WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-12

About: The story of how we fired on all our guns this week, in our World.

Everywhere

United Kingdom: The Case For A Return Of Sherlock Holmes

On 3rd March, Sarah Everard, a 33 years old marketing executive vanished into the proverbial thin air, while walking home to Brixton after visiting a friend in Clapham. Both places are about 50 minutes away from each other on foot. A typical walk from Clapham to Brixton takes one through some of London’s most populated, brightly lit, and well-walked parts. Hundreds of people pound these pavements every day and consider the streets in and around them as home.

Sarah left Clapham at 9 pm, and is believed to have walked through Clapham Common, a large park on the route. Soon after she left, Sarah spoke to her boyfriend on her mobile phone for about 15 minutes, and was last spotted in the footage of a doorbell camera at about 9.30pm. A day later, Sarah’s boyfriend contacted the police to report that she was missing. The police then sought public help in tracing her whereabouts, and made ‘missing person’ posts on social media to elicit responses.

A dead body was found, a week later, inside a builder’s bag, in a woodland in Ashford, Kent. Two days later the Police confirmed, through the use of dental records, that it belonged to Sarah Everard.

Then, this week on Tuesday, the police made two arrests – the first was a Scotland Yard police constable, on suspicion of kidnapping, and the second a woman on the suspicion of assisting an offender. Detectives are investigating, and we should be getting a clearer picture in the coming weeks.

Many Londoners shared their own experiences of harassment on streets or public transport and are demanding better protection. Much of the conversation has revolved around what men can do to make women feel more safe. I think this is an important lead to work on. And I hope the case is solved in the manner Sherlock Holmes does, to throw the best possible light on how it happened. Maybe, the fear of getting caught could act as crime-deterrent.

Australia Too

In another Commonwealth, beyond the Oceans, in Australia, tens of thousands of people across the country protested against sexual violence harassment and gender inequality after a wave of sexual assault allegations involving politicians surfaced.

Worlds apart there is about the same problem, which needs urgent attention.

Earth Shakes

When was the last time we heard about an Earthquake, leave alone experiencing one, near us? Give me a break…seems long ago.

Iceland, an Island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, known for its stunning natural beauty, has recorded a whooping 50,000 earthquakes, and more, in the past three weeks, perhaps signalling that a volcanic eruption could be heating-up and melting its way to the surface.

Think about Iceland, and what scorches my mind is its capital Reykjavik-where over 60% of the population live-and where the Reykjavik Summit meeting between the then US President Ronald Reagan and the then Soviet Union’s General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, was held in 1986. They came awfully close to agreeing to a complete elimination of nuclear weapons: of course it wasn’t to be and has remained in history as the nearest successful attempt of leaders of nuclear powers to do so.That itself was earth-shaking.

They say that Iceland is a land of contrasts: ice and fire, glaciers and volcanoes, mountains and lakes, waterfalls and geysers. I cannot agree more!

Meanwhile, Scientists are baffled, putting together the beauty and all the pieces of quake information, tying to make ‘breaking news’ out of it. And Icelanders are learning to live with the ‘Earth shakes’.

The Guns Of Myanmar

Myanmar has been tightly gripped by severe protests since the military seized control on 1st February and detained Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, the winner of the General Elections.

Mahn Win Khaing Than, the leader of a group of Myanmar politicians has vowed to press on with a ‘revolution’ against the illegal coup by the military, saying ‘this is the darkest moment of the nation and the moment that dawn is close’.

This Sunday 38 people were killed in one of the deadliest retaliation by the Military and martial was declared in six areas after Chinese-funded factories were set on fire. The death count has risen, to at least 138 people being killed, till date, in the ongoing protests.

Over the past weeks the turmoil in Myanmar has been heart-wrenching as new shots of over-the-bar violence by the Ruling Military Junta snakes its way up the headlines every day. India, as a powerful neighbour, and the United Nations (UN) as a far-sighted neutral observer can do more-speak up, defend democracy, and boldly order the Military to hand power back to the people.

America Is Still Shooting, Wild

On 16th March there was yet another deadly shooting incident in the United States of America, in the State of Georgia. Shootings in two massage parlours in Atlanta and one in the suburbs left eight people dead-at least six of them were women of Asian origin.

Police have arrested one man, suspected to be behind all the three shootings. The motive is unclear and investigators are trying to get to the bottom of the muscle.

The shootings are sending shockwaves throughout the Asian American Community as hate-related incidents have increased since the start of the pandemic.

This is not how America should look like, and the recurring shootings bring the issue of Gun Control into the cross-hairs. America must act…before the next shooting engulfs the country, again. This is a tragedy beyond measure.

Should we completely ban guns and return to the bow & arrow mode, or better still, armless combat?

Lifting The Veil, Again.

Sri Lanka has taken a significant step towards banning the burka and other face coverings in public, on grounds of national security. A cabinet order has been signed, which now needs parliamentary approval. A ban can be expected anytime now.

The Government is also planning to ban more than 1,000 madrassa Islamic schools, which flout the national education policy, teaching in their own way.

The move comes nearly two years after a wave of co-ordinated attacks on hotels and churches, on Easter Sunday, brought back bitter memories of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) brand of terrorism. Suicide bombers had targeted Catholic churches and tourist hotels, killing more than 250 people in April 2019. The Islamic State militant group said it had carried out the attacks.

For over two decades Sri Lanka suffered terribly under the ‘wild, militant, separatist presence’ of the LTTE, which controlled and ruled the North Eastern part of the country. It was a Herculean effort that Sri Lanka made to wipe out the LTTE, gunning down its top leaders and scoring a decisive military victory. And they cannot allow other extremists to take the country for a ride, again.

India’s Five State Assembly Elections

After the recent rains of water, it’s now preparing to rain washing machines, solar stoves, cooking gas cylinders, mosquito nets, and other freebies in India’s Tamil Nadu State, which is going to the Polls on 6th April. People have already been drenched with television sets, mixies, grinders, table fans, scooters, cycles, laptops, gold for mangalsutra, milch cows… and they don’t seem to be catching a cold. Housewives maybe paid to do their homework, one in a family given a Government Job, and the swing of cash flows is a tsunami in the making. With dominating charismatic leaders either dead or out-of-action this is a high octane Election campaign.

In Kerala a wizened old ‘Metro-Man’, seething with national fervour, hopes to build rails to a better future, and run the State like he did the Metro Rail System in Delhi and other Cities. In West Bengal a ‘forever-scowling’ white Tigress slipped and fell hurting herself, breaking bones, and blamed the lotus-eating-Lions for attacking her. Now she gets to be pushed around the campaign trail. In Assam it’s free dole time too, with scooters for girls students and agricultural tools for farmers. We can expect something similar in Puducherry, with about the same parties playing the same political game yonder too.

