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, 2021-23

About: the world this week, 31st May to 5th June 2021, births, digging down into History, Tennis, Hacking, Greek words, and fresh lingering music.

Everywhere

Born in China

China has the largest population in the World with about 1.44 billion…and not growing at all. This was brought about by its One-Child Policy, introduced in 1979, to slow the then burgeoning population. Families that violated the rules faced fines, loss of employment, and sometimes forced abortions. This eventually led to a severe imbalance between the boys & the girls, besides falling birth-rates.

Staring at a ‘blank’ future, ageing workforce, and not enough people to get work done, China scrapped the One-Child Policy in 2016, replacing it with a Two-Child Policy. This failed to lead to a sustained upsurge in births, which consequently pushed them to start thinking about ‘Three’.

The cost of raising children in cities has deterred many Chinese couples from having more kids. And China may have to find ways to incentivise its people to make babies.

China carried out a comprehensive census in late 2020, when some seven million census-takers went door-to-door to collect information from Chinese households. The census, released earlier this month, showed that around 12 million babies were born last year-a significant decrease from the 18 million in 2016, and the lowest number of births recorded since the 1960s. That was alarming.

Acting on the results of the census, China has announced that it will now allow couples to have up to three children.

Of course, it takes two to tango; to make-up their minds, to expand to five. That’s lots of bed-work. If they were not attracted by two, will they fall for three. Guess, the future is pregnant with results. Will China continue its ‘people domination’, on Earth? India is close behind and I do not wish it to overtake China on this count. Let them win!

The Canada Dig

Kamloops (meeting of the waters) is a city in South-Central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of two branches of the Thompson River. It is known as the Tournament Capital of Canada, hosting more than 100 Tournaments each year at world-class sports facilities. It is also a designated ‘Bee City’, with numerous organisations protecting and creating bumble bee habitats in the city.

Traditionally, Kamloops was the land of indigenous people: Secwepemc, Nlaka’pamus, and other North American Indians tribes, who were almost completely wiped-out during the smallpox epidemic of 1862. Thereafter, their lands were gradually taken over and occupied by the colonising invaders from Europe.

The Kamloops Indian Residential school (KIRS) was established in 1893 outgrowing the Kamloops Industrial School, which was first started with the aim of acculturating indigenous children. It was one of the largest in Canada, opened and operated from the late 19th century to the late 1970s, by the Catholic Church until the Government took it over in the late 1960s.

In the year 2015, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a Report detailing the devastating legacy of the country’s residential school system when tens of thousands of mostly indigenous children were separated from their families and forced to attend residential schools. At least 130 schools were in operation across Canada between the late 19th century and 1996, many run by the Catholic Church or the Government.

The Report determined that at least 4,000 children died of disease, neglect, accidents or abuse while at these schools, and detailed decades of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse suffered by children in these schools.

The gruesome discovery took decades to unravel and for some survivors of the KIRS in Canada, the confirmation that children as young as 3 years, were buried on school grounds crystallises the sorrow they have carried all their lives. Imagine, on one school-day morning, never ever seeing your next bench class-mate, and never knowing what happened!

This past weekend, with the help of a ground penetrating radar specialist, the truth of the preliminary findings came to the surface: the confirmation of the remains of 215 children buried in the School, who were students of the KIRS. These missing children were undocumented deaths.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged the truth that Residential Schools were a reality, a tragedy that existed in the country, which has to be owned-up and further investigated.

The further humankind moves ahead and the deeper we dig into our history the more barbaric are the deeds that tumble out. Tales of decimation, genocide, and ruthless subjugation of races are hard truths we need to face, and resolve never to repeat again. We stand on the shoulders of civilizations that went through these cataclysmic times.

America’s Colours: Black & White

In the 1920’s, a glistening city-within-a-city, Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States of America, was home to grocery and retail stores, theatres, restaurants and hotels: all the businesses and services that would cater to Afro-American residents of a segregated state. Greenwood’s streets were lined with the stately mansions of doctors and business tycoons who made the American Dream, as well as the more modest dwellings of domestic workers. It was so prosperous that it became known as ‘Black Wall Street.’

The affluence of Greenwood ‘created a tie-in between Black Tulsans and White Tulsans. But it was mostly about perspective. White Tulsans talked about Greenwood as ‘Little Africa’ or ‘Nigger Land.’

One hundred years ago, on May 31, 1921, that racial animosity became fuel for a horrific massacre, which all of America would like to forget, forever.

A lynch mob formed in downtown Tulsa after a 19 years old Black man was accused of assaulting a White woman. That night, thousands of White Tulsans launched an all-out assault on Greenwood, with rifles, machine guns, torches and aerial bombings from private planes, proceeding to burn, loot and kill until scores were dead and 35 city blocks were destroyed. The rampage lasted into the next afternoon, leaving 10,000 Black Tulsans homeless and their community burned to nothing but ash and rubble.

It’s unknown how many people were killed but it’s estimated as many as 300 lost their lives in the massacre.

One hundred years later, Tulsa is still reckoning with this violent history. As it does, Americans across the country face another truth: Tulsa wasn’t alone.

Between the end of the American Civil War and the 1940s, the destruction seen in Tulsa happened in various ways to communities of colour across the country.

Still, Black Americans created pockets of wealth during the Reconstruction years and into the early 20th century. Yet, where Black Americans created a refuge, White Americans pushed back through political manoeuvring and violence.

This year marks the centennial of the Tulsa Massacre: the heinous attack on the Black enclave of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history. And it was part of a larger pattern of assault.

French Open: Closed Minds

The 2021 French Open Grand Slam Tennis Tournament rolled out this year on the Roland Garros Clay Courts, Paris, on 30th May, after it was postponed by a week due to the pandemic. The Tournament ends on 13th June 2021.

Japan’s superstar Tennis Player Naomi Osaka, 23, Four-time Grand Slam winner and second seed, came into the Tournament saying that she will not participate in the mandatory Press Conferences, especially the post-match interactions, as it concerned her mental health well-being. She said that Athletes are often asked questions that have been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into the minds of the athletes. ‘I’m not going to subject myself to people that doubt me’ she said. And added, ‘the whole situation is kicking a person while they’re down and I don’t understand the reasoning behind it’.

Naomi won her first round match against Romanian Maria Patricia Tig, on Sunday and was promptly fined USD 15,000 by the French Open Authorities for not participating in the Press Conference and failing to meet contractual obligations.

Subsequently, Naomi Osaka announced that she’s withdrawing from the French Open so that everyone can get back to focussing on the game and that she did not want to be a distraction.

We see athletes ‘talking through their respective sport’: the questions and the answers are out there, right in front of them. A ‘meet-the-press’ cannot and should not be forced: it should be left to the athlete to freely discuss an ‘invisible’ strategy, a method, a feeling. Not everyone can play the way they play and we have to understand and acknowledge as much.

Hacking: Pipelines and Meat

We live in a digital world with most of our work being done online, on the internet-the world wide web-with data stored in a cloud, and hard paperwork seeing the end of days. When was the last time you visited a Bank to fill a Challan?

Digital life increases our vulnerability to hacking with a minefield of booby-traps out there: you may never know when you accidentally step on one.

Ransomware is a malicious computer virus, which riding ‘maskless’ on the internet finds a way to infect your Computer and threatens to destroy all your files unless you pay a ransom. Ransomware attacks increased by about 300%, last year. And they do not seem to be hitting a lower, slower gear.

In recent times, the United States of America (USA) found itself dancing to the tune of ransomware music. Remember Russia being accused of hacking the US Elections? I really wonder how that could be done-Russians seem to be coldly on top here. Wonder what kind of a Sputnik Vaccine they use to stay safe?

Last month the USA’s Colonial Pipeline, which is about 8,900 km long, and carries 2.5 million barrels a day-about 45% of the East Coast’s supply of diesel, petrol, and jet fuel- was hit by a ransomware cyber-attack which took the pipeline offline. This triggered fears about fuel shortages generating panic buying: prices jumped, pumps ran dry, and people even went to the extent of filling plastic bags with fuel.

How can a pipeline be hacked? Modern operation systems are extremely digital: Pressure sensors, thermostats, valves & pumps are used to monitor and control fuel passing through the hundreds of kilometres of piping. Smart Pigs (Pipeline Inspection Gauge) Robots are used to check pipelines for anomalies. All this is connected to a Central System, controlled by computers. And therein lies the risk. The biggest attacks are through an innocuous looking email when an employee can be tricked into downloading malicious malware.

On another front, hackers compromised the US Agency for International Development’s account with Constant Contact, an email marketing service. And from there, targeted around 3,000 email accounts, affecting over 150 government agencies (including some in the US), think tanks, and Non-Governmental (NGO) Organisations. At least 23 other countries fell victim to the hack.

Now let’s meet the ‘meat’ of it all. A few days ago a ransomware attack caused JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier to close down all of its US Beef Plants. In the USA, JBS processes nearly one-quarter of the country’s beef and one-fifth of its pork.

JBS has more than 150 plants in 15 countries with 150,000 employees worldwide. It was founded in Brazil in 1953 as a slaughtering business by rancher Jose Batista Sobrinho (the JBS comes from his initials). Its customers include supermarkets and fast-food outlet McDonald’s.

Who are the guys doing this? It’s Hacking Groups, many of which are based in Russia. DarkSide, a criminal hacking group, managed to walk away with $4.4 million in ransom money, paid in Bitcoin, after it hacked Colonial Pipeline. Nobelium, a Russian group is suspected to be behind last year’s US Government data breach. And JBS is suspecting criminal Russian hackers too.

What do we do to protect ourselves from hacking?

Follow the age-old advice: Do not open suspicious email attachments or links to unsolicited emails; back-up your data in an external storage; and keep your software patches up-to-date. Also contact an expert when you are under attack.

A Prime Minister Marries

Last Saturday, Britain’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, 56, married partner Carrie Symonds,33, in London’s Westminster Cathedral in a ceremony attended by 30 friends and family, planned in strict secrecy.

Johnson had divorced his first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, in 1993, and divorced his second wife, Marina Wheeler, in November last year. This is the third marriage for Boris Johnson and the first for Carrie Symonds.

Boris Johnson is only the second British Prime Minister to marry while in office, the first being Robert Jenkinson’s wedding to Mary Chester in 1822.

Earlier, the couple had announced their engagement in February 2020, followed by the announcement of the birth of their first child-a son, Wilfred, in April 2020, and now, the Wedding has been announced and secretly sealed.

Somethings work backwards, for sure. History being made in many dimensions.

WHO goes Greek

Viruses constantly change through mutation to better their prospects of climbing onto humans and increasing the ‘slave-trade’.

A Variant Of Concern (VOC) is a virus, which has done its homework well and where there is strong evidence of increase in transmutability and infection. A Variant of Interest (VOI) is one just beginning to learn the ropes of infection from its Big Brother VOC, and is closely watched by the Scientific Community, while in school hoping that it never graduates.

This week, The World Heath Organization (WHO), opened its Greek Dictionary and went on a (re) naming spree of SARS-CoV-2 Variants, to prevent stigmatising the countries in which they were first discovered. Rightfully so. I never liked the term ‘Indian Variant’ being used, or for that matter, ‘The UK Variant’, or the ’South-African Variant’. Let’s kill them. And now lets spin the Greek alphabet.

The current VOCs are: The B.1.1.7 Variant first detected in the United Kingdom in September 2020 and designated on 18 December 2020, is now called Alpha; the B.1.351 first detected in South Africa in May 2020, and designated on 18 December 2020, is called Beta; the P.1 first detected in Brazil in November 2020 and designated on 11th January 2021, is called Gamma, and B.1.671.2 first detected in Indian in India, in October 2020, and designated on 11th May 2021, is called Delta.

The current VOIs are: B.1.427/B.1.429 first detected in the United States of America in March 2020 and designated on 5th March 2021 is Epsilon, and B.1.617.1, first detected in India in October 2020, and designated on 4th April 2021 is Kappa

Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, are other VOI’s first found in Brazil, multiple Countries, Philippines, and the USA respectively.

In summary, we are now living with 4 VOCs and 6 VOIs, as on 31st May 2021. Better start learning Greek?

India Gets on Top – One More Time

India shrugged off what appeared to be its initial deer-caught-in-the headlights stage and waged a tenacious battle to bring down COVID-19 infections. This week the score plunged to lower levels matched only by the quixotic rise of the previous weeks. Many Locked-down States took baby-steps to begin to re-open, again.

At the same time India is going all out to establish a steady supply of Vaccines for all its people. The Government came out with a promise to get all Indian adults vaccinated by December 2021.

I’m confident it can be done. India has already done 22.41 crore vaccinations as on 4th June, and is jabbing at the rate of near about 3 million per day.

Please Yourself: The Sound of Olivia

My music playlist has not been updated in a very long time: I’m kind of an oldies guy, still Staying Alive with the Bee Gees, Imagining with John Lennon, calling Fernando with ABBA, Waiting for a Girl Like You with Foreigner, trying to Fearlessly and Swiftly ‘Taylor’ a Bridge Over Troubled Waters with Simon & Garfunkel, and Getting Old (The Older I Get) with Alan Jackson, when I chanced upon the refreshing music of American Actress, Singer, and Songwriter, Olivia Rodrigo.

Olivia is 18 years old and is just getting started in her musical career, but she’s already off to one of the best starts anyone has ever enjoyed in the history of America’s Billboard Charts. Her debut album Sour reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with one of the largest opening’s in recent memory.

Sour has enjoyed incredible success and three tracks that were released ahead of the album as promotional cuts debuted inside the top 10 on the Hot 100 List, with two opening in first place. Both ‘Drivers License’ and ‘Good For You’ debuted at the top of the list, while second cut ‘Deja Vu’ rose to No. 8.

It’s very likely that due to the superb first-week performance of Sour and all of its songs, the entire track list may make its way to the Hot 100. When Billboard refreshes that List Olivia may dominate like nobody else.

I listened to all the eleven songs of Sour, and it was anything but sour-made me ‘happier’ than I thought it would. The lyrics are vibrant and linger. And I particularly fell in love with ‘jealousy, jealousy (co-comparison is killing me slowly. I think too much ’bout kids who don’t know me) and ‘hope that you’re okay’ (Nothing’s forever, nothing’s as good as it seems. And when the clouds won’t iron out. And the Monsters creep into your house. And every door is hard to close).

