RNI No. GUJENG/2014/57876 Printed, Published & Owned by AJAYKUMAR RAMANLAL PRAJAPATI and Printed at Vansh Corporation, A/8, Shayona Golden Estate, Shahibag, Ahmedabad - 380 004
and Published from 131, Dharmanagar Society, Highway Road, Sabarmati, Ahmedabad - 380 005. Editor : ASHVINKUMAR KESHAVLAL RAMI