Author: Kumar Govindan

I am the first Graduate - an Engineer - in the family; the first to be employed in the Government Sector, India; the first to go overseas for work - USA; the first to throw it all and become an Entrepreneur (and fail); the first to get back to work - this time with the Tata Group, India - after 4 years of chasing 'business dreams'; and, the first to pick-up the Entrepreneur thread again. I now run a Women's Apparel design and styling Boutique - Mavira Designs - along with my wife. The objective of my Blog is to tell my story, intermingled with news stories from all corners of the World, with wit and pun - to squeeze a few laughs, perhaps a smile. I'm sure you will enjoy the reading.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-50

About: the world this week, 5 December to 11 December 2021, the Russia-India Love Story, German chemistry produces a new Leader, Myanmar sentences a civilian Leader, and India loses its first Chief of Defence Staff in a tragedy.

Everywhere

From Russia With Love

India and Russia have been best friends for many decades, and they keep the friendship warm with Annual ‘Tea & Coffee’ Summits. And exchanging powerful gifts on the sidelines. This year, President Vladimir Putin came over to visit Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday in New Delhi with a bear-hug and a missile defence system tucked under his arm. The swagger of the two leaders ‘walking down up and down’ was a sight to behold!

I almost expected President Putin to rip off his shirt-with some tips from our own Bollywood Hero, Salman Khan- grab a horse, don a cowboy hat, and dive into Delhi’s nearing ice-cold water for a brief escape from the polluted air; while PM Modi had his hands full, on the drums of India!

At a time when people are thinking booster doses against COVID19, India received a booster dose for the country’s military with the leaders agreeing to take a new missile defence system deal forward: the S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system. It is one of the world’s most sophisticated, with the ability to reach multiple targets at a maximum distance of about 400km. It is also a more affordable option, for India, costing reportedly half of that of a similar United States’ Patriot missile defence system.

PM Modi beamed that the ties between the Nations have remained unchanged, ‘and hot’ even during the pandemic (when hugging each other could be infectious) and that the special, privileged strategic partnership continues unabated. And that 2021 is a significant year in relations between the countries with Putin playing a very important role in strengthening ties over the past two decades.

Putin took home -as a Return Gift from India -some exquisite Agate bowls hand-made by tribal artisans in the Khambat region of Gujarat: one set of brown bowls with an intricate pattern of mineral work; another bowl, rich yellow in colour, with one section showing off an interesting black and white pattern.

Agate -primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks – is a rock formed mainly of chalcedony and quartz, with various minerals suffusing it with a variety of hues and patterns. So beautiful are these patterns that agate is a natural choice for semi-precious jewellery and ornaments.

Agates, in India, are found in the Rajpipla hills of Gujarat State. In nearby town of Khambat, these agates are moulded into a variety of ornaments, from multi-stringed necklaces to massive bowls and sculptures. It takes the eye of an artist to look at a lump of rock, see the patterns within and carve and polish in such a way that these natural patterns are brought forth with stunning beauty. One of the most fascinating agates is the moss agate, which looks like ancient moss embedded in translucent rock. It is not fossilised moss, however, the network of green fronds is created with iron ore.

Gift a Missile and receive Agate history, fused in rock.

German Chemistry

She’s a Chemist holding a Doctorate (PhD) in Quantum Chemistry. Her husband is also a Chemist and researches at Berlin’s Humboldt University. That’s Angela Merkel, the 67 years old German Chancellor, who making good on her pledge, stepped down on 8 December 2021, after 16 years as Chancellor, to make way for a coalition Government led by her successor Olaf Scholz.

Her chemistry background was a good formula to make and solve coalition equations, keeping the different chemicals physically together; it also brought a calm demeanour in handling the COVID19 pandemic. She has a mixed record as Chancellor, but her exit from power has been a model of grace and restraint.

Merkel was the first woman to be elected as Chancellor, and the first Chancellor since German reunification to have been raised in the former East Germany.

In 1977, at the age of 23, Merkel, then Angela Kasner, married physics student Ulrich Merkel and took his surname. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982. Her second and current husband is quantum chemist and professor Joachim Sauer, who has largely remained out of the media spotlight. They first met in 1981, became a couple later, and married privately on 30 December 1998. She has no children, but Sauer has two adult sons from a previous marriage.

She lived the life of a normal next-door neighbour and brought no Office airs to her neighbourhood.

Angela Merkel once said she wanted to leave politics before she became a ‘half-dead wreck’. Glad, she’s fully alive to that!

Her’s will be a tough act to follow, but the incumbent Chancellor seems up to the task, reading from the chemistry of his background.

Myanmar’s Sentences

In troubled Myanmar after ousting a democratically elected Government about 10 months ago in a coup, the Military Junta piled up about a dozen ‘not so noble charges’ on Nobel Peace Laureate and former civilian Leader Aung San Suu Kyi that add to combined maximum possible sentences of more than 100 years. The kaleidoscope of charges include violating COVID19 protocols, the mandatory corruption (of course), illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies…and the kind. This week in a first verdict, she was sentenced to four years in jail, which was then shot down to half.

More than 1300 people have been killed by the Myanmar Security Forces, since the coup, and more than 10,000 arrested. Oh, Myanmar, when will your sentence end?

Tragedy in the Hills

The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the three divisions of India’s defence forces: the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The President can declare War or Peace on the advice of the Union Council of Ministers (includes the defence Minister) headed by the Prime Minister (PM).

India never had a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) since independence in 1947 and the separate Chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force advised the Defence Minister, on matters related to India’s defence and territorial integrity.

After the Kargil War of 1999, when India fought Pakistan and successfully pushed-back infiltrators along the Line of Control, a Kargil Review Committee suggested the creation of a CDS post with the aim of improving coordination, tri-service effectiveness, and overall integration of the combat capabilities of the Indian armed forces. Though the idea was previously proposed, it never saw the light of the day until PM Narendra Modi announced the decision during his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2019 at the Red Fort, New Delhi.

On 24 December 2019, the Cabinet Committee on Security formally announced creation of the position; a four-star general, a tri-service chief, selected from among the serving officers of the Indian Armed Forces who shall lead the defence forces. While being ‘first among equals’ among the service chiefs, the CDS is a single-point military advisor to the Defence Minister of the Government of India.

On 31 December 2019, Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat was appointed as India’s first CDS and he took office on 1 January 2020. He was named CDS just a day before he was to retire from service, after completing a full three-year term as Chief of Army Staff.

Gen Rawat completed his schooling at Cambrian Hall School, Dehradun, and St.Edward’s School, Shimla before joining the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, and then the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He also graduated from the Defense Services Staff College, Wellington, Coonoor, India, and the Senior Command Course of the United States Army Staff College, Fort Leavenworth Kansas, United States.

He was commissioned into the Indian Army in December 1978 in the fifth battalion of 11 Gorkha Rifles and rose up the Army ranks to become the 27th Chief of Army Staff, taking over from his predecessor, General Dalbir Singh Suhag, on December 17, 2016.

Gen Rawat became a highly decorated Officer, a veteran of counterinsurgency warfare and has served in some of the most difficult terrains of India, including the northern and eastern commands. Gen Rawat is known to be forthright, fearless, and blunt at times. He considered China as India’s arch enemy and was boldly outspoken about it. In the role of CDS he brought energy and purpose to military reforms and built up a momentum.

During his 43 years of service, Gen Rawat served on various responsible positions on the rungs of the Army ladder. He was also a part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force and has commanded a multinational brigade in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

General Bipin Rawat has been at the centre of hot pursuits and surgical strikes that we have now become familiar with – especially the Balakot Surgical Strikes of 2019.

Let me tell you a story of his command.

In June 2015, eighteen Indian soldiers of the Dogra Regiment were killed in an ambush by militants of National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang or NSCN (K) belonging to the United Liberation Front of Western South East Asia (UNLFW) in Manipur. The Indian Army swiftly responded with a cross-border strike. A crack team of 70 commandos of the 21st battalion of the Parachute Regiment entered Myanmar and struck a terrorist base, completely destroying militant Group’s camps. They returned within 40 minutes leaving at least 38 Naga insurgents dead and several injured. The operation was overseen by General Officer Commanding, Bipin Rawat, at that time.

Now, back to the Chief of Defence Staff.

On 8 December 2021 General Bipin Rawat along with his wife, Madhulika Rawat– President of the Army Wives Welfare Association – was on an official visit to the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Coonoor, Tamilnadu – a homecoming to his Alma Mater. He was scheduled to address the faculty and student officers of the Staff Course.

He arrived at the Indian Air Force (IAF) Sulur base, near Coimbatore, by plane from New Delhi and hopped onto to an IAF Mi-17V5 Helicopter to make the, about 30 minutes, journey to Wellington. With him on the helicopter was his wife and twelve other Army and Air Force Officers. The helicopter was piloted by Wing Commander P S Chauhan and Squadron Leader Kuldeep. Seemed like an ordinary day in the peace-time work-life of the Army, but it wasn’t to be.

Almost at the end of the flight, about 10 minutes before landing, around 12.30pm, the helicopter unexpectedly crash-landed, bursting into flames in the Katteri Park area of Nanjappanchathiram of the Nilgiris Hills, near Coonoor.

The Mi-17V5 helicopter was last seen flying in the Nilgiris valley from East to West at a low altitude, in thick mist, when it suddenly did a U-turn, turned North, flew about 100 meters, caught fire, and rammed a tree before crashing into a hill.

The intense flames burnt and martyred General Bipin Rawat, 63 years old, and all on board with the exception of Group Captain Varun Singh, who as seriously injured, and is the lone survivor of the crash. He is fighting for his life in hospital, with over 80% burn injuries. Recently, in August this year, Group Captain Varun had been awarded the Shaurya Chakra one of India’s highest Gallantry Awards for showing exemplary courage in handling of his Tejas Fighter Jet after it faced major technical issues during a sortie in October 2020. He successfully landed the aircraft despite losing control due to multiple technical failures.

Gen Bipin Rawat himself survived a helicopter crash in February 2015, when he had a miraculous escape when the single-engine Cheetah copter in which he was travelling crashed in Nagaland. At that time he was a Lt. General and heading the 3 Corps, headquartered at Dimapur, Nagaland. The pilot had lost control of the helicopter, which dropped like a brick from a height of 20 metres. General Rawat had suffered minor injuries in the accident.

The other Officers who were martyred in the present crash are: Brigadier LS Lidder, Lt Col Harjinder Singh, Wing Commander PS Chauhan, Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh, Junior Warrant Officers Das and Pradeep A, Havaldar Satpal, Naik Jitendra Kumar, Naik Gursewak Singh, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar and Lance Naik B Sai Teja. It was a Herculean task to identify the bodies.