Olivia has written most of the songs. “I’m a very in-the-present songwriter,” she said in an interview. “I write songs when I’m in the depths of my emotions.”

Go ahead, listen to Olivia and fall in love, deeply, with her songs-I just did.

More depth-of-the-emotion stories coming up in the weeks ahead. And I promise they won’t be sour.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-22

About: the world this week, 23rd May to 30th May 2021, flying and surviving.

Everywhere

‘Plain’ State Hijacking

On 23rd May, Ryanair Flight FR4978, a Boeing-737 with 171 people on board was on a routine flight from Athens, Greece, to Vilnius in Lithuania. While briefly in the airspace of Belarus, and on the verge of beginning its descent into Vilnius, it suddenly changed direction and landed in Minsk, capital of Belarus, escorted by a Belarus military MIG29 jet. This was despite the fact Vilnius was the nearest Airport, for an emergency landing.

The Ryanair crew was brought to speed about a possible security risk-a bomb on the plane, set-off to explode over Vilnius: the tense situation forcing the Captain to declare an emergency and land in Minsk, as directed by the Belarus Air Traffic Controllers.

Turns out that the ‘bomb’ was actually 26 years old Belarusian journalist and Opposition Activist Roman Protasevich who lives in exile in Lithuania. He is on a ‘Wanted List’, on a variety of charges and was conveniently on the plane. As soon as the plane landed he was promptly arrested, along with his Russian girlfriend-who was travelling with him-by the Belarus Interior Ministry. A bomb squad, including dogs, went through the motions of trying to sniff other kinds of bombs on the plane.

The ‘bomb’ order was given by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, a brutal and unpredictable leader who has been fending of Opposition protests, clinging to power, since claiming victory in last year’s hotly-contested election, widely condemned by many countries.

The forced diversion of the Ryanair Plane was quickly branded as a case of ‘State Hijacking’ and called as utterly unacceptable and outrageous, by the European Union, the United States, and other Countries.

Roman and fellow dissident Stepan Putilo co-founded the opposition Nexta Channel on the messaging platform, Telegram, which was used for mobilising street protests against the Lukashenko Regime, in Belarus. Nexta and Nexta-Live have nearly two million subscribers. They manage to get round heavy State censorship and reach out to people.

Roman Protasevich faces serious charges of organising mass riots and group action against the 26-year rule of President Lukashenko, that grossly violate public order, and Rules of the Land. He faces a possible death penalty.

Beginning to smell like Myanmar of a different kind. Terrorists and cold-blooded hijackers are lying and flying low: the State is warming-up, flying high, and filling-in?

Myanmar Paralysis

Every week I struggle to find words to headline what’s happening in Myanmar.

This week more than 125,000 school teachers-that’s about 29% of all school teachers in Myanmar-were suspended for joining the civil disobedience movement opposing the military coup that overthrew the country’s elected government this February.

The suspensions have come days before the start of a new school year, which some teachers and parents are boycotting as part of a campaign that has paralysed the country since the military seized power.

Myanmar’s education system is one of the poorest in the region, and ranked 92nd of 93 countries in a global survey last year. The spending on education is below 2% of GDP.

Many parents are seriously considering not to send their children to a school run by the Military Dictatorship. We need no education: more to learn on the ground?

Samoa: Democracy in a Tent

Samoa is a Polynesain Island country consisting of two main islands and several other smaller islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The capital city is Apia. The nearest countries around are New Zealand, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

Early this week, Samoa’s first female Prime Minister, and a former Deputy Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, was sworn into office in a tent set-up in the Parliament Gardens, after she found herself locked out of Parliament by her opponent. She was administered the oath of office by the country’s Chief Justice.

Her opponent, the China-leaning, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the incumbent prime minister for 22 years, had ignored a court order to step down and cede power. Instead, he nudged his Party to lock-down Parliament Building, causing the ugly scene. He is the world’s second longest serving prime minister and does not seem to have had enough of it.

The controversy comes a month after the closest run general election in Samoa’s history, which was followed by bitter disputes and legal challenges. Malielegaoi’s Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) was ousted from power after four decades by Mata’afa’s FAST (Faatuataua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi – meaning, Faith in one God of Samoa) Party. Both parties won 25 seats each, but a single independent Member of Parliament (MP) broke the tie in favour of the FAST.

That led to legal manoeuvring by the HRPP, which claimed its opponents had not correctly met the quota of female MPs. Samoa’s Election Commission revoked the results of the April vote and called for a fresh election on 21st May. But five days ahead of the re-run, the Samoa’s Supreme Court ruled against the HRPP, re-endorsing the results of the election and ordered the swearing-in of Mata’afa to go ahead.

After serving as Polynesia’s first female Deputy Prime Minister Mata’afa’s success in the general election makes her only the second woman in the region to head a government. She is the daughter of the country’s first prime minister, and has been in active politics since the mid 1980s. Looks like she brings a lot to the tent.

Manu Siva Tau is a traditional Samoan war dance often performed by Samoan sporting teams before a match. Only this time the theme has been usurped by Political Parties, and they continue to dance even after the match! Meanwhile, the faith in God needs to work.

That poor fellow ‘Democracy’, is being hotly-contested, furiously challenged, kicked-around, rubber-bulleted, tear-gassed, and shot, all around the World. Yet surviving (for want of a better alternative?).

Enter The Devil

This week, ‘Devils’ were born on the Australian mainland for the first time in more than 3000 years, after they died out, to extinction, in the mainland. Seven baby Tasmanian Devils-known as joeys-were born at the 988 acre Barrington Wildlife Sanctuary in New South Wales.

Female Devils give birth to between 20 and 40 joeys at a time, which then race to the mother’s pouch containing only four teats. First come first served! Only those that make it to the pouch and drink the juice of life, survive. After around three months of drinking, they walk out of the pouch, into the world of Angels, and other Devils.

The Tasmanian Devil is the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial (having a baby pouch-like the Kangaroo) reaching about 2.5 feet in length and tipping the scales at over 12 kilograms. They have a coat of coarse brown or black fur and a stocky profile that gives them the appearance of a baby bear. Most have a white stripe or patch on their chest and light spots on their sides or rear. They have long front legs and shorter rear legs, giving them a pig-like gait. Their oversized head has a mouth full of sharp teeth and strong muscular jaws that can deliver one of the most powerful bites for any animal.

They earned the name ‘Devil’ from their hyena-like teeth, and aggressive posturing, releasing spine-chilling guttural growls when threatened, defending a meal, or fighting for a mate.

Once abundant throughout Australia, they are now found only on the Australian owned island of Tasmania with over 25,000 of them in the wild. Their extinction on the mainland could be due to the introduction of Asian Dogs-or Dingoes- into Australia. However, their numbers suffered another knock-out blow from a contagious form of cancer known as Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), which has killed around 90% of the population since it was first discovered in 1996. The rare contagious cancer causes large lumps to form around the animal’s mouth and head making it extremely difficult to eat-the animal eventually starves to death.

The Devils are native apex predators and also scavengers. This means their reintroduction will help control the population of feral cats and foxes that hunt other endangered species, while their scavenging skills will keep the environment clean and free from disease.

Australia needs every kind of animal to do its job. Last week I talked about mice overrunning the mainland. Now they are getting started with the Devils.

A known Devil is better than an unknown Angel? Only time will tell!

India Fights Back

When highly developed countries were battered by waves of the coronavirus and had equal or worse situations, India with its starving healthcare system struggling to breathe, fought the second wave of COVID-19 with awesome gusto. And now, after the nightmare of tails-up, never-ending action, it is heads-up with falling cases of infection and test positivity percentages. A time to cheer.

New daily Infections are at currently about 1.75 Lakh per day, and the lowest in 44 days. The average India daily test positivity rate is at about 9%. And the recovery rate is 90.34%. The total vaccination is India stands at above 20.50 crore.

The Government has promised to get India full vaccinated by December 2021. That’s ambitious and I hope it gets done so that we can open ourselves into a less virus dominated year in 2022. Oh, the years are flying!

The newly elected Government in my State of Tamilnadu (TN) promised to make it the top State in all aspects. It did just that. And right now, TN is at the head of the daily positive cases, while almost at the bottom of the table on the number of vaccinations done as a percentage of the population.

Maybe someone heard me and I learnt of a special Vaccination Camp for the 18 to 45 year olds happening this Thursday onwards in the Government Municipality School, next-door to my business place. I herded my employees-locked down in their homes-to make the best use of the opportunity and I’m glad they all listened. And got their first shots. My Business is now Vaccinated: all with at least one shot and the oldest person fully-with a double jab.

I would say we should not throw caution to the winds and prepare for worser things to come. ‘Once bitten, twice shy’ is a timeless saying. Mask-up, wash hands often, and keep the distance.

Please Yourself

Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest results were out this Sunday and Italy’s Maneskin won the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with their entry, ‘Zitti e Buoni’ (Shut Up and Behave) performed live by the Group. The song was written by the Band’s members, Damiano David (Lead Singer), Ethan Torchio (Drums), Thomas Raggi (Guitar), and Victoria De Angelis(Bass). They scored 524 points to win.

Maneskin are a heavy-metal Band from Rome. This is a first win in the contest for Rome and the third for Italy, which has been in the competition since inauguration of the Eurovision Contest in 1956. It was bare-chested, eye-lined, punk-funk rock performance with the Band singing in their native language.

There were some splitting moments during the contest when lead singer Damiano accidentally split his pants-in the front and sides. Later he had to deny taking cocaine, live on TV after appearing to do a kind of snorting action during the performance. However an investigation conducted into the charges, unambiguously cleared Damiano.

Runners-up was the French singer, Barbara Pravi, in the second place and Switzerland’s Gjon’s Tears, in the third.

The contest was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands which was due to host the event in 2020, but was cancelled due to the pandemic and held, as we ‘heard’ this year. The winning country hosts the Contest, next year. Over to Italy.

Designated Survivor

Lockdowns are useful for discovering new ways of surviving this phase of intense virus blasts. I was nudged by one of my best Engineering College friends to watch the Netflix political, thriller, drama, Designated Survivor, with a warning ‘you may end-up binge watching’.

I told myself, here I am, a ‘Designated Sage’ reading the Baghavad Gita, as often as possible, finding hidden meanings, expanding known beliefs, and meditating regularly to rein my mind to peacefully pursue my written-down goals. Surely nothing can get me astray. I even cleverly had Darius Foroux’s, Thinking Straight, by my side, which I have been reading and re-reading.

After watching the first Episode, Season-1, then the second, then the third, and the fourth…and all my mind (and time) control went for a thrilling toss. I decided to pack my bags, catch a plane and settle down in one of the 132 rooms in the White House, Washington DC, to watch the drama unfold in close quarters. Well, literally.

A ‘designated survivor’ is a person who is chosen to stay at an undisclosed secret location, under the guard of the Secret Service, away from major events such as the State of Union Address or Presidential inaugurations when the entire Government is assembled in one place. The thinking is that there is someone ‘left behind’ to take charge of the Government in the event of a terror attack when the entire Government may be killed, wiped-out.

‘Designated’ becomes real, when a US Secretary of Housing & Urban Development suddenly ascends, to unexpectedly become the President of the United States after a horrific explosion in Capitol Hill Building during the State of the Union Address kills the President and everyone ahead of him in the presidential line of succession.

Kiefer Sutherland stars as Thomas Kirkman, the Designated Survivor, who becomes the President and smartly navigates himself from one tense nerve-wracking situation to another, to pull the country out of a headless crisis and put in place a Government. He plays the role of lifetime in a scorching performance. Others characters, I was forced to fall in love are, Emily Rhodes- Special Advisor/Chief Of Staff, Hannah Wells – FBI Special Agent, Chuck Russink – FBI Analyst, and Seth Wright – Press Secretary.

Watch it for the thrilling turn-of events, the investigative sequences, in every episode, which keeps you on the edge of your seat, the curt dialogues, the acting, and shooting…and prepare for the binge!

More music-in life-and survival stories coming up in the weeks ahead.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-21

About: the world this week, 16th May to 22th May 2021, different kinds of music – beauty, rocket-guns, mice, tics, and actual song.

Everywhere

Miss Universe

The 69th Miss Universe Competition was played on 16th May at the world’s first and only Guitar Hotel, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, United States of America.

The first note-a winning tune-of the Miss Universe 2020 Crown was strung by Miss Mexico, Andrea Meza, 26, from Chihuahua City, Mexico. She was crowned Miss Universe by the outgoing Miss Universe, South Africa’s Zozibini Tunzi.

Andrea has a degree in software engineering, is an activist focused on women’s rights, and currently works closely with the Municipal Institute for Women in her City. She is also a certified make-up artist and model. That brings wonderful assets to the catwalk.

The second note was by the 1st Runner-up, Miss Brazil, Julia Gama, and the next notes by, the 2nd Runner-up, Miss Peru, Janick Maceta Del Castillo, the 3rd Runner-up, Miss India, Adline Castelino, and the 4th Runner-up, Miss Dominican Republic, Kimberly Jimenez Rodriguez. The Guitar kept its promise, delivering beautiful tunes.

Miss India-Universe, Adline Castelino was born and raised in Kuwait and moved to Mumbai, India, when she was 15 years old. And she can trace her roots to Udupi, in Karnataka State, India. She had a stutter ever since she can remember, which took her years of practice to conquer and hold a clear conversation. I can sync with her on this as I too had a stutter, which took me layered years of hard ‘make-up’ to overcome and make sound conversation.

In the National Costume round, Adline draped herself in the traditional six-yard Indian saree, inspired by India’s national flower, the lotus, designed by Hyderabad based designer Shravan Kumar. The border and pallu of the saree was encrusted with embroidery depicting the three-hundred-years-old Pichwai Art (a traditional style of painting identified with the Sate of Rajasthan). It took Shravan and his artisans, the Nakshabandhas, more than five months of hand-work to create the stunning saree.

Adline Castelino has a business administration degree and is a top model, working with India’s leading talent agencies, and is seen on magazine covers, television and digital campaigns for major fashion and lifestyle brands.

Only two Indians have ever won the Miss Universe Title: the first-ever being, one of my all-time favourites, Sushmita Sen, in the year 1994, and the flawless Lara Dutta, in 2000. This year’s Third Runner-up is the closest India could get to the Title, in a very long time.

