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, 2023-50

About: the world this week, 10 December to 16 December 2023; the United Nations tries for a cease-fire; India’s new State Chief Ministers; Jammu & Kashmir; and smoke in India’s Parliament.

Everywhere

The United Nations, Israel, and America

Late last week, the United Nations (UN) Security Council met to discuss and pass an immediate, cease-fire Resolution in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. The Security Council consists of 5 permanent members, and 10 non-permanent (elected for a two-year term by the UN’s General Assembly) members. Only the permanent members have a veto, and for a resolution to be adopted all permanent members must vote in agreement. And a Resolution passed by the Security Council is binding.

The meeting was convened after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter which says, he may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.

The Security Council failed to adopt the cease-fire Resolution, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, due to a veto by the United States, following a debate earlier in the day. Thirteen Security Council members voted in favour while the United Kingdom abstained.

The US told the UN Security Council: “We do not support this resolution’s call for an unsustainable ceasefire that will only plant the seeds for the next war.”

The US and Israel opposed the ceasefire, saying it would only benefit Hamas, which Israel has vowed to annihilate in response to the deadly 7th October cross-border massacre of Israeli civilians.

Later, the United Nations, while still trying to build a consensus, adopted a non-binding resolution in the General Assembly: 153 votes for to 10 against, with 23 abstentions, to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. The same vote in October had got 120 for, 12 against, and 45 abstentions.

More than 17,700 Palestinians have been killed during the latest Israel-Hamas war. And as humanitarian concerns continue to rise, Israel and Hamas do not appear any closer to resolving the conflict than they were at the start.

Meanwhile, in America, over last weekend, University of Pennsylvania (Upenn) President, Liz Magill resigned. It comes almost a week after she, along with the Presidents of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), participated in a congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses. And was unable to confirm that, ‘calling for the genocide of Jews’ would violate University policies on bullying or harassment. Harvard has said its President will not step-down, on account of this testimony. MIT is still thinking.

India’s New State Chief Ministers

This week, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rolled-out its choice of Chief Ministers (CM) for the three States it overwhelmingly won when votes were counted and results declared last week.

In the State of Chhattisgarh, the BJP picked Vishnu Deo Sai, 59, a prominent tribal leader, as the next CM: he was elected as leader of the BJP’s legislative party. Sai comes from a family of former Jan Sangh -a precursor to the BJP- leaders, where two elder brothers of his father were MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly). He started his political career as a village Sarpanch and rose to become Union Minister – Minister of State Steel & Mines – in an earlier BJP Government. He is a four-time Lok Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) and also the Chhattisgarh BJP President for about 4 years.

In the State of Madhya Pradesh, the BJP chose Mohan Yadav, 48, the Ujjain South MLA, as Chief Minister. The BJP legislature party elected him to replace Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the four-time outgoing CM. Mohan is a three-time MLA and worked as the Higher Education Minister in the outgoing Government. The party also named two Deputy Chief Ministers, Jagdish Devda, and Rajendra Shukla – the first time the State has such a combination.

Then, as if two surprises weren’t enough, the BJP came-up with a third: choosing first-time MLA, Bhajan Lal Sharma, 55, as Rajasthan’s next Chief Minister, ending days of speculation.

Bhajan Lal worked as the General Secretary of the BJP Rajasthan Unit, for four consecutive terms. In the year 2003, he contested the Assembly Elections for the first time from Nadbhai, Rajasthan. However, he finished fifth and lost his deposit with a vote share of 6.28%. This time, he won from the Sanganer Constituency. Diya Kumari, a member of the Jaipur royal family, and Prem Chand Bairwa were added as Deputy Chief Ministers in Rajasthan – in this surprising new CM + 2 Deputies ‘combo-offer’ of the BJP.

Jammu & Kashmir

The State of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) has a deep troubled history going back to the time of India’s independence. In August 1947, the British partitioned India into the present-day India, and Pakistan, on religious lines – Hindu and Muslim respectively – before handing over governance and leaving. Freedom, it was, from colonial rule of 89 years, which began in the year 1858.

India, at that time, consisted of 562 Princely States, which had to be brought under the Indian Union by signing an Instrument of Accession-voluntarily, by a polite nudge, tough coercion, or even brute force. It was a Himalayan task successfully and deftly accomplished by the unforgettable ‘Iron Man of India’, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and his Home Ministry team.

The State of Jammu & Kashmir had a majority Muslim population and was ruled by a Hindu King, Maharaja Hari Singh. There was a tussle between India and Pakistan for possession of this State, and finally, after initial dithering, the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession to India on 26 October 1947-making it a part of India. The Maharaja was hesitant to join any side, had ‘independent’ ideas, and signed only after Pashtun tribals, aided by Pakistan, invaded J&K and India agreed to help on the condition of accession. The Schedule appended to the Instrument of Accession clearly gave the Indian Parliament power to legislate for J&K on only three subjects – defence, external affairs, and communications.

Later, when the Constitution of India was written and came into force on 26 January 1950, Jammu & Kashmir was mostly exempted from the Indian Constitution – by Article 370, which was a ‘temporary provision’ that provided special status to the State.

J&K was allowed a Constituent Assembly for framing its constitution and restricting the legislative authority of the Indian Parliament. And the future of the State was to be determined by a ‘reference to the people’. Temporary also meant that except Article 1, which declared India as a ‘Union of States’, and Article 370 itself, no part of the Indian Constitution would apply to J&K. Article 370 itself could not be amended or repealed—unless the Constituent Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir consented.

After a five-year process, on 17th November 1956, the Constitution of J&K was made and adopted with a declaration: ‘The State of Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India’. On the same day, having completed its task, the Constituent Assembly of J&K dissolved itself.

Over the years there was unusual, persisting violence in J&K, mostly ‘angry’ Pakistan sponsored terrorism from across the border and supported by parties inside J&K, enjoying the special status. And a portion of J&K was occupied by Pakistan-Pakistan Occupied Kashmir(POK)-which India could not get back despite a War. India had to settle with a ‘temporary’, Line Of Control (LOC) drawn by the United Nations, which was called to resolve. The UN also passed a Resolution that Pakistan must vacate POK, which was never implemented. The Indian Army had a permanent presence in the State due to the volatile situation.

The present Indian Government embarked on a mission to get the bits and pieces of J&K’s history together. It had to navigate a minefield of officialese in documentation and interpretation, to fully integrate it with India, and pushed hard for a solution, culminating in Jammu & Kashmir’s complete integration with India in 2019. And its actions were legally approved by the highest court of India, this week, this year.

On 5 August 2019, the Government revoked the 70-year-old special status, or autonomy, granted to J&K under Article 370, bringing it into the fold of mainstream India, just like any other State. Jammu & Kashmir no longer has its own Constitution, flag, or anthem, or its people provided dual citizenship, as a result of the repeal of Article 370. J&K now abides by all legislation made by India’s Parliament. This was a decisive action by the Government, which no other Government attempted, or could not do, since India’s Independence.

On 6 August 2019, The President of India formally issued an order under the power of Article 370, overriding prevailing Orders and nullifying all the provisions of autonomy granted to J&K. The Home Minister introduced a Reorganisation Bill in Parliament, to divide J&K into two union territories to be governed by a Lieutenant Governor and a unicameral legislature. The resolution seeking the abrogation of Article 370 and the bill for the state’s reorganisation was debated and passed by both Houses of Parliament -Rajya Sabha, the upper house, and the Lok Sabha, the lower house – in August 2019. The original State of Jammu & Kashmir was divided into two Union Territories: Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh. That is how it stays today.

The Government’s decision was challenged by Parties opposed to the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of J&K, in the Supreme Court (SC) of India. This week, the SC, after hearing arguments, pronounced its verdict – a historic one – to complete the last remaining unfinished business of partition and legalise the Government’s actions. There is no going back.

The SC unanimously upheld the Government’s 2019 decisions to scrap the special status for Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370, and also approved bi-furcation of J&K. The question of relegating J&K to the status of a Union Territory was left for another discussion, as the Centre has promised to restore its statehood as soon as possible.

The five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud held that the President’s exercise of power under Article 370(3) to abrogate this Article was not mala-fide; that Article 370 was meant for constitutional integration and not for the disintegration of J&K with the Union of India; that the Article was temporary in nature, and that there was no need to hold consultations or collaborate with the elected Government of J&K before ceasing its operation; and that J&K didn’t retain any element of sovereignty when it joined the Union of India.

I’m glad the Supreme Court approached the complex issue in a clear Top-Down manner: Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India – last words by its now dead Constituent Assembly. All other word-play, Articles, procedural aspects, and other angles, in which this could have been done, does not matter, and at best is a subject of academic discussion.

Smoke in the Eyes

It was on 13 December 2001, when India’s Parliament came under a sudden and unexpected terrorist attack. Five armed terrorists drove their vehicle into the Parliament premises and began shooting, resulting in the deaths of six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel, and a gardener. All the five terrorists were killed by security forces. No lawmakers were hurt.

This year, on 13th December, on the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 Parliament Attack, the New Delhi weather was getting awfully cold with the onset of winter. And Parliament was in session in a spanking new Parliament building, with state-of-the-art infrastructure and security. It was a business as usual day. All was quiet on the Parliament front.

Then suddenly inside Parliament two people jumped into the well of the Lok Sabha from the Visitors Gallery, armed with yellow coloured smoke canisters, which they set-off. Meanwhile, outside Parliament two others began chanting slogans after releasing red coloured smoke from similar canisters. The canisters used were over-the-counter colour smoke release canisters, often used in Indian festivals.

The two – one could be seen monkey jumping over the desks – inside were quickly subdued, bashed-up, and manhandled by muscular Members of Parliament and handed over to the Security staff. The two outside were promptly arrested and led away by Police.

The stunning breach of an iron-clad Parliament security system took some time to sink-in, even while the yellow smoke, inside, and the red smoke, outside, settled down and dissolved in the much polluted New Delhi air.

The investigations began at a fantastic speed and the Police began knocking doors across the country. It came to light that an almost pan-India Facebook Group called the ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Club’ had been working on the plan for about a year, timed with the anniversary of Parliament Attack. And the plan to breach parliament security began with obtaining Parliament Visitors Passes – in this instance issued by the ruling BJP’s Member of Parliament from Mysuru, Karnataka. Looks like the motive of the Group was to highlight the unemployment problem in the country, inspired by Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara. At lease one of the Group had done a recce during the Budget Session of Parliament, when they learnt that security personnel did not not ask visitors to take off their shoes or check them. The smoke canisters were cleverly hidden in specially-made thick-soled shoes.

The members of the Group: Manoranjan from Mysuru, Sagar Sharma from Lucknow, Neelam Azad from Haryana, Amol Shinde from Maharashtra, and the believed-to-be kingpin Lalit Jha, a Teacher from Bihar, arrived in Delhi by separate means, and were hosted by one of their associates, Vikram and his wife, in Gurugram, early in the week. On the day of the episode, Sagar collected the passes from the MP’s Office and the Group – except Vikram – met at India Gate. Amol handed over one canister to each member. All of them then deposited their mobiles with Lalit Jha, before the intrusion. He fled the Parliament area soon after, when a man-hunt was launched to nab him.

In the middle of the week, Lalit Jha was arrested after he turned himself in at Kartavya Path, New Delhi, accompanied by another key suspect, Mahesh Kumawat.

The array of slogans bellowed by the Group, Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Long live mother India), Jai Bheem (Victory to Ambedkar), Tanashahi Nahin Chalegi (Dictatorship does not work), have been battle cries of diverse groups who have been often at odds with each other. And the slogans do not follow any particular pattern. Details are awaited on the actual motive and the real persons behind the Group.

The sensational episode has exposed loop-holes in what is claimed to be one of the strongest security arrangements in the country. Whatever, this should serve as yet another wake-up call for security agencies.

More sensational stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Keep the smoke out of your eyes and stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-49

About: the world this week, 3 December to 9 December 2023; Depends on context antisemitism; Ukrainian Sniper; new Woman Chess Grandmaster; India State Election results; Chennai underwater; TIME’s person, athlete, and CEO of the year.

Everywhere

Last week, the temporary halt in the Hamas-Israel War was just that and Israel got back to raining its fire-power on Gaza. There are still 138 hostages – including men, woman, and children in the captivity of Hamas.

Meanwhile, every day, new heart-wrenching details of the savagery of Hamas was made public by Israel based on reports of the released hostages. And the stories of barbarism is blood-curling and horrific. Can humans ever do this to another of their kind?