Let’s delve into the technicals of the helicopter of the crash.

The Mi-17V5 helicopter, the work-horse of the Indian Military-is Russian made and built like a battle Tank, with twin engines of 2700 HP engine power, capable of transporting 36 armed soldiers, or 4500 kilogrammes of load on a sling. It is probably the only Helicopter in IAF’s inventory with full-authority digital control system, which basically makes the engine inherently safe, efficient, and reliable. The Mi-17V5 is equipped with four swappable multifunction displays: weather, radar, radio altimeter readings giving accurate measurement, night vision equipment to fly in pitch-dark conditions, and an exceptional autopilot which has the capability to auto-hover.

The Mi-17V5 has infrared suppressors to protect against heat-seeking missiles, chaff and flare dispensers to provide passive electronic warfare capability, and noise and deception jammers to evade radar-guide missiles. It has a wire cutter in the front to cut wires if it inadvertently encounters cables. The helicopter is heavily protected with armoured plates. It has self-sealing fuel tanks made of material called Hycatrol and is also covered with polyurethane fire retardant foam giving it protections against explosions. Simply put, it is nearly impossible to shoot down this helicopter.

Diving deeper into the basic working of helicopters: They fly purely by the thrust generated by the engines which is transferred to the rotors. The main rotor produces the thrust which is equivalent to the weight of the helicopter when in hovering condition. If the engine fails, the helicopter needs to trade height to maintain main rotor rotation and the pilot has to quickly find a place to land. In this condition, the fall is almost vertical and survival depends on the terrain below, weather, and crew training. Helicopters have another peculiar design aspect: to counter the torque of the main rotor, so that the body does not rotate in the opposite direction, a tail rotor is provided to act as a counter-balance. Failure of the tail rotor can be catastrophic.

I’m beyond grief and disbelief on this Himalayan loss of soldiers who tirelessly work to protect the country. Their lives are precious and irreplaceable. How did the accident happen against the might of such mind-boggling technology, with strenuously trained pilots, battle-ready Defence Officers inside the helicopter, and fantastic equipment, in familiar terrain, in a peaceful civilian environment? Blame it on the weather, or equipment failure? What are we missing? The reasons have to be unravelled and India should resolve never to lose its finest Officers in such a manner. We need to hold a mirror to ourselves while we start hunting for clues in the debris of the burnt and mangled remains.

General Bipin Rawat, a people’s General, is survived by two daughters, Kritika and Tarini. They lit the funeral pyre of their parents, watched over by the General’s young grandchild. May his soul, and all of those who joined him on this last flight, rest in peace. Travel well, brothers in arms: you live in our hearts forever.

More stories coming up in the weeks ahead, live with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-49

About: the world this week, 28 November to 4 December 2021, the media gets omicron infected, Barbados bids adieu to The Crown, France honours an inspirational ‘Danse Sauvage’ banana skirt Spy, The Word of the Year, and China walls-in a tennis player.

Everywhere

The Omicron virus had a frenzied, fierce spread across the media of the world, with every vaccinated or unvaccinated news channel or newspaper dissecting and analysing its known (and unknown) capabilities. The wise said that we require some more time to see and study the effects of the new variant. Getting wiser?

We are definitely not going back to where we started in January 2020: we have evolved – I hope it is good enough. The weapons that we have with us, irrespective of any variant, is the rich learning and training of the past year, which we have to deploy to win yet another battle…and maybe the war. Meanwhile, get that shield!

The Land of the Bearded Tree

Barbados is a small island country in the Caribbean Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, with its capital at Bridgetown, its largest Town. Its neighbours are Saint Lucia, to the north, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, to the west, and Trinidad & Tobago to the south. It is a fairly flat island, surrounded by ‘million-dollar coral reefs’; and Tourism generates considerable revenue for the country.

The Portuguese first sighted Barbados in the year 1536 while sailing to Brazil and referred to the island as ‘Los Barbados’ or the ‘Bearded Ones’, probably after the fig trees found on the island which had an uncanny beard-like resemblance. These trees can become incredibly large and are a natural habitat for birds, bats, and monkeys.

Barbados became an independent state in the Commonwealth realm, with Britain’s Elizabeth-II as Queen of Barbados, on 30 November 1966. Centuries ago, in 1625, an expedition for King James-I of England first claimed Barbados, when his ships arrived on its shores. A settlement was established two years later.

Now, after nearly 400 years, Barbados severed its last remaining bonds to the British Monarchy. In October 2021, Dame Sandra Mason was elected by Parliament to become the first President of Barbados. On 30 November 2021, Mason replaced Queen Elizabeth as head of state, with Barbados transitioning to an independent Republic.

This week, in a ceremony on Monday evening, Prince Charles, who was present to ‘hand over the country’, acknowledged the ‘appalling atrocity of slavery’ – a black mark in the history of Barbados, as the nation removed his mother, The Queen, as head of state and inaugurated its first President.

The vibrant celebratory ceremony also showcased Barbadian music and dance, but a highlight was singer Rihanna, who hails from Barbados, being made a national hero and told to keep shining like a diamond and bring honour to the young Republic, by her works and actions. If diamonds are forever, this this original diamond forever belongs to The Republic of Barbados.

France Goes Bananas

This week, the late Josephine Baker, Professional Entertainer-French Dancer, Civil Rights Activist, and World War-II Spy, became the first black woman to be inducted into the Pantheon in Paris, the highest honour that France bestows. The Pantheon is reserved as the final resting place for just dozens of France’s greatest, including Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and Marie Curie.

Josephine Baker famously sang that she had two loves: “J’ai Deux Amours” – my country and Paris. They heard it, and loved it.

In a moving ceremony, led by French President Emmanuel Macron who called Josephine an ‘exceptional figure embodying the French spirit, the award was bestowed upon her. At the request of her surviving children, Josephine’s remains will continue to stay in Monaco where she was buried. Instead, a plaque was placed on a cenotaph containing soil from the four places dearest to her heart: St Louis, Paris, her Castle-Les Milandes, and Monaco.

Josephine was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States (US), grew up fatherless, and in poverty. Between the ages of eight and ten she was out of school, helping to support her family, working as a laundry maid; as a live-in domestic help; as a waitress in a Cafe; as a street child in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters, scavenging for food in garbage cans; and making a living with street-corner dancing.

On one such street she met her first husband, Willie Wells, who she married at age 13; however, the marriage lasted less than a year. Following her divorce from Wells, she found work with a street performance group called the Jones Family Band. In 1921, at age 15 she married William Howard Baker but left him when her vaudeville troupe was booked into a New York City venue. The marriage ended in divorce in 1925. It was during this time that she began to see significant success in her career as a dancer. And she continued to use Baker as her last name for the rest of her life, as she was, by that time, best known professionally as Josephine Baker.

As a child Josephine developed a taste for the flamboyant that was later to make her famous. In her teen years she struggled to have a healthy relationship with her mother, who did not want her to become an entertainer, but she persisted.

As an adolescent she became a dancer, touring at 16 with a dance troupe from Philadelphia. In 1923, she joined the chorus in a road company performing the musical comedy ‘Shuffle Along’. And then moved to New York City, where she advanced steadily through the show ‘Chocolate Dandies’ on Broadway and the floor show of the Plantation Club.

In 1925, she went to Paris to dance at the Theatre Des Champs-Elysees in La Revue Negre and introduced her unique ‘Danse Sauvage’ – an uninhibited, wild, exotic and spontaneous dance – to France. She went on to become one of the most popular music-hall entertainers in France and achieved star billing at the Folies-Bergere Cabaret Hall. She revelled in Paris life, free of the institutionalised racism and segregation at home in America.

Josephine met immediate success on the Theatre Des Champs-Elysees and became the darling of Parisian society. People flocked to see her perform the jaw-dropping banana dance where she appeared semi-nude, wearing the famed banana belt skirt, or in simmering sequins, in the city’s night spots. Her costume, consisting of only a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties. Her show, embodying the colonial time’s racist stereotypes about African women, caused both condemnation and celebration.

Josephine became French by her marriage to industrialist Jean Lion in 1937, and made France her home, dividing her time between Paris and a fairytale castle – Les Milandes- which she bought in the southwest of the country.

When World War II began, she joined the French Resistance, famously saying “I want to give myself to France, do what you want with me.” Her fame served her well-she was able to pass coded messages in her music scores without being stopped. She hid Resistance fighters and fleeing Jews in her castle. She had a pilot’s licence at a time when it was exceptional for women to become pilots, and became a lieutenant in the French Air Forces’ female Auxiliary Corps, gaining military decorations. She worked as a spy for France’s wartime-leader-in exile, General Charles de Gaulle.

Josephine also fought against racism in the US, becoming active in the civil rights movement and traveled several times to the US to participate in civil rights demonstrations. Throughout her life she fought for freedom and equality of all.

Josephine adopted 12 children from all over the world from various backgrounds, creating what she called ‘a rainbow tribe’ to embody her ideal of ‘universal fraternity.’ This was to become an inspiration for Hollywood Actor Angelina Jolie who also adopted children from all over the world, in addition to having her own.

Josephine Baker retired from the stage in 1956, but to maintain Les Milandes she had to return to starring in Paris in 1959. In 1968, her estate was sold to satisfy accumulated debt. Then Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, a good friend of hers, stepped-in to help by providing for Josephine’s children by the Red Cross, and setting her up in a villa outside of Monaco.

She continued to perform occasionally and rebuilt her career. But in 1975, four days after the triumphant opening of a comeback tour, and during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of her Paris debut, she fell into a coma and passed away from a brain haemorrhage. She was buried in Monaco. Princess Grace stood front and centre at Josephine’s burial, a true testament to their friendship.

Oh, what an extraordinary story; rising-up from abject street poverty in America to receiving France’s highest honour! There was no American Dream for her; it was only the French Dance-all the way to her grave.

Get Vaccinated with the Word of The Year

We have used it tirelessly over the past year, even had a couple of jabs of it, Vaccine has been the clear ‘Word Of The Year’ according to dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

Last year, 2020, without ay effort, or protest, Merriam-Webster’s chose Pandemic. Not to be left behind, lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary chose ‘Vax’ as their word of the year, due to an explosion in the use of related terms such as ‘vaxxed’ and ‘anti-vaxxer’.

The word ‘vax’ was first recorded in English in 1799, with ‘vaccinate’ and ‘vaccination’ appearing a year later. All of these words find their root in the Latin word ‘vacca’, which means cow. This is because the English Scientist Edward Jenner discovered that cowpox, a mild infection that occurs in cows, can help protect people from smallpox. This was as far back as 1796. He pioneered the concept of vaccines including creating the smallpox vaccine- the world’s first ever vaccine. For many centuries, smallpox devastated mankind. And in these modern times we have learnt to beat such diseases thanks to the remarkable work of Edward Jenner who is called the Father of Immunology. His work is said to have saved more lives than the work of any other human.