All the 73 Beauty Queens from around the world, participating in the competition, were fabulously beautiful and I find myself lost in a world of beauty…and for a brief moment my stutter returned.

Israel and the militant Hamas

The deadliest conflict since 2014, between the ever warring parties-Israel and the Palestinians-came to an end this week after 11 days of fighting in which over 200 people died, mostly on the Palestine side. A ceasefire was brokered by Egypt, nudged by the United Nations, United States, Germany, and other Nations.

The guns fall silent from this Friday onwards. Such ceasefires are always tenuous and at it remains to be seen if it can brave any new sparks. And of course, both sides claimed victory.

Earlier, in to the second week of hostilities, Israel went about pounding Gaza with what seemed like never-ending Airstrikes, destroying buildings believed to house Hamas leaders, offices & intelligence systems, and tunnel networks, while Hamas kept-up the Rocket throws into Israel. Israel’s block-buster Iron-Dome system designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells was the Rambo of this session of warfare.

It is abundantly clear that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Hamas have failed the Palestinians with their overtly aggressive and militant posturing, and refusing to recognise tiny Israel in the middle of an Ocean of Arab country. Can they change their stripes? The Palestinians ‘need to grow a Gandhi’ who has an ear to the heart of every Palestinian and can peacefully negotiate a settlement with Israel. You simply cannot beat Israel with rockets and gun-fire: you may, without it.

The Mouse Down Under – Need Pied Piper Services?

The last time I talked about Australia was about the deluge and how spiders, snakes, and rodents were spilling over from wet ground to dry ground, especially in to the warm homes of people. I missed one rodent, and now it has come calling. The rains actually did good, creating fertile ground for a bumper harvest. And the grain in Australia was stored in massive hay-sheds in the fields, which then brought this rodent out from the cold.

This time it’s a swarm of mice which are ravaging fields, infesting homes and factories causing millions of dollars in damage to crops and machinery, prompting Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister to declare, ‘The only good mouse is a dead mouse’.

The ‘mice-ed’ areas are Eastern Australia, from the Victoria Border in the South all the way to the Country’s Northern State of Queensland.

At least 800 to 1000 mice per hectare is considered ‘plague’ by Australia’s National Science Agency. And trying to count the number of mice running around Eastern Australia right now is akin to trying to count the stars in the sky.

A pair of mice can produce 500 offspring each season, with females delivering a new litter every three weeks. And all these litters need food – that’s available aplenty!

A New South Wales Farmer calls his Tractor a ‘Mouse Hotel’ as it has been overrun by mice. Another Small Town Resident spends her days disposing of dead mice from traps in her client’s homes. She cleans the mouse excrement out of people’s kitchens, children’s rooms, and even their beds. In her own home she has blocked every nook and cranny with steel-wool to stop mice from crawling in.

Australia, always full of surprises, is looking beyond ordinary mouse traps and is wheeling out heavy weaponry to fight the mice (borrow that Iron-Dome from Israel?) It has secured one of the world’s strongest mice-killing chemicals, Bromadiolone-a poison so potent that it kills with one dose. There are concerns too, as the highly toxic chemical could taint food crops and kill local wildlife. As winter approaches, the mice would be searching for homes to settle into. Wonder, what the cats are doing?

It’s a vicious circle and maybe Australia should call for the services of the famous Pied Piper of Hamelin-if ever there was one. Mice-out a descendant from Germany, maybe?

A Pandemic Tour of Seychelles

The country of Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, with a population of about 98,000 people. Tourism directly or indirectly generates about 72% of GDP(Gross Domestic Product) and employs more than 30% of the population.

Though Seychelles is one of the most vaccinated nations in the world, it is also experiencing a wave of coronavirus outbreak and this could be a bellwether of things to come in other parts, as we freakout on getting people vaccinated.

The country has fully immunised about 63% of its population using the China made SinoPharm, and the India made Covishield-of the AstraZeneca vaccine. 57% of the fully vaccinated people received SinoPharm, which was given to those between the ages of 18 and 60, while 43% took Covishield, which was given to those over 60.

About a month ago, the Seychelles confident of having overcome Covid-19, dropped most tourist restrictions. With few cases and a mass vaccination campaign underway, the country re-opened its borders to almost all international travellers: anyone with a negative test report could enter the country without quarantining. At that time the country had reported fewer than 3800 cases and 16 deaths.

Since then, the total cases have more than doubled to 9184 and 32 deaths. Of the current active cases, 33% are the fully vaccinated people and though infected nobody is getting seriously sick, nobody is dying, nobody is developing complications. People in the islands have been socializing without taking precautions. And let down their guard, leading to the current spike in cases.

The conclusion is, that the vaccines are indeed protecting people. If not for the vaccines things would have been worse. It is also a reminder that even after widespread vaccinations, infections are unlikely to stop completely. Countries need to be wary of new variants and transmission. And the ‘Seychelles Effect’ may not necessarily be mirrored in other parts of the world.

Cyclone Tauktae

They sure have a way of naming Hurricanes, Cyclones, and Storms-stays in the mind, after they have long gone.

Cyclone Tauktae was born in the Arabian Sea and grew up to wind speeds over 180km per hour and blazed through the West Coat of India leaving the familiar ‘trail of destruction’, this week. Signs of climate change keep showing up ever so often that the Meteorological Department must be running out of names.

India’s Off-shore Oil Installations bore the brunt and were hammered with, up to eight metre high waves. More than 600 people working on Off-shore Rigs were rescued by the Indian Navy. About 49 are dead and 26 are missing from one of the Barges and the Indian Navy is doing a vigorous search.

On land, particularly in the State of Gujarat, Tauktae left its mark with many people saying that they never experienced such intensity in their lives. What with winds smashing Windows, uprooting trees and toppling power lines, more than 16,000 house were damaged in Gujarat.

India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NMDA) is up to the task and in recent times have rooted themselves to the job of saving lives and reducing the effects. I only wish they could whisper to the Storms-to take a path with the least devastation. Yssh…there’s another one coming-Yaash-in the Bay of Bengal, this time.

India and the Coronavirus

Belying various educated projections, India started showing a downhill trend after hitting a peak of 4.14 Lakh, in daily positive cases, on 6th May. However deaths stayed still, hovered around 4000 per day reaching an unfortunate high of 4529 on 18th May.

New daily Infections are at currently at about 2.5 Lakh per day. The average India test positivity ratio is at about 12.6%

Most States appear to have reached their peaks, but some like Tamil Nadu-now under a lockdown- are climbing every day. It was 36,184 cases on 21st May, with a test positivity ratio of over 21%. Close behind, in growth of cases, are Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal.

The total vaccination is India stands at over 19 crore with the three Vaccines, Covishield, Covaxin, and Sputnik V, being jabbed into willing arms. We all need to go for it at the first available opportunity-without any kind of hesitation. I’ve had my first shot of Covishield in early April and the Government has put off my second shot to between 12 and 16 weeks: I have been promised ‘more juice out of the Vaccine’. I can wait, so that others can fill the gap and rise up to the challenge of the virus.

Meanwhile, another infection called, Black Fungus or Mucormycosis, is latching on to COVID-19 survivors and beginning to spread across the country. The Centre has forewarned the States asking them to declare it as an epidemic. It did warn them about a deadly second wave in mid-March but, I reckon, things happened too quickly.

Black Fungus is caused by micro-organisms called mucormycetes, moulds that are present naturally in the environment-particularly damp- found mostly in soil and decaying organic matter such as leaves, compost, piles, and rotting wood. It infects the central nervous system, eyes and lungs leading to blackening or discolouration over the nose, blurred vision, chest pain, difficulty in breathing and coughing of blood. An anti-fungal medicine called Amphotericin-B, is already available to treat the disease. Causes could be due to overuse of steroids during the COVID-19 treatment or poor hygiene in the oxygen delivery system to the patient, when in Hospital. The fungus goes through the first window of opportunity to invade the body in which a small opening is created by COVID-19, because of the sugars (high glucose levels), antibiotics, and many other things, which enables it to get a foothold.

However, Black Fungus is not contagious and does not spread from person to person.

The States most affected are Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Telangana. A total of 5500 cases with 126 lives lost have been reported.

It’s a tough time out there: we should hold together, support our local communities and the Governments at the State and Centre, follow directions, Standard Operating Procedures, and do our part simply by staying-put at home.

Please Yourself

The Eurovision Song Contest is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) with participants mainly from European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, transmitted to national broadcasters via the EBU’s Eurovision and Euroradio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries’ songs to determine a winner. The finals are coming up on Sunday, 23rd May.

A ticking participant in this year’s Eurovision is Norway’s entry, TIX-real name Andreas Haukeland-taking his name from the ‘tics’ he has due to his Tourette’s Syndrome(TS).

TS is a common neuro-developmental disorder which begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterised by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. Common tics are blinking, coughing, throat clearing, sniffing, and facial movements. These are typically preceded by an unwanted urge or sensation in the affected muscles.

During the semi-final on Tuesday, TIX showed his tics live on stage by removing his sunglasses. TIX’s message to people is, ‘Don’t just be yourself, embrace yourself.’

He adds, ‘Once you embrace yourself, that’s when the happiness starts. TS is both a blessing and a curse, but try to focus on the blessing’.

Lots of ticking stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Stay Blessed.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-20

About: the world this week, 9th May to 15th May 2021, various kinds of flares and surges.

Everywhere

Oh, Jerusalem!

A real-estate land dispute ignited simmering old flames, opened scars of never-healing wounds, and returned Palestinians and Israelis to their old ways-the unforgiving war path. For more than a century, Jews and Arabs have struggled to be the masters of the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, each claiming it to be their ancestral land…and it continues.

Israel had occupied East Jerusalem following its victory over neighbouring Arab countries in the 1967 Six-Day Middle East War and considers the entire city as its capital. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the future capital of a possible Palestine State. Last year, the United States of America shifted its Embassy to West Jerusalem, from Tel Aviv, recognising it as Israel’s capital and ignited another flame.

Palestinians, mostly refugees, have been living in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheik Jarrah since the 1950s. An Israeli pro-settler organization called Nahalat Shimon dug-out a 1970 Israeli Law to argue that the owners of the land before 1948 were Jewish families-ancestral land, and hence the current Palestinian landowners, about six families, should be evicted and their properties handed-over to Israeli Jews. A local Israeli court ruled it as legal, and an appeal has since been made to the Israeli Supreme Court, which is putting its head to the matter. A final ruling is awaited.

The current round of fighting between Israel and the Arabs, led by the militant Palestinian Organization, Hamas, which rules Gaza, was triggered by days of escalating clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at a holy hilltop compound in East Jerusalem. The site is revered by both Muslims, who call it the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and Jews, for whom it is known as the Temple Mount. Hamas demanded Israel remove its police from the hilltop and the nearby Sheikh Jarrah.

Added to this, in the past few weeks was heavy-handed Israeli policing of Palestinians during the Holy Festival of Ramzan, culminating with the use of gas and stun grenades inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the holiest place for Muslims after Mecca and Medina. About this time Israel holds its annual Jerusalem Day parade to commemorate the return to Jerusalem after the 6-Day War. And tensions between the Arabs and Jews mounted to new heights.

Then Hamas took the unusual step of issuing an ultimatum to Israel to remove its forces from the Al-Aqsa compound and Sheikh Jarrah, and then promptly started firing hundreds of rockets into Israel. And Israel is responding ferociously, in the way only it can.

How did we get here! Let me try, going deep into the background and to the bottom of this century old story.

The land of Israel, also known as the Holy Land or Palestine is the birthplace of the Jewish people, the birthplace of Judaism, and Christianity. It was predominantly Jewish about 1000 years BCE after which it gradually became mostly Muslim and from the year 1516 onwards became part of the Great Ottoman Empire. Then the British conquered the Holy Land in 1917-18, at the end of the First World War, when the Ottoman Empire collapsed, during which time the land was inhabited by a Jewish minority and an Arab majority.

Tensions between the Arabs and the Jews grew when the international community gave Britain the task of establishing a ‘National Home’ for the Jewish people in Palestine. For Jews, it was a ‘return’ to their ancestral home, but Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and resisted the move.

Between the 1920s and 1940s, Jews began arriving in Palestine from all over the World: many fleeing persecution in Europe and seeking a homeland after the horrific Holocaust of World War-II, a genocide during which over six million Jews were systematically murdered across German occupied Europe, by Hitler’s Nazis. In this scenario, a Jewish National Movement, Zionism, emerged in late 19th Century due to growing antisemitism and a history of persecution of Jews, and fired the imagination of the Jews that the only possible solution is, creation of a Jewish State where they could live in peace. The desire to achieve this became unstoppable.

Meanwhile, violence between Jews and Arabs, and against British rule in Palestine grew exponentially. In 1947, the United Nations voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab States, with Jerusalem becoming an International City. The plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but was rejected by the Arab side and never fully implemented. I wish the Arabs had accepted and settled to make a life in their part of Palestine. It would have been something to start with.

In 1948 the British left the region without solving the problem, and Jewish leaders declared the creation of the State of Israel on 14th May 1948, which was promptly recognised by America and Russia. Palestinians and the Arab World objected, refused to recognise Israel, and decided to attack Israel. Troops from five neighbouring Arab countries of Egypt, Jordon, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded Israel from all sides with the single-minded objective of obliterating and swallowing the newly formed Country. The Armies of the Arab States was repulsed, beaten, driven out, and defeated in an outstanding warfare by the Israeli Defence Forces. Israel survived, and over the years built one of the most formidable Army and Air Force anywhere in the world. Military service was compulsory and Reserves were always on standby to defeat any attack on the country. Israel inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Palestinians since it became independent in 1948, becoming a well-oiled war machine in the process.

With the formation of Israel there was an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced out of their homes in the new State of Israel. A reverse exodus saw Jews pile into Israel. By the time the fighting ended in a ceasefire the following year, Israel controlled most of the territory it won as a result of the war. Jordan occupied land, which became known as the West Bank, and Egypt occupied Gaza-both of which would have been Arab Palestine. Jerusalem was divided between Israeli forces in the West, and Jordanian forces in the East.

There was never a peace agreement, with each side blaming the other and there were more wars and fighting in the decades that followed.