India’s State Elections offer one of the best entertainment anybody can get anywhere in the world. Try looking at it!

On the COVID-19 Trail

Tracking the great Vaccination drive, more than 413 million shots have been given across 132 countries at a rate of about 9.94 million doses per day.

Israel has showed that vaccinations have a nation-wide effect. By February more than 84% of people of age 70 and above had received two doses and severe COVID-19 cases have declined rapidly. And life is returning to near normalcy. The United Kingdom experienced similar results.

India has administered near about about 40 million vaccine doses till date, and needs to change gears and drive even faster. India, being the Vaccine Factory of the World is in the forefront of delivering Vaccines to other nations as well, earning enormous goodwill in the process. A case is being made for opening the vaccination to anybody who wants it. The Government is yet to decide. Recent spikes in COVID-19 cases are alarming, with a high of over 40,000 cases yesterday, generating fears for a second wave of infections.

Music’s Biggest Night: The Grammys 2021

This year, the 63rd Grammys Awards were held on a different kind of stage and tuned to a different kind of music, as well, heavily influenced by the pandemic.

There was no audience, and performers were separated into five stages, arranged in a circle inside the Los Angeles Convention Centre to maintain social distancing. In another break with tradition, the awards were handed out by bartenders, security guards and cleaners from concert venues that have been forced to close due to Covid-19. Comedian Trevor Noah hosted the ceremony for the first time.

Taylor Swift’s surprise lockdown Album, Folklore, which was a front-runner in the run-up to the Grammys, fearlessly walked away with the Album of the Year prize making her the first woman to win the Best Album Award, three times. She swiftly joins ‘three other folks’ who had done it before – Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.

The Grammy Awards Night may well be called the ‘Musilacious Beyonce Night’ as she aced the Awards breaking the record for the most Grammys won by a woman and any singer, male or female, with 28 awards-also tying the record with the great Quincy Jones, as the living person with the most Grammys.

Enter Blue Ivy Carter, 9 years old, the daughter of Beyonce and Jay-Z who became the second youngest artist to win a Grammy Award, her first, for Best Music Video for ‘Brown Skin Girl’. The record for the youngest is held by Leah Peasall, who won in 2001 at the age of 8 years.

Beyonce and fellow Houston native, Best New Artist, Megan Thee Stallion, also made history as the first pair of women to ever win best rap performance with the remix of Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Savage’. The pair then went on to win best rap song for the same tune. But it was Beyonce’s win for best R&B performance for ‘Black Parade’ that put her over the top.

Find the other winners from the wildcards below.

‘I can’t breathe’ without saying that the Song of the Year was won by Dernst Emile II, H.E.R. And ‘Future Nostalgia’, Dua Lipa, stayed high on Pop Vocal Album of the year. It ‘Rain-ed on Me’ that the Best Pop Duo was Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande. I decided it was ‘Everything I wanted’ of Bille Eilish for Record of the Year, but not before shooting ‘No Time To Die’ as the best song for visual media. Watch it in the yet to be released James Bond movie.

I just gulped a solo Harry Styles, ‘Watermelon Sugar’ drink to rock to ‘The New Abnormal’ of The Strokes before going traditional pop vocal with James Taylor’s, ‘American Standard’. ‘Anything for For You’ sang Ledisi in a traditional R&B best performance.

Oops, I’m still out of breath, and hope to find it soon!

The Oscar Nominations

Actor and Producer Priyanka Chopra Jonas along with her husband, Nick Jonas, announced the nominations-which had many surprises-for this year’s Academy Awards.

The movie ‘Mank’, directed by David Fincher, starring Academy Award winner Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried, bagged 10 nominations under different categories. The second highest number of nominations was bagged by, The Trial Of The Chicago 7, Sound of Metal, Nomadland, Minari, Judas and the Black Messiah, and The Father, with six nominations each.

Mank is an American biographical film about screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz who wrote the screenplay for one for the finest movies of our time, Citizen Kane. Recall, Gary Oldman is the honest Police Officer in the Batman movie, Dark Knight, and has previously won Best Actor Oscar for being Winston Churchill in the 2018 movie, Darkest Hour. Amanda Seyfried is nominated for Best Supporting Actress and this is her first Oscar nomination-without doubt, she is thrilled!

The Indian movies I talked about last week did to make it to the final nominations. But a Priyanka Chopra starrer (she is also one for the Producers), ‘The White Tiger’ held on to its stripes with a nomination for Writing-Best Adapted Screenplay, written for the screen by Ramin Bahrani who has also directed the film. Bahrani is an Iranian-American director and screenwriter.

The White Tiger, is based on author Arvind Adiga’s novel-a New York Times Bestseller and winner of the Man Booker prize-of the same name, and is the story of a self-made man growing from a tea-shop worker in a village to a successful entrepreneur in a big city (call it Bengaluru).

Look out for the Oscar Awards Ceremony happening at the end of March 2021.

More scenes set to great tunes coming up in the weeks ahead.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-11

About: The story of what we did this week in our World. Last week, among other things, I talked about Old Birds, this week there is a story of Old Humans, Meteorites, and Music. Read on…

Everywhere

Meteorites from Outer Space – Aliens throwing them?

On the night of 28th February the Wilcocks family living in Winchcombe, a market Town in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, heard a dull thud outside their house. One of them stood up and looked out through the window, but it being awfully dark – couldn’t see a thing.

The next morning on coming out of the house, they saw a lump of ‘a coal kind of thing, a kind of splatter’, on their drive. Could someone have been driving around lobbing lumps of coal into people’s gardens? Or could it be an upturned barbecue tray?

Meanwhile, Scientists-they are always watching-knew fragments of a meteorite must have landed in the Gloucestershire area, as their tracking cameras had recorded a rock coming through the atmosphere, that Sunday night, creating a huge fireball. And they made an appeal for people to come forward with any finds.

When Planetary Scientists saw the pictures sent by the Wilcocks, they were blown away, and almost instantaneously thought it must be a meteorite from outer space.

It was indeed a meteorite, the first find of its kind in the UK in 30 years. It was a carbonaceous, dark stony material that retained unaltered chemistry from the formation of our Solar System 4.6 billion years ago, and hence could give fresh insights on how planets came into being.

This would keep Scientists busy for years to come in trying to unravel the mysteries of the Universe. Let’s hope they, ‘lift the veil’ on just about everything we know about our Solar System and the origin of life.

Lifting the Veil

In a Referendum, results of which were declared this week, over 51% of people in Switzerland voted to ban women from wearing the burqa or niqab in public spaces. The argument by the Swiss Government was that religious veils are a symbol of oppression of women and aren’t suitable to modern society. Full facial veils will be allowed inside places of prayer and for native customs, such as carnivals. Exceptions to the law will include face coverings for reasons of security, climate, or health, which means protective masks worn against Covid-19 are acceptable.

