Road to Demchok
D. Suba Chandran
The mighty Indus enters India at
Demchok, a village that stands divided by the
Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and
China in the South east of Ladakh. Around 300 kms
from Leh, Demchok today mainly hosts the security
agencies and para military forces on both sides
of the LAC and is dotted by few houses belonging
to the nomads, who keep moving up and down in the
ranges in this region. Across the LAC, where the
other section of the village lies, there is heavy
presence of Chinese military.
The road from Leh to Demchok represents a modern
day paradox in Ladakh. Along the first thirty to
forty miles, one is greeted by world famous
monasteries and palaces on the banks of Indus in
Choglamsar, Shey, Thikse and Hemis. This region
is the most highly visited, in terms of domestic
and foreign tourists, who throng every day to
view the grandeur of the past. Upshi, a small
sleepy hamlet, could be considered as the last
suburb on this road, where the civilizations
interact today. The road on the right of Upshi,
that ultimately winds up to the Himachal, is
opened not for more than four months in a year.
The straight road to Demchok marks the beginning
of a human desert, which was once an oasis and
has the potential to revert back to its old
glory.
The Indus, all the way from Demchok, is a flowing
beauty, glowing equally in the winters as well as
the summers. Between Loma and Demchok, a distance
of perhaps a hundred miles, the Indus silently
wanders, covering a wide area. As a friend
commented, ... .. .
.....more
|
Cradle of
Cricket
Raju Bhartan
A tattered,
yellowing tent. An old mali wearing an
outsized khaki shirt and shorts. Weeds
growing all over the outfield that would
embarrass any amateur week-end gardener.
A rickety score-board. A quiet drizzle.
And a crowded ground, with many matches
on at the same time, where the third slip
in one match has only to turn around to
become mid-on in another, and third man
in the third. It seems chaotic and
disorderly, but in the anarchy there
seems to be a purpose.
In the tent, as on the field, are some of
the keenest, most eager young cricketers
one can find. They look scrawny and bony,
but when they grow up they could become a
Sunil Gavaskar, a Dilip Vengsarkar, an
Ajit Wadekar, a Dilip Sardesai, a Ravi
Shastri, a Sanjay Manjrekar, a Sachin
Tendulkar and a Vinod Kambli. Along with
Praveen Amre and Vinod Kambli, Manjrekar
and Tendulkar led a powerful revival of
the traditional Dadar-Shivaji Park
domination of Indian batting.
If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the
playing fields of Eton and Harrow,
battles at Lord’s or Bridgetown have
been saved and won due to the playing
fields of Mumbai’s Shivaji Park and
Dadar Union. For the batsmen who have
emerged from these clubs with no
facilities but loads of history and
tradition, are full of grit. They give
Indian batting its spine. Says Milind
Rege, former Mumbai player: “Mumbai
produces the country’s . ... .. ....more
|
Screen leaders
There are politicians as portrayed
by celluloid heroes and heroes that turn
politicians in real life. But there is a whole
lot of difference between the two, says Shoma
A Chatterji analysing some films in this
genre spanning the past two decades of Indian
cinema
Bollywood has a tendency to portray heroes as
political leaders in films, an extension of film
stars doubling up as politicians through popular
mandate. Is there a difference between the two?
Yes, there is. While heroes who have become MLAs,
MPs and Ministers have done little to live up to
their electoral promises, the celluloid hero as
political leader is a crusader of people's
rights. He offers a counterpoint to the
death-wish brand of anti-heroes given a brand
identity by the Bachchan persona in the Seventies
and Eighties.
Though box office records of films with heroes as
political leaders are rather skewed, some of
these films become extremely popular in their
re-runs in theatres and on television. Look at
the Anil Kapoor starrer Nayak, for example. It is
doing very well in its television re-runs and is
being telecast every other week on public demand.
Nayak (2001), a remake of director Shankar's
South Indian original, talks about QTV's ace
reporter, Shivajirao Gaekwad (Anil Kapoor) who
becomes the chief minister of Maharashtra for one
day when the current CM Balraj Chauhan (Amrish
Puri) challenges him to take it up. Assisted by
Bansal, Gaekwad discovers around 46,000 corrupt
officials in State employment and orders their
suspension. He tours the city himself and orders
the arrest of twelve ministers including the CM
himself, making himself their enemy number one.