Israel is now expanding its military operations to the South of Gaza and has also come up with a plan to flood the Hamas’ underground tunnels with sea-water pumped from the Mediterranean Sea, so that the Hamas rats would emerge from their holes.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have stormed into the City of Khan Younis and are now operating in the heart of the City. It’s mostly house-to-house combat at this stage. The IDF has surrounded the house of Yahya Sinwar – the Leader of Hamas in Gaza – believed to the mastermind behind the 7th October attack on Israel. It’s a matter of time that they flush him out.

On Thursday the sea-water did its work and about 100 terrorist rats were caught, stripped down to their briefs (to prevent a show of any suicide vests) and taken way for ‘grilling’ and imprisonment.

Over 1200 people have been killed since the resumption of fighting.

‘Depends on the Context’

This week, the Presidents of America’s Ivy League Universities, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Pennsylvania (Upenn) spoke before America’s Congress. They were given one simple question to answer, “Does calling for genocide of Jews break the University code of conduct, and is it considered harassment?” It should have been a simple ‘Yes’. Instead, they said it ‘Depends on the Context’ and it depends on whether the speech turns into conduct. This damning reply caused a huge uproar and brought forth outright condemnation from America’s Leaders, across fields. Their failed moral leadership has led to moral decay of University campus culture. And these antisemitic incidents are seen as not just a mere anomaly.

There is a severe call for President Claudine Gay(Harvard), President Sally Kornbluth (MIT), and President Elizabeth Magill (Upenn) to resign, or be fired from their positions. Or does it depend on the context?

Ukrainian Sniper

The Ukrainian Sniper had lain still for hours in near freezing temperatures when the command came to take the shot at a Russian soldier almost 4 kilometres away. ‘You can’, his Spotter said, and Vyacheslav Kovalskiy, 58, pulled the trigger. The rest, they say, is history.

The bullet took about nine seconds to reach its target – the Russian soldier doubled down and fell. Ukraine said the shot set a new sniping distance record, breaking the previously acknowledged mark by more than 850 feet.

The record was also a shot heard around the world of snipers, group of highly skilled shooters who have long pushed the boundaries of just how far a bullet can travel with accuracy.

This is also a morale boost shot for Ukrainian forces, fighting to hold their ground against the invading Russians. Distances can kill.

Chess Grandmaster (GM)

The young Indian Chess prodigy, GM, Rameshbabu Praggnanaandhaa,18, has been all over the news in recent times and his elder sister was feeling left out. Then she must have decided ‘enough is enough’ and late last week, the sister – Vaishali Rameshbabu – became India’s third woman Chess Grandmaster. She achieved this with two consecutive victories at the Ellobregat Open Chess Tournament in Spain, which made her ride past the 2500 mark ‘Elo rating’ to become GM.

She said, “For many years I was living as Prag’s (Praggnanaandhaa) sister. Now slowly, I think it’s getting to Vaishali. I am very proud of being Prag’s sister, but I also want my name. I think I would like to be remembered as one of India’s greatest Woman Chess Players”. Prag became GM in 2018 at the age of 12 – the second youngest at the time to achieve this.

Vaishali’s inspiration has been the first and second Indian Woman GM’s before her, Humpy and Harika. Koneru Humpy is the world’s youngest female player to become GM, in 2002, at the age of just 15. Harika Dronavalli became GM in 2011. And there are about 80 Indian players, in total, who became GM’s, and are in the same league.

Vaishali and Prag also become the first-ever brother-sister duo in the history of chess to be GMs. Also the first time that we will see a brother and sister playing together as candidates. This will happen in April 2024.

What is the ‘Elo rating’?

The Elo rating system measures the relative strength of a player in games such as Chess compared to other players. Its creator Arpad Elo was a Physics Professor in the United States (US) and a Chess Master who worked to improve the way the US Chess Federation measured player’s skill levels. Each player’s Elo rating is represented by a number that reflects that person’s results in the previous rated games. After each game, their ratings are adjusted accordingly to the outcome of the encounter. As a general rule of thumb a player who is rated 100 points higher than his opponent is expected to win roughly five out of eight (64%) games. A player with a 200 point advantage will presumably win 3 out of 4 (75%) games. Most Grandmasters have a Elo rating of between 2500 and 2700. International Masters have between 2499 and 2400.

The Elo rating system was officially adopted by the US Chess Federation in 1960 and by FIDE (The International Chess Federation) in 1970. World Champion, GM Magnus Carlesn holds the record for the highest Elo rating ever achieved by a human player. He reached an impressive 2882 in the year 2014.

India Election Results

Counting of votes for seats in the Elections to the State Legislative Assembly of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Chhatissgarh, and Telangana took place on Sunday, and it was a cool, thumping win for the Bharatia Janata Party (BJP). Most of the Exit Polls were off-target and at best they could sense the direction the wind was blowing. India’s grand old party, The Congress, won in the State of Telangana where the BJP, which was not expected to win, put up a good show, made inroads, and improved its seats from 1 to 8. The emphatic wins were also an affirmation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hold on the electorate. And he is hoping to see his party, the BJP, win a third consecutive term in the parliamentary Elections coming-up in 2024.

In Chhattisgarh out of the 90 seats, the BJP won 54 and the Congress 35; in MP out of 230, the BJP won a historic never-before 163 against the Congress’ 66; In Rajasthan out of 199 the BJP won 115 to the Congress’ 69. In Telangana the Congress won 64 out of 119 with the local Party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) winning 39 and the BJP 8. The BRS was in power for a decade, since the formation of the new State of Telangana, and had grown arrogant and corrupt – shown the door by the people.

The counting in the State of Mizoram happen on Monday and a local party Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) won a spectacular mandate of 27 out of 40 seats becoming a party other than the Congress (1) or the BJP (2) set to form the Government. Its Leader Lalduhoma is an ex-Indian Police Force (IPS) officer and served as security-in-charge of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1982.

He then quit the IPS and became a Congress Party Member of Parliament (MP) in 1984. He later, resigned from Congress and became the first MP to be disqualified under the anti-defection law in November 1988. Lalduhoma played an active role in ending the insurgency in Mizoram, which paved the way for the signing of the Mizoram Peace Accord in 1986. He later formed the Mizo National Front (Nationalist) which was renamed Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) in 1997. In 2003, he won the assembly polls as a ZNP candidate. And later went on to form the ZPM as an alternative to the Congress and the Mizo National Front (MNF), which between them, always ruled the State of Mizoram.

Congress’ Revanth Reddy took oath as Chief Minister(CM) of Telangana on the 7th December and so did Lalduhoma in Mizoram. The other States are still to produce their CMs.

The Chennai Deluge

Cyclone Michaung originated as a low-pressure area in the Gulf of Thailand and crossed into the Bay of Bengal becoming a deep depression on 2nd December. It then developed into a cyclonic storm and was named Michaung (pronounced ‘Migjaum), which means ‘strength and resilience’. The name was suggested by Myanmar and named by the World Meteorological Organization.

This week, Cyclone Michaung found its strength and resilience wrecking havoc in Chennai, floating the city and challenging the storm water drain works done to prevent such kind of flooding. Areas were inundated with water and the wrath of the Cyclone knew no bounds, submerging homes, and drowning cars.

As heavy rains brought the city of Chennai to a crying halt, ahead of Cyclone Michaung’s landfall the rainfall was called historic and unprecedented, a 47-year high. This is said almost every year, with the previous one being left behind in all aspects. The rainfall, surpassed the figures of 2015, when intense floods had claimed 199 lives. This time Chennai received 44 centimetres (cm) of rain in Perungudi area and 43 cm at Meenambakkam in just 36 hours.

Chennai’s Southern suburbs were most affected with more than 1000 people evacuated from their homes in Pallikaranai, Perungudi, Thoraipakkam, and Sholinganallur. They struggled under 5 feet of water on day 3.

India’s Prime Minister, who is the head of the National Disaster Management Authority (NMDA), was quick to sanction INR 561.29 crore under the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) for India’s first urban mitigation project focussing on Chennai. And represents a proactive measure to address challenges posed by urban flooding and enhance Chennai’s resilience to natural disasters.

Meanwhile, boats were playing on the roads with food and essentials being delivered to people caught in the waters. It would take a few days for the flood-water to recede and then the State Government is expected to be taken to task and face tough questions.

TIME Magazine’s Athlete, Person, and CEO of the Year

This week, Argentina’s Football Captain, Lionel Messi, 36, was named as TIME’s 2023 Athlete of the Year. Messi played a star role in Argentina winning their first World Cup title in 36 years when they beat defending champions France in the final in December last year. Messi also won the Ballon d’Or for a record-extending eighth time.

Messi wins the TIME award for the football influence he has brought over to the United State (US) since joining Inter Miami and elevating the profile of the sport in the US

Lionel Messi had no shortage of offers when he left Paris St Germain earlier this year, choosing to sign for Major League Soccer (MLS) Inter Miami despite being linked with his former team Barcelona and a big-money move to Saudi Arabia’s side Al-Hilal. Messi shocked the globe by turning down a contract from a Saudi club reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year and announcing in June that he was signing with Inter Miami.

It wasn’t just the move that was stunning, but the size and scope of the deal. In addition to the more than USD 20 million a year Inter Miami would pay him, he would be granted an ownership stake in the team upon retirement and an unprecedented cut of revenues earned by a league media partner—in this case, Apple. It was a deal that not only reflected Messi’s undiminished talent on the field but also set a new standard for athlete leverage and empowerment.

Messi wearing a pink Inter Miami jersey made an instant impact at Miami, scoring 10 goals in seven Leagues Cup appearances as he spurred them to victory in the tournament which features MLS teams as well as sides from Mexico.

Messi’s arrival in the US also made waves off the pitch, causing a massive spike in searches for match dates and tickets to see him in action, with fans also buying up his official pink Inter Miami shirt. The price of tickets to Inter Miami games skyrocketed, while Apple TV, which has a 10-year partnership with the MLS, saw a significant increase in subscriptions.

TIME said, “Messi managed to do what once seemed impossible: turning the US into a soccer country.”

His games took on the feel of a religious revival. After Messi scored a goal against the New York Red Bulls in August, rapper Fat Joe posted on Instagram a video of himself, nearly in tears, shouting “Messi! Messi! Messi!”

TIME has chosen American Singer-Songwriter, Taylor Swift as Person of the Year, and OpenAI CEO since 2019, Sam Altman as CEO of the Year.

Taylor Swift’s, The Eras Tour – now made into a film – occupied much of this year 2023. It began in Glendale, Arizona in March 2023, and is set to conclude in 2024. Each show spans three and a half hours, with a set list of 44 songs divided into 10 distinct acts that conceptually portray Swift’s ten studio albums. The tour was a commercial success and received critical acclaim. It became a cultural and economic phenomenon, bolstered by globally unprecedented ticket demand and fan frenzy.

TIME has this to write , “While her popularity has grown across the decades, this is the year that Swift,33, achieved a kind of nuclear fusion: shooting art and commerce together to release an energy of historic force”.

Taylor Swift beat Barbie and King Charles-III to the title.

I have written about Sam Altman in last week’s post World Inthavaaram – 48.

https://kumargovindan.com/2023/12/02/world-inthavaaram-2023-48/

The Person of the Year, Athlete of the year, and CEO of the year, reflects TIME’s assessment of the individuals who most shaped the headlines over the previous twelve months, for better or for worse.

More timely stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Lift yourself with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-48

About: the world this week, 26 November to 2 December 2023; back to war; trouble in Ireland; artificial intelligence; rat-hole mining; Hindutva; and The Railway Men – TV series.

Everywhere

Farewell to Truce

The temporary pause in the Israel-Hamas war saw a steady stream of hostages, held by the terrorist Hamas, being releasing in painfully slow bursts, every day. In exchange, Israel also released Palestine prisoners held in its prisons. There cannot be a comparison between innocent civilians kidnapped, held in captivity and exchanged for convicted criminals locked-up in jails under the law. But then the terms are negotiated.

One of the released hostages revealed that he was held for nearly 50 days in an attic by a teacher from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees. The teacher who held him captive was a father of 10 children. He had barely been provided food or medical attention, and was locked away by the teacher. There is another story of a girl who was injured while being kidnapped on 7th October and was operated upon by a Veterinary Doctor, while in captivity. Then there is the story of two boys being branded on the leg by the heat of a motorcycle exhaust pipe so that they could be identified in case they escaped.

The hostages held in captivity has come down from 240 to about 140. And most of the women, children, and elderly have been released.