The initiative behind the referendum was launched in 2016 by the Egerkingen Committee, an Association that also successfully pushed for a vote to ban the building of new Minarets, in 2009.

With this outcome Switzerland joins France, which banned wearing a full face veil in public in 2011. Full or partial bans on wearing face coverings in public are also ‘off the face’ in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

The face is the index of the mind. If I cannot see a face-and the many lines formed and un-formed, crooked or straight, how do I read a person? I believe religion should be veiled inside one’s heart, mind or home. And-I’m assuming-the best results better be visible on the outside.

Oprah Winfrey, Big-Bang

Do meteorites striking the United Kingdom have mysterious big-bang effects elsewhere and echo in the Kingdom?

When it comes to interviewing people on Television there is none better in the World than Oprah Winfrey. She pulls it off skilfully, as smooth as silk, always making the interviewee feel safe and protected, cleverly nudging them to opening up about themselves and uncover shocking, hidden secrets. She talked to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who quit their royal duties in England, to build their own life outside the control of the Royal Family.

The revelations, about animosity, deep-rooted racism, double standards, and a dearth of support from the Royal Family were like carpet bombs raining down on the Crown – the monarchy. It will be remembered as one of the most brutally explosive royal interviews in history.

The Royal family had concerns and conversations on about how dark Harry & Meghan’s son, Archie’s skin might be when he’s born. Archie was not made a Prince and hence not given the kind of security that other younger royals enjoyed as an entitlement. Meghan spoke of suicidal thoughts she experienced and the lack of support from the Royals-you have to deal with it yourself she was told. She felt trapped and alone, unable to venture out freely.

It was also striking that Harry was absolutely open about his own mental and emotional struggles, speaking frankly about the pain in family relationships.

Someone remarked that Harry’s emotional intelligence could be used as a springboard for ‘enhancing the emotional wellness of our men and boys’.

We get to see the picture of the British monarchy being a family that gives little support to those who marry into it, where a woman of colour finds the ensuing abuse simply unmanageable. And there is this ‘Institution’ or ‘The Firm’ or ‘The Preservers’ that straight-jackets the Royal Family, coming in-between the Royals and all others.

Oprah concluded the interview by telling Meghan that her story with the Prince “does have a happy ending-because you made it so”.

Let me tell you a true story-doing an ‘Oprah Winfrey Selfie’:

In the days when I was hunting for a bride-in the South Indian arranged marriage system-I went to ‘formally see’ a girl, with the family in tow. I saw her, talked to her, and liked what I saw and heard, in the one-to-one brief meeting. And decided to take the chance-given the options-and say, yes. But the family found many shades of colour-the girl was slightly dark-and some surface defects, and asked me to reconsider. I overruled them and asked for a more valid reason beyond the ‘physical aspects’. And I said, I saw inner beauty-I found her likeable in my own way. I was firm and the issue remained in suspended animation for almost a year with me ‘launching a me-only protest’ and declaring, ‘I won’t see any other girl’. Meanwhile, a truckload of the family made another visit to ‘look again’. And did not change their mind.

We were building a new House at that time and Dad and I disagreed on the colour of the wash basins and water closets, with me insisting that they should be sparkling white and Dad saying they should be chocolate-brown. Then, he comes over and says, ‘You want everything white in the bathrooms and yet you are okay with a dark girl?’ This, in the early 1990’s-an India obsessed with the fair & lovely skin!

I had to move on as I had not means of furthering the relationship with the person I met only once. Later, I married another ‘slightly fair’ brown girl, after another formal seeing.

Some memories stay with us for a lifetime and I hope to meet ‘this first girl’, one day, and take stock of how the colours have faded and how we got here!

The Torch of the Tokyo Olympics 2021

I read about oldest living persons so often that I’m getting old with who is really old. This is an attempt to get young with the old, and set the age records straight – of the verified longevity claims.

Japan’s Kane Tanaka, at 118 years of age, is the world’s oldest living person and she is preparing herself to carry the Olympic Torch this May when it passes through Shime, in her home prefecture of Fukuoka, Japan. She will be doing a 100 metre run-in her leg of torch carrying-which means Tanaka’s family will push her in a wheel-chair for most of the distance. And she is determined to walk the final few steps to pass the torch on to the next runner. That’s definitely the sporting spirit which is the fuel of the Olympic flame.

When Kane Tanaka indeed does it, she would be the oldest person to ever carry an Olympic Torch and ‘run a leg’ of the journey to the inaugural of the Games.

Tanaka was born in the year the Wright Brothers made history by successfully completing the world’s first powered air-borne flight. She has twice survived cancer, lived through two World Wars, two global pandemics (The 1918 Spanish Flu and this Covid-19) and loves fizzy (Coca-Cola included) drinks. She married a rice shop owner at the age of 19, went on to cook four children, and worked in the family store until she was 103. Tanaka has five grandchildren and eight great-grand children. One of her grandson’s said of her,’ I don’t remember her talking much about the past, she’s very forward thinking, she really enjoys living in the present’.

She now lives in a nursing home and plays math games-the board game called Othello-every day. So, we now know her secret of longevity. Lessons for us? Other secrets of people who have lived beyond 100 are: family unity under the rules of love, mutual respect, honest work, and proper education based on family values. Japan is home to some of the oldest of people and we would do well to learn the way they live, and adapt.

She is not done, as yet. The record for the oldest person to ever live is held by a French Woman, Jeanne Louise Calment who died at the age of 122 years and 164 days. And Kane Tanaka has her sights on beating this milestone. Will She? See you – and her – in 2025. This will be after the next Summer Olympics, which incidentally is, Paris 2024. And the French have an ‘old age’ competition. Welcome to France.

Tennis at the Qatar Open

The ATP Qatar Open underway in Doha is Swiss, Roger Federer’s first comeback Tournament since returning to playing from knee injury-two back-to-back arthroscopic surgeries. He made a good start and almost made it to the quarter-finals when he was beaten in three sets by Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili.

Roger has decided to return to training, and has exited the upcoming ATP 500 event in Dubai.

The nearing 40, Tennis superstar showed class and some vintage ‘Roger Federer shots’, making us want more of them, from him. It’s worth the wait. Hope to see him back on court, soon. Welcome back Roger.

On the COVID-19 Trail

Brazil plunges into a crisis.

A second wave of COVID-19-believed to be caused by a deadly new variant of the coronavirus-is whiplashing through Brazil pushing Hospitals and Intensive Care Units towards the brink of collapse and claiming a record number of daily deaths.