Then in 1967, in what is called the Six-Day war, Israel comprehensively defeated and severely crushed yet another attempt by Egypt, Jordon, Syria to finish-off ‘Zionist’ Israel, in a period of six days. This time, Israel took control of Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem, what it calls ‘disputed territory’ (not occupied) as the ‘Law of Occupation’ does not apply – interpreted by its Supreme Court. There was no Sovereign Ruler of these parts hence nothing to occupy! This makes the ‘disputed occupation’ a classic example of an intractable law.

While Israel was growing-up, The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed in 1964 to liberate Palestine (from Israel) through armed struggle. It gradually became the accepted voice and recognised as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by most countries and enjoyed Observer Status in the United Nations. The PLO did not recognise Israel, when first born, and due to its condemnable activities, including violence against Israel civilians went on to being declared as a terrorist organization by the United States in 1987.

In 1993 the PLO finally recognised Israel’s right to exist, accepted UN Security Council Resolutions and rejected violence and terrorism. Israel returned the favour by officially recognising the PLO as the representative the Palestinian People. This wasn’t to last and in October 2018 (after doing the same earlier in January) the PLO suspended its recognition of Israel and all security coordination with the Israeli Defence.

Israel holds on to the disputed territories as a bargaining chip to negotiate peace for its people on the condition that all Arab countries recognise Israel and allow it to co-exist peacefully in the world. ‘Come, let’s negotiate and arrive at a solution’, was the stance adopted by Israel. This wasn’t to be, but grudgingly, it is happening in parts, taking an awfully long time.

Let me take a detour to amplify the Israeli spirit.

Over the years we have read many stories of the Israeli-Palestine conflict being played outside the Holy Land, mainly by fanatical Palestine Groups targeting Israel. One such was by the Black September Group in the 1972 Munich Olympics in Germany, when eight Palestine terrorists stormed the Olympic Village and took nine Israeli athletes hostage, killing two. In a failed rescue attempt the remaining nine were killed. Later, Israel’s deadly Mossad went after the killers in a secret mission and killed most of them.

Another story is the incredible Israeli military mission that rescued 103 Israeli hostages when an Air France Jetliner was hijacked to Entebbe Airport in Idi-Amin ruled Uganda in June 1976, by Palestine Terrorists. Israeli planes with 100 commandos-including one empty Plane for taking back the hostages-travelled over 4000 km to Uganda, flying low, at no more than 30 metres, undetected by radar, landed in Entebbe Airport, rolled-out an Idi Amin look-alike Mercedes-Benz car and two Land Rover escort Jeeps, drove to the Terminal dressed as Ugandan Forces, shot all seven Terrorists, rescued the hostages, and took them back to the plane, all within 90 minutes. They returned safely to Israel to a heroic welcome. Only one Israeli commander was killed in the operation, along with three hostages. He was the older brother of the current Prime Minister of Israel, Bejamim Netanyahu. Given the huge distance between Israel and Uganda, mid-air refuelling logistical capacity being unavailable at that time, Kenya allowed refuelling at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for which it faced the wrath of Idi-Amin, a despot and a Dictator.

Back to the main story.

In 1979, Egypt melted, saw wisdom, and struck a peace deal with Israel, recognising it-becoming the first Arab State to do so. In return, Israel handed back the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt removing its military bases and the business that it had established. The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty was signed by Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the presence of US President Jimmy Carter, at the famous Camp David Summit. Israeli won free passage of its ships through the Suez Canal. This Treaty, decried by many Arab counties and the PLO, has held and lasts to this day. On the fallout, Egypt was suspended from the Arab League and President Sadat ended up being tragically assassinated by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

In October 1994 the Israel-Jordon Peace Treaty came into being with Jordon recognising Israel (only the second Arab State to do so) and ending the state of war between them.

In August 2005 Israel under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unilaterally planned to disengage from the Gaza Strip (and North Samaria) which it had captured and occupied following the 1967 war, and where it had established 21 settlements over a period of 38 years. This was to improve Israel’s security and international status in the absence of any sensible peace negotiations with the Palestinians. About nine thousand Israeli residents within Gaza were evicted and Israeli forces bulldozed thousands of houses of its people, community buildings and synagogues; even corpses in jewish cemeteries were exhumed and reburied in Israel. The terms of disengagement were that Israel would maintain control of the land borders, access to sea and airspace ‘until relations improve’.

This was to become a historic mistake as Hamas could not change its stripes.

With Palestinians returning and getting control of the Gaza Strip, the PLO held elections in the West Bank and the Gaza. While the PLO’s Fatah Party won in the West Bank it lost to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, which, over the years, has fought Israel many times. Further infighting between various Palestine Groups, especially between Hamas and PLO’s Fatah led to Israel and Egypt tightly controlling Gaza’s borders to stop weapons getting to Hamas, who refused to disarm. Further actions of Hamas have led to economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, by Israel, where living conditions have become abysmal.

Hamas refuses to recognise the State of Israel and finds every opportunity to strike at Israel at the slightest provocation, typically launching rockets into Israel. Hamas has been declared a terrorist organization by the USA.

Going over to the West Bank, Israel converted its direct military rule into a semi-civil authority one, giving varying levels of autonomy to the Palestinian Authority, which controls 40% and the rest by Israel. Israeli settlers in the West Bank-vehemently opposed by the International Community-are subject to Israeli civilian law whereas Palestinians are subject to Military Law-with no voting rights.

This is where we are. I hope you could make sense of the stakes involved.

It is my firm opinion that few other races and people in this world have suffered the kind of genocide and annihilation that the Jews has been subjected to, and the ‘tiny State’ of Israel deserves peace on its terms. Nothing less nothing more.

The other players in the picture have been given every chance to accept a reasonable choice, and failed time and again, and have continued to be provocative and belligerent-whatever the history and however strong the reasons behind. A farewell to arms and determined negotiation is perhaps the only way to resolve this intractable issue. My sensing is that Israel has always been ready to negotiate-it has demonstrated this intent with its actions in handing over the Gaza (strings attached), and the Sinai Peninsula, among other things. Is the Arab world ready?

Rocketing back to Earth

Homing core debris from a Chinese Rocket, which launched the first module of China’s new Space Station, in April 2021, safely returned to Earth last Saturday splashing into the Indian Ocean, near Maldives. America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) disapproved of the Chinese method of sending back such uncontrolled, unwelcome debris, which could be dangerous if better methods of control are not deployed.

We all need to keep a permanent eye on China, do we?

The Sounds on Mars

The Ingenuity Helicopter-that little fellow-of America’s NASA is have a rolling time on Mars, flying like crazy in increasingly bolder flights, and doing great dance moves. No Martians discovered as yet. But last week, its best friend, Perseverance Rover, send back to Earth the first sounds on Mars from the microphone on its Super-camera. The rumbling of the Martian winds and the rhythmic hums of Ingenuity’s whizzing blades were a delight to hear. If seeing is believing, hearing ‘is sound’.

This Saturday, in a remarkable achievement China has successfully landed its six-wheeled Zhurong Robot spacecraft on Mars, The vehicle used a combination of a protective capsule, a parachute, and a rocket platform to make the descent.

Zhurong, meaning; ‘God of Fire’, was carried to Mars on the Tianwen-1 Orbiter, which arrived above Mars in February this year.

If we thought only America has mastered the art of landing on Mars, China has done it too, becoming the second country to do so.

I hear the sounds…It’s beginning to get crowded in Mars.

Truly married-and fused-for Life: Glorious & Wonderful

One rarely gets to see an angry-looking Anglerfish, but they are among the most known deep-sea creatures living in the cruelly cold, lightless depths of our Oceans. With the spiny, pointy black fangs-like teeth, a large fluorescent bulb like antennae protruding and dangling from its head-a piece of dorsal spine protruding above the mouth like a fishing pole-surrounded by a series of slender, flashy tentacles, it resembles something out of a horror film. Well, it has actually acted in a Film by Pixar, ‘Finding Nemo’.

Last Friday, an 18-inch wide Anglerfish somehow found its way from the depths of the Pacific to the shores of Crystal Cove State Park, Newport Beach, California, USA, in a perfectly preserved condition. It was real and very a rare find spotted by a beachgoer.

The flashy phosphorescent bulbs of the Anglerfish, which glow underwater due to light-emitting bacteria, sweep up other fish, squid, and crustaceans, that dwell at depths of 2000 to 3300 Feet. Tipped with a lure of luminous flesh the built-in antenna baits prey close enough to be snatched. Their mouths are so big and their bodies so pliable, they can actually swallow prey up to twice their own size.

While the females are large with all kinds of sexy ‘Fashion TV’ gear, the males are much smaller in size-not worth a puny second look. The males have conveniently evolved into ‘sexual parasites’, which after fusing themselves to females, lose all their internal organs, including their eyes and are left with nothing but testes. Forever fused, the male provides sperm in exchange for nutrition. A female typically carries about six males attached to her body-providing the life-giving juices, both ways? Truly blinded with love, married, and attached for life. No Windows or doors to rush out of this marriage.

This Pandemic Could Have Been Prevented

In a chilling report, published this Wednesday, The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR), concluded that the catastrophic scale of the COVID-19 pandemic could have been prevented, but a ‘toxic cocktail of dithering and poor coordination’ meant the warning signals went unheeded and a series of bad decisions meant COVID-19 went on to kill more than 3.3 million people and devastate the global economy. Institutions failed to protect people and science-denying leaders eroded public trust in health interventions.

We see this everywhere in the everyday governance with politics and blaming seeping through every fault line. Time we listen and understand that nobody is safe from pandemics of this kind until everyone is safe. Sink those petty differences and work together with the best skills that we have to make this world a better place-for humans, flora and fauna.

Fighting the Virus in India

India continued grappling with the coronavirus, grasping for breath. And help poured in for all over the world in the form of Oxygen Concentrators, medicines, Vaccines, medical gear, equipment, and the kind.

There is still a dearth of many essential supplies across the COVID-19 treatment spectrum but the Healthcare workers, Doctors, Hospitals, and the Government will ultimately triumph in bringing this under control.

Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine finally started finding arms to jab an entry, since this Friday, and the Vaccination is expected to swell. The Government announced a widening of the gap between the first and second shots of the Covishield Vaccine increasing the physical distance between shots from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks, based on available real-life evidence, particularly in the United Kingdom, of better efficacy levels.

The total vaccination is India stands at over 18 crore. New daily Infections are at about 3.26 Lakh and deaths under 4000.

Maharashtra, one of the worst-infected States, saw a downturn in the infections and maybe the situation is beginning to look-up. Hope it does.

New State Governments took oath to work for the people and this is a wish that new brooms indeed sweep well. Some of them quickly tuned-in the Lockdown Channel and the States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are signing this tune.

Things will get OK, mind it. We should diligently hold on to the coronavirus prevention protocols and follow Government stipulations, and the Science of things.

Lots of peaceful stories coming up in the weeks ahead.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-19

About: My window to the world, this week, 1st May to 8th May 2021. The gates opened-up on many things.

Everywhere

Bill Gates and The Ramayana

It was a stunning, bombshell of a headline news when Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates and his wife of 27 years, Melinda Gates, announced their separation and filed for divorce. They had been running the nonprofit, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for over 20 years, fighting poverty, disease, and inequality around the world (and perhaps silently fighting each other? We may never know). And more recently contributing to the development of the coronavirus vaccine, to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thats a lot of time together, to get to this stage during which period they raised three children – all of them who have now become adults.

What could have brought them to this? Reports say that there was another woman in the life of Bill Gates, which wasn’t a secret. Bill Gates took annual ‘learning’ vacations with his ex-girlfriend, a software entrepreneur and venture capitalist even after his marriage, which was an agreement made with Melinda.

Bill Gates, before marrying Melinda, sought his ex-girlfriend’s approval, which she did give saying, ‘I said she’d be a good match for him because she had intellectual stamina’. Appears that when the ex-girlfriend, who was senior to Bill, was ready for marriage, Bill wasn’t and they broke-up, but stayed in touch, as good friends.

With the wealth of knowledge, the wealth of money, and the wealth of shared interests, why could not they find satisfaction in each other after almost three decades of marriage? I ran to the Ramayana for some answers.

In the great Indian Epic Ramayana, when Sage Vishwamitra was preparing to conduct a Yagna (a Hindu ritual done in front of a sacred fire) in his Ashram, in the forest, he had with him the young Ayodhya Princes, Rama and Laxmana to keep at bay the disruptive, ferocious Rakshashas (super-natural, raw-flesh eating beings) living in the forests. Sita and other Princesses from the near Kingdom were also present to witness the Yagna. The occasion was also to serve as a means of enlightenment and education for the young Princes and Princesses-who would later become Rulers and Kings-co-mingling with the Sage and his students, to rub knowledge off one another.

One evening during a discussion in the Ashram, Vishwamitra was asked why fidelity was so important in marriage and especially to the Rishis (a Hindu Sage or learned and enlightened person), to which the Sage said it was a measure of how satisfied we are with the spouse’s offerings. And that the dissatisfied seek satisfaction elsewhere.

Rama then joins the conversation declaring, ‘I shall always strive to find all my satisfaction in a single wife’. Vishwamitra quickly retorts, ‘What if your wife does not find satisfaction in you’, hoping to get a response from Rama, but it was Sita who replied, ‘If she is wise, she will accommodate the inadequacy. If he is wise, he will strive to grow and rise to fulfil her expectations’. This transpired before Rama won and married Sita. And the Ramayana is, among many other things, mostly about staying true to one wife, establishing and following rules, and setting an example in a time when Kings took many wives to spread their seed.

That sure is enlightenment. Maybe Bill Gates should have strived harder. And Melinda appears to have given-up accommodating any inadequacies! But I think years into the marriage you develop ‘many permanent sets’ having exceeded the elasticity limits many times over, and one fine day it just snaps and stays broken. Time to move on and explore new limits and expand known boundaries. Why not?

On a lighter vein, maybe if Bill Gates followed the Linux model of open source programming he would have excelled in his marriage, and the word of the Ramayana would have been a powerful point to make.

Population Explosion

A 25 years old woman, Halima Cisse, in the West-African country of Mali has given birth to nonuplets, nine babies-five girls and four boys-in a single delivery. This was more than the seven seen during ultrasound tests-two of them had probably gone into hiding. All children were delivered by Caesarean Delivery (C-Section), and the mother and newborns are said to be doing well. Cisse was admitted to a Moroccan clinic following a two-week stay in a hospital in the Malian capital, Bamako, prior to the delivery.