I’m sure the ‘Virus’ must be jealous that being the cause of ‘Vaccine’ to get so popular it has been denied this word status. Or did ‘corona’ take it away? Hence it keeps coming back? Name it? Meanwhile, ‘variants’ are waiting on the next page.

China: Kill the Messenger?

Peng Shuai is one of China’s most recognisable sports stars, a three time Olympian.

In November, she publicly accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of coercing her into sex at his home, in a social media post. She said, ‘even if it is like an egg hitting a rock, or if I am like a moth drawn to the flame, I will tell the truth about you’.

Following the accusation Peng disappeared from public view. And several tennis players began to worry about her on social media using the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stepped in and after a 30-minute video call in the presences of a Chinese Sports Official and IOC Official declared her to be ‘fine’ – I think that’s a dangerous word!And Peng said she would like her privacy to be respected. Now we know for sure!

This week, The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced immediate suspension of all WTA tournaments in China, including Hong Kong. The decision was rooted in a lack of transparency by Chinese Officials, with Peng Shuai obviously not be allowed to communicate freely and being pressurised to contradict the allegations she made. This tells about the risks Players and Staff could face in China if events were held in the Country in such an atmosphere. Well, that’s China living inside its Great Wall.

Contrast this with the United States: Ex- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who had to step down from Office, over sexual allegations, brought down his brother, Chris Cuomo, a CNN News Anchor, as well. This week CNN suspended Chris Cuomo indefinitely as he was found to be helping his brother combat and rub-off the allegations.

More skirtful, banana stories coming up in the weeks ahead, wall and rub yourself with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-48

About: the world this week, 21 November to 27 November 2021, maybe another coronavirus wave in the making, America in black & white, India sends its new Farm Laws to the ground, the President of India on an award delivering spree, and dead meat eating, honey making bees.

Everywhere

This week saw Europe battle yet another surge of the never-say-quit coronavirus induced Covid-19. A fourth Wave? Germany is thinking lockdown; Portugal – one for the most vaccinated in the world -announced a week of contact containment after declaring a state of calamity; Czech Republic declared a state of emergency; Slovenia announced a nationwide lockdown; France, Switzerland, and Italy saw the biggest one day increases on record. Austria is already in the swing of a full national lockdown. The story goes on…

A New Variant, B.1.1.529, named as ‘Omicron’ – a Variant of Concern (VOC)- is the new hungry kid doing the rounds. It has over 32 mutations in its -now awfully familiar-spike protein and was first discovered in South Africa were the cases shot up by 321% from last week. After the Delta Variant, Omicron is becoming infamous.

The United States (US) is also seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases during this Thanksgiving Season.

Where Art Thou, O Lady of Justice?

On another battle front, the US was busy fighting its internal black & white ghosts – punishing shooters, releasing some, and breaking-out innocent people caught in prisons. Lots of red in the proceedings.

A Jury in the US found three white men guilty of killing a 25 year old black man, Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, in 2020. The details are inexplicable and stunning: two white men claiming concerns about several break-ins in the neighbourhood, grabbed their guns, jumped into a truck pursued – stalked and cornered – Arbery who was on his usual jog of the day; and later, joined by a third white man, shot and killed Arbery with a shotgun. The best part is, the three killers had the audacity to say that they were ‘defending themselves’ while ‘attempting to make a citizen’s arrest’. Taking law into their own hands without an iota of evidence?

In another story, 61 year old Anthony Broadwater who spent 16 years in prison for a rape he did not commit was finally exonerated this week. He was convicted of the rape of author Alice Sebold, who wrote the fiction book, ‘The Lovely Bones’ and a memoir called ‘Lucky’ in which she detailed the rape, which happened to her when she was a freshman at Syracuse University, in 1981. Based on the memoir and a line-up identification parade, Broadwater who was then 20 years old was arrested. He had just returned home to Syracuse following a brief stint in the Marine Corps.

Anthony Broadwater was released from prison in 1998, but the conviction and subsequent sex offender status tagged him relentlessly, and would have been nailed on him for the rest of his life, if it were not for the exoneration. He struggled to find work after getting out of jail, when employers dug out his criminal record. However, he managed by creating work for himself, doing landscaping, tree removal, hauling, clean-outs etc. Broadwater met the woman to be his wife in 1999 and gave her the transcripts and other documents of his case, telling her to read them and decide if she wanted to be with him. She believed him and decided, ‘Yes’. She wanted to have kids but he did not want to bring children in to the world because of his situation and tarnished name…and now he says it’s too late.

Broadwater said, “I never gave up. I could never, ever give up and live under these conditions…I was going to do everything I could to prove my innocence”. On Sebold, Broadwater said he would like an apology, “I sympathise with her, on what happened to her” he said. “I just hope there’s a sincere apology. I would accept it. I’m not bitter or have malice towards her”.

In yet another story of wrongful confinement in prison,Kevin Strickland, 62 years old, spend more than 43 years in prison – the longest prison time for a wrongful conviction in the history of US State of Missouri. Strickland was convicted in 1979 for the murders of three people, in 1978, who were killed when four suspects broke into a Kansas City Bungalow. The only person who survived the shootings, Cynthia Douglas identified Strickland as one of the suspects. However, she later said police pressured her to tie Strickland to the crime. Strickland had long maintained his innocence saying that he was at home watching Television during the time of the shootings. Cynthia Douglas, who died in 2015 realised her mistake and spent years trying to clear Strickland’s name.

Now, on to some real shooting… killing and actually getting away with it. In August 2020 Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17 year old from Antioch, Illinois fatally shot and wounded two men and wounded another in Kenosha, Wisconsin. This was during protests, riots, and civil unrest following the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer. Rittenhouse and the three men he shot were white. In this case, the Jury reached a ’not guilt’ verdict and Rittenhouse was absolved of all charges. Here, the self defence stand worked- in a State where the Law allows a person to defend himself using firearms.

In the image of the blind-folded Lady of Justice the sword always stays below the scales, which signifies that the sword must be raised only after the evidence is carefully-weighed on a balance, with impartiality. Was the sword raised too soon?

That’s a lot of fire to breathe this week. What do we make of it all? How many Counts of Monte Cristo are we making – with or without the revenge angle?

It’s worth recalling Martin Luther King Jr saying,”Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

India’s Farm Laws Sent To The Ground, Plough Again?

Late last week, in an unexpected turn India’s Prime Minister (PM) announced repealing of Three Farm Laws – passed by India’s Parliament last year. The new Farm Laws were aimed at modernising India’s agriculture sector, giving farmers more freedom to sell their produce, while retaining crucial Minimum Support Prizes. However, it sparked year long protests, mostly in the North Indian States, which refused to go away, and caused spin-off incidents leading to many lives being lost in a growing surge of protests.

India’s PM accepted failure in not being able to implement the new Farm Laws, despite it being said by nearly every Economist worth his money, that the laws were pathbreaking and would unshackle Indian agriculture.

The PM said, “I apologise to the people of the country with a true and pure heart… we were not able to convince farmers. There must have been some deficiency in our efforts that we could not convince some farmers.”

The PM has shown sagacity and a nerve to listen and climb down, which his opponents said he did not have, painting him as an unbending leader. Sometimes stepping back can lead to a great leap forward. Tomorrow is another day!

Keeping Warm Ahead of Winter

With Winter looking to enter New Delhi, the President of India is trying to keep Rashtrapathi Bhavan warm, with a footfall of awards. I reckon he is working on a clever climate change mitigation plan warming-up our hearts too with all these presentations. He walks down to-to pin that medal on a deserving chest and rushes back to claim his high seat. It began with the Civilian Awards- The Padmas- and then ran into the Sports Awards -Khel Ratna – and this week it is the Gallantry Awards presented to the bravest of Indians.

Gallantry Awards have been instituted by the Government of India to honour the acts of bravery and sacrifice of the officers of the Armed Forces, other lawfully constituted forces and civilians. Beginning this Monday the President, who is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, presented Gallantry Awards 2021 and Distinguished Service Decorations in a Defence Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

What are the Gallantry Awards?

In the period just after its Independence, India had three gallantry awards: Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra, and Vir Chakra. Thereafter, three other gallantry awards, Ashoka Chakra Class-I, Ashoka Chakra Class-II and Ashoka Chakra Class-III were instituted by the Government on 4 January, 1952. Subsequently these awards were renamed as Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra respectively, in January, 1967. Order of precedence of these awards is, the Param Vir Chakra, the Ashoka Chakra, the Maha Vir Chakra, the Kirti Chakra, the Vir Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra.

Some of the awards, for the year are: Maha Vir Chakra to Colonel Bikumalla Santosh Babu, who was martyred in the violent clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley during Operation Snow Leopard; Vir Chakra Award to Indian Air Force pilot, Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman, who shot down a Pakistan F-16 fighter jet in the Balakot Surgical Strikes; Vir Chakra to Havildar K Palani who was also martyred along with Col Santosh Babu at Galwan Valley. Kirti Chakra (posthumously) to Sapper Prakash Jadhav for neutralising terrorists in an operation in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). Shaurya Chakra (posthumously) to Naib Subedar Sombir for killing an A-Plus-Plus category terrorist during an operation in J&K.

Watching the receipt of the awards, by family members of those who had made the supreme sacrifice for the country, was heart-wrenching and unforgettable. It brought more than a tear to the eye. It touched a chord deep down: I am able to write this article comfortably sitting in my home due to the untiring efforts, in extreme weather conditions, of our Defence Personnel who watch and safe-keep our borders, most of which are invisible lines. A salute to all of them: we owe them everything.

Honey, I Just Ate All the Meat.

Most of the Bees that we know, generally feed upon pollen and nectar -turning them into honey- but certain species of bees called Vulture Bees, have evolved to feasting on dead meat.

Scientists at the University of California-Riverside, Columbia University, and Cornell University studied the gut bacteria or microbiomes of Vulture Bees in Costa Rica. And found that they were rich in acid loving bacteria similar to those found in vultures, hyenas, and other animals that feed on carrion -decaying flesh of animals.

Contrast this with the guts of honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees that are colonised by the same five crore microbes, and they have retained the bacteria for roughly 80 million years – holding them tight in a sticky, sweet, relationship.

With the intense competition for nectar, Vulture Bees has evolved to sourcing their honey from meat rather than nectar. Though they feed on meat the ‘non-vegetarian honey’ is just as sweet and edible. They store the meat in special chambers in the hives that are sealed off for two weeks – to allow them to rot – before they access it to begin the honey making process. And the chambers are separate from where the honey is stored.