Meanwhile, Businessman, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X, Elon Musk toured Israel with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to see a Hamas attack site, first-hand. The visit was also probably to set-right antisemitism accusations on Musk.

Musk agreed with Netanyahu that the only way for peace was to destroy Hamas, re-educate the people of Gaza, and bring prosperity. An awfully tough call.

In a horrific incident of terror in Jerusalem this Thursday, two heavily armed Palestinian terrorists opened fire on Israeli civilians waiting at a Bus Stop, killing three people – a 24 year old woman and two elderly persons – and wounding several others. However, the terrorists were quickly neutralised, shot-dead, by off-duty Israel Army personnel in the vicinity. Later, Hamas claimed responsibility.

The temporary pause in the war between Israel and Hamas, which was originally for 4 days was extended by 2 days and then by 1 more to its seventh day. And before anybody could think about further extension, Hamas violated the terms of truce and fired a rocket into Israel. Now it’s back to war and Israel has started its next stage of the fight with the objectives of getting back the remaining hostages, wiping out Hamas, and preventing a recurrence of such terror acts from the Gaza Strip.

Dublin

There is trouble brewing in Ireland’s capital, Dublin.

Three young children and two other people were injured in a knife attack in Dublin, last Thursday, which sparked unprecedented riots in the city centre. The stabbing incident happened outside a primary school, on Parnell Square, a busy thoroughfare that connects to Dublin’s main boulevard, O’Connell Street. A five-year-old girl and a female creche worker in her 30’s were critically injured. A five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl were treated for less severe injuries.

Bystanders disarmed the suspect, who wielded a large knife, and pinned him to the ground until police arrived. He is being treated in hospital. Police said the motive remained unclear but ruled out any terrorist link.

As speculation about the suspect’s nationality spread online, anti-immigrant activists flocked to the city centre.

The suspect is originally from Algeria and has been an Irish citizen for many years. And the man who intervened and stopped the attack was a foreigner, from Brazil. Despite this, the anti-immigration rhetoric became high and grew violent. Bolstered by youth gangs, they breached the police cordon around the crime scene and roamed O’Connell Street, smashing windows, setting vehicles on fire and targeting some of the 400 police officers who tried to restore order.

“These are scenes that we have not seen in decades. But what is clear is that people have been radicalised through social media”, said an Official, who further described the rioters as, ‘a complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology.’

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The company called OpenAI was founded in the year 2015 by American Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others, as a non-profit research lab, prioritising principles over profit. It wanted to develop safe and beneficial AI tools, for the benefit of humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to create financial return.

But in 2018, Elon Musk quit the Board of OpenAI after he said he had already invested USD 50 million. Then AI’s leaders realised that developing and maintaining advanced AI models required an immense amount of computing power, which was incredibly expensive.

A year after Musk’s exit, OpenAI created a ‘for-profit arm’, technically known as a ‘capped profit’ entity, which means Investors’ possible profits are capped at a certain amount. Any the remaining money is re-invested in the Company.

The Company created two contrasting tribes within OpenAI: ‘the serve-humanity and not-shareholders credo’, and the traditional Silicon Valley modus operandi of ‘using investor money to release consumer products as rapidly as possible hoping to corner or create a new market and becoming an industry pace setter’.

Sam Altman struck a middle ground by unveiling new OpenAI tools gradually, first to smaller groups, then to large ones, to fine-tune and refine before making them public.

Then, OpenAI launched ChatGPT last year, creating a seismic shift in the tech industry. The Company’s most prominent investor Microsoft greatly increased its financial stake to the tune of USD 13 billion. And despite its sizeable investment it did not have a seat on OpenAI’s Board.

This probably set the stage for Sam Altman’s exit as CEO as he was seen as becoming bigger than the Company. On 17th November the Board sacked him on vague reasons. This saw Microsoft and others flare up as they believed that Sam Altman was crucial and called upon the Board to re-examine its decision.

At first the Board refused to buckle, but then 702 of the 770 employees of OpenAI signed a letter addressed to the Board threatening to quit en masse unless Altman were reinstated -a move that must be followed by the Board itself stepping down.

After 5 days Sam Altman was restored as CEO and was back in control, with most of the Board sent packing.

Turns out some Open AI researches had been concerned by the capability of a new AI model being worked on, before Altman was fired. Called ‘Q-Star’ which was able to solve maths problems it had not seen before, representing a potential break through in technology. This and other reasons of the famous ‘Facebook’ kind could be the reasons for the company Board trying to grow out of its skin and get ‘really intelligent’.

Extraction: the Rat-Hole Technique

With the best of technology machines brought from all over the world to rescue the 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara Tunnel on the Yamunotri-Gangotri Highway of the Char Dham, in Uttarakhand since 12th November having failed, it was finally left to simple ‘rat-hole miners’ to finish the job. Of course they rode on the shoulders of machines and technology that drilled before them.

A team of 12 rat-hole mining experts began manual drilling, on 27th November, to reach the trapped miners through the debris. And they did it the next day by horizontally drilling through the final 10 to 12 metre stretch of debris in the collapsed section of the tunnel. It was a stunning display of local ingenuity. This became necessary as the large Auger Drilling machine got stuck at about 40% of the necessary 86 metres of vertical drilling required to get to the trapped workers.

The rescue team then successfully pushed a series of 900 mm steel pipes through the 60 metres of debris and extracted the workers one-by-one. All the 41 workers were rescued on the night of 28th November, promptly given necessary medical attention, and driven off in waiting Ambulances.

We had these tricks up our sleeves, in India, all the time and wonder why we never used them the first instance. Interestingly, Rat-Hole Mining was outlawed by India’s National Green Tribunal in 2014 for being unscientific and unsafe.

What is Rat-Hole Mining?

Rat-Hole mining-as applied in coal mining-is a method of extracting coal by digging very small pits not more than 4-feet wide. Once the miners reach a coal seam, tunnels are made sideways to extract the coal, which is dumped nearby and later transported out. In rat-hole mining workers enter the mines and use hand held tools to dig. This is a common method abundantly used in India’s north eastern State of Meghalaya, where the coal seam is very thin and any other method risks being economically unviable. One man does the drilling while another collects the rubble and a third places it on a trolley to be pulled out. They use shovels and other specialist tools. And for oxygen, they simply use a blower.

Australian tunnel rescue expert Arnold Dix, who had rushed to the scene in the early stages, won praise for his optimistic, level-headed, and articulate approach to the rescue situation. And so did India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) – headed by the Prime Minister. India’s former Chief of Army Staff, General V K Singh, now a Minister of State in the Government, was on the scene bringing out the best of his soldier training. And standing shoulder to shoulder was the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand State, Pushkar Singh Dhami.

Arnold Dix, a lawyer and engineering professor is also the President of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association. He said he did not hesitate when authorities got on the phone with him after the collapse 17 days ago.

Overall, the Uttarakhand Tunnel Rescue has been an outstandingly well-coordinated rescue operation. Clarity of leadership ensured many agencies with overlapping capabilities worked seamlessly to rescue the trapped workers. Well done Team India.

Move over Hinduism, it’s now Hindutva

The World Hindu Congress (WHC) is a global platform for Hindus to connect, share ideas, inspire one another, and impact the common good. It is held once every four years. The inaugural WHC 2014 was held in New Delhi, followed by the second WHC 2018 in Chicago. The third WHC 2023 was held this year in Bangkok,Thailand between 24th and 26th November, with the theme ‘Jayasya Aayatnam Dharmah’, meaning, ‘Dharma, the abode of victory’.

The WHC 2023 adopted a resolution embracing ‘Hindutva’, or ‘Hindu Dharma’, over ‘Hinduism’, stressing that these terms should be used while referring to the faith in English. Consequently, it renounced the word ‘Hinduism’.

The word Hindutva is more accurate as it includes the spectrum of all that the word Hindu encompasses. In contrast, Hinduism misrepresents the global Hindu community and its inherent goodness; ‘ism’ is a suffix used with terms to define an oppressive and discriminatory attitude or belief. In the mid-nineteenth century, in the United States of America, the phrase, ‘the isms’, was used to collectively refer to radical social reform movements and various non-mainstream spiritual or religious movements in a derogatory manner. The term Hinduism should be understood in such a context.

In the term ‘Hindu Dharma’, the first word, ‘Hindu’ is an unbounded word. It signifies all that is ‘Sanatan’ or Eternal. And then there is Dharma, which means ‘That, which sustains’. Hindu Dharma, thus, signifies all that, which eternally upholds everything; an individual, a family, a community, a society, and even nature–both animate and inanimate.

The word Hindutva it is not a complicated word and it simply means Hindu-ness. And Hindutva has been wrongly portrayed as the antithesis of Hindu Dharma, because of hatred and biases against the Hindu community or for political agendas.

The term Hinduism was introduced in the popular lexicon by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, a British Scholar and Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, in his book ‘Hinduism’ published in 1877 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It is said that this intellectually dishonest terminology is the seed behind the vicious anti-Hindu narratives over the last 150 years. And it is for such reasons that the term Hindutva is now preferred over Hinduism. Others have used the alternative ‘Sanatan Dharma’, often abbreviated as ‘Sanatan’. Here, the term ‘Sanatan’ works as an adjective indicating Hindu Dharma’s eternal nature.

On behalf of the global Hindu community the World Hindu Congress declared that malicious criticism of Hindutva, or Sanatan Dharma, or Sanatan, or Hindu Dharma actually targets Hindu society and all that is beautiful, just, good, and noble in it. In reality, these are attacks against goodness itself. It strongly condemned such attacks and urged Hindus worldwide for the manifestation of Hindutva through organised global efforts, and overcome those who are engaging in such anti-Hindu attacks and bigotry.

News Flashes

In India’s troubled State of Manipur, the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) the oldest valley-based militant group of Manipur, has signed a peace agreement with the Centre. And there are signs that the State will return to normally following months of violent unrest.

This week, Charles Munger, American businessman, investment genius, philanthropist and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway passed away at the age of 99. He is a close friend and right-hand business-partner of ace-investor Warren Buffet. He has timeless investing advice and wisdom to offer, and is considered a legend.

After 99 it is 100, and Henry Kissinger the former United States Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner died at the age of 100. His was a polarising legacy.

Please Yourself

The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984

Over last weekend, I sat down to watch the eminently watchable and brilliantly made 4-Episode mini TV Series, The Railway Men, on Netflix. It is a compelling saga and an incredibly moving tale of ordinary heroism.

The story is inspired by true events that happened on 3 December 1984 when a deadly gas called Methyl Isocyanide (MIC) leaked from Union Carbide’s Chemical Plant in Bhopal in India’s central State of Madhya Pradesh. The gas killed more than 15,000 people, in one of the worst chemical disasters in the world.

The story unfolds in the background of the assassination of the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984, and the horrific Sikh riots that followed in which over 8,000 Sikhs were killed in a revenge act. Rajiv Gandhi had just taken over as Prime Minister and recall that he said, “when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it shakes a little”.

After the deadly gas leak, brave Railway Workers risked their lives to save others in the face of the epic chemical disaster that engulfed the city of Bhopal.

The story serves to tell us how people in Industry deliberately overlook safety, how the Government failed in its paramount duty of safeguarding precious human lives, and failing to act with speed and common sense. And it’s left to simple ordinary people who steadfastedly and heroically do their jobs in the face of unbelievable Himalayan odds, to save lives. And how Indian lives were treated as if they did not matter at all.

The Series stars, Kay Kay Menon- the Station Master at Bhopal; R Madhavan – the General Manager (GM) of the West Central Railway; Divyenndu – the dacoit; and Babil Khan as the trainee locomotive driver, among others. It is created & directed by Shiv Rawali, written by Aayush Gupta, and produced by Yash Raj Films (YRF) Entertainment.

The story is inspired by heroics of real-time Bhopal Station Master Ghulam Dastagir, Rajkumar Keswani – Journalist, and Gauri Sankar- GM of Northern Railway at that time.

More stories will be rat-hole mined in the weeks ahead. Breathe the fresh air with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-47

About: the world this week, 19 November to 25 November 2023; Hostage release; Two fiery far-right Politicians win in Argentina and The Netherlands; Tunnel rescue; World Cup Cricket; and the Emmys.

Everywhere

The Hostage Release Deal

Israel’s Operation Iron Swords fights-on, and this week Israel began unravelling the tunnels beneath the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Video footage showed hostages being dragged into hideouts inside the Hospital, and it’s become a talking point that the United Nations and the Hospital Authorities knew all along that the Hostages were being held in the Hospital. And that there are certain portions of the Hospital that are strictly no-entry zones, with guns and ammunition being stored in them, and a command centre of the terrorist Hamas. But the onus is on Israel to prove it.