This Wednesday, Brazil’s Health Ministry registered a devastating new high of 2,286 lives lost to the virus. In total, more than 270,000 people are known to have died due to COVID-19.

What is the cause? Health-Care workers blame the recent surge in cases on large parties and gatherings that began around New Year’s Eve and continued through the Mardi Gras carnival holiday and into the present. Many of these were held in defiance of local city and state restrictions.

On the Vaccination front, more than 345 million doses have been administered across 121 countries at about 8.74 million doses per day.

Israel has reached a milestone of 100 doses per 100 people; about 56.5% of the population has received at least one shot, and 45.2% are fully vaccinated. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has given 60 doses per 100 people, The United States (US) has given 30 doses, and the United Kingdom has done 37 doses per 100.

India has given about 2.82 crore vaccine doses till date, at 2 doses per 100, with 1.7% receiving at least one shot and 0.4% fully vaccinated. There appears to be a murmur of a second wave in India with over 20,000 positive cases and with the States of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu seeing an uptick. We are still in the thick of the fight with the virus and should hold-on with our guard-not lowering it down, until the vaccination, and better times, reach us. I’m sure the Government is working to a plan.

The Sound of Music

The Storm over Saranga Dhariya

The Telangana folk song ‘Saranga Dhariya’ (meaning, musical instrument Sarangi – a bowed short necked stringed instrument – worn as an ornament) featured in the Sai Pallavi movie, ‘Love Story’, has become an internet dance sensation garnering over 31 million views on You Tube, over 10 days. The song is sung by popular folk singer Mangli and the lyrics are by Suddala Ashok Teja, an award-winning lyricist. In the yet-to-be-released movie, Actress Sai Pallavi dances to the beat of the song in the way, only she can. Remember, ‘Rowdy Baby’?

However, there is now a brewing controversy on Tollywood’s (Telugu Film World) appropriation of Telangana Folk Music.

Ten years ago, Komala, a folk singer, from Telangana’s Warangal District auditioned for a talent show-in which Lyricist Suddala was a judge – with the song aired on the TV Show ‘Real Re’, which brought her fame and recognition. Kamala says she heard her grandmother sing Saranga Dhariya while working in the fields from where she plucked out the song and strung the music to it.

Komala learnt about the appropriation only when the promotions of the film were released and was dissatisfied with the adaption and not being given due credit for ‘her song’, first rendered in the competition. And later she had even released an album of the song.

In the film, the song is about a woman – her beauty, her strong mindedness, one who is not easy to attain and who adorns the sarangi instrument. Komala’s version is more about righteousness and virtue of a woman, than her beauty. The film version has taken the song to greater heights than Komala, and her grandmother, could even imagine.

Meanwhile, let the music play on. It’s irresistible to keep your body parts immobile to such an earthy beat – righteousness, virtue, and beauty, all dancing in unison.

The Grammys – up ahead.

Every year, March is definitely the month of ‘reaping the fruits’ in showbiz, of the seeds sowed in drama and music in the year gone by. What, with the Oscars and the Grammys showing.

The 63rd Grammy Awards Show – The Grammys 2021 – will take place in Los Angeles, United States, this Sunday and winners of the nominated 83 categories of music will be announced.

Look forward to live performances by some of the best music Artists in the World, coming together to play music for each other as a community, and celebrate music that unites people across civilisations.

Black Pumas, Billie Eilish, Mickey Guyton, Brittany Howard, Miranda Lambert, Cardi B, Brandi Carlile, Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, Chris Martin, Thee Stallion, Taylor Swift, and more are lined up to sing and dance.

Beyonce leads with nine nominations, while Taylor Swift is favourite to pick up the coveted Album of the Year Award. If she wins, Swift will become the first woman to scoop the Best Album prize three times. Only three others have done it before: Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.

Someone said, ‘music is the soundtrack of life’. We all have our own unique soundtracks and let’s play it well -to be heard.

More music and stories landing on your drive in the weeks ahead. Try looking out of the Window to see what you can find.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-10

About: The story of the world this week-fascinating, with many firsts.

Everywhere

Smoke in my Eyes

Some news refuses to vacate the front page headlines-hogs it-and the Myanmar saga is one. This week 38 people protesting the military coup were killed and the retaliation against the pro-democracy demonstrators is becoming more brutal and deadly, with every new day of the strife. More than 50 people have died, and many wounded, since the coup began.

Where does Myanmar go from here? There was another thought channel-and I think it made sense-which believes that the ‘Aung San Suu Kyi Moment’ has passed, and Myanmar needs the next crop of leaders to step-in and make radical changes, especially in the Constitution. But then, clearing the military minefield would be the biggest challenge.

The World has been ‘shot and wounded’ by the incidents in Myanmar and should apply more pressure on the Military Junta to release leaders, hand over power to the people-elected Government-like it or not-and step behind. And watch from the shadows of their barracks.

The Pope in Iraq and the Rivers of Babylon.

Iraq is a war-torn country and healing is required in every dimension. It is also a land steeped in ancient biblical history. With this in mind perhaps Pope Francis decided to make a first-ever papal visit to Iraq, this week, and the first overseas visit by the Pope, since the pandemic caged all of us.

His Holiness was invited by President Barham Salih in 2019 and when it actually happened was received at the Baghdad Airport by Prime Minister Kadhimi.

On landing in Iraq, the 84 years old Pontiff said he comes as a pilgrim of peace and called for an end to acts of violence and extremism, factions and intolerance.

Babylon, in Iraq, is the birthplace of Abraham, patriarch of the Jews, Christians and Muslims: it has been the dream of every Pope to make a visit. Pope Francis should be realising this dream.

Remember the Music Group, Boney M’s famous song, ‘Rivers of Babylon’, which lyrics are adapted from the Hebrew Bible and has a history stretching back to thousands of years. It’s about a time when Jerusalem has been conquered, the Temple destroyed and Israelites exiled in Babylon. They weep and mourn their fate sitting on the banks of the River Tigris and Euphrates remembering Zion- Jerusalem. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? The Pope will surely find answers.

The visit will also be the first meeting in history between the head of the Catholic Church and the head of the Shia Islamic Establishment-the Hawza-now led by the 90 years old Grand Ayatollah Ali-al Sistani, one of the most influential religious authorities in the Muslim World. They met in the holy city of Najaf and probably exchanged ‘religious views’.

Great minds are at work: hope peace and progress of humanity occupies the largest space.

Roaming on Mars

America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Perseverance Rover which successfully touched down on Mars, on 18th February, at the Jezero Crater took its first drive this week, traveling about 21 feet and doing a little spin across the Crater. NASA says that it all went ‘incredibly well’. Once the mission begins exploring Mars, in a more ‘whole-hearted manner’, it will go on drives averaging about 656 feet or more.