The instances of women delivering nonuplets is extremely rare in this world. Only two sets of nonuplets have previously been recorded: one born to a woman in Australia in 1971 and another to a woman in Malaysia in 1999, but none of the babies survived more than a few days.

The record for the most children delivered in a single birth, to survive, belongs to Nadya Suleman, who in 2009 gave birth to octuplets-six boys and two girls- in California, United States, according to the Guinness World Records. The babies, conceived using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, were delivered by C-Section.

Is there a better definition of human population explosion? I wish Halima Cisse’s babies survive their birth and go on to become path-breaking adults, as they did at birth.

A Spring Revolution

The Myanmar saga goes on. More than 750 people have been killed since the Military seized power in a coup, three months ago. Thousands of people have been detained, including its democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The borders are closed and the internet effectively blocked, but people are resisting the coup in many ways. ‘They have the guns, we have the people’, says a protester.

How far will this go and at what cost? I hope The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is already engaged in a dialogue with the Army Generals, and the United Nations up the ante on the Leaders of the Coup and bring back normalcy to Myanmar.

I’ll be Back: What Goes Up must Come Down?

Debris from the core of a Chinese Rocket, about 30m length and weighing about 18 tons is expected to fall back to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry this weekend.

This was used to launch the first module of China’s upcoming new Space Station, in April 2021. This would be one of the largest items, in decades, to have an undirected dive into the atmosphere. Welcome back home?

Recall the worldwide attention when fragments of the US Space Station, Skylab, fell back on Earth with debris scattering across Western Australian, in the year 1979.

Modern practice now calls for rocket stages to be de-orbited as soon as possible after their mission. In the case of large core segments, these would normally come straight back, within one orbit, falling into the ocean or on land. USA’s SpaceX, for example, has made designs such that it lands its core stages by controlled propulsion, so they can be reused.

For upper-stages, that go into an orbit and may travel around the Earth several times as they precisely position a payload, the preference is to include a re-ignitable engine that can steer the stage into a return to Earth at the earliest opportunity.

Various Space Agencies are tracking the path of Rocket and I wonder whether China is being irresponsible, again. However the exact point of impact can be predicted only a few hours before the actual fall. I hope the Oceans are welcoming enough and receive the debris with open octopus arms!

India’s State Elections and the Results

It was a beautiful Sunday, I had a shower, a strong breakfast, bristled with energy and filled with positivity that my expectations would come true as the counting of votes in the five State Assembly Elections of India began at 8am. I had fried-fish and fish curry waiting to be walloped at lunch, and I was expecting to spend lots of energy in cheering my favourite horses to the winning majority line.

The start was extremely welcoming but soon after the fish curry did its work at lunch – a few naughty bones got stuck in my throat, the horses I had bet-on started losing. Eventually, I had to go to bed ‘with the horse’s tail between my legs’.

While the results of Puducherry and Assam were on ‘my expected lines’ the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were not.

In West Bengal a fiery tigress of a woman led her party to a landslide win for the third successive time, but lost her own election as a candidate. I call it, ‘Operation Successful, but Patient died’. The challenger settled for second place, but bettered its previous seats-won record by a whooping 2500%. I wanted them to win.

In Tamil Nadu I was disappointed that a Party led by an ordinary man, who had climbed up the political ladder and by sheer chance became Chief Minister, grabbed the opportunity, and excelled on the job, was not rewarded for courageous work he had done especially during the first wave of the pandemic. He won his own Election by one of the largest margins in the State. If we do not respect good work, we encourage unqualified people to win. The ‘rising son’ winner who took oath as Chief Minister on the 7th May, immediately showed his true colours: his twitter page said, ‘Belongs to the Dravidian stock’. I consider it a regressive, parochial way of identifying yourself when you should be the Chief Minister of all people. The Party he heads has always been this way- various shades of black and red!

Ultimately, they say, ‘the people’s choice is God’s choice’, and democracy certainly works in mysterious ways: accept and move-on.

The Outbreak In India

India is in the agonising throes of a brutal second wave of coronavirus infections in the COVID-19 pandemic with over 4 lakhs cases per day and near about 4000 deaths. And there is already frightening talk of a sure third wave unless India fights it out.

The stories of struggles for hospital beds, medical personnel, oxygen, medicines, and burial space are heart-wrenching, especially in the worst affected States of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, and Karnataka. The State of Goa is on a different league: one in two people have tested positive for the virus and the State has the highest positivity ratio in the country, of 51.4%.

Meanwhile, the Press continues to be hysterical and it’s a sordid drama that unfolds on the TV screens every day.

State Governments are enforcing various kinds of lockdowns. Authorities are slowly rising-up to the tremendous challenge of saving lives, and I’m sure the worst will be behind us in a couple of weeks. Allright, we are here, now, let’s try to find some solutions.

In India’s ongoing Vaccination Drive, about 167 million people have been vaccinated – one short or two-with Maharashtra State leading in the highest number of vaccinations followed by Rajasthan and Gujarat -all over 10 million. My own State of Tamil Nadu has done about 4 million.

How do we contain the virus?

Experts say containing the coronavirus in the short term will be hard, slow and painful. Improved Government messaging, communication, and streamlining of medical distribution are solutions to work upon. The load on the health care system has to be reduced by making sure that mild cases don’t progress to the critical stage.

India has historically underinvested in its health care, which has led to the collapse of the system, under the bulging weight of hospital admissions. It is a ‘now or never moment’ to begin ramping-up medical infrastructure, all over the country.

The thinking is that India should invest not less than 5% of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in health care if it wants to prevent another collapse of the health care system. Presently, India invests as little as 1.5% of GDP in Health. Terrible, isn’t it? Glad we noticed.

Comparatively, the United States of America invests about 17% of GDP in Healthcare; Switzerland-12.2%, Germany-11.2%, France-11.2%, Sweden-11%, Japan-10.9%, The United Kingdom-9.8%, New Zealand-9.3%, Spain-8%, China-6.6%, Italy-6.4%.

Looking at the percentage of GDP figures, we know where the fault lies and add the fact that India has the second-largest population in the world, we get a dizzy cocktail. Successive Governments, through the years have failed us in developing a penetrating health care system and this is a final wake-up call. Such a fragile system was bound to crumble at the slightest application of pressure. And it did exactly that.

One of India’s ‘biggest failures’ in controlling the pandemic has been in communication – direct and indirect. The government should have actively discouraged events like weddings, mass gatherings, political rallies, and religious festivals. It should have also actively advised people against attending super-spreader events.

India was also under attack by more powerfully evolved mutants of the virus and new properties such as the virus being air-borne and spreading in this manner.

Looking back in history, the AIDS and polio epidemics were tackled through high quality messaging at the national level. With COVID-19, we have-after a reasonably good start-been inconsistent with the intensity of messaging, including on basic protocols like masking and physical distancing.

With the mind space occupied by gruesome tales of suffering it’s hard to think about and ‘please yourself’ with anything else. This too shall pass.

More outbreaking stories coming up in the weeks ahead.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-18

About: Lots of illuminating, as well as devastating, stories of what happened this week in our world.

Everywhere

This world’s stage this week was lit by the Oscars-early, and the headlines, burnt and hogged by India, throughout the week.

United States (US)President Joe Biden gave his first address to a joint session of the US Congress on the cusp of 100 days in Office, opening his speech with the never before uttered lines, ‘Madam Speaker, Madam Vice-President-and after a standing ovation-followed it up with, First-Lady, Second Gentleman, Chief Justice… Wonder how many other US Presidents will get to say as much.

American, National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) clever Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, is on a flip and roll dream, doing gradually increasing flight trips, and I’ve lost count of the many times it took-off, stayed in the thin air of Mars, and landed. Keep it ‘UP’, NASA.

Meanwhile, in Russia, President Putin’s arch-critic, Alexei Navalny, put-in jail by the Kremlin to serve an over two-year jail term appeared in public as a gaunt figure, his prison clothes hanging loosely on a withered frame, the result of a 24-day hunger strike against his incarceration and treatment. And he called Putin a ‘King with no clothes’ and a ‘Naked Thieving King’. Navalny’s various Groups were ordered to be suspended, closed, disbanded, and some near to being labelled extremist. How much more can Navalny endure?

In Britain, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces questions, and a possible Inquiry, on the funding of his Downing Street home refurbishment, overseen by his fiancee, Carrie Symonds. Nearby, the British Royals, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Kate and William celebrated a decade of marriage-filled with their three children. They released some pictures of how they did the ten years. Worth seeing. Can we expect more babies down the line?

The unrest in Myanmar continues with the Army firing at will and reports of torture of protesting citizens doing the rounds. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been engaging the Army Generals to find a solution and stopping the civilian killings. In another front, The Karen National Union, an ethnic guerrilla group, which is fighting the military said they captured a Myanmar army base near the border with Thailand. I say, restore democracy and get out of the way of being in the lives of ordinary citizens.

Well vaccinated Israel found itself caught in a religious stampede during which 44 died and over 100 injured-the highest ever in an event of this kind. Thousands of worshipers had crowded onto a mountain burial site to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday, an annual event to pay homage to second century Mishnaic sage Rabbi Shim Bar Yochai. But in the early hours of Friday morning, singing and dancing erupted into chaos, as a huge wave of people trapped others beneath them, including children. It is estimated that about 50,000 to 100,000 people had been on the mountain and with thousands of people tightly packed in a small area they had fallen down a staircase and crushed each other. Israel’s Health Ministry had urged people not to attend the festival, warning of the risk of another coronavirus outbreak. However, case numbers have been low, and Israel has already fully vaccinated more than 58% of its population, so the event was allowed to proceed.

While Brazil fights its own coronavirus war, a new species of tiny, poisonous fluorescent, neon orange toadlets was discovered in the mountains of Brazil. This amphibian measures just under an inch and is a part of the pumpkin toadlet genus, a collection of tiny, bright-colored toads. Humans cannot see it with normal light, but when the toadlets are illuminated with Ultra-Violet light, they glow. Researchers have yet to discover why these pumpkin toadlets glow. Lots of illumination happening in the world. Now to other kinds of light and glow.

Oscars@93

Born in Beijing, educated in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) as a teenager, before moving permanently to the US, Chole Zhao, all of 39 years, lives by her Dad’s credo, ‘people at birth are inherently good’. This Sunday she became the first Asian Woman in 93 years of the Academy Awards, and only the second woman-after Kathryn Bigelow’s, 2010,The Hurt Locker-to be named as Best Director at this year’s Academy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles. She drove away with the Award for her ‘stirring road’ film, ‘Nomadland’.

Nomadland is her only her third film, following, ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’ (2015) and ‘The Rider’ (2017). Coming later this year will be, ‘Eternals’, a Marvel superhero movie starring Angelina Jolie.

Zhao’s professional and personal partner is fellow graduate student, Joshua James Richards, who has worked as cinematographer in all three of Zhao’s films and was nominated for Nomadland.

Zhao is known for her quietly compelling portraits of people, often played by non-professional actors, living in the margins of society in the American West. And she is one of the most distinctive and talented film-makers to emerge in recent years.

I talked about the film ‘Minari’ in an earlier story and the grandmother who brought the seeds of Minari from South Korea, Actress, Yuh-Jung Youn, won the Best Supporting actress and became the first South Korean actress to win in that category.

Hollywood’s biggest night saw women of colour make history. Adding to the blazing colours of Chloe Zhao and Yuh-Jung Youn, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson painted their mark as the first Black women to win for makeup and hairstyling for the movie Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Wow, that lights, camera, action, at the end of a black tunnel!

Other major winners are: Best Actor, Anthony Hopkins-The Father; Best Actress, Frances McDormand-Nomadland; Best Cinematographer, Erik Messerschmidt -Mank; Best Costume Designer, Ann Roth-Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Best Music, Trent Reznor, Atticus Roads and Jon Batiste-Soul (a lively animated film); Best Original Screenplay Writer Emerald Fennel-Promising Young Woman.

The Best Picture went to Nomadland. It’s the story of a woman, Fern-played by Frances McDormand-in her sixties who loses her husband, her job, then gives up most of her belongings, buys a van and leaves her hometown to embark on a road journey through the American West, searching for work and living the life of a van-dwelling modern day nomad.

One of the reviews said, ‘It is a hauntingly beautiful, beguiling, and poetic while not sugar coating a difficult lifestyle’. Another was, ‘Director Chole Zhao populates the films with as many perspectives as possible to emphasise that true liberation and spiritual peace of mind are entirely different notions based on who’s answering. There is an unstable beauty to that’.

I haven’t seen Nomadland, as yet, and hope to hit the road to seeing this beautifully made movie, one day. I’ll decide about buying myself a van, later on!

The Storm in India: Staying Alive

India is facing one of the toughest COVID-19, coronavirus infection times ever, with a deadly storm of SARS-CoV-2 caused infections sweeping through the country, overwhelming hospitals, medical workers, and the already gasping healthcare system. India never had a great healthcare infrastructure, but it just about managed to get the job done-especially polio vaccinations-all these years. Now, more than anytime before, developing and ramping-up healthcare and disease outbreak monitoring systems has become, by default, the top-most priority.

During the first wave India, admirably and unbelievably scaled up production of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)and Ventilators from non-existent levels to the the stage of even exporting them, and got-ready Hospital beds in double-quick time.

This time it’s Oxygen and maybe the next time it will be other medicines, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Beds, Nurses, and Doctors. India needs to wear battle gear and go to war-with a mirror to itself and the best swords-to defeat this hydra-headed virus of a monster.

The media has a ‘view to a kill’ and is castigating the Indian Government for its actions-and inactions-raining endless ‘natural invectives’ and vocabulary building exercises, such as, crisis, disaster, tragedy, hurricane, deluge, tsunami, catastrophe, apocalypse…sounding as if they wanted it to happen. It says, among many other things, that the deaths of over 3,000 per day cannot be so low and there is undercounting and hiding of figures.