Well, how do bees make honey in the first place? Bees fly from flower to flower – over thousands of them – to suck out the nectar with their tongues, and store it in what’s called their honey stomach, which is different from their food stomach. When their honey stomach is full, they fly back to the hive and pass it on, through their mouths, to other worker bees who chew it for about half an hour. The process is repeated, passed from bee to bee, until it gradually turns into honey. Then the bees store it in honeycomb cells, which are like tiny jars made of wax. The honey is still a bit wet, so they fan it with their wings to dry it out and becomes more sticky. When it’s ready, they seal the cell with a wax lid to keep it clean.

Let’s talk about vegetarian Honey and Non-vegetarian Honey?

More shooting and breaking-out stories coming up in the weeks ahead, stick with World Inthavaaram… there’s honey in it!

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-47

About: the world this week, 14 November to 20 November 2021, bombs smoke, cities smoke, people meet to change the smoke, snails slither, a singer gets freedom, and the mathematics of life.

Everywhere

Terrorist acts such stabbings or firing an explosion seem to be happening with a certain ‘staccato steadiness’, in the United Kingdom (UK). And the Police too are fired-up, and right behind them.

This Sunday a homemade bomb exploded shortly after a taxi pulled up outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital, UK. The passenger, who appears to have brought the device with him died at the scene. The taxi driver, quick on his wits, just about managed a heroic escape from the car, seconds before it was engulfed in flames. Police were able to find leads and have arrested four men, all in their 20s; they have identified a suspect and named him too. A key finding was that the bomb was made with homemade explosive, which had ball bearings attached and could have caused significant injury or death if it had detonated in different circumstances.

What exactly do these guys want? The Police are searching for clues.

This week, India’s capital, New Delhi touched dizzying heights becoming the worst polluted city in the World with an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 292. The second worst, Lahore, Pakistan, was hid by less dense fog at AQI of 212. India’s Mumbai and Kolkata dusted themselves to the top ten with scores of 163 and 157 respectively.

What do these AQI numbers mean? Let’s check out the scale of unhealthiness of the air we breathe.

On the AQI scale, 0-50 is Good – breathe easy; 51 to 100 is Moderate – don’t start worrying, not yet; 101 to 150 is Unhealthy for sensitive groups – careful; 151 to 200 is Unhealthy for all – time to start worrying; 201 to 300 is Very Unhealthy – time to find a solution, use temporary measures, start covering up; and 301 to 500 is Hazardous – act on a solution, or scoot from the place!

Further, Politicians added noise to the pollution, bickering over the causes: stubble-burning, farm fires, in farms surrounding Delhi was touted as one reason in addition to the ‘must blame’ automobile pollution caused by the city’s dense vehicular traffic, industries, and dust. Even India’s Supreme Court added voice, trying to see through the smoke: hope they do not make a blurred judgement.

Now that we have become experts in handing-out, ‘enjoying’ lockdowns, and wearing all kinds of layered masks in all kinds of places, there is a talk of locking down New Delhi to control the pollution. This, after previous odd and even attempts could not clear the air. With smoke in your eyes, you find new directions every season!

Last week, down South, the city of Chennai was battered by incessant red-alert rains and people tried to find or even make their own shells to hide. This week the shells started moving about only that there weren’t people in them but slimy mollusk fellas, called The Great African Snails– an invasive species. The city became infested by scores of snails seen on walls, gardens, rooftops, and waterlogged roads. The story goes that the Great African Snail, native to East Africa, made its way to Chennai on the Trade Ships during the time India was colonised by the British and other Europeans. The snails then did their own colonising and conquering on touching Indian soil, eating all kinds of plants and crops, and even construction material such as paint.

These snails are hermaphrodites and hence have 100% reproduction skills – both ways. They mate with one another or with themselves laying eggs during the rainy season, which are covered inside mud and hatch during the next spell of rains. The Great African Snail has a life of about seven years and gets into the act quickly, starting to lay eggs by their first birthday. Wow, that’s a quick-gun snail!

There is another rainy angle too: researchers say the shells of these snails offer brilliant information – to those willing to study them – on the rainfall rate of a particular region. The shells grow faster during the rainy season and the bands on their shells hold a lot of data, telling their own stories – living as they are from one rain to another. Amazing what we can learn by just looking deeply as the ‘snail’s space’.

This week, the 26th Meeting of the Conference Of Parties, COP26, ended in Glasgow and in the 11th hour of negotiations, India (and China) had their way on fossil fuels – read as dirty coal. Now, Governments have agreed to ‘phase down’ not ‘phase out’ coal – the largest contributor of greenhouse gas -mostly Carbon-dioxide (CO2)-emissions. Call that tinkering with words-word pollution? This is the first time, at a COP conference, that an overt plan to reduce use of coal, which is responsible for 40% of annual CO2 emissions, has been made. World leaders also agreed to phase-out subsidies that artificially lower the price of coal, oil, or natural gas.

The outcome document, known as the Glasgow Climate Pact, calls on 197 countries to pyramid their progress towards more climate ambition points next year, at COP27, set to take place in Egypt. It was agreed that when countries meet again they will pledge further cuts to CO2 emissions. I reckon, next year you may get a better perspective looking from the top of a great pyramid, climbing up and standing on the dead and buried.

In previous World Inthavaarams, I had talked about Pop Star Britney Spear’s life-shackling conservatorship of 13 years where her father Jamie Spears controlled much of her personal life on issues related to her career, health (making babies too), and wealth, on the grounds that she was incapable of taking care of herself. Then Britney fought for freedom and pleaded with the Courts that her father be removed from the conservatorship. A ‘Free-Britney’ movement was also started by fans in her support. And finally last Friday, a court in Los Angeles, United States, ended the draconian conservatorship. And said, Britney doesn’t need to undergo a mental health evaluation. She is now free to spear-ahead her life, and, baby, we can listen to her sing one more time! Oops, surprising that freedom can sometimes be freely snatched away just like that!

Please Yourself

Reading is the never-ending fuel for writing and to keep-up with my reading goals I ordered by next set of books for the season, on Amazon. They arrived in double-quick time, before the rains could start pouring. And what better way to spend a rainy day, curled-up on your cosiest sofa, book in one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in another?

Without making a calculation, I started reading Hardy’s, ‘A Mathematician’s Apology’ and found it to be one of the best possible accounts on what it is to be a creative person. It revealed many equations and theorems on living your life. And also multiplied thoughts from another of my all time favourite books, Ayn Rand’s, The Fountainhead.

G.H. Hardy is one of the twentieth centuries’ finest, ‘pure and real’ mathematicians and is famously known as the one who discovered (described as the most romantic incident in his life) the genius lurking inside India’s brilliant mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan. And gave him the means to exhibit his super-powers by drawing him to England: to tutor, guide, and collaborate with him.

Some of Hardy’s thoughts goes like this, I quote, ‘I do what I do because it is the one and only thing that I can do at all well. It is a tiny minority who can do anything really well, and the number of men who can do two things well is negligible. If a man has any genuine talent, he should be ready to make almost any sacrifice in order to cultivate it to the full.

If a man is in any sense a real mathematician, then it is a hundred to one that his mathematics will be far better than anything else he can do, and that he would be silly if he surrendered any decent opportunity of exercising his one talent in order to do undistinguished work in other fields. Such a sacrifice could be justified only by economic necessity or age. It is quite true that most people can do nothing well. If so, it matters very little what career they choose, and there is nothing more to say about it’.

Think it over: the reference here is Mathematics but I would apply it to any field.

Hardy apologises for not having done anything useful at all except, ‘having created something worth creating – with a question only about its value’, and that he has ‘added something to knowledge, and helped others add more; and these somethings have a value which differs in degree only, and not in kind, from that of’ other creators and inventors…who have left some kind of a memorial behind them.

The candidness and humility of his brilliant mind was oozing through every word of his writing and I was spellbound. He listed the most decisive moment of his life as having collaborated with two other great mathematicians, Britain’s John Edensor Littlewood and India’s Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Hardy says that a serious theorem is one which contains significant ideas with two essentials, a certain Generality – to be widely applied, and a certain Depth – go deep, leading into other domains. Wow, I was awestruck!

On Ramanujan, most of us must have come across the famous incident of the taxi-cab number. Ramanujan lay dying in Hospital and Hardy had gone to visit him, arriving by a taxi-cab. On entering Ramanujan’s room, Hardy remarked, ‘I thought the number of my taxi-cab was 1729. It seemed to be rather a dull number’. To which Ramanujan replied: ’No, Hardy! No, Hardy! It is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways’. That was the exact exchange as recorded by Hardy.

Check this out:1729 is the sum of the cubes of 10 and 9 (1000 + 729) and also the sum of cubes of 1 and 12 (1 + 1728).

Ramanujan died of tuberculosis at the young age of 33 in the year 1920. Hardy says that all great mathematicians died young, and adds, ’I do not know of an instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty’.

On the sidelines: Hardy was an atheist. He loved cricket-could talk endlessly about it- and often he would carry his mathematics to the stadiums, watching the play and working on the sums. He shunned the limelight and disliked getting awards – hated going on stage and receiving it in front of others. He never married and so did his sister who spent much of her life looking after the great man. Hardy died in December 1947 at the age of 70.

More freedom and mathematics stories coming up in the weeks ahead at more than a snail’s pace. Slide and slug it out with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-46

About: the world this week, 7 November to 13 November 2021, the world flies again, hybrid warfare on the borders, India’s highest civilian awards, floods in Chennai, and a Penguin gets lost.

Everywhere

This week the United States opened its borders to vaccinated international travellers, after nearly twenty months of being under the Covid-19 pandemic covers – with or without masks. And swarms of hugs and kisses stung the Airports. Looked like the old times were back, again. But it’s not over, say Epidemiology Experts and this week we saw a surge of cases in Germany, in Austria, and some other parts of the world. When will the spike break down?

Hybrid Warfare, heard of the term, have you? How about ‘encouraging a migrant crisis’. That’s what Europe’s last-standing Dictator, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko seems to be doing. He has been ruling the country since 1994, and he kept winning election after election with fluent ease in what is considered ‘simple electoral fraud’ by most of the world. Last year’s Presidential Election-the sixth-went the same way, which independent digital exit polls said that Lukashenko might have lost to the opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya – who later had to leave Belarus and take refuge in neighbouring Lithuania. The results of the election also led to widespread protests in Belarus.

Numerous countries refused to accept the election results, as did the European Union (EU), which imposed sanctions on Belarus to punish it for violence, repression and election fraud. Subsequently, Lukashenko was accused of hounding political opponents, displaying strong-man tactics, following that story of forced diversion – from Lithuania to Belarus-of a Ryan Air Jet carrying an opposition journalist and his girlfriend. And more sanctions were screwed-in.

