Student
politics Rudderless in J&K
Nishikant Khajuria
 Notwithstanding the
fact that there are instances when students played a
crucial role in taking some movements to logical
conclusions, the word ‘student politics’
creates immediate impression of an unorganized mob of
college goers who lack patience and are up in arms on any
trivial issue.
In view of the hard fact that political activism now a
days has become a tool to grab power instead of serving
people or the community, the same also applies for
student activism which is seen as a short cut method to
enter the active politics and have a say. This is the
probable reason that we used to hear about use of muscle
power, violence and all other means in student elections.
However, as far as Jammu region is concerned, the
scenario is a little bit different from other parts of
the country though not because of the local stuff but
little significance of the students in political state of
affairs.
Even as some successful agitations were also launched
here by the students and the region also produced a few
student leaders who later made a niche in the active
politics, the overall scenario of student politics is
apparently not encouraging in Jammu.
JKNPP supreme Prof Bhim Singh, former minister Harsh Dev
Singh, Raman Bhalla, MoS Education Manjit Singh, senior
BJP leader Ashok Khajuria are among those who registered
their presence first as student representatives and later
emerged as full time politicians of the State. . .....more
Agriculture
of Kandi Belt
Prof (Dr) R D Gupta
 What constitutes
the Kandi belt ?
‘‘Kandi belt of Jammu, covering parts of Jammu,
Kathua, Udhampur and Rajouri districts, is characterised
by submontane tract having slope of about 3 degree and
undulating /rugged topography, touching with low hilly
country attaining an altitude of greater than 300 m to
less than 1000 m, average being 750 m, comprising Siwalik
group of rocks and lithosol type of soils with uncertain
and erratic rainfall during monsoon’’. Dryland
farming is the main practice. The area of the Kandi Belt
of Jammu and Kathua is about 81000 hectares while as the
attitude of the Kandi Belt in these Districts varies
between 350 to 550 meters.
Agricultural Practices
Agriculture is the mainstay of more than 70 percent of
the people of Kandi belt. In this belt, the agricultural
seasons are the same as prevailed in plains i.e, Kharif
and Rabi. The cropping pattern of an arable land is
characterised by the predominance of millets like bajra,
jowar and maize, wheat and barley. Lesser millets like
Kodra (Paspalum acrobiculatum) and Kangni (Setaria
italica) are also grown as mixed crop with maize and
bajra. Pulses like lentil, gram, mash, arhar, moong,
kulth, moth and rajmash, are cultivated to some extent.
Among the oil seed crops, til, raya, toria and groundnut
occupy the prominent place.
Status of Agriculture :
Then and Now
Hitherto many areas of Kandi belt, especially of Jammu,
Akhnoor and Samba (Now district) tehsils were great
producer of barley, gram, kulth (Dolichos biflorus), Moth
(Phaseolus. aconitifolius) and til (Sesame indicum). The
author still remembers those remarkable days during
childhood before 1947, when his grand mother used to feel
him ‘‘Satu’’ along with other kids.
Use of Satu (roasted barley flour) mixing with sugar or
gur solution (Sharbat) early in the morning during summer
months used to be a common practice as breakfast. But
this has totally gone now. There was, likewise, .. .
.....more
Courting
Umrao Jaan
 Late actor
Rajkumar's son Puru Rajkumar's first film with J P Dutta
LoC bit the dust, but he does not believe that one
swallow makes a summer. Excerpts from an interview with
Vickey Lalwani on his role in the much awaited Umrao Jaan
and the film
What is your role in Umrao Jaan?
I play Gauhar Mirza who is the son of a rich Nawab and a
kothewali. Money stops coming in after his father dies
and he is left at the mercy of kothas. He grows up with
Umrao. He is Umrao's first love.
What made you take up this role?
J P Dutta and Shabana Azmi. Working with them is an
honour for me.
Is it the same as Naseer's character from the original?