I quietly went back to my own weekly, World Inthavaarm, Posts and this is what I found:

In the week ending, 24th April-last week, we had over 3 lakh cases, the week ending 17th April, over 2 lakh cases, the week ending 10th April it was over 1.4 lakh cases, the week ending 3rd April showed a rapid growth, and in the week ending 27th March it was over 60,000-the formal arrival of the second wave, in the week ending 20th March it was over 40,000, and murmurs of a second wave dissecting the 20,000 cases in the week ending 13 March 2021.

If I could read the uptick in the coronavirus infections I’m sure the Authorities must have, but why was quick action not forthcoming and better preparedness ensured ? Many questions requiring many answers. But the second wave came with a surreptitious ferocity that India was totally unprepared for.

In India after the first peak of about 97,000 positive cases in September 2020, cases dipped for 30 straight weeks before it started to rise again in mid-February this year. On 8th February 2021, India had just about 8,700 cases, which was about the bottom most.

The first signs were a 509% increase in Punjab-since bottoming out, followed by a 331% increase in Maharashtra, a 302 % increase in Haryana, a 164% increase in Madhya Pradesh and a 140% increase in Delhi, all as on 10th March 2021. During this time Kerala was yet to get over its first wave. Bihar saw a rise of daily new cases by 522 times, Uttar Pradesh by 399 times, Andhra Pradesh by 186 times, Delhi and Jharkhand by 150 times, West Bengal by 142 times and Rajasthan by 123 times. Sounds Alarmist?

People let their guard down, complacency and COVID-19 fatigue slithered-in, infected minds and spread like wildfire, and almost all believed that the worst of the pandemic was over. This belief, I think, was reinforced by the ‘return to business as usual’ with huge Election Rallies, Religious Festivals, The Indian Premier League Cricket Tournament, etc., happening, without good-enough steps being taken to adhere to the basic infection prevention techniques we learnt so well over the past one year. However, all of these were held in the great outdoors and their contribution to the current surge of infections is debatable as the second wave began waving in States, which had none of these huge activities.

What then is the cause? It could be attributed to the variant B.1.1.7, first identified in the UK and India’s own hometown double mutant B.1.617, which was found to be awfully infectious, and one that learnt to find the fault-lines in the Indian landscape. This wave of the coronavirus is different from the first and not a repeat. Studies show that it might be airborne-after all, staying in the air for about three hours and thereby spreading faster.

Family Functions, Weddings, Funerals, Get-Togethers, saw sizeable gatherings and the virus must have been waiting for an opening to latch-on. It did, by which time India was completely drowned in the wave. If we never knew about the first novel coronavirus this one too remained novel of another kind spreading ruthlessly through the population. I do to think anyone could anticipate this and no amount of preparation would be able to satisfy everybody. What happened to all those beds created and Railway Coaches converted? We need to pull them out and put them to work. It looks like it only has to be managed as it comes, and lessons learnt the hard way. For e.g., about 160 Oxygen Plants were ordered by the Government, with clever foresight in October 2020, but only about 30 were installed due to resistance by the States. Here we are!

Today, India is running over 3 lakh cases per day over several continuous days, and yestedy is crossed 4 lakh cases for the first time with a Positivity Rate of over 20% and about 3,500 deaths. States such as Karnataka and the Union Territory of New Delhi have returned to the lockdown mode and cities like Mumbai and Pune too. Other States are cautiously watching and trying their best to prepare for the worst.

The scenes are heart-breaking and it is as if the people are entirely on their own, either trying to find a Hospital bed, get an Oxygen Cylinder or simply bury/burn the dead.

Vaccine hesitancy is another aspect which has consumed many, with rumours of unproven side affects storming the population. Some Political Leaders even questioned India’s ingeniously developed Vaccine, Covaxin, creating a suspicion in the already angular thinking Indian mind. It has been proved, beyond doubt, that Covaxin effortless tackles the new mutant on the scene.

But we cannot vaccinate ourselves out of a surge of this kind. Vaccines take two weeks from the first dose to take effect and we require an interval of four weeks between the first and second dose. The median incubation period of the virus, by contrast, is four to five days, which means vaccinations will not necessarily avert infections.

What do we do to get out of this seemingly unfathomable abyss?

I found this wonderful advice by Dr. Rana Jawad Asgar, an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Nebraska, who has worked for the US Centres for Disease Control & Prevention.

‘The Government needs a new risk communication strategy which should be based on providing timely and trustworthy information with workable solutions. Some health professionals have already identified the problem and are educating the public on how to treat themselves at home and when to opt for hospitals. A real-time system of resource availability will help ease the population’s concerns. Improved health intelligence, which is beyond collection of testing numbers, should be institutionalised’.

Political bickering, blaming, and scoring debating points should stop and everyone of us should do our best to support ourselves, the local communities we live-in and the Government, in doing our darnedest, even it means just staying at home. By all means criticise any short coming, but also give a solution-become part of the solution than the problem. Let’s do it.

When the cow falls into the ditch we should put all our efforts in pulling it out, then find out how it fell into the ditch. And decide, make plans and resolve to ensure that it never again falls into the ditch.

Many countries are encouragingly rallying to help India and World is beginning to feel like one community-like it should always.

I’m sure India is up to the task and we will emerge stronger than ever before. For e.g., if there is any country in the World, which can bring over lakhs of Nurses and Doctors for Hospital and ICU duty it is only India. We can do it. This too will pass.

More safe and encouraging stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Stay alive.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-17

About: The story of the world this week; how humankind soared again and flew into new legions, and how we tackled waves.

Everywhere

Wright Brothers Moment on Mars

America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has persevered in its Mars Mission and made history on 19th April by successfully flying its mini-helicopter, Ingenuity, on Mars: being the first aircraft to achieve controlled, powered flight on a planet beyond Earth.

For the first flight, the helicopter, weighing 1.8 kilograms, took off, climbed to about 3 meters above the ground, hovered in the air briefly, completed a 96 degree turn, and then landed. The entire flight lasted about 40 seconds. The first photo from Ingenuity showed the helicopter’s shadow on the Martian surface below, while the Martian Rover, Perseverance, watching from a distance, captured a stunning video of the historic flight on Mars. Glad that Perseverance and Ingenuity are friends on Mars-good to have that kind of warmth at such a cold distance.

The blades of an average helicopter on Earth rotate at a rate of 400 to 500 rotations per minute (rpm). The uniquely designed rotor blades of Ingenuity rotate at 2,500 rpm. More ‘rpm’ are required to achieve the lift and thrust in the extremely thin air of Mars. Ingenuity has a wireless communication system, is equipped with computers, navigation sensors, and cameras. It is solar-powered and can keep itself warm autonomously through the harshly cold Martian night-as low as minus 90 degrees Celsius. It has all the ‘hot wherewithal’ of living on its own.

NASA will now plan additional experimental flights of farther distance and greater altitude. And quick on the heels for the first flight, they did just that, when on 22nd April NASA succeeded in doing a more challenging second flight with a 50 second flight, climbing to 5 metres(m), doing a 5 degree tilt to accelerate sideways for a distance of 2m. It worked to precision and there was a second wave of celebrations.

Some of the Earth based ‘Martians’ revolving-and waving-behind Ingenuity’s success are: MiMi Aung, Ingenuity’s Project Manager, Timothy Canham-Mars Helicopter Operations Lead; Bob Balaram-Chief Engineer, Mars helicopter Project; Vandi Verma-Chief Engineer, Robotic Operations, and Havard Fjaer Grip-Ingenuity Chief Pilot (He sure had a grip of the flight).

This is definitely humankind’s Wright Bothers Moment on Mars. Congratulations NASA. I’m thrilled beyond any dimension.

Former US President, Barack Obama put it best, ‘With all the enormous challenges facing the world, it’s worth taking the time to appreciate extraordinary human achievement and our relentless impulse toward discovery’.

Black & White in America-I can’t breathe.

In what is being called, monumental and a historic moment of accountability, a white police officer was found guilty of murdering a black man while arresting him. And this is a rare conviction in the United States (US) of America and on this account, in part, the case is considered to be one of the most important in US History.

It is being called so, as Law Enforcing Officers kill about a thousand people a year in the US and a study found that only 121 have been charged with murder or manslaughter since 2005. And only 44 Officers were actually convicted. A lot has to be with strong Police Unions, which provide legal assistance when necessary.

Coming back to our topic and digging into the roots, on the evening of 25th May 2020, George Floyd, a 46 years old black man purchased cigarettes at Cup Foods, a Grocery Store in the Powderhorn Park neighbourhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, paying with a $20 Cash Note. A Store employee suspected it to be counterfeit and along with other employees confronted Floyd while he was in his car, demanding he return the cigarettes. On Floyd refusing, the Police was called-in on a complaint of passing fake cash notes and that Floyd was drunk and not in control of himself. In a sequence of events during the arrest, from getting Floyd off his car to a Police car across the street, Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds when he was handcuffed and lying face down. Two other police officers assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd. A fourth police officer prevented bystanders from interfering with the arrest as events unfolded.

While lying on the ground with Chauvin’s knee on his neck, Floyd cried out, ‘I can’t breathe’ 27 times and expressed fears of dying. After several minutes Floyd stopped speaking. For a further two minutes, he lay motionless and one for the Officers found no pulse when urged to check. Despite this, Chauvin refused pleas to lift his knee until medics told him to do so. The encounter with the Police was recorded on video by a 17 years old girl, Darnella Frazier, without which many say the Trial might have had a different outcome.

The death set off massive protests and looting in Minneapolis. And the protests spread across America, igniting the ‘Black Lives Matter’ banner.

Then, the sensational Trial convened late in March this year and became the most closely watched one in decades. For almost a year, George Floyd’s death has reverberated around the world-inspiring murals and marches, sparking conversations in living rooms and new legislation.

After 10 hours of discussions the Jury came to a conclusion finding Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts: Second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

It is rare that US police officers are charged over deaths in custody, but Derek Chauvin now faces a jail sentence for the killing of George Floyd. The sentence is expected to be delivered sometime in June this year.

The conviction is a landmark one, but true justice can prevail only when the colour of the skin does not come in the way of how a person, under suspicion of committing a crime, is treated. Black or White it should never matter.

Second Waves

The coronavirus pandemic is ferociously ravaging through India, upsetting any calculations that were made, or not made at all-riding out a second wave. Over three lakhs cases were reported on four consecutive days, being the single highest anywhere in the World since the pandemic began.

Hospitals were overwhelmed and ran out of beds, critical oxygen supplies, and medicines. The most affected States are, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, New Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.

India’s Prime Minster went live on national Television urging people to stay strong, stick to the basics of infection prevention, break the cycle of infections, and said Lockdowns will not be the norm, but the last resort. ‘We don’t want to go in Lockdowns again’, he thundered. The virus better listen!

The Government has also decided to open up COVID-19 vaccination for all above 18 years from 1st May 2021 onwards and gave the States freedom in procurement of Vaccines. Indian Vaccine manufacturers will be handing over 50% of their production to the Government and the other 50% to the open market.

This is a great step forward, but it needs to be kept in mind that we cannot vaccinate ourselves out of a surge in infections. We need to still stick to the prevention basics and strictly enforce public health measures.

While we are talking about Vaccines, where are we on Treatments for COVID-19?Alongside vaccines, don’t we need COVID-19 treatment drugs? A pill that can help fight off early symptoms and which can be taken at home! There are three broad approaches being investigated at the moment.

First, The UK is running the world’s largest clinical trial, called Recovery to find which drugs work and which don’t; second, The World Health Organization (WHO) is running the Solidarity Trial to assess promising treatments in countries around the world; third, Oxford University is running, The Principle Trial, looking for medicines which will help people recover from COVID-19 symptoms, at home.

Given that the pandemic has consumed so much of our time, and lives, since it first flew-in from China, it’s a tribute to mankind’s perseverance and ingenuity that we have been able to come-up with a Vaccine, in record time.

I’m disappointed with America’s embargo on essential supplies to India. Why hold on despite so many requests and Tweets on social media clamouring for action? Raw materials for production lines in India-the largest Vaccine Manufacturer in the World-making at least 160m doses of COVID-19 vaccines a month, will come to a halt in the coming weeks unless America supplies about 37 critical items. Maybe this story is not being told in the US as it should be ? Wake up America and listen to the waves.

Oxygen for the Masses

While India is struggling to make Oxygen on Earth to tackle the hospitalisation requirements rising out of the deadly second COVID-19 wave, it can perhaps take lessons from Perseverance, which is having a field day on Mars besides sending photographs of Ingenuity’s circus tricks. This week it extracted Oxygen out of the thin air on Mars, converting a minuscule amount of the rich Carbon-di-oxide in the Martian atmosphere into Oxygen (96% of the atmosphere of Mars is carbon-di-oxide). The quantity generated is about sufficient for an Astronaut to breathe for 10 minutes. Could be life-saving.

Many firsts coming from Perseverance-that’s a name to keep!

A Comedian Takes Away our Laughs for a few Days

He was a comedian Actor mainly in Tamil Films and most often acted as a side-kick to the hero in the over 200 films he has appeared in. In many films he ploughed and planted a separate comedy track, as is a style in Tamil cinema.

I thought him to be too handsome to be a comedian, with his debonair looks. And when he passed away at age 59, late last week due to a cardiac arrest, people remembered him for the over one crore trees he helped plant all over Tamil Nadu, inspired by the late President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam’s environmentalism. He founded the ‘Green Kalam Initiative’ in 2010 with the mission of planting one billion trees across Tamil Nadu. What better way of remembering an Actor?

Vivek, born Vivekanandan, leaves behind his wife and two daughters. A son died at the age 13 due to brain-fever in the year 2015, leaving Vivek heart-broken.

Vivek was born in Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu and passed out of The American College, Madurai, before being introduced into films by late Director K Balachander. He was awarded the Kalaivanar Award for his contribution to Tamil Cinema in 2006 and the Padma Shri in 2009 for his contribution to Indian Cinema.

Vivek’s comedy style consisted of one-liners that featured social and political satire, which led to comparisons with yester-year Tamil comedy actor N. S. Krishnan (called Kalaivanar) and earning him the nickname ‘Chinna Kalaivanar’. (Small Artist).

Some of the notable movies he acted in are, Run, Saamy, Anniyan, Shivaji, Kuruvi, Vedi, and Alaipayuthey.

His fans have decided to continue the tree planting effort and claim they see a shade of Vivek in every tree. RIP Vivek-you are Big.