On the heels of the such kicking sanctions, Belarus seems to have adopted a different kind of silent, retaliative action, called hybrid warfare by Poland-one of the affected countries. Belarus encouraged migrants mostly ethnic and religious minorities from Iraq, Africa, and Asia to travel to Belarus with easy Tourist Visas and then drove them to the Border of the three neighbouring EU Countries of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia where they simply cross on foot. Funnelling migrants in this manner, over the week, thousands of migrants piled up on the Poland – Belarus Border looking to cross over. They have set up makeshift camps in freezing conditions near the border and the pressure is on Poland to whether to yield to their charms.

This is a new kind of warfare, happening in other parts of the world too, and weapons have to be found beyond the barb-wires, water cannons, tear-gas, and pellet guns!

India’s Highest Civilian Awards

The highest civilian awards in India are, the Bharat Ratna, followed by what is called the Padma Awards: the Padma Vibhushan, the Padma Bhushan, and the Padma Shri, awarded each year about the time of India’s Republic Day, in January. The awards recognise people who have made pioneering contributions across diverse sectors, delivered outstanding service to humanity.

Over the years, I’ve never paid much attention to the Padma Awards: It was a kind of rigmarole, year after year. But this time, I was forced to look-up and take notice: such was the stunning achievements of many of them, who came from extremely humble and variegated backgrounds. It finally showcased a deeper, honest, and vibrant India.

Previously, selected persons recommended the nominations, and departing from tradition India opened-up the nomination process to the public at large, thereby making it a people’s movement. The ‘People’s Padma’ marks a paradigm shift for building a New India recognising India’s unsung heroes – those working quietly at the grass root levels.

This week India’s President presented The Padma Awards to 141 awardees for the year 2020, as the ceremony could not be held last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The list of 141 awardees included 7 Padma Vibhushans, 16 Padma Bhushans and 118 Padma Shri Awards.

And for the first time, in a very long time, I got the feeling that the people who received them, without doubt, truly deserved them. With the Awards being India-centric, I did not expect non-Indian citizens to be accorded the honour. However, not just one or two, but ten foreign nationals, Overseas Citizens of India (OCI), Non-Resident Indians (NRI), Persons Of Indian Origin (PIO) have also been honoured this year.

Here comes some stories, about some of the ‘melange of winners’.

Known as the ‘Tree Goddess’ in her Halakki Tribe, Tulsi Gowda, 77 years old, hailing from Honnali Village in Karnataka, won a Padma Shri. She is an environmentalist who has planted over 30,000 saplings and has been diligently involved in environmental conservation for the past six decades. Tulsi looked after the nurseries of the Karnataka Forest Department where she spent over 50 years, starting-off working as a daily wage earner and later as a permanent employee. She has extensive first-hand knowledge of the trees and plants of the forest, which she learnt by seeing, feeling and smelling, earning her another nickname, ‘Encyclopaedia of the Forest’. That’s hard to beat!

She walked bare-foot in Rashtrapathi Bhavan to receive the award, wearing only a sari-the traditional dress of her tribe-draped to cover-up as a blouse as well, with multiple coils of black beads and corals adorning her neck. It was an image, which will stay green -growing like a tree-in the mind, for time to come.

Another spectacular person, Transgender Manjamma Jogati, theatre actress, singer, and performer of Jogti Nritya – an ancient folk dance form of Karnataka won a Padma Shri for her contribution to Arts. She is also the first transgender President of the Karnataka Janapada Academy, which is the State’s top institution for folk arts.

Born as Manjunath Shetty but aspiring to be a woman, she became a ‘Jogappa’ at age sixteen realising her true sexual identity. Jogappas are an ancient transgender community who dedicate themselves to the service of Goddess Renuka Yellamma – they are considered married to the Goddess and leave their family homes.

She was disowned by parents and took to the streets, begging for a livelihood; was sexually assaulted multiple times and even attempted suicide by drinking poison. Manjamma learnt to perform the traditional folk dance Jogati Nritya for survival and became so good at it that she took the dance to platforms across the nation popularising it, to wide acclaim. Manjamma became a permanent dancer in a Jogati dance troupe called Kaalavva and performed on over 1000 stages. She later took over the troupe, on the death of her mentor, making the dance even more popular.

On walking up to receive her award Manjamma Jogati made those unique gestures, which is a signature tune of her community, to bless and drive away the evil eyes on the President of India.

I shall cut short the long story on the multifaceted winners of the Padma Awards with Dwarf Athlete K J Venkatesh receiving the Padma Shri for excellence in para-sports.

Venkatesh is an Indian para-athlete and shot putter from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. – It’s just a coincidence that there are so many winners from the State of Karnataka. Is there something about the State? – He won his first gold for India in the shot put in 1999 in Australia. Earlier, in 1994, he represented India at the 1st International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships in Berlin, Germany. Venkatesh entered the Limca Book of Records when he made a world record by securing six medals in various sports at the fourth World Dwarf Games in 2005.

Venkatesh suffers from Achondroplasia and stands short at a height of 4 feet 2 inches. In a rare gesture, the President came down to his level when handing over the Award. Achondroplasia is a genetic disorder with dwarfism being a primary feature. In this condition, the arms and legs are short, while the torso is typically of normal length. And the faculties of the brain and intelligence are not reduced in any way.

There are so many other uplifting stories of great resilience, but I’ve decided to ‘stay short’ enjoying this space, and leave the rest for you to delve into. For e.g., the story of a 65 years old, Orange Fruit Vendor, Harekala Hajabba, who saved from his daily sales to build a School in his Village is awfully inspiring. He was recognised with a Padma Shri. And yet again, he’s from Mangalore, Karnataka. Get these stories across to your family and friends so that they learn the lessons of struggle and climb their own ladders.

Floods in Chennai

It was almost ‘deja vu 2015’ for the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu with incessant rains for over ten days, caused by the North-East Monsoon and a depression in the Bay of Bengal, battering the city and water rolling over many floors and unchartered areas. The City was once again caught ill-prepared and the usual blame game muddied the waters further: the previous Govt did this…did not do that…kind of stuff. Whatever, it’s time to stop passing-the-buck, get down to the drawing board, and talk to finding solutions that float or stay well above the water level.

Going beyond the usual, oft-spoken, rain managing infrastructure, my solution is to make the Buckingham Canal, River Adayar, and River Cooum a combined Thames of Chennai- get water to flow in them so that we ‘boat round’ Chennai; establish a well-connected superb storm water drain system; evacuate people from frequently flooding low areas; and designate certain lands – as ‘rain-soak parks’ to absorb the spills… If you can’t get the water out, get it in and learn to live with it!

We ride on the shoulders of those before us and there is no reason why we cannot keep our head above the waters. Pick-up a book – an old story- turn a leaf, find a solution.

A Rare Visitor

This week, Birdlings Flat, a small settlement on New Zealand’s South Island had a rare visitor, an Adelie Penguin. The ‘permanent resident’ of Antarctica had traversed 3,000 kilometres of icy waters to find himself far from home and looking sad and lost on new and puzzling shores: the South-Eastern coastline of New Zealand. Locals immediately found a name for him, ‘Pingu’ – they called.

It’s only the third recorded instance of a live Adelie Penguin – a species that makes its home on the Antarctic Peninsula – making it to New Zealand. Its arrival is a reminder of the threats the birds like Pingu face from warming waters, increased competition over food supplies, and changing habitats.

Pingu wasn’t trying to get back into the waters and fearing he could be vulnerable to dogs, the locals called the Christchurch Penguin Rehabilitation Centre, who promptly send an Official to give a look-in and talk to Pingu. ‘Apart from being a bit starving and severely dehydrated, he was actually not too bad, so we gave him some fluids and a fish smoothie’ said the Official. Pingu was then released into the Bay, hoping that he may be able to make the journey home. Must have brought his ‘penguin compass’ with him?

I wish he had come over with his partner. It could have been a dream honeymoon trip, and Jacintha Arden willing, could perhaps have settled-down in New Zealand.

More hybrid stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Stay afloat with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-45

About: the world this week, 31 October to 6 November 2021, warming up to climate change – the heat is on humankind to save the Planet; let’s do it with G20, COP26, with a new star called Hydrogen…among other things, while India drums its plans.

Everywhere

Weather is what we experience every day: and we watch and soak-up the predictions of, the day, the week, month, and the year, to plan adventures outside the safety of our cozy homes. Climate is the average weather in a place over many years. Climate Change is a shift in these average conditions – deeply studied by Scientists and other Masters of the climate change game, all over the world. Their study results tell us about the health of our Planet: whether it’s overworking itself in the gym to keep those toned, tiered, economy packs of countries in shape or whether it’s mostly in bed, under the blankets, and wearing ice caps.

It’s a fact that temperatures across the world are shooting-up because of human activity caused climate change now threatens every aspect of human life. If left unchecked, Earth-the only Planet in the Solar system known to support life – will experience catastrophic warming, with worsening droughts, greater rise in sea levels and mass extinction of living species. We face a gargantuan challenge, but there are potential solutions.

The sinister climate change we are now experiencing is caused by us humans using oil, gas, and coal to get various things done in our homes and factories, and for transport. When these fossil fuels burn, they release greenhouse gases – mostly that much maligned guy called, Carbon Dioxide (CO2)- which trap the Sun’s heat and cause the Earth’s temperature to rise.

The world is now about 1.2C (degrees centigrade) warmer than it was in the 19th Century. And the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by about 50%. Temperature rises must slow down if we want to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, and global warming needs to be kept under 1.5C by 2100, say Scientists – that’s the target, which we all need to own up. Remember, if we keep burning ourselves at the current pace we are looking at a whopping rise of 2.7C by the end of the century. That would be Hell!

One of the effects of climate change is that many small Groups are forming all over the world to discuss the future of Planet Earth. It’s almost like small clouds gathering to block harmful global warming sun-rays or send meaningful showers of rain down on to Earth.

Most of the Groups have a thread of climate change woven into them. And that’s the ‘hot and melting’ topic this week. Let’s start with a Group, leaning more towards the economics side.

G20 Italia 2021

The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum consisting of 19 of the world’s major economies, and the European Union. It works to tackle major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development.

The G20 was founded in 1999 in response to several world economic crises. Since 2008, the Group convenes at least once a year, with Summits involving each member’s head of government or state, finance minister, foreign minister, and other high-ranking officials. In addition, International organisations, and nongovernmental organisations are invited to attend the summits, some on a permanent basis. The group’s chair rotates annually among the members and is selected from a different regional grouping of countries.

This year’s G20, the first G20 Summit hosted by Italy, was held in Rome on 30 October 2021 and 31 October 2021. It was the culmination of the work carried out during the whole year of the Italian Presidency through various initiatives and get-togethers.