Meanwhile, Perseverance has been soaking itself in the Martian weather hoping to get a Martian tan: it deployed wind sensors to set up its own weather station, flexed its robotic arm-carrying a muscle of instruments-and even received a software update. And has sent about 7,000 images back to Earth.

Wow, the Rover seems to be enjoying the holidays! I’m still waiting for the Ingenuity helicopter to be dropped so that it can start preparing for its own test flights. Lots to look up to!

Chicks of the Old

A Laysan Albatross named Wisdom, regarded as the oldest know wild bird in history, aged at least 70, has hatched another chick in the Midway Wildlife Refuge-home for the largest colony of Albatrosses in the World-in the North Pacific Ocean. Though the chick was hatched in February it was only this week that it was reported.

Albatrosses mate for life, rarely cheating on their partners, during a normal life span of about 40 years. Wisdom having lived up to 70 must have outlived mates, and picked up new partners, probably through ‘dance parties’, which is an elaborate pair-selection ritual in the Albatross clan. Her present long-term, steady companion, since 2010 is a guy called Akeakamai-the father of the new chick-with whom Wisdom shares incubation duties and chick feeding duties, while she forages for food-a part of the Albatross culture.

Typically, Albatrosses hatch eggs every few years and Wisdom must have brought about 35 chicks into the World.

Laysan Albatrosses are large sea-birds with wingspans of about 2 metres. They are spectacular gliders, able to stay aloft in windy weather for hours without ever flapping their extremely long narrow wings. They drink seawater and feed on squid, fish, and crustaceans. Like most seabirds Albatrosses breed on land where they appear clumsy compared to their majestic, soaring flights in the air.

In the Bird World, only parrots, especially cockatoos, are known to live beyond 70 years and into the hundreds. Most animals are productive right up to old age, and this Albatross is indeed a magnificent old bird.

Cricket

The fourth test match between India and England in underway at the ‘freshly named’ Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad, India, and England is finding the going awfully tough. Call it a name swing.

Vaccination Tracking, COVID-19.

More than 291 million doses have been administered across 111 countries at about 7.23 million doses per day.

Israel is continuing to lead the vaccination marathon with 95 doses given per 100 people; about 54.2% of the population has received at least one shot, and 40.4% are fully vaccinated. The United States (US) has given 26 doses per 100 people, while the United Kingdom has done 34 doses per 100.

India has given about 1.80 crore vaccine doses till date, at 1.4 doses per 100, with only 0.2% fully vaccinated. India needs to scale-up, quickly.

With the rollout of the second phase of the vaccination drive, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his first dose of a made-in-India COVID-19 Vaccine, Covaxin, at the, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, early this Monday and appealed to Indians to get themselves inoculated. Setting an example is the finest point in leadership and this should give the much-needed momentum to Vaccinating India.

Please Yourself: The Oscars

I’ve always been fascinated by the Oscars, the Red Carpet dresses-often leaving so much to the wildest possible imagination with haunting colour, sparkle, ‘transparency’, revealing hidden treasures, and unbelievable curves-a reflection of the fantasy of movie making. And the fantastic stories, song, music, and sheer brilliance of make-believe. Along with watching movies nothing compares to sitting back and watching the best movies of the year gone by and living the creative world of man’s mind.

This year, in the list of 366 movies, released by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences eligible for consideration at the 93rd Oscars, in various categories, three Indian Films have earned a place. One is, ‘Mmmmm’ (Sound of Pain), a film in the Kurumba language spoken by the tribal community in Attapadi, Kerala’s Palakkad District, South India. The film tells the story of a person from the Kurumba Tribe, who ekes out a living by collecting honey, and trials and tribulations in making his life ‘honey sweet’.

The second is, Tamil movie ‘Soorarai Pottru’ (hail the brave) which is a fictionalised true-story based on the start of India’s first low-cost airline-the struggle to lift and fly the common man. The theme being, everybody can afford to fly!

The third is ‘Bittu’ shortlisted in the Live Action Short Film category, which is set in rural India and revolves around the close friendship between two little girls, eclipsed by an accident of food poisoning at School.

Indian movies have not it made to holding the golden statues at the prestigious Oscars-though many Indian Artists and Actors have-and the only films that came close to being nominated are, Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988), and Lagaan(2001). India should get its act together. And it has fabulous stories to tell!

The voting will start on 5th March, and the official nominations will be announced on 15th March.

More golden stories, with ‘lots of span’, coming up next week.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-09

About: I kept my last week’s schedule and watched the film, ‘News of the World’. Now I ‘read’ my edition of the News of the World. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Everywhere

Words of Wisdom

Invest in you, it’s going to be the best bet of your life.

A World of Protests

In Russia, Opposition Leader, Alexei Navalny who was convicted to three years in jail on multiple cases, including defamation of an Army Veteran, lost an appeal on his prison sentence and will continue to ‘count the jail bars’, as ruled by the Courts. That means he will be sent to a forced labour camp where he will do sewing, carpentry, and the kind. Demonstrations against his arrest continue across Russia. His wife too is in jail, for joining the protests.

It’s a very long road ahead for Navalny and the tunnel is just being dug – with no end in sight, leave alone any kind of light. He is up against the might of a powerful State, which knows exactly what it wants (gets to you from the underpants – they say).

In Myanmar, demonstrations against the January 2021 Military Coup, demanding the release of democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) Party is showing no signs of abating: they are continuing to rise, with gusto. A young 20 years old woman, Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, who was shot in the head by the Police, during the protests, died in Hospital further inflaming the situation. Youngsters are protesting in artful and creative ways. The Three-finger Salute (idea stolen from the Hunger Games movie), Blindfolding, Dressing like Suu Kyi or Tattooing her picture on the body, are some of the innovative ways of galvanising attention and showing dissent.

I think the Army Generals are making a ‘bomb mistake’ by ‘generating war’ within the Country. Isn’t their task to safeguard the country from external forces and mind the borders, rather than create borders inside?

In Spain it is a testing time for ‘freedom of expression’. Pablo Hasel, or Pablo Rivadulla Duro, is a Spanish Rapper, Writer and Poet. He is known for his fierce anti-establishment raps, which are said to glorify terrorism and insult the Spanish monarchy. Recently, the Spanish Supreme Court upheld a lower Court’s conviction for supporting terrorism, and also for libel and slander against the Spanish monarchy, through his social media messages. He was ordered to voluntarily enter prison to serve a nine-month jail term.

Defying the Order, Pablo and his supporters barricaded themselves inside Lledia University, in the northeastern provincial capital of Lleida, near Barcelona, after the deadline to surrender expired. Catalan Police then stormed the University and took him away.