Israel on its part, arrested the Director of the Al-Shifa hospital and some Hospital Officials for interrogation and being complicit in allowing Hamas an ‘underground run’ of the Hospital.

During the week, Israel and the terrorist Hamas closed in on a deal to free hostages taken by the latter in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and a temporary truce in the Gaza war. The State of Qatar brokered the deal.

The deal will see the release of 50 women and children hostages held captive in Gaza by Hamas. In exchange, Israel will release 150 Palestine women and children held in Israeli prisons. Most of the Palestinian prisoners listed as eligible for release are male teenagers aged between 16 and 18 and a handful as young as 14, about 33 are women. The names published by Israel also lists the charges under which the prisoners are being held. Throwing stones and ‘harming regional security’ are among the most common, but others include support for illegal terror organisations, illegal weapons charges, incitement, and at least two accusations of attempted murder. Israel is currently holding about 7,000 Palestinians accused or convicted of security offences, according to Israeli and Palestinian rights groups.

The deal includes a complete ceasefire on the ground for four days, with Israel allowed to fly sorties over Northern Gaza for 18 hours a day. The deal also provides for between 100 and 300 trucks of food and medical aid, as well as fuel, to enter Gaza.

The first hostage release is scheduled for Friday morning. The truce will begin at 7 am., local time, with an initial group of 13 civilian hostages set to be released around 4 pm. They will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross and escorted by Israeli soldiers.

As soon as they are out, Israel will release 39 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. If all goes well, this process will be repeated over three more days, until 50 hostages are released in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners, and a substantial increase in aid and fuel for Gaza.

With Hamas and Israel having ‘absolutely no trust between them’ and not seeing eye-to-eye on anything at all, the deal was forged and hammered-in by experienced negotiators in Doha, Qatar.

Late on Friday, the truce held and hostages consisting of 13 Israelis, 10 Thai nationals and 1 Filipino were released in Egypt. And Israel released 39 Palestinian hostages on its part.

Making Argentina Great Again?

Argentina has a new President-elect and a very different one: swashbuckling in fact, with untamed hair that refuses the comb.

He is Javier Milei, a volatile far-right libertarian Politician, an Economist, an Author, who comes fully loaded with radical ideas such as, vowing to ‘exterminate’ inflation; using ‘a chainsaw’ to slash government spending; ‘blowing-up’ the Central Bank; and re-introducing the US dollar as Argentina’s official currency.

Javier Milei, often compared to America’s Donald Trump, secured 55.69% of the vote. Of course, Donald Trump was quick on the draw, congratulating him and saying he would ‘Make Argentina Great Again!’

Milei’s victory sends a clear message: Argentines wanted change, and he was the candidate most likely to deliver. His rise to the top was swift, and he was relatively unknown before winning the primaries back in August this year. But his brash manner, radical campaign proposals, as well as his unruly hairstyle, got the voters to notice him.

In a country mired in economic crisis, where annual inflation is now over 140% and two in five Argentines living in poverty, a drastic new approach to fixing problems is perhaps a clever move. Many Presidents before Milei have tried, and failed, to improve the situation, so there was nothing to lose. The challenge will be how Milei navigates a country in crisis, away from campaign promises, and deals with the reality of trying to improve the situation for millions of Argentines, not making it worse.

Milei is the son of a passenger transport businessman and a homemaker, and his childhood years were marked by a tense relationship with his father. The only family member with whom he has a close relationship is his sister, Karina Milei, who ran his campaign. He calls her ‘the Boss’, and has repeatedly characterised her as the architect of his rise to power.

When Javier Milei was growing up, kids called him ‘The Madman’ because of his energetic outbursts. At the age of 18, Milei, who was then a soccer player, gave up the sport to pursue a career in Economics. He became famous for debates where he would hurl insults at his rivals along with his ‘Madman’ energy.

In an incident in the year 2018, Milei called a journalist ‘a donkey’ and a local court ordered a psychological examination after he refused to apologise for exerting ‘gender violence’.

During his repeated television appearances, Milei didn’t just talk about Economics and Politics: he also delved into his personal life and once presented himself as an expert in tantric sex, openly discussing how he had repeatedly participated in group sex.

Milei hates wokeism, hates socialism, hates the media, hates excessive government spending, hates the political elite… and loves his country.

Javier Milei comes across as a snake-oil salesman who is promising to stare down inflation with drastic libertarian measures. Members of his party have already said they expect the drastic policies will result in massive protests.

The Netherlands

Quick on the heels of Argentina’s swing to the right, the Netherlands followed with its version of a ‘Dutch Trump’ – America’s Donald Trump, flowing hair ‘et al’, is indeed on an aggressive expansionist mode. And the Windmills are spinning.

This week’s General Election results in Netherlands shocked Europe and the world. Dutch voters have thrown their support behind the party of a far-right icon, Geert Wilders,60 years old, causing one of the biggest political upsets in Dutch politics since World War II, and one that is bound to send shockwaves through Europe. The Elections were held on 22 November 2023, for the 150 seated House of Representatives.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), has claimed victory. He is often called the ‘Dutch Trump’ because of his bouffant platinum blonde hair, his firebrand rhetoric, his far-right leanings, and his anti-Islam stance.

With nearly all votes counted, preliminary results saw Wilders take 37 seats with 23.6% of the vote in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, more than double the 17 he won in the previous election. A jubilant Wilders said on the win, “I had to pinch my arm.” The GreenLeft Labour Party alliance (GL/PvdA) led by former EU commissioner Frans Timmermans finished second with 25 seats, 15.5% of the vote, and the liberal-conservative Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) led by the outgoing Justice Minister got 24 seats.

While Wilders’ PVV has come out on top at the polls, he will need the support of ‘many others’ to reach the magic number of 76 to govern the country. And he is wasting no time to stitch-together a coalition. He called on other Dutch parties to work together to form a government stressing that his PVV can no longer be ignored.

In politics since 1988, Wilders founded the PVV – the third-largest party in the Netherlands in 2004, placing anti-Islam policies at the heart of his party. He was initially a member of the VVD, which he later left owing to the party’s mild stance on Islam and immigration. He attributes his profound disregard for Islam to the time he spent in a kibbutz in Israel and also the assassination of the radical anti-Islam film-maker Theo Van Gogh, in 2004.

Wilders was born in 1963 in Southern Venlo, close to the German border, in a Catholic family, and has two brothers and a sister. His mother is half-Indonesian.

While he is known for his hardline politics, Wilders is also known for his pets. His two cats, Snoetje and Pluisje, have their own account on X with nearly 23,000 followers.

The focus of Wilders’ PVV is all things anti-Muslim. His manifesto says, ‘The Netherlands is not an Islamic country. No Islamic schools, Qurans and mosques.’ He proposes banning the headscarf in government buildings. On immigration, he has maintains a sharp anti-immigrant tone. ‘Asylum-seekers feast on delightful free cruise-ship buffets while Dutch families have to cut back on groceries,’ his party’s manifesto reads. And he has proposed immigration measures such as restoring Dutch border control, detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, returning Syrian asylum-seekers and re-introducing work permits for intra-EU workers. On foreign policy, the PVV proposes a ‘Dutch first’ approach that includes closing its representation in Palestine’s Ramallah and strengthening ties to Israel, including moving its Embassy to Jerusalem.

A ‘binding referendum’ on a ‘Nexit’ – the Netherlands leaving the European Union – is also in the manifesto, along with an immediate halt to development aid. Wilders is an outspoken Eurosceptic. He has also demanded the Netherlands stop sending arms to Ukraine.

Geert Wilders has often courted controversy for his opinions and even been convicted for his stance. In the year 2017, he called some Moroccans ‘scum’. “There is a lot of Moroccan scum in Holland who make the streets unsafe,” he had said. “If you want to regain your country, make the Netherlands for the people of the Netherlands again, then you can only vote for one party.” He was convicted in a hate speech trial over his promise to reduce the number of Moroccans in the country. His remarks and stance have made him a victim of death threats, and he has been living under round-the-clock protection for years.

In 2009, the British Government had refused to let him visit the country, saying that he posed a threat to ‘community harmony and therefore public security.’ He had been invited to Britain by a member of the House of Lords, to show his 15-minute film ‘Fitna’, which criticises the Quran as a ‘fascist book’.

Geert Wilders, is very popular in the American far-right circuit. In April 2015, he was invited to speak at the Conservative Opportunity Society, a coalition of right-wing politicians in the United States House of Representatives. “There is no moderate Islam. Islam has changed Europe beyond recognition,” Wilders had told the audience. “Our duty is clear: In order to solve the problem, we have to stop mass immigration to the West from Islamic countries.”

In India, Wilders gained prominence last year when he extended his support to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s, Nupur Sharma, who had received flak for her comments on Prophet Muhammad. Wilders had said that Sharma was speaking “nothing but the truth about Prophet Muhammad and his wife Aisha” and even posted in her defence on X, hailing her as a hero. In one post, he wrote, “Appeasement never works. It will only make things worse. So, my dear friends from India, don’t be intimidated by Islamic countries. Stand up for freedom and be proud and steadfast in defending your politician Nupur Sharma who spoke the truth about Muhammad.”

Tunnel Trap

The 41 workers (updated from 40) trapped in the Silkyara Tunnel on the Yamunotri-Gangotri highway of the Char Dham, in Uttarkhand since 12 November are beginning to see light at the end of their tunnel of suffering.

This week a crucial development in the rescue mission was the successful construction of a 6-inch diameter pipeline through the debris in the collapsed portion of the under-construction tunnel. And in a breakthrough a video was captured using an endoscopic flexi camera sent through a 6-inch pipeline, showing workers in yellow and white helmets receiving food items and speaking to the rescue teams, providing assurance about their well-being. This pipeline facilitated the delivery of food and essential items to the trapped workers, marking a significant progress in the operation.

The rescue operations are being carried out on a war-footing, and it is confirmed that all 41 will be rescued in the next few days. The authorities have kept 41 ambulances, ready at the tunnel site, and facilities are in place to airlift workers in serious condition. The trapped workers will be pulled out on wheeled stretchers one by one through the pipe that is being drilled to reach them. Some of them are expected to crawl out on their own.

World Cup Cricket

This Sunday was pregnant with expectations in every Indian home, that the Indian Cricket Team would win the World Cup given their superb dominating form throughout the tournament – they never lost a match. But then, Australia showed the world how seasoned they were and it appeared that the struggle to stay alive in the tournament provided the strength in their wings for the final flight.

Australia comprehensively defeated India in the World Cup final, first restricting India to a score of 241 in 50 overs – when the famous Indian batting line-up failed to crack the fireworks when it mattered the most.

Australia made a poor start to their batting innings, losing three batsmen for 47 runs inside the first seven overs. And India had the whiff of a win in sight and tails were up! However, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne then built a partnership, adding 192 runs in 36 overs. Australia were within two runs of victory when Travis Head was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj for 137. Glenn Maxwell was the next batsman in, and hit the winning two runs to give Australia a 6-wicket victory.

One of the silent wonders behind the Indian team is Head Coach, Rahul Dravid – The Wall – who brought a calm and authoritative approach to the Indian Team. His influence resulted in India dominating the tournament except for that one bad day in office, in the Finals.

This is Australia’s sixth win – a record that would be hard to beat – and they have lots of lessons to teach India and the others aspiring to hold the World Cup.

Please Yourself

Emmys

The Emmy Awards or Emmys are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit in the American and international Television Industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, and most popular are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards.

This week the ceremony called the 51st International Emmy Awards 2023 was held in New York City and awards announced. The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented the Emmys to television creators and performers from nine countries.

India’s Actor and stand-up comedian Vir Das made it a night to remember, in New York. He was nominated for an International Emmy for the second time for his Netflix special Vir Das: Landing. He was nominated alongside Le Falmbeau, El Encargado and Derry Girls Season-3 in the comedy category. Vir Das won and shared the prize with Derry Girls – Season 3.

Vir Das dives deep into his childhood in India, the perils of outrage and finding his footing in the world of his fourth Netflix stand-up special. Derry Girls – Season 3 is about a group of working-class teenagers coming of age in the 90’s in Northern Ireland.

India’s Amul Brand said it best in its typical special advertisement to mark such occasions, “Our Emmynent Comedian! AMUL wins everyday!” That’s the taste of India.