What was the outcome?

Climate Change: The G20 committed to the key Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C and pledged action against dirty coal plants-agreed to stop funding new dirty coal plants abroad by the end of 2021- but fell short on a target of zero emissions.

Taxation: The G20 agreed to subject multinationals to a minimum 15% tax, as part of an effort to build ‘a more stable and fairer international tax system’. Internet giants of the United States, such as Amazon, Google’s Alphabet, Facebook’s Meta, and Apple – which have benefited from basing themselves in low-tax countries to minimise their tax bills – are particular targets of the new global regulation.

Vaccination: G20 vowed to support the WHO’s goal of vaccinating at least 40% of the world’s population against Covid-19 by 2021, and 70% by the middle of next year -2022, by boosting the supply of vaccines in developing countries and removing supply and financing constraints. They also promised to work together towards the recognition of Covid-19 vaccines deemed safe and efficacious by the WHO.

Others: Still reeling under Covid-related disruptions, G20 leaders ruled out a hasty removal of national stimulus measures. G20 set a new target of channelling USD 100 billion towards the poorest nations, coming from the USD 650 billion fund already made available by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) via a fresh issuance of its Special Drawing Rights (SDR).

SDRs are not a currency, but can be used by developing countries either as a reserve currency that stabilises the value of their domestic currency, or converted into stronger currencies to finance investments. For poorer countries, the interest is also to obtain hard currencies without having to pay substantial interest rates.

Now, onto our next Group on Climate Change.

COP26

Conference of the Parties (COP) is a United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference initiated to tackle climate change, and COP26 is the 26th summit held this year in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (UK).

The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany, in March, 1995. Historic, path-breaking decisions and goals were made and adopted in COP3, Kyoto, Japan, December 1997, the outcome of which was The Kyoto Protocol, and in COP21, Paris, France, November-December 2015, the outcome of which was The Paris Agreement. Both these conferences set tangible targets which nations took home to work out on the treadmill.

Over the week, the bandwagon of world leaders flew directly from G20 Italia to COP26 Glasgow in what was a back-to-back meeting: wonder how many planes had to lift off and how much more gas they pumped into the poor atmosphere?

There is a new term we need to get familiar with: Net Zero. We heard it all the time over the past week.

Net Zero means a fine balancing of the gas books on our naughty gross climate affecting businesses. It means the greenhouse gas emissions pumped into the atmosphere by humans is balanced by creation of new carbon sinks – such as forests – to absorb an equivalent amount. You clean-up and mitigate your own muck!

How about other solutions?

Enter the Hydrogen Kid

There is a new star on the block an it is beginning to get famous – Hydrogen. Many say it is the answer to our climate change woes.

Hydrogen can be produced from diverse domestic resources with the potential for near-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Once produced, Hydrogen generates electrical power in a fuel cell, emitting only water vapour and warm air. It holds promise for growth in both the stationary and transportation energy sectors.

In a Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen would be used in place of the fossil fuels that currently provide four-fifths of the world’s energy supply and emit the bulk of global greenhouse gas emissions. This could aid climate goals because of the obvious benefits of Hydrogen and the fact that it does not release CO2, on burning.

There are three main types of hydrogen fuel. First, ‘Grey’ Hydrogen, which is vast majority of Hydrogen in use-and there is plenty of it, mainly in industry-is made from natural gas. But the process emits CO2. Second, ‘Blue’, or as the gas industry likes to call it, ‘decarbonized’, Hydrogen is made from natural gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS) attached. Finally, ‘Green’ or ‘renewable’ Hydrogen, which every Hydrogen advocate says is the ultimate goal, is made from the electrolysis of water powered by electricity from renewable energy sources. Wow, I’m for green!

Hydrogen’s energy content by volume is low. This makes storing Hydrogen a challenge because it requires high pressures, low temperatures, or chemical processes to be stored compactly. Overcoming this challenge, and others is important in making Hydrogen more friendly.

A lot more needs to be done to make Hydrogen work: at the moment it’s just a kid that needs to grow up quickly.

India: Hear the Drums Boris?

India’s Prime Minister (PM) Modi was at his eloquent best beating drums and singing with the Indian diaspora in Italy and Glasgow before delivering India’s Climate Control targets.

India pledged to achieve Net Zero by the year 2070; achieve 50% of all its energy uses from renewable, non-fossil, clean-energy sources; increasing the total of such power generation to 500 Giga Watts (GW) by 2030; cut one billion tonnes of carbon emissions from the total projected emissions, again by 2030, and reduce carbon intensity by 45%. The PM also thumped his chest to say India is the only country that is delivering on the Paris Agreement targets.

These are indeed sexy figures to look at and a bold & beautiful statement by India.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the hosting country, UK, said PM Modi understands climate change and the power of sunshine very well, and has done some extraordinary things in his country. There is one sun, one world, one grid, and one Narendra Modi, he said. Later, trying to sit under the sun, the PMs warmly talked about a unifying future Solar Grid.

India’s Covaxin

This week the World Health Organisation (WHO) finally granted approval for India’s home grown Covid-19 Vaccine called Covaxin – made by Bharat Biotech – for emergency use. To use WHO’s technical jargon, it says, ‘the benefits of the shot, known as Covaxin, significantly outweighs the risks and it met the WHO standards for protection against Covid-19’.

The decision had been significantly delayed as the Advisory Group kept seeking additional clarifications every time data was submitted by Bharat Biotech, and it was beginning to look like a dark tunnel – without the end in sight. With the final risk benefit assessment successfully made by WHO, the vaccine can now be rolled out for global use. And it is expected to benefit many poor countries.

In India, Covaxin was given emergency-use authorisation in January 2021 before the completion of the last-stage trials, which later found the vaccine to be 78% effective against severe Covid-19. The approval, by WHO, is a shot in the arm for India’s indigenous vaccine manufacturing industry.

Diwali

This week, the Festival of Lights – Diwali was celebrated by Hindus and other faiths as well, all over the world and especially in India. India’s Courts grew a new kind of nose, poking too much into religion, in banning bursting of firecrackers – which is integral to celebrating the festival – based on petitions linking the bursting of crackers to air-pollution and other kinds of disruptions. It did not bang well with most people and suddenly it has fired a debate of prejudice against the majority faith!

More stories of change, fire and smoke, coming up in the weeks ahead. Celebrate, and it’s all right to burst with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-44

About: the world this week, 24 October to 30 October 2021, lighting-up a festival, two unfriendly countries face-off in sport, trying to butterfly a ‘meta’morphosis, and a Princess cherishes her love and marries to become a commoner.

Everywhere

Fabindia: A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

Fabindia is an Indian chain store retailing garments, fabrics, furnishings, and ethnic handmade products of traditional craftsmen in rural India. Established in 1960, Fabindia operates near about 327 stores across India and 14 international stores.

With the Hindu Festival Season of Diwali approaching, Fabindia wanted to try on some new costumes and sewed-up an advertisement to pay ‘homage to Indian culture’- it said so. Models showed them off and we watched. It named the collection ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’ – an Urdu phrase that means ‘celebration of tradition’.

But the celebration generated outrage in culturally sensitive India, on giving an Urdu name, rather than a Hindi one, to the collection. Further, the female models in the advertisement were not wearing the traditional colourful bindi – a dot – that a Hindu woman normally wears on her forehead. Some even thought that Diwali was being stolen – lock, stock, and barrel. Sensing the mood and not wanting to further tear into the Hindu fabric, Fabindia quickly sewed-up and smoked out the advertisement.

Urdu is a language which has its origins in India and is recognised in the Constitution as one of the country’s official languages. Some of India’s most celebrated poems and love songs are written in Urdu. Yet in recent years its use has become increasingly politicised in the public domain, often decried as the ‘Muslim’ language of the rival, neighbouring Islamic country of Pakistan.

Many religious boundaries are invisible, and we need to wear special laser glasses to find them. Certain risks are not worth taking. Let them be!

Facebook: Let’s Book Another Name?

This week the spotlight is on social media giant, Facebook, which also owns Instagram – the photo and video sharing platform, and WhatsApp – the instant messaging and voice-over-Internet Protocol (well, simply talking) Application.

Facebook, has been in the news over the past year(s), and quite some time back too, all for the wrong reasons: violating user privacy, selling user data, and making tons of paper with those famous faces printed on them telling and promising you their worth. Most of us were confused on what exactly was happening.

Finally, the pages are turning in the book of Facebook and even the paper is being felt by hand, while the company itself is attempting a makeover by doing the name-change thing. What next, Heartlook, or Mindhook?

An ex-employee Product Manager of Facebook, Frances Haugen, turned into a whistle-blower and she’s blowing a lot of heat and dust, which is being carried by the wind to all parts of the world. And Facebook is scurrying to mask its face.

A clearer picture of how Facebook was vividly aware of its harmful effects came to light, both at Frances Haugen’s testimony in front of the British Parliament and through a series of reports based on internal documents that she leaked, called ‘The Facebook Papers.’ And a collection of news organisations published stories based on the thousands of these documents, after working through them.

The reading is that Facebook puts ‘growth over safety,’ particularly in developing areas of the world where the company does not have language or cultural expertise to regulate content without fostering division among users. Facebook has a ‘strategy’ of only slowing down harmful content when ‘the crisis has begun,’ deploying its ‘glass break measures’ instead of making the platform ‘safer as it happens.’ The ongoing ethnic violence in Ethiopia and Myanmar was mentioned as an example: the ‘opening chapters of a novel that is going to be horrific to read.’ – drink the juices to the bottom and then break the glass?

To summarise, here is what we learnt: Facebook fails to moderate harmful content in developing countries; it’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm fails to accurately detect dangerous content in non-English languages; Facebook labeled election misinformation as ‘harmful, non-violating’ content; Facebook was aware that maids were being sold on its platform in the case when Filipina maids complained of being abused and sold: internal documents show that Facebook admitted it was ‘under-enforcing on confirmed abusive activity’.

Facebook internally debated removing the Like button in 2019. It examined how people would interact with content if it no longer had a Like feature on Instagram, suggesting that the company was aware that this feature could have a negative impact on well-being. According to documents, the Like button had sometimes caused the platform’s youngest users ‘stress and anxiety’ if the posts didn’t get many likes from friends-but when hidden, users interacted less with posts and advertisements, and it failed to alleviate social anxiety as they thought it might. Facebook hasn’t made Instagram safer for children as the company knows ‘young users are the future of the platform and the earlier they get them, the more likely they’ll get them hooked.’

Wow, that’s a whole book coming up. Perhaps a name change might trick us into forgetting the face… and reading many more books of the past?