Following Pablo’s dramatic arrest, protesters spilled on to the streets in Barcelona and Girona, in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region protesting the arrest, which is seen as a violation for Freedom of Speech.

The Spanish Government had recently announced that it would remove prison terms for offences involving freedom of expression, however it is unclear when the changes will be made and take effect.

I recall, in Iran, some time ago, an Iranian Rapper Justina, Farima Habashizadehasl, fled the country to seek asylum in Georgia – where she now lives in exile- for the simple reason that in Iran, women are banned from singing solo. Iran’s Muslims, in the religiously conservative, country believe that a woman’s singing voice can be erotic. And many women have been arrested or penalised on this song count.

Freedom Of Expression is certainly not as free as it seems. But ‘erotic’, I wonder? Suddenly, due to the plethora of social media shouts, Freedom Of Expression is being challenged like never, and Governments are scrambling to re-define what it really means.

It’s Raining Plane Parts

United Airlines Flight-328 was carrying 231 passengers from Denver, USA, to Honolulu when it suffered a failure in its right-hand engine, which caught fire. Passengers on board recount that they heard a loud explosion shortly after take-off.

Fortunately, the Boeing 777-200 was able to return and safely make an emergency landing at Denver Airport but not before raining engine debris over a residential area in nearby Broomfield Town. Fragments were found on a football field and what appeared to be the front of an engine-casing landed in the front garden of a home. No one was hurt.

This Boeing 777 uses two Pratt & Whitney-4000 Engines, which had similar blowouts is two other flights, and definitely warrants a close examination of the insides. Preliminary investigations suggest that the failure might be due to metal fatigue.

A modern twin-engine airliner is designed to be able to fly safely for hours using a single engine.

On the same day as the Denver incident, an engine failure on a Boeing 747 freighter saw debris rain down on a town in the Netherlands. Parts of what appeared to be turbine blades landed on the Town of Meerssen, with one blade found embedded in a car roof. Two people on the ground, one a child, were slightly injured. The aircraft, which had left Maastricht bound for New York, landed safely in Liege in neighbouring Belgium.

Airlines are having a tough time and ‘metal rain’ is definitely not what the passengers ordered or people on the ground would expect. Flying safe remains a stiff challenge at all times.

World of Sport

Australian Open Finals, Melbourne Park, Australia

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic beat Russian Daniil Medvedev, World No 4, in a classic Australian Open final, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, to claim his 18th Grand Slam title. Djokovic delivered a masterclass, surgical performance to overwhelm Medvedev who came to the final riding on the wave of a 20-game continuous winning streak. Medvedev exhibited awesome talent, skills, and flashes of brilliance; giving all that he had in the first set, but crumbled soon after, and in the end when it was all over, smashed his racquet on the ground of the Rod Laver Arena. Call it Tennis Crush?

Novak Djokovic is now just two Grand Slam Titles short of the all time record of 20 Titles, jointly held by the other aces, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Naomi Osaka easily overpowered American Jennifer Brady, a first-time finalist, 6-4, 6-3, to win the Women’s Title. The Victory gives Osaka her second Australian Open Title and fourth Grand Slam Title, at the age of 23 years. With the trouncing of Serena Williams in the semi-finals, Osaka looks set to dominate Women’s Tennis for time to come.

The Rising Sun is rising and shining in the World of Tennis.

The Wizard of Tennis

While the big stars were shining brightly Down Under, there was one little-known star who quietly twinkled and conquered the hearts of the many watching. She is tennis maverick, Taiwanese, Hsieh Su-Wei, unmistakable with her beaming smile, wry sense of humour – strung on a thin frame and served with a great return. Known for playing with two hands on both sides, she has a unique and unorthodox style of play, a variety of shots matched with a crafty gameplay, and aggressive volleys. She plays on unalloyed instinct, which often makes for a great match for those watching.

The 35 years old Hsieh, ranked as one of the world’s best doubles player (she is currently World No 1 in Women’s Doubles) reached the quarterfinal’s in Melbourne – the furthest she has ever gone as a singles player in a Grand Slam. She was knocked out by eventual winner Naomi Osaka.

Hsieh, nicknamed, ‘The Wizard’ by commentators, has won three Grand Slam doubles titles, making her one of Asia’s, and Taiwan’s, most successful tennis player of all time and one of the greatest tennis players Asia as ever produced. Hsieh has won 28 doubles titles, on the WTA(Women’s Tennis Association) Tour, 27 Singles and 23 doubles Titles in the ITF (International Tennis Federation) Circuit and a bunch of medals (gold, silver, and bonze) in the Asian Games.

Hsieh started to play professionally at the age of 16, in Taiwan. And life on tour wasn’t easy, and neither was being based in Taiwan. She struggled to sign up for tournaments and was having to plan everything herself without a Sponsor. Then she met former Australian tennis player Paul McNamee who took Hsieh under his wing in 2011 and unburdened her of the administrative headaches. It allowed Hsieh to focus on her game and unleash her true potential.

Hsieh doesn’t like people mentioning the age of girls in public – not in our culture, she says, and she is a food fan, eating as much as she can at the Table.

Nothing to hide; much to serve and volley; lots to eat.

Test Cricket: The Short and the Large.

England must have been stunned ‘by the turn’ of the Motera Stadium in to the Narendra Modi Stadium, inside the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave, in the third Test Match at Ahmedabad – a day-night, pink ball match. They were completely outdone by India in an incredible period of just two days – and three days to spare. With this India takes a 2-1 lead in the four match test series.

England scored 112 & 81 while India did a 145 & 49-without loss, to brown-wash England by ten wickets.

The Narendra Modi Stadium is the largest Cricket Stadium in the World and bowlers typically charge to the wickets from the ‘Adani and Reliance ends’ – with these two Corporates having liberally contributed to the build, earning sponsorship Ends. It was conceptualised by Prime Minster Narendra Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and also the head of Gujarat Cricket Association. It has a seating capacity of 1,32,000 spectators higher than the 90,000 seating capacity of the now dethroned biggest – Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia.

What’s in a name? Let the games begin – with lots of space for physical distancing.

The Pandemic, COIVD-19

Vaccination Tracking

More than 231 million doses have been administered across 103 countries at 6.17 million doses per day.

Israel is still way ahead with 88 doses given per 100 people; about 51.5% of the population has received at least one shot, and 36.4% are fully vaccinated. The United States (US) has given 21 doses per 100 people, while the United Kingdom has done 30 doses per 100.

India has administered about 1.34 crore doses till date, at 1 dose per 100, with a measly 0.2% fully vaccinated. The Government is rolling out its second phase of vaccination from 1st March covering the over 60years or the over 45 years but with medical comorbidities. The virus has not found it easy to get a deadly spike hold in India – as many predicted, but the vaccination drive ought to be speeded up.