Vir Das is best known for his stand-up specials and has acted in films such as Delhi Belly, Go Goa Gone, and Shaadi Ke Side Effects.

India’s Ektaa Kapoor was presented the 2023 Directorate Award for her trailblazing career and impact on Indian Television. She is the co-founder of Balaji Telefilms. She received the award from the famous Indian-American author and alternative medicine advocate, Dr. Deepak Chopra.

More stories will be landing here in the weeks ahead. Taste the news, with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-46

About: the world this week, 12 November to 18 November 2023; Israel searching for the hostages; Ukraine-Russia stalemate; British Politics; a Dictator; Trapped in a Tunnel; World Cup Cricket.

Everywhere

Where Are The Hostages?

It’s over 40 days, and 240 Hostages-Men, Women, Children, Babies- of Israel and various other countries are being held by the terrorist Hamas following the barbaric invasion of Israel’s civilian territory on 7th October. And there is no safe word on the hostages, as yet. The number might have even gone up with a hostage who was heavily pregnant probably delivering her baby! The humanitarian cry simply isn’t loud enough. ‘

Israel’s Defence Forces are out on foot in North Gaza in the second phase of Operation Iron Swords-the all out war to eliminate Hamas.

This week, Israeli soldiers surrounded and stormed the Dar Al-Shifa (House of Healing) Hospital in Gaza City and are carrying out a precise, targeted operation to uncover Hamas and its infrastructure. Tanks have entered the premises and troops are inside Hospital rooms. Israel maintains the action is a must, as Hamas has made the hospital facility their base and has a command centre in tunnels underneath it, used to conceal military operations and possibly the hostages.

The Al-Shifa hospital is the leading medical centre in the Gaza Strip. The hospital comprises a group of six-storey buildings. It had between 600 and 900 beds and thousands of staff, and before the war, provided a range of services such as MRI scans, and dialysis that almost no other hospital in Gaza offered.

This Monday, Israel’s chief military spokesman showed footage of a Hamas weapons cache found in the basement of Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital for Children, another hospital in the enclave.

The United States (US) also reiterated Israel’s findings, saying that Hamas was storing weapons and operating a command node from the Al-Shifa hospital.

Under the laws of war, mandated by the Geneva Conventions, hospitals get special protections during war. However, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), they lose protection if combatants are using the premises to hide fighters or store weapons – exactly what Israel is accusing Hamas of doing at Al-Shifa.

International Law experts say that Israel carries the burden to produce evidence and prove its claim that the hospital has been used by Hamas as a base. ‘The object of the attack is a civilian object. Until such time that the Israelis provide proof that it has been converted into a military object, the civilian nature of the object does not change’.

Meanwhile, Israel is struggling to keep its side of the law allowing medical supplies, and food and essentials inside Gaza and the Hospital – in a controlled manner. The biggest challenge is keeping civilians out of the way.

What next? When will the hostages return home? People in Israel are on the streets demanding they be brought home.

Ukraine-Russia Stalemate?

Did Israel steal Ukraine’s thunder? Ukraine’s fight-back against the invasion of Russia seems to be entering a stalemate with both sides apparently not knowing which direction to take. Russia will benefit from a protracted war while Ukraine fights to keep its tail up.

The Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said this week that “there will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough” and each day that passes gives the Russians an advantage. This sombre assessment of the battlefield is not a surprise. It’s what Ukrainians have been hearing in conversations with friends, seeing on social media, and experiencing personally on the front lines, as Russia’s mindless war against their country drags on.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia is stalled as a hard winter looms. Russia still occupies nearly a fifth of Ukraine and front lines are static for the most part while both sides continue to churn through soldiers. Russia will have superiority in weapons, equipment, missiles and ammunition for a considerable time and Ukraine needs new, innovative approaches.

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion in June this year, but it has so far failed to gain the momentum needed to turn the tide of the war in its favour.

British Politics: Like the British Weather

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak carried out a dramatic Cabinet Reshuffle early this week, firing his Home Secretary and bringing back former Prime Minister, David Cameron, to the heart of government after a seven-year absence from politics. David Cameron’s own premiership set the course of 13 years of Conservative rule, but the self-inflicted chaos of the Brexit referendum and its aftermath threw his party into years of instability from which it is still struggling to emerge.

The hardline Home Secretary, Suella Braverman was fired after making inflammatory comments about the policing of pro-Palestinian protests in central London over the weekend. She had accused London’s police force of applying ‘double standards’ in the way they manage protests in an Op-Ed in the Times of London newspaper condemning a pro-Palestinian march. The Government said the Op-Ed was not cleared by the PM’s Office.

Her tenure was wrought with scandals and divisive remarks, which had long caused fractures in the government. Braverman has served as Sunak’s interior minister throughout his tenure, but her confrontational rhetoric towards migrants, protesters, the police, and even the homeless had caused rifts in the government and sparked speculation that she was plotting a future leadership bid.

On the homeless, Braverman said, “The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a ‘lifestyle choice’. Unless we step in now to stop this, British cities will go the way of places in the US like San Francisco and Los Angeles where weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug taking, and squalor. Nobody in Britain should be living in a tent on our streets”.

In the Braverman rain, Sunak put out an umbrella – then announced he was bringing David Cameron back to frontline politics as Foreign Secretary, in a stunning move that has few parallels in recent British political history. Cameron served as Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016, resigning after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum that he had called.

It was later confirmed that James Cleverly, formerly the Foreign Secretary, will take over from Braverman, a ‘clever shift’ that made space for Cameron’s remarkable return to the Cabinet.

The Dictator

This week US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet for a summit meeting in Filoli Estate, San Francisco, USA – their first in a year – primarily to restore military communications, which had gone cold, between the two countries. They agreed, among other things, that China would crack down on the production of ingredients for fentanyl- responsible for a deadly epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States. Last year alone more than 72,000 people in the US died from overdoses involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Jinping on his part, warned Biden to stop arming Taiwan, adding that China’s reunification with the island nation was ‘unstoppable’.

After his meeting with Jinping, Biden told journalists he still considers the Chinese President a ‘Dictator’. “Well look he is, I mean he’s a Dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who’s running a country, a Communist country, that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours,” Biden said.

Biden’s post-summit ‘Dictator’ comment, expectedly sparked outrage and drew ‘dragon fire and fury’ from China.

Trapped in a Tunnel

The Char Dham Highway is an ambitious project of the National Highways Authority of India, aiming to connect four ancient Hindu Pilgrimage Sites through 890 kilometres (km) of two-lane roads. The project will connect the pilgrim towns of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri, in India’s northern State of Uttarakhand.

This week, 40 workers found themselves trapped in the 4.5 km stretch between Silkyara and Barkot on the Yamunotri-Gangotri highway of the Char Dham, following a collapse of a section of the under-construction tunnel, on 12th November.

The reasons for the tunnel caving-in, is not know as yet, but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes, and floods. The project has faced criticism from environmental experts and some work was halted in January after hundreds of houses along the routes were damaged by subsidence. The Government on its part has said it is employing environmentally friendly techniques, in the design, to make geologically unstable stretches safer.

Since the tunnel collapsed, the trapped men have been supplied with food, water and oxygen via a pipe, and they are in contact with rescuers through walkie-talkies.

A six-bed medical facility has been put in place near the tunnel and hospitals nearby are on standby.

The rescue plan consists of using an ‘American auger’ machine to drill through the rubble of the tunnel’s collapsed portion and insert 800 mm and 900mm diameter sections of mild steel pipes — one after the other. Once this happens, the workers trapped on the other side of the rubble can crawl out to safety.

An auger is a spiral-shaped tool used for boring holes in different surfaces such as soil rock, stone, etc.

Rescue efforts are ongoing at a frenetic pace with experts from Norway and Thailand roped-in for consultation.

Cricket Tons

The Cricket World Cup – One Day International (ODI) – being played in India is coming to a close and its raining tons of centuries.

Last week, India’s Virat Kohli hit his 49th ODI century equalling the great Sachin Tendulkar’s record feat of most ODI centuries. And give the roaring form he was in, Sachin must have given-up any dreams of holding on to that record, which he achieved in 452 innings. And Virat Kohli did not disappoint, or keep us waiting any longer.

This week he slammed one more century in the semi- final match against New Zealand to climb to 50 centuries (in 279 innings) -the highest in the history of the ODI game. In the match, India made 397 runs for the loss of four wickets in 50 overs and beat New Zealand by 70 runs to march into the finals. Kohli made 117 runs and team-mate Shreyas Iyer made 105 of just 70 balls to give India a solid winning chance. Fast bowler Mohammad Shami took a magnificent seven wicket haul to send the Kiwis packing despite a brilliant fighting innings of 134 by Daryl Mitchell.

India look invincible thus far in the Tournament, having won all nine of the round-robin matches.

In the other semi-finals, Australia beat South Africa by three wickets, at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, to set-up a final clash with India, to be held on Sunday at Ahmedabad.

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first. But they could only set a modest target of 213. While David Miller scored a century and Heinrich Klaasen scored 47, others failed to cross a score of 20. The second innings turned into a nail-biting affair after Australia lost three wickets between the 22nd and 34th overs, still 49 runs short of the target. But they achieved the target within 48 overs, losing seven wickets.

This is the eighth time that Australia will play a World Cup final match. Of the seven played so far, they won five – the highest in the world.

This is the fourth time India qualified for the World Cup final. Of the three played so far, India won two.

On Sunday, 19th November, the Giants of Cricket will face each other again for the final match of a World Cup, after 20 years.

More battling stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Tunnel-out with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-45

About: the world this week, 5 November to 11 November 2023; Israel hunting for the hostages; Nepal’s earthquake; Air pollution in India; Elections in India; and the Cricket World Cup.

Everywhere

Israel, Fighting to Bring Back Hostages

Israeli troops are on the ground in North Gaza taking measured steps to identify Hamas terrorists and surgically eliminate them. Israel has divided the Gaza Strip into two parts – North & South – and has completely encircled the North, encouraging civilians to migrate to the South through a corridor.

Israel agreed to implement daily, four-hour pauses in fighting in selected areas of northern Gaza. Each pause will be announced at least three hours in advance and will give civilians more time to evacuate.

It has become clearer than ever before that weapons and rockets lie beneath schools, hospitals, and homes in the maze of tunnels. And that Palestinian civilians are the human shields besides the hostages. Over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing war.

There has been no improvement in the hostage situation – about 240 are still held by Hamas for over a month now. Their whereabouts are still unknown and if there is anything the World needs to cry about it is, ‘Release of the Hostages’.

The Pro-Palestine front groups across the world called for an immediate cease-fire given the dire situation of civilians in Gaza. But Israel and its supporting counties, especially the United States (US) brushed it aside arguing that any pause will allow Hamas to re-coup.

US diplomacy efforts are on display with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken making his third visit to the Middle East since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war. The US is trying to keep the conflict from spreading and is also talking about plans for Gaza’s future. Lebanon’s Hezbollah – the next worst thing to Hamas – is firing rockets into Israel and that is becoming a serious provocation.

Nepal’s Earthquake

Late last week a 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck the remote western region of Nepal. It was a shallow earthquake, meaning it happened closer to the earth’s surface.

More than 150 people have been killed and about 375 people injured. Rescue efforts are underway in the rugged districts of Jajarkot and West Rukum, 500km west of Kathmandu. Strong tremors were felt far away in the Nepalese capital and in cities in neighbouring India, including New Delhi. Jajarkot’s hospital is packed with the wounded.

Nepal is situated along the Himalayas, prone to seismic activity. Last month, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake was registered in the western district of Bajhang, resulting in injuries. In 2015, the country suffered two devastating earthquakes in which 9,000 people were killed and 22,309 injured. The first, on 25 April 2015, was a 7.8-magnitude quake which caused most of the damage and loss of life. A large number of aftershocks followed, including one that measured 7.3 in May of that year.

The Air We Breathe

Over the years, India’s Capital New Delhi has been having a severe air quality problem, with the air becoming unbreathable during festival season of Diwali. And the yet-to-smoke crackers get the blame, though crop stubble-burning in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana is a major factor.

This week, the air quality of New Delhi remained in the ‘severe’ category for five consecutive days, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 423 this Monday.

The share of stubble burning on Monday was estimated at 26.30%. Though visibility improved during the day, relief from toxic air is unlikely till at least 9th November with AQI predicted to stay in the ‘severe’ zone.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘Good’; 51 to 100 is ‘Satisfactory’; 101 to 200 is ‘Moderate’; 201 to 300 ‘Poor’; 301 to 400 ‘Very Poor’; and 401 to 500 ‘Severe’.