The way I understand it, I don't think so. The character
has too many shades- anger, love, frustration and
jealousy. From whatever I know, Dutta's film is not a
remake of Muzaffar Ali's Umrao Jaan. Here we are dealing
with Umrao from the stage of being Amira which was her
name before she became a jaan.
Are you confident about the film? Period films mostly
don't do well- Asoka, Mangal Pandey...
(Interrupts) I have a very good feel for the film. If the
audience shares my level of enthusiasm for it, there is
no reason why it won't click.
Compare Rekha and Ash in the two Umrao Jaans?
I wouldn't compare them. I know that comparisons are
inevitable, but they are unfair. Rekha and Ash are two
different personalities. If you ask me whether Ash has
done a good job, the answer is yes. If you ask me whether
Ash has looked good in the film, she looks good most of
the time anyway.
Who would you vote for Rekha as Umrao Jaan or Ash as
Umrao Jaan?
Both. You can't cast two votes?
Then, I abstain from voting (laughs)
What was the most difficult part for you in the film?. . . ......more
Colouring
agents
Maneka Gandhi
 Would you rather
buy a bright red tomato or a pale one? A bright
yellowbanana or a light green one, a bright green
capsicum or a pale green one? It is the bright colours of
foods that make the customer believe that he is getting
something fresh and top of the line.
Look at the label of any packed food that you pick up
from the grocery store. What is hidden behind the line
"includes permitted colours"? In developed
countries there are strict disclosure requirements, but
in India, any manufacturer can simply shield himself
behind these few words.
Technically, a colour additive is any dye, pigment or
substance that can impart colour when added or applied to
a food, drug, cosmetic or to the human body. Colours
added to packed food come under the category of
'additives'.
Additives are used in food to keep it lasting longer and
to make an artificial taste, look and smell . They enable
food to sit on a shelf for several months without going
bad. Colorants are added to eliminate the colour loss of
foods due to exposure tolight, air, extreme temperature,
moisture and storage conditions, to correctnatural
variations in colour, to enhance natural colours and to
provide colour to colourless foods. For example,
tree-ripened oranges are often sprayed with Citrus Red
No. 2 to correct the natural orange-brown or mottled
green colour of their peels.
While some colours are from natural sources like
beta-carotene, grape skin extract, paparika oleoresin,
turmeric, saffron and paprika are also used as colorants;
chemical are easier and cheaper to produce . Some colours
are made of poisonous mineral and metal-based compounds.
The bulk of chemically synthesised colours are derived
from aniline, a petroleum product that in pure form is
toxic. Many artificial colouring agents, are intended for
dyeing textiles, not food items. Most of the colour
additives in our food products disguise their toxic
identity behind an E-number. E-numbers is a numbering
system for additives used .. . . .. ........more
Srila
Prabhupada
Vipin Vihari Dasa
 The Ambassador of
India's spiritual and cultural heritage
Who brought Indian culture and religious festivals to the
West.
To Know Him is to Know His Mission
The life mission of His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada is the sublime teaching of Krishna (God)
Consciousness in the world. By his personal example, he
showed thousands of people of many different backgrounds
how to regain their original, eternal position as
devotees of the Lord. He taught from ancient, Vedic,
Sanskrit scriptures. Which he translated into English in
accordance with spiritual masters in a line of disciplic
sucession spanning thousands of years.