Like Cinderella, he slips back . ......more
|
Preserving heritage
A K Khanna
In an age which has made enormous
progress in science and technology transforming
the way of life of millions, there is a growing
feeling that past cultural and national heritage
of human civilization is being relegated to
insignificance. Man kind has recorded the
progress of his thoughts ,vision and aspirations
in literature ,music ,art and philosophy. The
material testimony of achievement had been left
in monuments that reflect various stages of the
human condition.
Heritage is our legacy from the past ,that we
live today, and that we pass on to the future
generations . Our culture and natural heritage
are both priceless and irreplaceable source of
life and inspiration .World Heritage sites belong
to all people of the world .irrespective of the
territory on which they are located.
To focus attention on the collective heritage of
mankind .UNESCO (United Nations Educational
,Scientific and Cultural Organization ) at its
General conference in 1972, defined world
cultural and natural heritage sites and adopted
with overwhelming enthusiasm, a convention
concerning the protection of world culture and
natural heritage, by which countries recognize
that the sites located on their national
territory and which have been inscribed on the
world Heritage list ,without prejudice to
national sovereignty or township ,constitute a
world heritage ,for whose protection it is the
duty of the international community as a whole to
co-operate .It was realized that without the
support of other countries ,some sites with
recognized c culture and natural value would
deteriorate or worse disappear, often through
lack of funding to preserve them. The primary
intention . .. ........more
|
Family
portrayal
Uma Ramachandran
If there is one
institution India as nation is
obsessed with, it is the family.
This institution is never far
from an Indian's thoughts, if
only on some occasions to tell
the world of its ancient
traditions, decadence, refusing
at all times to bow out of public
imagination altogether. Not
surprisingly, therefore, for
every representative voice in
this country, be it television or
cinema, advertisements or
politician, the august
institution called family must
never depart from the script or
the scene for far too long.
Words like khaandaan or parivar,
family value and familial
obligations sound only too
familiar to most of us who have
been indoctrinated. In deference
to this collective Indian
consciousness, soap after
successful soap on television
dating back to Hum Log, Buniyaad
and Khaandaan, and the latest
Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi has paid
the necessary homage. A mention
of the family name gets Congress
president Sonia Gandhi a Lok
Sabha seat from Rae Bareli, her
claim to fame as the Gandhi
family's bahu a natural hit with
the rural audience otherwise
ignorant of her personality.
Instances of the
"family" popping out of
commercials, ranging from baby
food to tractors, are one too
many to list.
In a fundamental sense, the
commercial is an honest
representation of the average
urban Indian family today. Men
will be men, it says. But the
wife can handle a flirtatious
husband, and not necessarily with
Vicks on other occasions. More
than anything else, the husband's
action, albeit an exaggeration
will not destroy the family unit
or even send the woman into
hysterical sobs of
"rejection".. . ... ......more
|
|
Are you at high
risk of Diabetes?
Dr Jitendra Singh
 Unless a conscious
sustained effort is made to diagnose Diabetes
Mellitus early and, if possible, to detect
unknown cases of Diabetes, we will continue to be
confronted with unfortunate instances of
relatively young individuals succumbing to
problems like heart attack and only then
discovering that they had underlying Diabetes
which they were not aware of.
Unless a conscious sustained effort is made to
diagnose Diabetes Mellitus early and, if
possible, to detect unknown cases of Diabetes, we
will continue to be confronted with unfortunate
instances of relatively young individuals
succumbing to problems like heart attack and only
then discovering that they had underlying
Diabetes which they were not aware of.
All those who complain of symptoms or show signs
commonly associated with Diabetes must have a
test done for Diabetes. However, a negative test
for Diabetes does not mean that the person will
never get Diabetes. It only means that the person
does not have Diabetes at the time of testing.
WHO recommends that mass screening to detect
Diabetes and even Pre-diabetes should include
Blood Sugar test for each and every individual.
However, for a variety of reasons, this may not
be feasible in a country like India.