Facebook has perhaps hit the ‘Dislike Button’ on a certain kind of lawlessness in our social fabric, which we are unable to figure out, but given a face by Facebook. And it seems to be making the best of it – let’s face it – liking and thriving. One of my favourite Western Novels is Oliver Strange’s, ‘Sudden: The Marshall of Lawless’, where a former outlaw turned law-keeper – Sudden- brings to book a lawless Town called Lawless. Let’s call Sudden to Marshall Facebook?Jim Green wears ‘em two guns strung low on the thighs and fires at blazing speed from the hip.

Towards the end of this week, founder Mark Zuckerberg, found his voice, showed his face, lifted an alphabet from the Google book, and rebranded the holding company as ‘Meta’ – with a blue infinity symbol – meaning beyond. The mother hen is called Meta while the chicks under its wings, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp…hold on to their original names.

Who remembers the mother anyway, with the chicks around? Google, we remember all the time, but Alphabet? Strange indeed are the winds of change. Reminds me of the often used Chinese way of explaining change, ’same same, but different’.

Japan: A Princess Loves, Marries, and Leaves.

Royal families all over the World sit upon rich thrones of wealthy traditions, which rather than make meaningful change, they keep alive, scrupulously following them for fear of losing their identity, ‘royalness’, and for reasons we may never really know. Guardians of ‘wealthy’ traditions?

In Japan, female members of the Imperial Family are not allowed to marry a commoner and if they choose to do so they forfeit their royal status and title, and become an ordinary citizen. Male royal members have household names and female royals only have titles. Further, Japanese law requires married couples to use only one surname, almost always the husband’s.

The current Emperor of Japan is Naruhito who has just one child – a daughter. The male-only succession tradition of the Japanese Royal Family leaves the Emperor’s younger brother, Prince Akishino – declared heir to the Throne and Crown Prince- and his son, Prince Hisahito, in line for Japan’s Royal Chrysanthemum Throne.

This week, Princess Mako, the first child and eldest daughter of Prince Akishino married a commoner, Kei Komuro, who she said had won over her heart with ‘his bright smiles like the sun’. She will now be simply know as Mako Komuro.

Mako skipped the usual rites associated with a royal wedding, and turned down a traditional payment of about USD 1.3 million given to a female member of the imperial family upon their departure from the household. It was another break from tradition, as Mako became the first woman to do so.

Mako and Komuro had met five years earlier when they were both university students, and shared their plans to get married, the following year.

The former princess initially followed royal tradition and attended the elite Gakushuin School, where members of the Japanese imperial family usually study. But she broke with custom by leaving and joining Tokyo’s International Christian University, where she studied art and cultural heritage, and spent a year at the University of Edinburgh. Later, she earned a master’s degree at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.

The Newly-Weds are expected to move to the United States, where Komuro works as a lawyer. The move has drawn comparisons with British royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, earning the newlyweds the nickname ‘Japan’s Harry and Meghan’.

Before the couple got to this stage there were media reports of fishy money dealings in the Komuro family, but Mako stood by Komuro saying the reports were incorrect. There was another ‘tale’ added when Komuro return to Japan sporting a pony-tail and the media saying he was unfit to marry the princess. Whatever, the pony-tail got chopped off at the Wedding and they indeed made a handsome couple.

“Kei is irreplaceable for me,” gushed the Princess. “For us, marriage is a necessary choice to live while cherishing our hearts.”

Mako is expected to remain in Tokyo for some time preparing for the move, which includes applying for the first passport of her life.

I admire the princess for giving up her royal status for the love of her life: that makes her more royal than ever!

Sports: Clash of Religions

The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Men’s T20 (a match of twenty overs each for the two sides) World Cup 2021, which is held every two years, is underway in the United Arab Emirates. It started on 17 October 2021 and is scheduled to end on 14 November 2021.

Six T20 World Cup tournaments have so far been played: the last Tournament was held in 2016 and there were delays on the start of the next Tournament, which was further amplified by the pandemic. And here we are at the seventh edition.

The inaugural T20 World Cup was staged in South Africa, and won by India – defeating Pakistan in the Finals. The current title holder is the West Indies who beat England in the 2016 Finals and claimed their second Title win. We have had five champions from the six tournaments: India, Pakistan, SriLanka, West Indies, and England.

This Sunday traditional arch rivals India and Pakistan played each other, in their opening game, and India lost, which generated all kinds of extreme reactions in many parts of the country, with religion being bowled – spin, googly, and fast – and smashed across the media, in addition to showing knee-support to the Black Lives Matter Movement. Many argued that other issues such as the Kashmir Pandits being targeted in killings in Kashmir should have taken a better knee. That’s a pot-boiler in one match!

I would always support my National Team as they represent us in the sporting arena. And find it disgustful that some in India supported and celebrated the Pakistan win – standing on the podium of religion. Religion should have no place in sport. The way I look at it, do admire the talent of a player of another country and enjoy his performance, but when the National Team plays we should alway be behind them, cheering them on to beat the best talent of the opposition. In the process we grow and become better – on the playing ground and maybe off it too!

More uncommon princess stories coming up in the weeks ahead and about breaking and keeping traditions. Grow with World Inthavaaram.

Happy Diwali – be the light that you want to be!

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-43

About: the world this week, 17 October to 23 October 2021, Haiti’s waywardness, shooting in Space, Hindus under attack, floods in Kerala, India reaches a vaccination landmark, and a shooting gone bad.

Everywhere

Haiti

Haiti is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles Archipelageo of the Caribbean Sea, to the east of Cuba and Jamaica and south of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Haiti is the world’s leading producer of vetiver, a root plant used to make luxury perfumes and essential oils among other things. Vetiver is derived from the Tamil word ‘வெட்டிவேர்’ meaning ‘root that is dug up.’

About half the population of Haiti have roots in the agricultural sector but it still relies upon imports for most of its food needs. And Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the World.

In July this year, its President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in an attack on his private residence and the ‘root’ of the forces behind is yet to be dug up. Mercenaries appear with ease and ‘rowdy gangs’ seem to be able to spring-up from the ground at will and get away with whatever mischief they do.

Last Saturday as many as seventeen American Missionaries were kidnapped for ransom by gang members in Haiti, including three minors. The missionaries were travelling by a vehicle to Titanyen, north of the capital Port-au-Prince, after visiting an orphanage, when the kidnapping occurred.

Haiti may need to import help, to root out this ‘dangerous plant’ of violent gangs that is spreading through the country, keeping it the grip of violence, and strangulating its rise.

Russia

In a first of its kind, the Russians are ‘shooting’ in Space. Well, really!

Over the course of 12 days Producer-Director Klim Shipenko, Russian Actress Yulia Peresild, and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy filmed a movie, called, ‘Challenge’ – the first feature film shot entirely in space – working from the International Space Station. The had docked on 5th October and undocked on 16 October 2021, to safely return to Earth.

The movie tells the story of a surgeon, played by Peresild, who has to operate on a sick cosmonaut in space, portrayed by Novitskiy, because the cosmonaut’s medical condition prevents him from returning to Earth to be treated.

Previously a few films have been shot on board the space station, including a 2002 IMAX Documentary that Hollywood Actor Tom Cruise narrated. ‘Apogee of Fear’, a 2012 science fiction film running for about eight minutes, was also filmed in space by entrepreneur and space tourist Richard Garriott. Tom Cruise and Director Doug Liman revealed in 2020 that they were working together on a movie to be filmed in space, with NASA’s cooperation. The project is being developed in collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It’s a ‘mission possible’ that Tom Cruise could stay in the Space Station sometime this October. And he probably got the hang of it during a chat with the all-civilian SpaceX Inspiration-4 crew during their recent trip to space.

But, Russia has become the first nation to do this kind of shooting: they always seem to be one small challenging step ahead of America’s NASA. Some Big Steps coming up?

Bangladesh

Muslim majority Bangladesh – a nation which India enabled to come into being, in the first place – in under severe stress with radical Islamists unleashing violence against the minority Hindus, under the garb of blasphemy.

Brutal attacks, vandalism, looting, and arson has returned to haunt Hindus in Bangladesh’s Noakhali district, as close to 150 households were attacked and at least three killed in a deadly clash on 13th October. A day later, a frenzied mob of radical Islamists attacked the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in the Noakhali district in the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh. The sculpture of its founder, was burnt down during the arson attack on the temple. In another incident, in Hajiganj Upazila, Chandpur District in the Chittagong Division, Islamists also brutally raped an entire Hindu family including a 10 years old girl.

Attacks on Hindus is increasing at an alarming rate across the free World. In America a three-day online conference, ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva,’ which was held last month with at least 30,000 attendees generated a lot of heat & dust. Some said it failed to adequately distinguish between Hindutva, generally defined as Hindu nationalism, with Hinduism, the religion, which is a way of life.

Hinduism is the oldest religion in the World and has been harmlessly coexisting -even baby-sitting- with all the newcomers, over centuries. And it should be respected – left to be.

India

God’s Own Country, Kerala, as been on the Indian News headlines for many reasons, from initially being an example in tackling the pandemic – during the first wave- to having outrageously high and consistent daily infections – the highest in India – and maybe earnestly trying to set an example of how not to tackle the coronavirus – during the second wave. Poles apart, with the virus caught in between?

Now, Kerala is among the rains, with floods causing havoc, killing people and cutting off towns and villages when rivers started to overflow their banks. For eg.,several houses were washed away and people became trapped in the district of Kottayam. Days of incessantly heavy rainfall has caused deadly landslides and the Indian military has joined rescue efforts.

Akin to its experience with the pandemic, Kerala sees heavy rains every year bringing with it deadly floods and landslides- happening almost religiously despite its best efforts at managing the situation. Kerala probably has to do something new and different to prevent the effects of this almost recurring too-easy-to-predict event. You cannot expect different results doing things the same way. Can you? Stronger construction and clever selection of places to build Houses would be one approach; better preparedness and forewarning residents in flood prone areas would be another. Maybe moving-in to the famous backwater boats – with stronger moorings- during the rains, would be yet another? God and his country should decide!

COVID-19 Vaccination

India scripted history this Thursday by crossing a huge milestone in having done 100 crore or one billion vaccinations in less than 9 months, for a population of 1.38 billion.

So far, India has fully vaccinated about 30% of its adult population and given one dose to about 75%.

China is at the top spot with over 2.25 billion vaccine jabs and Russia is close behind India, having itself crossed the 1 billion mark, a day after India did.

Please Yourself

This Thursday, Hollywood Actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that accidentally killed a 42 years old woman Cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and injured the Film Director while shooting for his latest movie ‘Rust’, in a New Mexico set. For now, the film production’s been put on hold indefinitely as authorities investigate what happened.