Please Yourself: Apple’s AirTag

On Tuesday, Apple announced a long-awaited gadget called AirTag. Users can attach the, about Rs 3,190, coin-sized device to valuables such as keys or a backpack, then, if the item gets lost, locate it on a live map inside Apple’s built-in Find My software. AirTag’s most important differentiating feature isn’t the technology inside the stainless-steel gadget. It’s other people’s iPhones.

AirTag doesn’t have a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal, which would rapidly drain its battery and raise privacy questions. Instead, when it’s attached to an object, and it gets lost, it sends out a secure Bluetooth signal. For those signals to reach the internet and inform the person who’s looking for their lost device, they’ll need to find an iPhone that’s listening for them.

Using Bluetooth and the hundreds of millions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS devices in active use around the world, the user can locate a missing device even if it can’t connect to a Wi-Fi or cellular network. Any iOS, iPadOS, or macOS device with ‘offline finding’ enabled in Find My settings can act as a ‘finder device.’

Thinking laterally, I guess ‘husbands and wives can track each other’ (who gets there first?) and parents can track their children-just slip an AirTag into their pants!

More breathing stories with lots of oxygen and tags coming up in the weeks ahead.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-16

About: The story of the world this week; of one at war with itself, and attempts to fly in other Planets.

Everywhere

The Guns of the United States of America (USA)

This Sunday, in Brooklyn Centre, Minnesota, USA, Afro-American Daunte Wright, 20 years old, was pulled over for a traffic violation by a woman Police Officer, but there was a struggle when Wright tried getting back into his car while officers were trying to handcuff him. Wright does get back into his car and drives away, but not before been shot by a Police Office who shouted out, ‘Taser, Taser, Taser… ‘(an electric gun which incapacitates a person with a high voltage electric shock), but instead pulls out a gun and fires a bullet. Fatally wounded, Wright driving his car, crashed a few streets away. The Officer mistook the Gun for a Taser, pulling out the wrong one, but nevertheless the damage was done and the shooting sparked wild protests leading to declaration of a curfew and a local state of emergency.

The Police have admitted that the shooting was accidental, but the incident shoots many questions:How can an Officer mistake a Pistol for a Taser when they look and feel different and there are protocols to prevent a mix-up? But before that, why guns for a traffic violation? This is not the case of a criminal running away from a ‘deadly’ crime scene to warrant drawing a weapon!

On the other hand, why did Wright run away, precipitating Police action? He should have allowed himself to be arrested and faced the music. In a deeply divided America these are tough questions to find answers. Meanwhile, the Police Officer and her Chief have resigned-owning up.

While we are on the last legs of this week, there is yet another mass shooting, late Thursday, in the US City of Indianapolis, at a FedEx Facility near the main Airport. Eight people have been killed and many injured, when a man, seemingly without any kind of provocation, started firing an automatic weapon. The gunman, said to be acting alone, killed himself soon after the shooting. The motive is unclear.

What the hell has become of US? This is a never-ending story!

Look up at India: imagine a gun in the hand of every citizen and every policeman too? They get the job done with the fiery bamboo lathi, and the guns are reserved, while people go about their chores with hands in their pockets.

A Full-Blown Conflict: A Failed State?

The United Nations is seeing the big picture, and has warned that Myanmar is heading towards a full-blown conflict with clear echos of Syria in 2011, unless the International Community steps in with immediate, decisive and impactful measures to push Myanmar’s military leadership into halting its campaign of repression and heart-wrenching slaughter of its own people.

The World is standing by and watching Myanmar become a failed State. Time to cross some boundaries and stop being a by-stander?

Jallianwala Bagh and Ram Mohammad Singh Azad

This week brought back piercing memories of the brutal Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, which happened 102 years ago, this month.

On 13th April 1919, when India was under British Rule, Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, the acting military commander of Punjab ordered his troops to fire into a peaceful unarmed crowd, which had assembled in an open ground, in Jallianwala Bagh, Amristar, Punjab, to celebrate the Festival of Baishaki, New Year’s Day, and protest the Rowlatt Act and arrest of two freedom fighters from Amristar. It was a bloody slaughter and one of the most blood-chilling events in India’s fight for freedom from the British. Over 350 ordinary civilians were mercilessly butchered and over a thousand injured that deadly day. Firing continued uninterrupted for about 10 minutes and stopped only when they ran out of ammunition-about 1,650 rounds were spent.

The impact it had on 19 years old Udham Singh, a revolutionary freedom fighter was unimaginable. He was driven by a burning rage to avenge the death of innocent Indians, and taking a handful of the blood-soaked soil he vowed that no matter how long it took or how far he had to go, he would hunt down the persons who did this to his people, and kill them. He swore revenge for every man, woman, and child killed that day.

Twenty-one years later on 13th March 1940, Udham Singh shot and killed Sir Michael O’Dwyer-who was the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab at the time of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre-point-blank, in faraway London, in a crowded Caxton Hall, where O’Dwyer arrived to make a speech. Udham Singh had hidden the pistol in a book with pages cut-out to accommodate the gun.

Two days later after a quick trial Udham Singh was sentenced and later hanged to death on 31st July 1940 at the Pentonville Prison, United Kingdom.

There are two British responsible, with similar sounding names: Dwyer and Dyer. The latter, General Dyer, was discharged from the Army, never punished for his crimes, and died unrepentant in 1927. The former, Sir Michael O’Dwyer, had approved of General Dyer’s actions and is believed to be the main planner-to teach Indians a lesson.

Udham Singh surrendered after assassinating O’Dwyer and during his incarceration until his hanging, said his name was Ram Mohammad Singh Azad-signifying the major religions in India, and freedom.

The Udham Singh story was kept under strict wraps by the British, being in a delicate phase of the Indian Independence movement. However, it’s hard to hide such a story of martyrdom, and eventually it surfaced. And following an outcry, in 1974 his remains was brought back to India and buried in his home town of Sunam, Sangrur District, Punjab.

Today, a ten-foot high statue of Udham Singh stands at the entrance of Jallianwala Bagh with his outstretched right hand holding blood-soaked soil in his palm. Many statues have been erected in his hometown to commemorate his memory.

They say, if we forget the lessons of History we are bound to repeat them. Let’s read and learn our History well. Such spine-chilling killing of unarmed people cannot be forgotten, ever.

Freebies

India, and Tamil Nadu in particular, is famous for showering freebies on ‘the ever hungry electorate’ to win over their minds, through their stomachs, into voting for them. We have seen a mind-boggling array of goodies such as table fans, mixies, grinders, cycles, scooters, buffaloes, cows, laptops… being offered free with the intention of uplifting the poor. Most of us think that this makes people lazy and that we are creating a useless, skill-dropping workforce. We better rethink!

Economist and Nobel laureate, Abjijit Vinayak Banerjee has trashed this ideology saying there is no evidence whatsoever that such ‘Government injections’ make people lazy-putting them to sleep. He said that his own research on the subject across diverse economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America in the past decade and more, shows no evidence of this effect anywhere, not even in India; instead what he has seen everywhere is only improvements. The Nobel laureate says that when the poor become better off, they become more creative in generating more wealth and leading better lives including by sending their kids to competitive schools far away from their villages.

Economists are always challenging us with their peculiar data-based findings. And they may not always be right. I reckon we can increase our wealth-and probably the Wealth of Nations-by cogitating over how best to deploy whatever we receive from the Government, not necessarily free.

Ingenuity: Still Trying to Fly

America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had its Mars Rover, Perseverance, drop the mini-helicopter, Ingenuity, on the Martian surface on 4th April to get charged and prepare of its first ever flight in Mars. Last Thursday Ingenuity unlocked its blades and did a slow spin test to get the feel of rotation (yesterday they did a full-spin-test). And this Sunday we expected history to be made, but it did not happen as the superbly cautious NASA decided that Ingenuity needs a software update, much like our mobile phones do all the time.

Ingenuity’s guidance, navigation, and control systems will do the piloting for the almost autonomous flight attempt, mostly because radio signals will take 15 minutes and 27 seconds to bridge the 278 million kilometre gap between Mars and Earth.

The Martian atmosphere is 99% less dense than Earth’s, which makes it difficult to achieve enough lift. Successful flights of Ingenuity could provide an ambitious aerial dimension to future Mars exploration.

Meanwhile, the Wright Brothers are waiting and watching, from somewhere close by.

The Pandemic’s Second Wave in India

India is presently ‘doing lines’ instead of curves, with every new day edging past the previous day’s record of the number of positive coronavirus cases-it’s frightening, this almost vertical, a straight line.

The number of cases has gone up from about 11,794 in the first week of February 2021 to over 2 lakhs cases this week, spiking all records. Forget bending the curve we need to first bend the line into a curve.

The term lockdown being overused, Authorities are clamping down with measures to break the chain of infections, with lookalikes of Lockdowns and curfew like restrictions, well almost. Maharashtra is doing it and other States are hoping to follow soon. If the coronavirus can mutate so can the Lockdown. In Mumbai you just cannot go everywhere and anywhere-as you please-and it isn’t called a lockdown!

The Vaccination drive is gathering speed-about 12 crore vaccinations done in India-but it cannot do much in a surging state of infection spread. We need to hold on to the basics of what we have learnt over the past year: masking-up, physical distancing, and hand-washing. Experts say we should avoid public gatherings of over 10 people and limit the unavoidable Events such as Weddings and Funerals to under 50 people, and avoid travel as best as we can. I suggest we keep at it until the cases crawl down to zero and stay grounded for at least a month.

Over the week, India approved Russia’s, Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology developed Vaccine, Sputnik V (It’s the letter V, not the Roman Letter for 5) for emergency use. With this India has three vaccines at hand: Covishield, Covaxin, and now the Sputnik V.

In other Vaccine news, Johnson & Johnson’s single shot vaccine has been temporarily paused in America as ‘abundance of caution’, following concerns that the vaccine may be linked to a rare but severe type of blood clotting-reported as after-effects, in a few cases.

India, after a reasonable success in keeping coronavirus infections at bay has definitely been caught napping and complacency has crept-in. And has mentally declared a victory over the pandemic, when cases were cleverly and stealthily climbing up a rusty ladder. The Assembly Elections in five States saw large gatherings kick up a lot of dust; Weddings and Family get-togethers almost returned to the normal attendance level, religious festivals were back with a bang and too many things were simply ‘left in the hands of God’. The triennial Hindu Festival Kumbh Mela, when devotees take a holy dip in the Holy River Ganges, in Haridwar, is a huge draw and should have been avoided. Sins apart, the waters may find it hard to wash away the virus.

Stealing Giant Rabbits

Darius, a continental giant rabbit, which holds the Guinness World Record for being the world’s longest rabbit at 4 feet and 23 inches, was stolen last Saturday from its owner, Annette Edwards’ garden in Stoulton, Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. The bunny is Edwards’ fourth record-breaking rabbit and took the title from its mom.

Annette Edwards has offered a £1,000 reward for finding Darius, which she claims is too old to breed-if that was the intent of the theft.

Growing Brains at Will

Imagine being able to shrink the size of your brain, and re-grow it at will? Brainy?

Researchers have found that a certain species of Indian Jumping Ants are able to do exactly that.

Unlike other kinds of ants, colonies of Jumping Ants do not perish once their Queen dies. Instead chosen worker-ants, which have expanded ovaries and shrunken brains take the Queen’s place to produce offspring. The Queen’s job being, to only reproduce-and hardly think, her ovaries are large and the brain is small. On the other hand, worker ants need large brains to think and get work done and not waste energy in reproduction, hence small ovaries. Now, if at some point, the Queen status is revoked their bodies can bounce back to the state of small ovaries and large brains-Researchers have found.

Typically, in all Ant Colonies, an ant becoming a worker or a queen is decided at the larval stage. If fed generously and given the right hormones, the ant has the chance to become a queen. If not, then it is stuck with a career as a sterile worker deprived of the opportunity to switch-unless it’s part of a species such as the Indian Jumping Ant.

I can’t help jump every time a new mystery of nature is unravelled, and grow my brain in the process. Amazing!

Please Yourself: Dynamite

South Korean Band Group, BTS (Bangtan Boys) is a seven-member group of men, Suga, Jin, RM, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook – names, which to me appear to be splinters of Dynamite- who write and produce much of their own output. Originally a hip-hop group, their musical style has evolved to include a wide range of genres.

BTS’s global smash hit ‘Dynamite’, which is the group’s first song made entirely in English, just crossed one billion views on YouTube, in less than eight months since its debut, making it the newest entry in YouTube’s Billion Views Club.

The ‘Dynamite’ video on YouTube premiered in August 2020. It garnered over 101.1 million views in its first 24 hours, making it the biggest music video debut on the video platform to date. The video also set a record for the biggest YouTube Premiere with over three million peak concurrent views. It opened at No. 1 on the YouTube Global Top Songs chart, and has remained on the chart for 32 straight weeks

I listened to ‘Dynamite’ before writing this piece and I was blasted by its beauty. However, here I’m alive, and in one piece, to tell this story.

More dynamite and jumping stories coming up in the weeks ahead.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-15

About: The story of the world this week, new forces in the making, and old ones becoming more forceful and bullying too.

Everywhere

Move on: A new Force of Nature is here

Scientists say that all of the forces of nature we experience every day can be simply skinned-down to four categories of fundamental forces: Gravity, Electromagnetism, the Strong Nuclear Force, and the Weak Nuclear Force. The last two dominate only at the level of the sub-atomic particle and are effective over close ranges.

Now, Physicists say they have found possible signs of a fifth fundamental force.

While the four ‘grand old forces’ govern how all the objects and particles in the Universe interact with each other, this new fifth, is trying to squeeze-in, and force its (rightful?) place in the scheme of things in the Universe.

The findings come from research carried out at a laboratory near Chicago, United States (US), which is the latest in a string of promising results from particle physics experiments in the US, Japan, and most recently from the Large Hadron-Collider on the Swiss-French border.

Results provide strong evidence for the existence of an undiscovered sub-atomic particle or new force while studying particles, which are the building blocks of our world. Some of these smaller-than-the-atom-particles are made up of even smaller constituents, while others cannot be broken down into anything else, called fundamental particles. The muon is one of these fundamental particles. It is similar to the electron, but more than 200 times heavier. Some call it a ‘fat electron’.