To fight air pollution, the Government of New Delhi has announced the odd-even scheme for vehicles on the road, from 13 November to 20 November, with a restriction on the movement of private vehicles. Electric and CNG-powered cars, and two-wheelers will remain exempted. Having been in force twice in 2016 and once in 2019, experts have questioned the efficacy of the odd-even scheme, saying the current lot of private cars are technologically advanced and don’t contribute much to vehicular pollution. Old two-wheelers, a major contributor to vehicular emissions, have always remained out of the odd-even rule ambit.

The Government had to hurriedly call off the odd-even plan last time after the National Green Tribunal refused to exempt two-wheelers from the scheme. With the exception of Classes X-XII, schools have been shut until 10 November, and Classes will go online. Teachers will be present in person in schools.

With allergies due to air pollution affecting a large majority of Delhi residents, nebulisers and masks are in great demand. Burning and itching eyes, breathing problems, sore throat, and cough are common.

While New Delhi was topping the charts on AQI, India’s ‘Maximum City’, Mumbai was trying to catch up with the air pollution crisis taking a serious toll on its people. Cases of respiratory conditions like asthma, inflammation, and tuberculosis have risen across all age brackets. This has led to hospitals setting up special Intensive Respiratory Care Units.

Mumbai’s deteriorating air quality, which has been overlooked amid soaring pollution levels in Delhi, but it is equally upsetting. On Sunday, the financial capital of India was ranked among the world’s most polluted cities.

The AQI in Mumbai on Wednesday morning was in the “moderate” category, with a reading of 149. Mumbai being a coastal city, was largely free of pollution related problems like haze or smog, due to its geographical advantage of being located on the coast and being surrounded by water on three sides. The strong sea wind eliminates most of the pollutants from Mumbai’s air, saving it from severe conditions like in New Delhi or Kolkata.

The Indelible Ink on our Finger

This week the Election bandwagon got rolling in India with the central State of Chhattisgarh and the north-eastern State of Mizoram heading to the polls for electing legislators to the respective five-year term State Assemblies.

Voting for all 40 Assembly seats of Mizoram- in a single phase, and the first phase of 20 constituencies of the 90 Assembly seats of Chhattisgarh began. The second and final phase for Chhattisgarh will be on 17th November.

In Chhattisgarh, the Indian National Congress (INC) is the incumbent, headed by its Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel having won the previous elections, in 2018, with an absolute majority of 68 seats and about 43.9% of votes. In that election the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went into the Opposition with 15 seats and 33.6% votes. INC’s Bhupesh Baghel took over from BJP’s Raman Singh who was Chief Minister for an uninterrupted period of 15 years, from 2003 to 2018.

Presently, Mizoram is ruled by the Mizo National Front (MNF) with 27 seats; the main Opposition party is the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) with 6 seats; the INC has 5 seats and the BJP has 1 seat. The Chief Minister is Zoramthanga of the MNF.

This phase of voting ended with Mizoram seeing an impressive voter turnout of 78.04% and Chhattisgarh showing up at 71%.

Other States coming up will be, single-phase elections in Madhya Pradesh on 17th November, Rajasthan on 25th November, and Telangana on 30th November.

Votes for all the five States will be counted on 3rd December.

Re-making Cricket Records

The ongoing ICC Cricket One Day International (ODI) World Cup, hosted by India produced some memorable outcomes.

Glenn Maxwell’s sensational double century in the match against Afghanistan is being hailed as the greatest One Day Innings of all time. He scored an unbeaten 201 runs of 128 balls leading Australia to a three-wicket victory and securing a spot in the Semi Finals. It was a breath taking display of skill and determination. He broke many records on the way including becoming the first player in the world to score a double century on an ODI chase. The match was played in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium and Afghanistan set a score of 291/5 for Australia to hunt-down. Australia won, thanks to Glenn Maxwell’s blitzkrieg, putting up a score of 293/7 in 46.5 overs

Meanwhile India’s Virat Kohli smashed his 49th ODI Century equalling the great Sachin Tendulkar’s record feat of most ODI Centuries. He hit the 119 ball century against South Africa on his 35th Birthday. In this match India went on to win by 243 runs after skittling South Africa for just 83 runs. That’s King Kohli at his royal best.

At this stage of the tournament, India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand have entered the semi-finals. And Pakistan is looking to sneak in through some magic.

More stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Stay with World Inthavaaram. Happy Deepavali.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-44

About: the world this week, 29 October to 4 November 2023; Israel goes all out on terror; a bomb blast in India’s Kerala State; and the popular American TV series ‘Friends’ loses a friend.

Everywhere

Israel’s War on Terror

Israel got cracking with the second phase of its war on the terrorist Hamas. The ground attack began slowly unfolding keeping in mind the safety of the hostages and the treacherous network of Hamas’ underground Tunnels. And the land attack was supported with force from the Air and the Sea.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) also made their first successful rescue of one hostage, freeing a female Israeli soldier, Ori Megidish. Recall that Hamas has released four hostages since the horrific attack on 7th October.

Meanwhile, Israel confirmed the death of Shani Louk, a 23 years old German-Israeli citizen who was captured from the music festival during the 7th October attack on Israel. Her lifeless body was paraded, in a gruesome manner, on the back of a pick-up truck, in Gaza.

Every day, a new revelation on the chilling savagery of Hamas’ 7th October attack is being put-out by Israel, based on facts gathered and bodies of the dead identified and accounted for. And what crosses one’s mind is, ‘can a human being go to this extent of heinous cruelty. Why this blood-curling hatred for jews?’

The US Secretary of State shared this during a testimony:

“A family of four. A young boy and girl, 6 and 8 years old, and their parents around the breakfast table. The father’s eye gouged out in front of his kids. The mother’s breast cut off, the girl’s foot amputated, the boy’s fingers cut off – before they were executed. And then their executioners sat down and had a meal. That is what this society is dealing with.”

Head of Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, said: “In 28 years, I can’t recall such infernal damage. Babies, young children, without heads, without legs. I can’t understand how the entire world doesn’t grasp the sheer cruelty of this situation”. His department is faced with the arduous, heart-wrenching task of identifying the dead. And each body-bag tells a story of unfathomable barbarism by Hamas.

Key to Israel’s goal of comprehensively defeating and disarming Hamas is destroying the extensive tunnel network, which Hamas has been secretly developing for decades. And allows it to smuggle goods, people, and weapons, and plan attacks on Israel. All at the cost of development of the civilians living above, on the land. By its own account, Hamas boasts more than 480 kilometres of tunnels, dozens of feet or more below the ground, snaking under the small strip of Gaza and invariably running under civilian residences, hospitals, and schools.

On another front, humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza, and since 21st October a total of over 300 trucks have entered loaded with water, food, and medical supplies. There is always the fear that Hamas ‘may tunnel these resources’ for making yet another attack on Israel.

Hamas still holds 242 Israeli and foreign hostages – including at least 30 babies and children – in Gaza, and their safe release is of paramount importance. And there seems to be ‘no light’ at the end of the tunnel-of their release.

Trouble in God’s Own Country

The Indian state of Kerala became known as ‘God’s Own Country’ taking-off from the tagline coined by a Creative Director, Walter Mendez, of the Advertisement Agency, Mudra Communications Limited (now known as DDB Mudra Group). This was in 1989, when the Kerala Tourism Department tasked it to spread the word on the natural beauty of Kerala, across the world. This is one of the longest, sustained iconic campaigns in the world, and promoted tourism in Kerala like none other.

The term turned out to be a natural fit for Kerala, blessed with lush green landscapes, crystal clear beaches, natural beauty, and ecological diversity. In another dimension, Kerala was actually created by the Gods, as per mythology.

Sage Parashurama, who was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu (creator of the World) – one of the holy Trinity of Hinduism’s Gods – created Kerala, with his axe. He threw his axe in the water, which receded as far as it reached to make the place of land, which is modern Kerala. The land which rose from the sea was filled with salt and unsuitable for habitation, hence Parasurama invoked the Snake King Vasuki, who spat out the holy poison and converted the soil into fertile land. Out of respect, Vasuki and all snakes were appointed as protectors and guardians of the land.

According to another mythological account, King Mahabali once ruled Kerala. He was a benevolent and generous king who ruled without discrimination, and people were honest, healthy, and happy under his rule. Even the Gods were jealous of the prosperity and wealth in the kingdom of those days.

Mahabali came to temporarily possess Amrita -nectar of eternal life- which allowed his subjects to bring him back to life after his death in one of the may wars he waged. Thus, Mahabali was immune from death and became invincible, eventually conquering heaven and earth. The Devas (celestial beings) approached Lord Vishnu to save them from complete obliteration. Though reluctant in the beginning – Mahabali being his ardent devotee – Lord Vishnu eventually relented, to re-establish the natural order of things. Mahabali was tricked and sent to the underworld through an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, called Vamana. However, Lord Vishnu granted Bali a boon whereby he could return to his homeland once every year. The harvest festivals of Balipratipada and Onam are celebrated to mark and commemorate the memories of King Mahabali’s yearly homecoming. It is the state festival of Kerala and is celebrated every year with joy and zeal.

Kerala also leads the country in various aspects like literacy rate-the highest in India at about 99%, sex ratio, lowest population growth, and travel & tourism. Kerala is the only Indian State ruled by a majority Communist Party, The Left Democratic Front (LDF), also known as Left Front (Kerala) which is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the state. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016.

Now, there is trouble brewing in God’s Own Country. And I wish King Mahabali was around.

Early this week, on Sunday, two women and a child were killed and over fifty injured after multiple explosions took place at a prayer meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Kalamassery area of Kerala’s Kochi. It was confirmed that an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) caused the explosion. The blast took place in the central part of the hall, at Zamra International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Surprisingly, the case was quickly resolved, when a few hours after the incident, a man named Dominic Martin who claimed to be a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses said that he was responsible for the blast. And that he belonged to the same group, which held the prayer meeting. He then voluntarily surrendered to the Police.

Dominic Martin published a video message on a social media platform claiming responsibility for the blasts and giving reasons for the same. He provided evidence to support his claims and the police are examining everything in detail-to confirm that it indeed is him. The man alleged that he took the decision as the teachings of the organisation were ‘seditious’. Martin further alleged that the organisation and its ideology were dangerous for the country and therefore, it had to be put to an end, in Kerala. He claimed that he had told the organisation several times to correct its teachings, but it was not ready to do so. And he took this extreme step.

Who are the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Jehovah’s Witnesses hold a number of traditional Christian views, but also many that are unique to them. The Witnesses’ teachings stress strict separation from the Government. Although they are generally law-abiding, they refuse, on biblical grounds, to observe certain laws. They do not salute the flag of any nation, believing it an act of false worship; they refuse to perform military service; and they do not participate in public elections. They are known for door-to-door evangelism.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have significant presence in Kerala. In 1986, India’s Supreme Court backed its followers, ruling that their children could not be compelled to sing the national anthem in schools.

Learn more about Jehovah’s Witnesses at:

https://kumargovindan.com/2023/03/11/world-inthavaaram-2023-10/

Please Yourself

Friends

Late last week, Matthew Perry, the 54 years old star who played ‘Chandler Bing’ in the famous TV sitcom series, Friends died in his home in California, United States.

The news of Perry’s death came almost one year after he published his memoir, opening up about his experience in Hollywood and his decades-long struggle with addiction. Investigators said there was no sign of foul play after Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his home.

Friends is an American television series created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from, 1994 to 2004, lasting ten Seasons. It starred Jennifer Aniston(Rachel), Courteney Cox (Monica), Lisa Kudrow(Phoebe), Matt LeBlanc(Joey), Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer( Ross): six unique friends in their 20s and early 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City. The series follows the eventful day-to-day lives of the group of Friends as they live, work, and love in the city. The show’s timeless humour allows people of any age demographic to relate to the characters and laugh at their jokes. Though it explores issues of friendships, family, love, and heartbreaks, the soul of the show lies in the superb comedy.

Friends, won six Emmy Awards, including outstanding comedy series, and from its second season until the end of its run maintained a top five or better Nielsen rating, hitting number one in its eighth season.

Chandler Bing is a fictional character portrayed by Matthew Perry. Chandler is notoriously sarcastic and has a terrific sense of humour, developed as a defence mechanism to overcome the trauma of his parents announcing their divorce to him, over Thanksgiving Dinner, when he was only nine years old. He was an only child born to an ‘erotic romance novelist’ and a ‘gay female impersonator’ and star of a Las Vegas drag show.