Meanwhile, the US crossed a grim, heartbreaking milestone of over 500,000 dead, due to the coronavirus. President Biden had this to say, ‘We often hear people described as ordinary American. There’s no such thing, there’s nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary. They span generations. Born in America, emigrated to America”

Indeed, heart-breaking – what this pandemic has done to us.

Please Yourself: Now Showing Minari

With the month of March around the corner it’s getting close to the announcement of the Oscar nominations and the Academy Awards being cat-walked in April.

Last year, South Korea’s movie ‘Parasite’ unexpectedly stole the show in a World wary of English sub-titles. This year there’s another South Korean movie called ‘Minari’ growing inroads into the hearts of moviegoers, the world over, hoping to be a wellspring of deserved honours.

Unlike Parasite’s story line of social satire, Minari is a warm story, set in the 1980’s, of a South Korean family moving from California to Arkansas. A father plans a better living for his wife and two young children by farming Korean vegetables, and selling them to wholesalers and restaurants. The family ‘imports the mother’ of the wife from Korea, to baby-sit the children, when she plants Minari – a Korean plant that grows almost anywhere and can be used in just about any dish – on a riverbank. It thrives and the plant serves as something of a metaphorical encouragement: even far removed from its native soil, Minari can grow and thrive.

The movie draws strength and beauty from the landscape of rural America and is a breathtaking story of belonging and hope. And of chasing the great American Dream.

Minari is a Korean word for the vegetable, ‘Water Dropwort’, which has crisp stems and leafy tops and a herbal flavour, and tastes a little like parsley. It is used as a flavouring herb in soups and stews. Both the leaves and stems can be finely chopped and used as a topping on any savoury dish. And it has the taste of carrot tops and celery.

More mouth-watering stories – ‘and names’ (and renames) – coming up next week.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-08

About: This is illuminating news, from my perspective, on how we lived this week, in this Earth…and in other Planets as well – beyond Earth.

Everywhere

God Bless America

The United States of America (USA) went through the motions of impeaching its most recent ex-President, as second time, but could not muster the courage to vote him guilty of instigating the 6th January 2021 Insurrection at Capitol Hill – a huge blot on America’s democracy – visible from the Red Planet. Punishing him would have set a great example and cleared the cobwebs on an ambiguous law, which loopholes helped him survive.

A two-thirds majority vote was required to convict the not-so-great ex-President and with a 50-50 tie between the Democrats and the Republicans in the Senate, the final vote count stood at 57 (convict)- 43 (acquit), which was far from the required punishment threshold. Seven Republicans showed ‘great’ guts in agreeing with the Democrats that the ex-President was guilty.

He was acquitted by the Senate and lives to get elected another ‘great’ day.

What Next? More of ‘great’ golf, until the next Elections?

Bill Gates, now a Window to Climate Change

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates is turning out to be a damn good Astrologer, opening doors, windows, and many vistas: predicting infectious disease Epidemics and Climate Change, to mention a few. Nostradamus must be pleased, from up above.

Bill Gates has written a new book, ‘How to Avoid Climate Disaster. The Solutions We Have and The Breakthroughs We Need’. It’s a guide to tackling global warming. I haven’t read it as yet, but here are some insights I plucked out from various reviews.

He says, ‘solving climate change would be the most amazing thing humanity has ever done. By comparison, ending the pandemic is very, very easy’.

Fifty-one billion, is how many tonnes of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere each year. Zero, is what we need to get to.

Renewable sources like wind and solar can help decarbonise electricity, but that’s less than 30% of total emissions. We are also going to have to decarbonise the other 70% of the world economy – steel, cement, transport systems, fertiliser production, and much, much more. We simply don’t have ways of doing that at the moment for many of these sectors.

Consuming less stuff – fewer flights, local food, less electricity and gas – won’t solve the problem.

He argues political action is more important, demanding Governments across the World do the right thing, and using our voices as consumers, insisting the same of Companies.

‘If you buy an electric car, a hamburger made of a meat substitute, an electric heat pump for your home you are helping increase the production of these products and therefore helping drive prices down’.

There’s no doubt that the next best thing to destroying the human race – other than an epidemic – is the effects of climate change. It’s the Elephant in the Room that many haven’t noticed and those who did are trumpeting for immediate action. If we can find a Vaccine for a nano-virus, I’m sure we can herd Elephants out of the room, back into the lush green forests. I agree with Bill Gates, it’s hard to push an Elephant.

Sleepless in Texas – Shivering and Freezing too

Did Bill Gates predict this one?

Texas State in the USA is known for its sprawling deserts and intense heat waves, but, right now it is hiding under a thin layer of ice. Unbelievable?

Texas is in the grip of unprecedented freezing temperatures as a brutally cold, historic winter storm ravaged it, bringing snow, sleet, and freezing rain in its wake. Temperatures touched down to (- )39 Degree Centigrade in many cities.

The frigid cold, crippled giant wind turbines (an important source of electricity in the State), froze and paralysed vital equipment at gas wells, the natural gas system, and in the nuclear industry. Pipes froze and burst across the State.

The primary sources of energy in Texas – natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind and solar – have been affected by the cold and ice causing blackouts and ruinous power outages. The Power Supply Grid was overwhelmed and several parts were left without power, for basic chores.

Homes in Texas are not normally insulated for cold water, resulting in indoor temperatures quickly dropping to freezing point after heating systems failed.

Texas is the only state of the USA with an independent power grid, meaning it depends entirely on its own electricity supply means. In hindsight, it was a lurking disaster waiting to happen, and they should have had a means for connecting with the Grid of another State – at least for emergency power. How can you afford to ‘live off the Grid’ for so long a period?

India, for eg., has a National Electricity Grid – One Nation, One Grid – and power can flow from the top of the Country to the bottom and across, from the left to the right, in a seamless manner, delivering power to Consumers, anywhere in the country. India achieved this electrifying feat in the year 2014.

What caused the freeze? The US National Weather Service says that this is due to an ‘Arctic Outbreak’ that originated just above the US-Canada Border bringing winter storm and plummeting temperatures. Cold air outbreaks such as these are normally kept contained with the Arctic Zone, by a series of low-pressure systems. However, this one moved through Canada and spilled out in to the US. And it has touched down far South into Texas. Amazing reach!

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) – Starting to Trade

The WTO is the only global international organisation dealing with rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensue that trade flows smoothly, predictably, and freely as possible. It has 164 nations as its members.

This week, WTO finally got its trading biases right – after years of trading with males in the lead it has made the shift to females. On Monday, it appointed Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the first female and first African head of the WTO. This is a first in the 73 years of GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and WTO.