The current experiment involved sending the particles around a 14 metre ring and then applying a magnetic field. Under the current laws of physics, of the Standard Model, this should make the muons wobble at a certain rate. Instead, the scientists found that muons wobbled at a faster rate than expected. This might be caused by a force of nature that is completely new to science.

One of the Scientists commented on the finding, ‘It is quite mind-boggling. It has the potential to turn physics on its head. We have a number of mysteries that remain unsolved. And this could give us the key answers to solve these mysteries’

The Universe is indeed a force to reckon with…and we humans are unravelling one mystery after another, for sure.

Belfast, Belfast

Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom (UK), is burning with violence-rioting-in areas of Derry, Belfast, and other towns in County Antrim over six successive nights-a level of unrest not seen in years.

The reason for the unrest seems to be the exploding anger over the UK’s post-Brexit trading Agreements with the European Union (EU)-known as the Northern Ireland Protocol-which loyalists believe has created barriers between the region and the rest of Britain. Under this protocol a de-facto border was created in the Irish Sea with goods entering Northern Ireland from mainland Britain subject to EU checks, which angered the Loyalists. I smell a rotten fish here-movement between parts of a United Kingdom subject to external checks by an outsider?

Loyalists, or Unionists as they are called, are part of a political movement that wishes to keep Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom and attached to the British monarchy.

Unrest first broke out over anger on the decision by the Northern Ireland Police not to prosecute leaders of the Irish Nationalist Party, Sinn Fein, for breaking coronavirus restrictions, during the funeral of a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) figure.

Looks like people are forever looking for a reason to get violent and release pent-up feelings. Easy to get angry on one’s nose?

To me, Belfast, the Capital of Northern Ireland brings back memories of the Titanic, which considered to be an unsinkable ship, famously stuck an iceberg and sank on its maiden journey, in 1912. The Titanic was constructed in Belfast, which they say, is perfectly situated for ship building.

Belfast also brings to the air, yesteryear Music Group, Boney M’s, hit song ‘Belfast, Belfast’, which was inspired by previous violent incidents in Northern Ireland. It is a significant reminder that when people utterly fail to live in peace together, such conflicts reverberate far and wide.

A Pillar Falls

Prince Philip, aged 99, The Duke of Edinburg, and the husband for 73 years, of Britain’s reigning Queen Elizabeth-II, passed away peacefully on Friday morning at Windsor Castle. He was the longest serving consort in British History.

When the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, married her third cousin, the Duke of Edinburgh in November 1947, Winston Churchill said it was like a ‘flash of colour’ in the grey post-war Britain.

Prince Philip remained a die-hard supporter of his wife, the Queen, throughout their long life together, which saw many turbulent events in the shifting sands of time, causing the Queen to remark, ‘he was my strength & stay’.

Prince Philip had to grudgingly give up many things, including his Mountbatten name to fit into the harness of Royal Life. And to stay and be a pillar of strength to the Queen.

The BBC said of him, ‘He outlived nearly everyone who knew him and might explain him. This is why Prince Philip lived an extraordinary life’

Beauty and the Beast

If the beast was the marauding Myanmar Junta, the beauty was, Han Lay, Miss Grand Myanmar, who spoke out last week against atrocities committed by her country’s military beast. Her speech turned heads.

“Today in my country Myanmar, there are so many people dying,” she said at the Miss Grand International 2020 event in Thailand. “Please help Myanmar. We need your urgent international help right now.”

A little over a month ago, Han Lay, 22 years old, was on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar, protesting against the military. She is now concerned that her two-minute speech could possibly put her on the cross-hairs of the military’s many targets. She has decided to stay put in Thailand for at least the next three months. I guess that’s the most beautiful thing to do in these ugly times.

Meanwhile, model and Actor, Paing Takhon, one of Myanmar’s most popular celebrities was arrested on Thursday for being active in online and offline protests. And in the United Kingdom (UK) Myanmar’s Ambassador to the UK, was locked out the Embassy after a Military Attache ‘forcefully’ occupied his place and stole all his powers. He spent the night in his car outside the Embassy and felt bullied for being supportive of Democracy in Myanmar.

More than 500 civilians have been killed since the Military Coup of 1st February and the world cannot stand by watching.

It’s time countries ratchet-up sanctions on Myanmar’s Military to bring them to heel and restrain them from murdering their own people. They ought to be locked up inside their barracks and keys thrown into the sea?

India’s Naxalite Challenge

Former Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, once described Naxalism as India’s greatest internal security challenge. In hindsight looks like he had great foresight.

This Sunday, Naxalites killed at least 22 State Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the Bijapur region of Chattisgarh State. This is the second highest, since 6th April 2010, when 76 security personnel were gunned down in nearby Dantewada. All this, since India first started its Naxalite counter-insurgency operations in the year 1947.

What is Naxalism, and what do they want?

The term Naxal comes from the name of the village, Naxalbari, in West Bengal, which was the epicentre of a tribal uprising against land-owning Landlords in the year 1967. Naxalites are considered far-left communists, supportive of Maoism, described as militant insurgents, and living with separatist ambitions.

The rise of Naxalism corresponded to the growth of militant communism in India, particularly the creation of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) and the emergence of rebel groups such as the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the People’s War Group (PWG). The MCC and the PWG merged to form the CPI-M(Maoist), which is designated as a terrorist organisation and banned by the Government of India. We need to draw a boundary here: while the CPI-M(Maoist) is the banned party, the parent CPI and CPI-M(Marxist) are ‘accepted’ political parties working within the political system in India.

Naxalites claim to represent the poorest and most socially marginalised members of Indian society-the tribals and outcasts, and adopt the Maoist doctrine of sustained peasant-led revolution against the State: waging guerrilla warfare against Landlords, Businessmen, Politicians and Security Forces, who they consider a threat to their native land and livelihood. They aspire to get back land, which they think, belongs to them, as a right.

Since the beginning of the history of humankind, natives of a particular region of land have always wanted an unfettered hold on them, for the bountiful natural resources they yield-as a possessive right- and their unspoilt nature and beauty. Invaders, on the other hand, had sought to grab as much of rich and fertile land as possible and exploit the wealth of resources including beneath-the-earth minerals for commercial purposes and the progress of themselves and mankind. Over centuries, this ever-present tussle set man against man and has changed the course of history and fractured the geography of the land we live in.

In India, tribals expected the Indian Constitution to deliver to them a certain degree of autonomy in the land they have lived in from birth, and restrain ‘invading’ Landlords from grabbing huge swathes of ‘their land’. Historically, the original mission of Naxalites was to seize land from Oppressors-who had taken over their lands, during India’s Independence struggle and soon after Independence-and redistribute it among the peasants. They took it upon themselves to disrupt infrastructure, communication, and modernisation. And ensured they remain in splendid isolation, away from civilisation-staying marginalised, to exercise their kind of power in a Kingdom of their making.

When did such a movement begin in India?

In July of the year 1948, almost a year after India gained independence from the British, the first spikes of communist activity began to manifest in the State of Telengana (then part of the state of Andhra Pradesh). A major event known as the Telangana Struggle occurred in which the lower-classes and peasants of 2,500 villages of the former Hyderabad State started an armed revolt under the leadership of the Communist Party of India (formed in 1925,India), against oppressive landlordism, patronised by the autocratic rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad.

By the 1970’s Naxalism spread to almost all of India’s States except Western India. In the 1980’s when Naxalism was rearing its head in Tamil Nadu, in the region of Vellore, Tiruppathur, and Dharmapuri, it took the sagacity of the then Chief Minister M G Ramachandran (MGR) to give a free hand to then Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Walter Devaram to deal with the growing insurgency. Devaram was an Army soldier and had cracked the Indian Police Service (IPS) exams with flying colours to slide in the role of a lifetime.

MGR named the task, ‘Operation Ajanta’, after Police Inspector Palanisamy’s six years old daughter, Ajanta. Inspector Palanisamy and two head constables of Tamil Nadu Special Police were killed in a Naxal bomb attack in August 1980, setting the stage for decisive action against Naxalism. Walter Devaram is hugely responsible for having successfully exterminated the menace and driven any remnants out of the State. Many movies have been made on his heroics… and he is Legend!

The idea of Naxalism is a lost cause, with rapid development, industrialisation, progress happening all across India, and citizens fortified with better laws. However, sensitive regions endowed with natural resources have to be tackled in a meaningful manner, with least possible disruption and dislocation of native people living in these regions. Attacking the State and the Indian Republic-its Law-keepers and makers-is unacceptable and must be dealt with an iron hand.

A Helicopter in Mars

America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had successfully landed its Perseverance Rover on Planet Mars, on 18th February, with the mini-helicopter, Ingenuity, neatly tucked underneath its belly. It has been sight-seeing in Mars all these days, and finally on 4th April, it gently dropped Ingenuity on the surface of Mars to prepare for the first ever man-made helicopter flight on Mars. Ingenuity is carrying a small piece of cloth that once covered one of the wings of the Wright Brothers’ aircraft which achieved the first powered flight on Earth at Kitty Hawk in 1903, to pay tribute to that milestone.

Like a butterfly would dry its wings, soon after emerging from the cocoon, and shake-it up to allow the blood run, before taking its first flight, Ingenuity is following in these small butterfly steps to take the giant leap of its first flight. Ingenuity’s solar panels and systems would also be cranked-up in the coming days, besides getting used to the Martian atmosphere, and NASA is planning the helicopter show before 11th April. The Wright Brothers are on standby, watching closely, somewhere nearby.

Voting in India’s State Assembly Elections

Elections in the States of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Kerala, to elect respective Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) saw a single phase one-day voting happen on the 6th April. Once elected, the majority MLA’s in turn elect one of their own as the Chief Minister of their State.

The door on Election campaigning was slammed at 7pm, on 4th April, and I breathed a sigh of relief over the hum-drum of 36 days of election cacophony. However, this time a lot many issues were brought-up by candidates, in thundering speeches, in their inimitable styles, in addition to the mandatory bursts of emotions with tears wetting cheeks and towels, and some even watering the ground.

I thoroughly enjoyed the voting process, in my place of work, Attur, Tamil Nadu. The Polling Station, a Government Middle-level Municipality School, spotlessly clean, was about 100 steps away from home and I walked over, proudly showing-off my new Voters Identification Card, which arrived only about a week ago – culmination of an online Change-of-Address request. A small crowd had gathered, and Party Workers stationed at a distance were furiously looking to mine mind votes, while an armed Police Guard looked-on, guarding the entrance and sending eye signals to other troops inside.

My wife and I got our fingers inked and casted our votes early at 7.45am following separate Ladies and Gentlemen queues. My queue was miniskirt short and I quickly punched the button of my choice on the Electronic Voting Machine, while my wife’s queue was longer than a sari, and she took time to find and hook that button.

The central, open-to-the-atmosphere courtyard of the school had an umbrella of flame-of-the forest trees shading us from the cruel summer, with a gentle breeze singing a lullaby. And I lingered a while longer allowing Wordsworthian beauty to sink-in. I wished I could vote more often: even become an Election Poet.

Maybe, 105 years old Marappa Gounder, a farmer from Karupparayanpalayam in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, heard me-he had about the same thoughts walking through his mind. He has voted without-break in all State Assembly elections since the creation of Tamil Nadu State. On voting day he walks down to the Polling Booth, which is near his Home and casts his vote, urging people to vote for those who do good for the people. What a fine example he is setting, of exercising one’s democratic rights through the voting process!

Considering the pandemic times, voting was thrown open between 7am and 7pm.

It is a dampener that the results will be known only on 2nd May with counting to be taken up on that day. I wish they could count sooner. But with Elections being simultaneously held in many States, the thinking was that the results of one could influence the outcome of another.

COVID-19 to 22?

India is in the throes of a second wave of coronavirus infections and looking back at the same month of the year 2020 it appears worser, with over 1,40,000 cases per day and climbing steeply-almost vertical.

The rate of increase in cases is the worst India has seen and it’s not even peaked, as yet. This is concerning, as more variants could develop and further affect the trajectory of this pandemic.

Tracking the vaccination campaign across the world, more than 726 million shots have been given across 154 countries at a rate of about 17 million doses per day.

India has administered near about 94.3 million vaccine doses till date.

I had my first vaccine shot last Saturday and through Sunday I could feel my body rising-up to the challenge of a possible invader!

More of ‘less frightening’ and hopefully less forceful stories coming up in the weeks ahead.

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!

Everywhere

Born in China

The Canada Dig

America’s Colours: Black & White

French Open: Closed Minds

Hacking: Pipelines and Meat

A Prime Minister Marries

WHO goes Greek

India Gets on Top – One More Time

Please Yourself: The Sound of Olivia

Everywhere

‘Plain’ State Hijacking

Myanmar Paralysis

Samoa: Democracy in a Tent

Enter The Devil

India Fights Back

Please Yourself

Eurovision

Designated Survivor

Everywhere

Miss Universe

Israel and the militant Hamas

The Mouse Down Under – Need Pied Piper Services?

A Pandemic Tour of Seychelles

Cyclone Tauktae

India and the Coronavirus

Please Yourself

Everywhere

Oh, Jerusalem!

Rocketing back to Earth

The Sounds on Mars

Truly married-and fused-for Life: Glorious & Wonderful

This Pandemic Could Have Been Prevented

Fighting the Virus in India

Everywhere

Bill Gates and The Ramayana

Population Explosion

A Spring Revolution

I’ll be Back: What Goes Up must Come Down?

India’s State Elections and the Results

The Outbreak In India

Everywhere

Oscars@93

The Storm in India: Staying Alive

Everywhere

Wright Brothers Moment on Mars

Black & White in America-I can’t breathe.

Second Waves

Oxygen for the Masses

A Comedian Takes Away our Laughs for a few Days

Please Yourself: Apple’s AirTag

Everywhere

The Guns of the United States of America (USA)

A Full-Blown Conflict: A Failed State?

Jallianwala Bagh and Ram Mohammad Singh Azad

Freebies

Ingenuity: Still Trying to Fly

The Pandemic’s Second Wave in India

Stealing Giant Rabbits

Growing Brains at Will

Please Yourself: Dynamite

Everywhere

Move on: A new Force of Nature is here

Belfast, Belfast

A Pillar Falls

Beauty and the Beast

India’s Naxalite Challenge

A Helicopter in Mars

Voting in India’s State Assembly Elections

COVID-19 to 22?

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