He works in ‘statistical analysis and data reconfiguration’, but loathes it, although it pays well. He is the highest earning member of his friends’ circle on account of responsible income management, having learned the value of money from a young age. Chandler suffers from commitment issues, but later marries Monica at the end of Season 7. In Season 10, Chandler and Monica go on to adopt twins.

The Friends theme song, ‘I’ll Be There for You,’ performed by the Rembrandts, was a minor pop hit in its own right.

Here are some memorable ‘Friends one-liners’:

Look at me, I am Chandler, could I be wearing any more clothes?

Well, the fridge broke, so I had to eat everything.

That’s a great story, can I eat it?

They don’t know that we know they know we know.

She’s your Lobster. It’s a known fact that Lobsters fall in love and mate for life. You can actually see Lobster couples walking around their tank, holding claws’.

Lips moving still talking.

More moving, words talking, stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Be friends with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-43

About: the world this week, 22 October to 28 October 2023; Israel hammers Hamas in the Gaza; America’s shooting; Spying in Qatar; Paralympic Games; and a still burning, runaway fire.

Everywhere

Taken

Israel’s War on the terrorist Hamas continues, with Israel wrecking havoc on Northern Gaza with relentless bombing of terrorist hideouts. Israel said 229 hostages are still being held by Hamas. This week, two elderly Israeli hostages were released in addition to two American hostages released last week – on ‘humanitarian grounds’ they said!

After intense negotiations, The Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and South Gaza opened late last week to let a trickle of aid into Gaza for the first time since Israel sealed it off. Just 20 trucks, of the 200 trucks carrying 3,000 tons that have been waiting for days, were allowed inside.

On another front, Iran and its proxy terrorist groups in Lebanon and Syria are beginning to make noises. In Lebanon, the Hezbollah group has continued to exchange fire with Israeli forces in the north, leading Israel to evacuate tens of thousands of its residents. In Syria, Israel fired missiles at the Damascus and Aleppo international airports-apparently taking them out of service. And Iran continues to rave and rant at Israel directly, saying, ‘anything is possible at any given moment.’ Through all of this, the delicate peace between Israel and neighbouring Arab states, like Egypt and Jordon is on a knife-edge.

Though it has piled up its Armed Forces on the Gaza Border, Israel is holding back its ground attack, which could be due to the hostage situation and perhaps for more detailed planning given the maze of underground tunnels from which Hamas operates. A trial excursion inside Gaza was made, when rocket launch and ammunition facilities were wiped out. And we can expect a sudden invasion.

This week, a major media publication, the New York Times came out with an apology on wrongly blaming Israel for last week’s Hospital attack, when it indeed was a selfie by Hamas. The United Kingdom’s BBC too came close to an apology about it needing to be verified, and it still calls Hamas, ’militants’ and ‘fighters’ instead of plain ‘Terrorist. At worst, the car parking was destroyed, and about 10 people were killed in the Hospital misadventure.

Meanwhile, Hamas continues to shoot rockets into Israel even as the situation of people in Gaza is miserable – without food, water, and strained medical facilities.

In the middle of the week, United Nations (UN) General Secretary Antonio Guterres complicated the situation by saying that the act of Hamas did not happen ‘in a vacuum’ and appeared to be rationalising the savage brutality of Hamas with the Palestine cause-noting that Palestinians had suffered more than five decades of occupation and oppression by Israel. He also condemned the Hamas attack on Israel of 7th October that started the war, and demanded that all hostages taken that day be released. The ‘rationalising’ prompted Israel to demand his resignation.

Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan has cancelled his Israel trip saying Hamas, “is not a terrorist organisation, it is a liberation group”. He has his head in the desert sand, for sure!

It’s obvious that a solution to the present crisis can be found, starting only with release of all Hostages taken. And Israel has set itself the goal of eliminating Hamas in a ‘do or die’ effort for the sake of its future generations.

Shooting

If there is one country which always has a well-oiled gun shooting itself at regular intervals, it is America. And the shooting madness is forever making news.

A mass shooting in Maine, the Northeastern State of the United States (US) has left at least 18 dead and dozens injured. The shooting in Lewiston occurred this Wednesday night at Sparetime Recreation Bowling Alley and Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant around 7 pm. This is possibly the deadliest mass shooting out of 565 in the US, this year alone. The death toll was staggering for a state that in 2022 had 29 homicides during the entire year.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a mass shooting is defined as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed.

Police have launched a massive manhunt to nab the gunman, identified as Robert Card. And the city is under lockdown given that he has military experience.

Robert Card, 40, is a twice-divorced father of three children. A resident of Maine’s Bowdoin, he is a firearms instructor believed to be in the Army Reserve. Card was previously committed to a mental health facility for two weeks after ‘hearing voices and threats’ to shoot up a military base.

Maine doesn’t require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting.

Some recent attempts by gun control advocates to tighten the state’s gun laws have failed with State’s residents voting them down. Proposals to require background checks for private gun sales and create a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases failed earlier this year. Proposals that focused on school security and banning bump stocks failed in 2019. A proposal to require background checks for gun sales failed in a 2016 public vote. That’s the looking down the barrel, on the background.

Spying?

This week, a court in Qatar handed down the death sentence to eight former Indian navy personnel after an in-camera trial: a shocking and a huge foreign policy challenge for India.

The eight ex-officers are: Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Purenendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal, and Sailor Rajesh. They worked at Qatar’s Al Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a private company that offers ‘complete support solutions’ to the aerospace, security, and defence sectors in Qatar. The Company was advising the Qatari government on acquiring submarines. It was shut down in May 2023.

The former Navy men were first picked up by Qatar’s State Security Bureau – the state intelligence agency- on 30 August 2022, under the cover of darkness. The Indian Embassy was not informed about the arrests and it was only on 30th September that the veterans were allowed a brief phone call to their families. And on 3rd October, an Indian diplomat finally visited them, more than a month after their arrest. After being arrested on unspecified charges they were kept in solitary confinement for a long period.

The trial began this year, with the first hearing on 29th March and the most recent one on 3rd October. A verdict was anticipated this month.

The precise nature of the charges remains unknown: reports suggest that the Indian Navy men were arrested for leaking classified information related to a high-value Qatari submarine project. And that the receiver of the classified information was Israel. The whole trial was held in secrecy, which makes the death sentence appear very dubious. India’s Ambassador to Qatar and the Deputy Chief of Mission met them in prison and they were provided legal representation in court.

Qatar punches well above its weight in regional stakes, as was exemplified by its resilience during the Saudi Arabia-led blockade against it between 2017-21. Qatar also hosts a plethora of opposition and militant movement leaders from the Islamic world, including from Palestinian Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, and Taliban. It houses American and Turkish military bases and simultaneously has a working relationship with Iran. In government-owned Al Jazeera broadcaster, Qatar has an opinion-influencer in the region. Behind all this is, of course, is Qatar’s gas-fuelled financial muscle. India is one of the largest importers of Qatari gas. About 800,000 Indians live and work in Qatar.

Disability Counts

The Asian Para Games is a multi-sport event regulated by the Asian Paralympic Committee and held every four years after every Asian Games, for athletes with physical disabilities. It is held in the same city as the Asian Games of the year.

The 4th Asian Para Games 2023 is being held in Hangzhou, China from 22nd October to 28th October, and India ‘capitalising on the handicaps’ is performing beyond expectations. At the last count, India’s medal tally stood at 99 medals, 25-Gold, 29-Silver, and 45-Bronze.

In the previous edition of the Games in 2018, India had won 72 medals including 15 Gold.

One of India’s remarkable and outstanding star performers was 16 year old Sheetal Devi from Loidhar Village in Kishtwar, Jammu, who was born without arms due to Phocomelia – a rare congenital deformity in which the hands or feet are underdeveloped or absent. She is the first female archer without arms to compete internationally – the only current female international archer in the world, to shoot with the feet. She started training with the bow-and-arrow just two years ago. Sheetal Devi won two gold, one silver in the Asian Paralympic Games.

Please Yourself

I came across this burning story and thought I should let out the smoke about it.

Burning Borough

Centralia is a Borough – a self-administered unit- and a ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States; part of the Bloomsburg–Berwick metropolitan area. It is the least-populated municipality in Pennsylvania and completely surrounded by Conyngham Township, which itself has a population of 689, as per the 2020 census.

All real estate in the Centralia Borough was claimed under Eminent Domain in 1992 and its ZIP Code was discontinued by the Postal Service in 2002. In October 2013 an agreement was reached with the then seven remaining residents allowing them to remain in Centralia until their deaths, after which the rights to their houses will be taken over by Eminent Domain. As of 2021, only 4 residents remain.

Eminent Domain means a Government can deprive someone of ownership or right of ownership on a right private property of public use with payment of compensation.

What happened in Centralia?

Centralia is a former coal mining town that has been experiencing a relentless underground fire for nearly six decades! The origins of this ongoing blaze trace back to 1962 when the town council made the fateful decision to incinerate a landfill. At the time, they were unaware that the landfill was interconnected with subterranean coal mine shafts. This inadvertent act ignited a coal seam, and the fire has been burning ever since becoming unstoppable.

The Borough council’s ‘minutes of meeting’ of 4 June 1962, referred to two fires at the dump and that five firefighters had submitted bills for fighting the fire at the landfill area. The Borough, by law, was responsible for installing a fire-resistant clay barrier between each layer of the landfill, but the work fell behind schedule, leaving the barrier incomplete. This allowed the hot coals to penetrate the coal seam underneath the pit and start the subsequent subterranean fire.

After making all efforts to extinguish the fire, Pennsylvania eventually abandoned further attempts, having spent USD 7 million in the 1990s. Remarkably, despite the well-known hazards, a few residents still inhabit Centralia.

In 1979, locals became aware of the scale of the problem when a gas-station owner, inserted a dipstick into one of his underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he withdrew it, it felt awfully hot. He lowered a thermometer into the tank on a string and was shocked to discover that the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was 77.8 °C.

Due to the presence of coal deposits beneath the town, experts believe that the fire could potentially continue burning for another 250 years!Slowburn.

More burning stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Handle the fire with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-42

About: the world this week, 15 October to 21 October 2023; Israel’s War; Australia’s Voice; Poland’s Vote; India – Space, Trains, a Murder, and same-sex marriage.

Everywhere

Israel Strikes Back

The Israel strike back -Operation Iron Swords-on the terrorist Hamas, following the savage barbarism of 7th October in Israel, is in a ‘pregnant next stage of attack’ phase. And this week there was a hullabaloo over a rocket striking a Gaza Hospital -Al-Ahli-al Arabi Baptist Hospital -and claimed to have killed over 500 people. Hamas- and the general media-quickly blamed it on Israel, but evidence shows that it was a failed Palestine Islamic Jihad rocket launched towards Israel that fell back on Gaza. And only the parking lot of the Hospital was damaged with the Hospital buildings itself standing tall without significant damage. And the number of people killed is nowhere near as claimed.

United States (US) President Joe Biden made a dash to Israel to stand with them. And then based on convincing evidence shown by Israel that ‘we did not do it’, declared that Israel is not to blame, and the other side did it. Later, the US National Security Council (NSC) released a statement publicly, which it said is based on all available data, currently: “The IDF is NOT responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday.” The assessment is based on the following, according to the NSC: Overhead imagery; Intercept; and Open Source information. (IDF – Israel Defense Forces).

Meanwhile, Hamas continues using people as human shields and galvanising the Islamic world against Israel in the name of religion-right or wrong, apart. And still keeps pumping rockets into Israel. Many counties across the World saw mostly pro-Hamas rallies (despicable) and some pro-Israeli rallies of support. Countries bordering Israel, such as Egypt and Jordan refused to allow Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip into their counties. Israel has been continuously announcing the those in the Northern part of Gaza must move towards the South of the Gaza River as it plans to attack Hamas hideouts in the Northern Gaza. And it went about surgically eliminating the leadership of Hamas, one by one.

Towards the end of the week, Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also made a dash to Israel with a plane load of supplies, to show solidarity.

Hamas still holds 200 plus Israeli hostages in the Gaza and their release is key to starting the process of ending the War. On another front Hamas’ partner in crime, the Lebanese based Hezbollah – a political party and militant group, began shooting rockets into Northern Israel, and Israel is busy fending them off as well.