Nevertheless, while ideally everybody over the
age of 30 should undergo periodic annual testing
for the presence of Diabetes, the following
groups of people are particularly at a high . ..........more
Necklaces of the
West and East
Kusum Mehta
 Though the history of
mankind's evolution from the Palaeolithic Age to
the present day one jewel which has constantly
recurred is the necklace. Crudely wrought, but
showing the earliest desire for adorement,
necklaces have been found buried with the remains
of the prehistoric dead.
The luxuriousness of life in ancient Rome is
reflected in the jewellery of the time, when
women of high rank wore necklaces richly set with
coloured stones, though gold was the predominant
medium for making most of the jewels of that time
and places. Necklaces were chiefly composed of
gold chains of varying patterns and designs from
which hung gold coins, medallions, rotettes and
other pendant fancies.
Ancient India also witnessed lying vast stores of
valuable jewellery belonging to culture spread
over the country nearly 3000 years before the
Christian era.
The earliest finds of jewellery and beads are
contained in the large stock or collection of
figurines are loaded with jewellery on their
heads and necks.
The later Zhob and Kulli-mehi cultures indicate a
much large variety of ornaments elaborately
designed in abudance. Here, on comes across along
necklaces, chokers, head necklaces, and necklaces
each having several pendants.
The collection of jewellery belonging to the
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro culture- 2,700 to 1,800
BC is in a class itself. It would do credit to
any modern sophisticated society. This collection
contains a number of necklaces of different
sizes, shapes a. . ......more
Simplicity
Sign of perfection
Lt Col R K Langar
There is no
greatness where there is no simplicity.
Simplicity is the characteristic of
greatness. How does one defines
simplicity. Simplicity is perfect
alignment of one’s thoughts, words
and deeds. Greatest truths are simple but
we make them diffecult. When you are
simple your outer and inner life
coincides. It is because when one is
simple. There are no traces of
crookedness in him. We make ourselves
complicated by splitting our personality.
Inwardly we are something but outwardly
we are different. Outwardly we are
different in our conduct because some how
we mistakenly feel that our outwardly
pattern of behaviour should be different
under different circumstances. We present
ourselves what we are really not. Such a
person may or may not fool others but
surely he is fooling himself by making
his life difficult since he is not
adhering to his natural behaviour. A
modern man does not like himself to be
branded as a simpleton. He equates
simplicity with unimpressiveness and
backwardness. He feels that a simple
person cannot be successful in life. Such
feelings come out only from a little
mind. We have seen that simple persons
have done great things in life. They are
not only successful but are also perfect
in all aspects of life.
Simplicity leads to truthfulness. A
simple person sees things as they are and
presents them without adding or
substracting anything out of them. In
such cases where is the scope to tell a
lie. Simple persons have a clear
conscious free from any ambiguity. They
create plenty of space in their mind to
allow noble thoughts to enter inside. .. .
...more
Noise
pollution Health hazards & control
measures
Prof (Dr) R D Gupta
 About
100 years ago, a noted German
Bacteriologist Dr Robert Koch (Nobel
Laureate) once said, ‘‘The day
will come when man have to fight noise as
incurably as cholera and
plague’’. Today his prediction
has become true particularly in urbanised
areas. Increasingly urbanisation has led
to problem of noise, introducing into the
privacy of urban dwellers, affecting the
quality of life. ‘‘Any sound
reaching the ears that serves no useful
purpose is called noise.’’
Today, noise as pollutant has become a
great nuisance. It is now present in a
real danger especially in the crowded
cities of the country where there is
still no staunch legal or moral curb on
noise automobile engines and use of
blaring horns and highpitched
conversation. ‘‘Noise
pollution’’ has now become a
health hazard and, therefore, it is a
burning problem of the day.
While noise induced hearing loss is
ireversible, it is preventable and its
risk could be reduced with application of
noise control devices, occupational
hearing loss, prevention programmes as
well as planting of strips using
different species of plants and trees.
Health hazards and noise pollution
Hearing loss is not only due to aging
alone, but rather the cumulative long
term exposure to occupational noise which
creates the harm. A sound of 90 decibel
(DB) for more than 10 seconds contracts
the tympanic membrane through aural
reflex. Noise of jet engines ., .. .
...more
|
|