In particular, he made the chanting of Lord Krishna's
names in the form of maha-mantra- Hare Krishna Hare
Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare; Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare - easily available to everyone. The
vedic method of God realization is a form of meditation
and yoga that was reintroduced five hundered twenty years
ago in India by Lord Krishna's incarnation, Sri Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu. Regarded as a scholar, philosopher, and
prophet, Srila Prabhupada was the ambassador of India's
spiritual and cultural heritage. Though writing books,
estabilishing temples and training followers in the
science of self-realization, he created a global
spiritual movement which he named the International
Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
A LIFE-SKETCH
Srila Prabhupada was born on September1, 1896 in
Calcutta. The previous day had been Janamastmi, the
appearance day of Lord Krishna, and so his father Gour
Mohan De and mother Rajani Devi were inspired to name him
Abhay Charan- "one who is fearless, having taken
shelter of Lord Krishna's lotus feet. At that time an
astrologer predicted that , . ......more
Physics
Nobel Prize
Dr.S.S.Verma
 Man has always been
interesting to know about his surrounding more than
himself. This tendency from the starting point of life in
the universe may be responsible for the present era of
knowing things better and then exploiting them without
caring. Only difference is that earlier man might be
devoting equal time to learn about his existence as well
as to understand about his surroundings where as at
present he is least interested to learn about himself as
he takes his past, present & future existence granted
and is more interested to know about his surroundings. In
this pursuit he has no limitation and wants to reach to
other planets, galaxies and universes. It is extremely
important for human beings to know their origins and
their place in the world. It gives us a common viewpoint
on how the world came into being and what our place in it
might be.
This year's Nobel Prize in Physics goes to experimental
results in this direction which again represent the
growing dimensions of the present day research in terms
of cost and team efforts. The Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in
Physics for 2006 jointly to John C. Mather (born in
1946), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD,
USA, and George F. Smoot (born in 1945), University of
California, Berkeley, CA, USA, "for their discovery
of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic
microwave background radiation". The Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences, which awarded the 10 million Swedish
crown ($1.37 million) prize (divided equally in both),
said the two men were instrumental to the success of the
COsmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite program.
The cosmic microwave background (CMB for short) radiation
was famously found by accident. In attempting to
calibrate a 20-foot horn antenna at radio frequencies,
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson (awarded the 1978 Nobel
Prize) stumbled across three kelvins' worth of excess
noise for which they could find no source. It was the
signature of the Big Bang. Unknown presence of microwaves
can be seen on your TV sets when the satellite (i.e.,
cable or antenna) signal goes off. This will show
disturbance on the screen without any picture or any
sound. As the cosmeic microwaves in the earth's
atmosphere are very week to record/study scientists
thought of launching a stallite to move away from the
Earth's atmosphere.
The CMB is the light emitted by the gas in the young . ..
......more
Educational
System during ancient time
Dr. J.S. Dev
 India has an old
tradition of knowledge and learning, infact, a well
established system of higher education, functioned as
early as 1000 B.C. In this system the construction of
knowledge, the beliefs on which knowledge is based, basic
concepts, and the organisation of learning are very
different from the European tradition. But the system is
validated by the fact that it sustained Indian
civilization for centuries. The institutions of higher
learning were set up from time to time to serve as the
repositories of spiritual, philosophical, scientific,
artistic and literary achievements and as the media of
transmission of this heritage to future generations.
The University system in India which we see today came
into existence during British rule but the seeds of
higher learning in the form of Gurukul and Ashrams
already existed here. Individual rishis headed their own
Ashrams and Peeths and can well be compared with the
Vice-Chancellors of modern universities. The world famous
universities like ‘Takshashila’ ‘Nalanda
Vikramshilla, Sharda etc. have laid the foundation of
present university system.
The system of education in ancient India served us an
effective instrument for transfer of oral and written
tradition from one generation to another. The most
striking feature of ancient education system was its
predominantly religious character, though there is
evidence of princes receiving training in the techniques
of warfare and state craft Grammers poetes etc. The
craftsmen received and imparted vocational education
through their caste guilds. But formal education was
focussed mainly on the imparting of the knowledge of
various concepts of religions discourse to the students
through the Guru-shishya tradition.......more
Nutritional
care for Children
Dr. Vasanta Kohli
 School going
children often miss out on nutrients they need. Since
most of them are very choosy about food, they choose less
milk, fruits, vegetables and juices and consume more soft
drinks and junk foods; which contain a lot of empty
calories that are high on fat, carbohydrate, sodium and
low in protein, essential vitamins and minerals.