Meanwhile, Israel closed down its Embassies in the Middle East: Egypt, Turkey, Jordon, Bahrain, and Morocco, and has recalled its diplomatic staff citing deteriorating security in the region.

Humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip is deadlocked at the Egyptian Border-Rafah- and a frenzy of negotiations are underway to allow them to pass. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appeared at the Border and made an emotional appeal for aid trucks to move into the besieged enclave.

Tensions in the region at their highest level ever.

The Voice of Australia

Australia has overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to indigenous people in a Referendum, dubbed ‘The Voice’, held on 14 October 2023.

All six states voted ‘No’ to a proposal to amend the constitution to recognise First Nations People and create a body for them to advise the government. The referendum was Australia’s first in almost a quarter of a century. With the ballots counted, the ‘No’ vote led ‘Yes’, by 60% to 40%. This is the first attempt at constitutional change in 24 years.

The Voice was held with the questions for a Proposed Law: (1). To alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. (2). Do you approve this proposed alteration? Yes or No.

Supporters of the losing ‘Yes’ said that entrenching the indigenous peoples into the constitution would unite Australia and usher in a new era. Supporters of the winning ‘No’ said that the idea was divisive, would create special ‘classes’ of citizens where some were more equal than others, and the new advisory body would slow government decision-making.

Who are the ‘First Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders’ of Australia’?

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the first peoples of Australia, meaning they were here for thousands of years prior to conquest and colonisation. ‘Aboriginal’, refers to the indigenous inhabitants of the continent-people who lived on the Australian mainland and surrounding islands for tens of thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived in the early 17th century. Aboriginal people may choose to identify with their language groups and traditional lands, for example, Gunditjamara people are the traditional custodians of Western Victoria, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation are from Sydney, and the Yawuru people are the traditional custodians of Broome in Western Australia.

Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped with them as Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait region is located between the tip of Cape York and Papua New Guinea and is made up of over two hundred islands. Seventeen of these islands are inhabited. There are also two Torres Strait Islander communities, Bamaga and Seisia, on the northern peninsula area of mainland of Australia. The Torres Strait is also home to the Aboriginal Kaurareg Nation who are the traditional inhabitants of Muralag (Prince of Wales Island), Kirriri (Hammond Island), Ngurupai (Horn Island) and Waiben (Thursday Island).

In 2016, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples made up just 3.3% of the Australian population. Of that group, the majority were under the age of 25. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples live in urban, regional and remote areas and are present in all communities, not necessarily on their traditional lands.

There are varying estimates for how long Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived on the Australian continent. However, upwards of 60,000 years is what current research reveals. They find no specific mention in Australia’s 122 years old Constitution.

The Vote of Poland

The Parliament of Poland, like the legislature of most democracies around the world, is bicameral. It is composed of an upper house -the Senate- and a lower house -the Sejm. Both houses are accommodated in the Sejm complex in Poland’s capital, Warsaw.

Members of the Sejm and the Senate are directly elected by the people, usually every four years. The Sejm has 460 members, while the Senate has 100. To become law, a bill must first be approved by the Sejm and then the Senate, but the Sejm can override a Senate refusal to pass a bill.

Since 1990, the President has been elected by the people. However, the President is still sworn in before the National Assembly, which is also the only organ which can declare the President’s permanent incapacity to perform his duties, or bring an indictment against him. From 1992 to 1997, the National Assembly drafted and passed a new Constitution, which was approved by a national referendum on 25 May 1997. The Government of Poland is a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic, with the President as the head of state and the Prime Minister as the head of government.

Poland went to the polls this Sunday, 15th October, between 7am and 9pm for electing members of the Sejm and the Senate, with 231 seats in the Sejm needed for a party to clinch power outright. The turnout was an impressive 74% and the highest since the collapse of communism in 1989. Parties was successful in galvanising a large number, especially the younger votes, for the first time. The campaign was marred by harsh, divisive rhetoric, reflecting deep polarisation with Polish society.

With the counting of votes, Poland’s opposition is on course to remove the populist ruling party from power, however with no absolute majority for a single party-setting the stage for weeks of high-stakes negotiations to form Poland’s next government.

The incumbent Law and Justice party, known by its Polish acronym PiS, won the biggest share of the vote with 35.38%, which translates into 194 seats in the Sejm. However, it lost parliamentary majority, according to official results released by the National Electoral Commission.

PiS, led by Jarosław Kaczynski, finished ahead of opposition party Civic Coalition (KO), led by former Polish Prime Minister and European Council President Donald Tusk, on 30.7%, which is 157 seats. The close result made the centrist Third Way and left-wing Lewica parties kingmakers; both groups are opposed to the hardline PiS and have indicated they will seek to form a new coalition government with Donald Tusk.

The combination of KO – 157 seats, the Third Way – 65 seats, and the New Left- 26 seats, have won over 54% of the votes and 248 seats, enough for them to form a stable government in a coalition.

In the Senate, KO won 41 seats to PiS’s 34 seats, and along with the Third Way’s 11 and Lewica’s 9 seats, commands a majority here too.

The situation points to an end to PiS’ divisive eight-year rule, which saw a drastic overhaul of Poland’s democratic institutions and grave warnings that the country was lurching towards populist authoritarianism. Tusk had promised to restore democratic norms in Poland and cooperate with Western European allies, among whom Poland was fast becoming a pariah.

According to the Polish Constitution, the President must call a new parliamentary session within 30 days of the election. Then, he has 14 days to nominate a candidate for Prime Minister, after which the nominee has 14 days to win a vote of confidence in parliament.

If Donald Tusk does eventually take charge of Poland, he will face a monumental task in reversing PiS’ illiberal reforms of the country’s judiciary, public media, and cultural bodies. He will also seek to re-establish Poland as a major player in the European Union (EU), and likely look to smooth over tensions that emerged between Poland and Ukraine over the imports of Ukrainian grain.

PiS, which has been mired in bitter spats with the EU during its eight years in power, was seeking a third consecutive electoral success- an unprecedented feat since Poland regained its independence from the Soviet Union.

Some voices said, “Poland is back. By far the most important election in Europe this year is the Polish national election. It ended tonight with a victory for democracy.”

India Potpourri

Flying on the success of Chandrayaan 3, this week India set itself two ambitious Space Goals: one to send a Man to the Moon by 2040; and two, to set-up and Indian Space Station by 2035. And even before these two goals, India will send three astronauts into space in 2025 to get the hang of things.

In a first move towards this end, this week the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will be launching Gaganyaan spacecraft to demonstrate that the capsule carrying humans can safely return home. Called, Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (or TV-D1) ISRO would be testing the spacecraft’s ‘crew escape system (CES)’ to see whether the crew can safely escape the craft in the event of a malfunction.

Watch this space.

This week, RapidX, India’s first Rapid Rail Train Service (RRTS) was inaugurated in Uttar Pradesh State’s Ghaziabad in the National Capital Region (NCR) in the stretch from Sahibabad to Duhai Depot. A RRTS corridor of 82km is expected to be operational by June 2025. The trains this section, which are capable of running at speeds up to 180 km per hour, will eventually cut the journey time between Delhi and Meerut to less than an hour. Authorities said it is a ‘transformational’ regional development initiative, which is designed to provide high-speed trains for intercity commuting every 15 minutes, which can go up to a frequency of every 5 minutes, according to requirement.

Sowmya Vishwanathan was a 25 years TV Journalist working with Headlines Today (now, India Today) in New Delhi as a News Producer. She has stayed back late to help with a breaking news event. And in the early hours, 3.05 am, on 30 September 2008 she left her Office at Jhandewalan to drive to her home in Vasanth Kunj. She, phoned home to say, “I’m reaching home in five minutes. Keep my breakfast ready”. That would be her last call. Later her body was found in her car, on the stretch of Vasanth Vihar’s, Nelson Mandela Road. She had died from a headshot wound.

This week, after 15 years, a Court in Saket, New Delhi, convicted four accused for the murder of Sowmya. The investigations revealed that one of the accused, Ravi Kapoor, first shot at her to stop the car in an attempted robbery, but when she did not stop, he shot her fatally. When Sowmya had overtaken him, he followed her noticing she that was alone in the car. He tried to intercept her, but she did not stop, leading to the shooting and her murder.

Ravi Kapoor was a brutal Killer who donned various attires: Policeman, Judge, Doctor, etc., to dupe and rob people on Vasanth Vihar’s Nelson Mandela Road. He also ‘acted ‘ as a Police Informer, which perhaps kept him off the Police radar. His many other crimes of killing an Information Technology Executive Jigisha Gosh, and a Cab Driver, caught up with him, providing vital clues that helped the Police piece together the crime.

This week, one of India’s Spiritual Gurus, Godman Bangaru Adigalar, 82, passed away due to a heart attack at Melmaruvathur – a Temple Town, 90 km from Chennai, Tamilnadu. He is the founder of the Melmaruvathur Aadhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam, which runs the Melmaruvathur Aadhi Parasakthi temple. He was called ‘Amma’ meaning mother in Tamil, by his followers and devotees. Adigalar was believed to be the Poorna Avatar (holding all 16 qualities of an Avatar of God) as well as the incarnation of the supreme power Aadhi Parasakthi. He treated his followers equally, regardless of gender, caste, or religion. He brought in revolutionary reforms such as paving the way for women to enter the sanctum sanctorum of Shakti temples.

Bangaru Adigalar leaves behind his wife, two sons and two daughters, who manage several educational institutions owned by the family. He was conferred the Padma Shri award, one of the country’s highest civilian awards, in 2019. He also experienced an Income-Tax raid in his House and Businesses in the year 2010.

Aadhi Parasakthi or Mahadevi or Aadhi Sakthi is the supreme Goddess in Shaktism sect of Hinduism. This sect believes that all Hindu Gods and Goddesses are manifestations of this single great Goddess. Durga is one of the forms of Mahadevi.

Same-Same, But Different

This week, India’s Supreme Court (SC) declined to legally recognise same-sex unions, in a landmark ruling that also emphasised the rights of the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) community to be free of prejudice and discrimination.

Handing down the verdict, the SC struck-down legalising same-sex marriage saying it’s the job of Parliament to decide the validity of same-sex marriage. It went on to say that the Constitution does not grant a fundamental right to marry, and the institution cannot be elevated to the status of a fundamental right. Courts to steer clear of policy matters.

Stating that queerness is a natural phenomenon, the SC suggested that the government forms a committee on marriage rights and presents a bouquet of gay rights to the LGBTQ community. It also observed that gender cannot be the same as sexuality.

In summary, the SC ruled that the Same-Sex has: No right to marriage; no right to civil union-it can be only through laws; no right to adopt children; have the right to choose their own partner; transgender persons have the right to marry. Same-sex couples cannot claim a fundamental right to marry.

Queer persons are not prohibited from celebrating their love for each other, but have no right to claim recognition of such union. They have the right to choose their own partner and must be protected – by the Government- to enjoy such rights.

Striking down the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) regulation, the SC said the law cannot assume that only heterosexual couples can be good parents and that doing so would amount to discrimination. Unmarried couples, Queer can jointly adopt a child, and proceeds to say that CARA violates the Constitution.

More voice stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Adopt World Inthavaaram.

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

The United Nations, Israel, and America

India’s New State Chief Ministers

Jammu & Kashmir

Smoke in the Eyes

Everywhere

Ukrainian Sniper

Chess Grandmaster (GM)

India Election Results

The Chennai Deluge

TIME Magazine’s Athlete, Person, and CEO of the Year

Everywhere

Farewell to Truce

Dublin

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Extraction: the Rat-Hole Technique

Move over Hinduism, it’s now Hindutva

News Flashes

Please Yourself

The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984

Everywhere

The Hostage Release Deal

Making Argentina Great Again?

The Netherlands

Tunnel Trap

World Cup Cricket

Please Yourself

Emmys

Everywhere

Where Are The Hostages?

Ukraine-Russia Stalemate?

British Politics: Like the British Weather

The Dictator

Trapped in a Tunnel

Cricket Tons

Everywhere

Israel, Fighting to Bring Back Hostages

Nepal’s Earthquake

The Air We Breathe

The Indelible Ink on our Finger

Re-making Cricket Records

Everywhere

Israel’s War on Terror

Trouble in God’s Own Country

Please Yourself

Friends

Everywhere

Taken

Shooting

Spying?

Disability Counts

Please Yourself

Burning Borough

Everywhere

Israel Strikes Back

The Voice of Australia

The Vote of Poland

India Potpourri

Same-Same, But Different

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