Alec Baldwin famously played ex-US President Donald Trump in the Television series, ‘Saturday Night Live’. Some of the movies he has acted in are, The Hunt for Red October, The Marrying Man, The Getaway, Pearl Harbour, The Aviator, and Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation…

What are prop guns? What comes to mind is a non-functional weapon or a toy gun that fires caps to produce smoke. Actually the term refers to real guns used as props. The reason a film production company would use a real gun is to lend authenticity especially in close-up shots. Prop guns are used with blank cartridges that have all the elements of a real bullet/cartridge except the projectile at the tip, which strikes the target. When you pull the trigger, you only get the bang, the recoil, the muzzle flash, and an ejected shell. Tragedy can strike if the prop gun isn’t loaded properly – or from ‘rusty’ planning-say when a cartridge with a projectile tip had unknowingly become stuck and when fired the projectile hits the target.

This is not the first instance of a fatal accident on a film set due to a prop gun. Actor Brandon Lee, son of the legendary Bruce Lee, was fatally shot by Actor Michael Massee with a prop gun during the filming of the movie, ‘The Crow’ in 1993.

Similarly, in 1984, actor Jon-Erik Hexum fatally shot himself with a blank discharged from a Magnum Pistol, while jokingly playing with the pistol on set, amid repeated delays in the filming of the television series ‘Cover Up’.

More real shots coming up in the weeks ahead. Nothing to cover-up: it’s all in the open and everything to crow about. Stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-42

About: the world this week, 10 October to 16 October 2021, education in Afghanistan, wide-eyed America, a quiver full of arrows, a stabbing, lots of India, a Nobel Prize, star trekking, and a stunning Sinhala song.

Everywhere

World

Afghanistan was becoming quite silent when a suicide bomb blast in a mosque in Kandahar late this week, and another one, the week before, rocked the country. The former was deadly, killing at least 37 people, in a place of worship. I was beginning to think that the silence was a time to reflect and get the country back on track. And maybe Afghanistan was growing a beard and looking to cover-up as many things as it could (One of my favourite, worn-thin expressions is, ‘it’s so silent I can hear my beard growing’).

The Taliban’s Religious Police have been instructed to be more moderate-wonder what that means in Taliban land-but vulnerable Afghans say brutal justice is still being meted out and blood flows easily. It’s almost a month since the Taliban ban on girls returning to secondary school in Afghanistan took effect and millions of teenage girls across the country are unable to return to their classrooms. In what is a tragic exclusion, they continue to be deprived of an education. Is not right to education a fundamental human right?

America appears to be getting crazier by the week. To give an example: the Governor of Texas – of the Republican Party opposed to the ruling Democratic Party – on Monday, issued an executive order banning all state entities from enforcing vaccine mandates, the latest escalation in resistance to public health measures during the pandemic. The order also included private employers. The Governor’s argument is that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, and the best defence against the virus, but should remain voluntary and never forced. This is using a lousy definition of freedom, and deploying politics, to fight a pandemic, instead of science.

Keeping up the act in America, removing a condom without consent – called stealthing – is now illegal, and signed into law, in the State of California. This brings attention to nonconsensual condom removal during sex. This is the first law of its kind in the United States and gives victims a legal avenue to sue perpetrators in a civil court for damages. Advocates of the law said it highlights ‘the importance of consent’, and sex-workers, who are most impacted by stealthing, applauded the measure. Wow, that’s a new word that has been rubbed-in this week: keep the word in mind, when you have the rubber in your hands or in the right place!

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics – not really called a Nobel- was announced on Sunday. They are, David Card, ‘for his empirical contributions to labour economics’ – he played his cards well: gets one half of the prize amount; and Joshua D Angrist and Guido W Imbens, ‘for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships’ – they share the second half of the prize money, in a casual relationship building exercise. Lots of economics out there! I’m but a David in a Goliath of Economics:do these head-spinning equations actually work!

China’s renewed assertiveness at the Himalayan border with India is getting worrisome. Thirteen rounds of high-level military talks aimed at easing tensions has achieved little and with the deadly winter looming ahead it’s becoming increasingly frosty on both sides. The standoff, which at times has exploded into deadly clashes along the about 3,490 km Border – the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – is now in its 17th month. India has moved more troops into the area and so has China. And the relationship between the world’s two most populated countries is at its nadir. Can it sink further? It’s a wait and watch ‘shifting’ border at the moment.

Norway

This Wednesday, a man with a bow and a quiver full of arrows, slung on his shoulder, moved about, over a period of half an hour, in several locations in the Norwegian Town of Kongsberg shooting at people. He killed four women and one man, all aged 50 to 70 years and seriously injured two, including an off-duty policeman.

Police were quick to arrest the suspect, a 37 year old Danish citizen, who lives in the town of about 28,000 people. The suspect appears to have been acting alone and the reasons behind the bow and arrow shooting are being investigated. His actions are suspected to be an outcome of some kind of religious radicalisation. It is also being talked about as an act of terrorism.

This is the first such incident in a long time in Norway. In August 2019, a man stormed an Oslo mosque armed with guns before being overpowered. That year, the country’s intelligence service reported that right-wing terrorism was on the rise globally, and warned that the country would likely be targeted in the near future. Going further back, in July 2011, Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Brevik killed 77 people, many of them teenagers, in a bomb attack and gun rampage. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum possible term in Norway.

Mass killings are rare in low-crime Norway and the incident arrowed back almost forgotten memories.

United Kingdom

A ‘political surgery’ or constituency surgery, in British politics, is a series of one-to-one meetings that a Member of Parliament (MP) holds with his constituents to give people an opportunity to meet him and discuss matters of concern – to find solutions.

This Friday, Conservative Party MP, Sir David Amess, 69, representing Southend West, was holding one such surgery at the Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex when he was attacked and stabbed several times. He was treated by emergency services but died at the scene. A 25 years old man was quickly arrested after Police arrived at the scene on suspicion of murder.

Sir David served as an MP for 38 years and was knighted in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List for political and public service. He was known politically as a social conservative, a prominent campaigner against abortion, a committed campaigner on animal welfare issues, and supported a ban on fox hunting. He was a Brexit supporter and vocal champion for the town he represented, particularly in his long-running campaign to make Southend a city.

Every week brings a new kind of violence and law enforcement across the World is becoming on helluva challenging job. We need to get better with it – there is no other way. Or, do we need to get back to school and re-educate ourselves?

India

One of India’s movie superstars Shah Rukh Khan is spending sleepless nights in his vast mansion, in Mumbai. This follows the arrest of his son by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), on 3 October, after drugs were seized from a rave Party on a Goa bound cruise, where the son was an invitee. The Courts have denied him bail after the NCB established sufficient evidence for the arrest. The superstar will require all the ‘Mannat’ and superpowers to get his son back home – to the safety of his room.

Meanwhile, this Monday, India’s indefatigable Prime Minister (PM) launched the Indian Space Association (ISpA) with the objective of making India a global leader in commercial space-based excursions… and milking the Milky Way. The Virgins, the Musks, and the Amazons, beware!

The stakeholders in the Association include Government bodies such as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Bharat Electronics Limited, and private business heavyweights such as Bharti Airtel, the Tata’s, Larson & Toubro, MapMyIndia, OneWeb, Walchandnagar Industries, Ananth Technology Limited, Azista-BST Aerospace Private Limited, Alpha Design Technologies, Godrej, Huges India, Centum Electronics, and Maxar India. Get ready for a ride to Space?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected India becoming the fasting growing, post-pandemic Economy, in the World, with GDP(Gross Domestic Product) growth expected to be 8.3% in 2021 and 9.6% in 2022 – readjusted to the calendar year. Perhaps, with this in mind the Prime Minister launched the PM’s Gati (Speed) Shakti (Power) Scheme – a National Masterplan for Infrastructure, for multi-modal connectivity – on 13 October. It aims to bring together sixteen Ministries and seven core infrastructure sectors, on a single platform to synergise project planning across ministries to avoid duplication, plug gaps, and expedite clearances. It will act a multi-modal connectivity platform and will ensure seamless movement of goods and people, cutting logistic costs, increasing cargo handling capacity and reducing the turnaround time. This way, the infrastructure schemes of various ministries and state governments will be designed and executed with a common vision. Further, the tax-payers money will be put to better use, which in the past was ‘insulted’ through a lethargic approach to development work, with departments working in silos and there being no coordination between projects.

The way I see it: Someone lays the road, someone else digs it up for laying power cables; someone else digs it up again for laying telecom cables; someone digs it up yet again for laying internet cables; someone digs it up again for laying water supply lines; someone digs it up yet again for laying sewage and drainage lines, all staggered with yawning gaps for obtaining permissions. Finally, you have everything but a road. I hope, all this is done at one time by ‘one someone’, and this is what the Gati Sakthi means!

Please Yourself

Most of us must have watched, or heard about ‘Star Trek’, the TV Series and the movie series, as well. Many must have grown up with it. It follows the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise built by the United Federation of Planets, in the 23rd century, with a mission ‘to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before’. Commander Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy and Captain James T. Kirk played by William Shatner are memorable characters in the original series.

After all the years of reel acting and living in a dream space craft, Actor William Shatner, now 90 years old, finally got his real chance to actually fly into Space – well, almost. This week he endured a 10 minute, rocket-powered ride to the edge of space in a suborbital space tourism rocket built by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. And became the oldest person ever to travel to space withstanding those g-forces and experiencing weightlessness. Anybody can become an Astronaut. Age is only a number, ask Captain Kirk!

I’ve always liked William Shatner’s role as the ‘becoming-eccentric-and-senile’ Denny Crane in the TV Series Boston Legal and enjoyed his ‘Balcony musings’ sitting with protégée Alan Shore over many drinks, overlooking the City of Boston.

Now, over to some kind of music.

Ever since I heard Yohani & Satheeshan’s adorable, bewitching, and hummable Sinhala song, Manike Mage Hithe… which broke the internet after its re-launch in May 2021, I have asked many, during start-up conversations, whether they’ve heard the song. While the oldies threw a blank white-screen look, the young ones lighted up in technicolour: caught the tune and came out grooving to the song. And a six year old girl even reeled out the lyrics with amazing ease.

The song is a ballad about a man’s admiration for a woman: her character and beauty, and how close she is to his heart. Yohani’s soprano tone, Satheeshan’s rap, and the engaging music, are highlights of the infectious song, which leaves an indelible impression on the mind.Music knows no boundaries…and there are no China Walls or borders! Mind it!

More star treks coming up in the weeks ahead. Stay with World Inthavaaram: I’ve been telling my stories -without a break-for over a year, with this post!

This is my Blog where I essay stories on life about and around me, on subjects that stir and shake me up, as I turn, and make life's pages count: hoping to inspire you to live your own story!

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