The nutritional requirements of the child cannot be
satisfied apart from an understanding of the behavioral
changes which occur. During the second year, the appetite
tapers off corresponding to the slower rate of growth.
Well nourished girls reduced their milk intake as early
as 6 months and returned to higher intakes at 2 to 3 yrs
of age. Boys also reduced their milk intake at about 9
months, but started to increase their consumption between
1 and 2 yrs.
An intake of 2 cups or less is not uncommon for a period
of time. Some children appetite improve by 5yrs or
earlier, but others have poor appetite well into school
years. Many mothers must be reassured that the child will
remain well nourished provided, that foods abundant in
protein, minerals and vitamins are offered and the
feeding does not become an issue between mother and
child.
Mothers may take professional advise of a Nutritiaist or
Dietetian to improve the nutritional composition of the
diet of their children to avoid deficiency diseases and
overall growth and general health of their children.
Vegetables may be incorporated into the diet like soups,
pulao, salads, cutlets etc. If mother feels the child is
not taking enough vegetables for prolong time, she may
consult the experts for supplementation of vitamins and
minerals.
Fruits are well liked, and may be given raw or cooked,
although melons and berries should be used with
discretion, simple deserts such as milk puddings
sherbats, ice cream, plain cakes and cookies , . .. . .
. ...more
Sacred
shrines dot this region
O N Bhat Kuthari
 Himachal Pradesh is
famous for its; flora fauna, apple orchards, besides
being rich in ancient sacred shrines and tourist spots.
It is called Dev Bhoomi. H P is the abode of the Holy
Mother, known as Para Shakti. It is replete with Hindu
culture of so many Shakti Sathals; Shakti Peethas are
located all over Bharat Varsha. Mother worship in our
country is centuries old. Shakti has been worshipped
since ancient times. The Divine Mother manifests herself
in several forms for the devotees. The places specially
sanctified by Her presence are called Shakti Peethas. The
Puranas consider the Shakti Peethas as powerful places of
worship where the limbs of Sati fell during Shiva’s
furious dance holding Her body after Her self-immolation
in Daksha’s sacrificial fire. The parts of the dead
body of Sati fell at 51 different parts of the country
known as 51 Shakti Peethas whose wholly significance is
described in detail in the Puranas. An aspect of Shakti
is believed to be present in each of these places along
with a form of Bairava as Her guardian. Countless
devotees have received the blessings of the Mother
through worship at these sanctified places, which have
become holy places of pilgrimage.
There is a common belief that the Goddess sends a call to
Her devotees (Mata Ne Bhulaya Hai). The devotee marches
towards the holy shrines. A super natural power draws
them through the mountains to climbs the great heights
step by step. The writer, a humble devotee of the holy
Mother was provided an opportunity to visit some of these
holy Shakti Sathals of Kangra region in the recent past
along with my family members. On June 23rd I left Jammu
for this holy pilgrimage in a hired Innova car at 6 am.
via Dharamshala we went to Sidhbari Yole to pay our
prostrated salutation to Guru Maharaja Swami Atmanand at
his small vibrating Ashram. After receiving his blessings
and prasad went to nearby Chinmaya Tapovan Ashram
Sidhbari HP to pay our obeisance before the Samadhi of
Pujya Guru Dev Swami Chinmayanand. Had a round of the
magnificent calm and peaceful Ashram with natural
atmosphere encircled with big Deodar trees.
Chamunda Devi
Whenever the evil demons will overpower the good ones on
the earth, I shall manifest myself to destroy the
demons-‘Durga Saptshati’. Chamunda is one of
the thousand names of Maha Shakti. The Goddess Kali here
killed the demons ‘‘Chand and Mund’’,
so given the name of Chamunda. This is a holy shrine of
Shiva Shakti situated on the Bank of Ban Ganga and has
been a seat of spirituality since ancient times. . . . . ...more
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