Okonjo-Iweala will take up her job on 1st March 2021 and her term, which is renewable, will run up to 31st August, 2025.

One of the selectors said of her, ‘She was not chosen because she is female or because she is from Africa, but because she stood out as the candidate with the best qualifications, experience and qualities for the daunting task’. That’s well said. I just do not like making everything a male-female issue and would trade it for expertise and quality.

The Geneva-based WTO has been leaderless since Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo stepped down last August, a year ahead of schedule. The WTO appoints its leaders through a consensus-finding process, but former US President Donald Trump’s administration stood alone in blocking the consensus around Okonjo-Iweala.

Okonjo-Iweala takes over a beleaguered WTO when it is facing a slew of challenges that have hobbled it in recent years, including how to best manage the increased friction between economic superpowers the USA and China. Critics of the WTO said it has failed to intervene over some of China’s most egregious economic offenses, which in turn has let the USA name its economic adversary a currency manipulator and impose or threaten billions of dollars in tariffs on goods from China.

Okonjo-Iweala is seen as a trailblazer in her homeland. She was twice Nigeria’s finance minister and its first female foreign minister in a two-month stint. A development economist by training with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Okonjo-Iweala has also had a 25-year career as a development economist at the World Bank, eventually becoming its number two. She has portrayed herself as a champion against Nigeria’s rampant corruption-revealing that her own mother was even kidnapped over her attempts to tackle the scourge. Okonjo-Iweala is married to Ikemba Iweala, a neurosurgeon. They have four children, including author Uzodinma Iweala who wrote, ‘Beasts of No Nation’ (adapted as an award winning film) and ‘Speak No Evil’.

I’m sure the WTO can build strong trade bridges and Okonjo-Iweala has already warned about Vaccine Nationalism, during the current pandemic, ‘a phenomenon where rich countries are vaccinating their populations and poor countries have to wait’.

Toolkits: Vocabulary Building

There is a new word ploughing around Town and it goes by the name of Toolkit.

A Tookit is a collection of documents that contain basic information on an issue, adaptable resources, and campaigning tips, such as tweet suggestions, hashtags, who to tag on social media, how to sign online petitions, etc., so that one can spread the word easily (on a issue) and build-up a momentum of social-media opinion, which could ultimately ignite physical action in terms of sloganeering or for & against rallies – peaceful or otherwise.

Most of us in India learnt about it when overseas Celebrities and Activists began tweeting in support of the Farmer Protests protesting the Farm Reforms – laws enacted by India’s elected Government following due process of walking it through Parliament. Obviously the ‘hand of Toolkit’ was visible in their actions. This lead to inland celebrities fighting back with their own tweets against outside interference. Meanwhile, someone who edited one of these Toolkits, said to have been first prepared by anti-India Forces, was caught and the Police are using all the tools in their kit to find out what’s happening. And now you have a full-blown social media tool war and attempts to unravel a ‘plot against the nation’.

I’m glad that the younger generation is coming out with guns blazing on issues confronting the World. I’m sure they want to add perspective and get in to the thick of things. But they need to be mighty careful on who they are dealing with. Reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. Going to see grandma with sweets and biscuits is ‘very caring’. Beware of the Wolves, lurking in the bushes – and using toolkits for directions!

By all accounts the Farm Laws are very progressive, passed through an elected Parliament, and made into law. These reforms have been in the air for more than a decade and most of the Political Parties opposing them have sometime earlier supported the reforms now actually made into Law. Any changes should be made only through Parliament. Meanwhile it is best to try them out and I’m sure any shortcomings can be corrected by elected legislators. When it is time to vote, the overseas celebrities are welcome to vote, if the can.

Space: USA’s NASA lands on the Red Planet, Mars

On 18th February 2021, National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Perseverance Rover, weighing about a ton, landed, without incident, on Mars on a spot that has never-before been attempted by NASA – the Jezero Crater.

Perseverance is NASA’s ninth landing on Mars and its fifth Rover. And it had to go through the infamous ‘seven minutes of terror’ to land on Mars. The one-way time it takes for radio signals to travel from Earth to Mars is eleven minutes which means the seven minutes it takes to land on Mars occurs without any help or intervention from the NASA Control Centre, on Earth.

The Spacecraft reached the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 12,000 miles per hour and had to slow down to 1.7 miles per hour, seven minutes later, when the Rover landed. The spacecraft’s heat shield endured a peak heating of about 1300 Degrees Centigrade.

Perseverance has been on nearly a 472 million kilometre journey to get here since leaving Earth about 203 days ago (30th July 2020). It will explore the crater and search for signs of ancient microbial life, and collect samples for future missions over an expected life of two years.

There is a helicopter called ‘Ingenuity’ attached to the belly of the Rover and over a process of ten days the Rover will drop Ingenuity and roll away from it. After Ingenuity ‘finds its bearings’, settles down to the world of Mars and charges its solar panels, it will be ready for its first flight, which is expected to last about 20 seconds. This will be the first ever helicopter flight on another Planet and I’m sure the Wright Brothers must be looking down from Heaven, fingers-crossed.

Going back in time, the first Flyby of Mars happened on 15th July 1965, by NASA’s Mariner-4 and on 14 November 1971, Mariner-9 became the first space probe to orbit another planet. The first successful landing on Mars came on 20th July 1976 when NASA’s Viking-1 touched down in a spot named Chris Plantia – The Plains of Golf.

India’s, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) succeeded in its very first attempt to orbit Mars, with the launch of Mangalyaan, on 5th November 2013. And the space probe has been in orbit since 24th September 2014. Though ISRO planned a six-month life for Mangalyaan, it has exceeded expectations completing more than five years – and is still in a ‘circle of love with Mars’.

Surely, we need lots of perseverance to move ahead in life. While Perseverance used every ounce of it to reach Mars to try unlocking mysteries on the origin of life, those living in Texas, on Earth, will need all the perseverance and the ingenuity, they can muster to stay warm and alive.

Life in Antarctica, 3000 Feet Under

Scientists have found life buried deep under about 3,000 feet of ice in Antarctica, challenging the assumption that nothing could live in such conditions. It was thought that Antarctica’s frigid temperatures made it impossible for living creatures to thrive in these extreme locations, because they are so far from sunlight and any obvious source of food.

The strange living creatures were found attached to a boulder in the Arctic seas under an ice shelf. Experts from the British Antarctic Survey drilled through 2,860 feet of ice before making the discovery.

A collection of stationary animals, sponges and potentially several previously unknown species, were among the discoveries.

One of the Researchers explained, “If they are living somewhere as tough as this, they are probably specially adapted to being there. There is a good chance they might go weeks, months and years without food — you have to be pretty hard to cope with that.”

Sports

Australian Open in the Melbourne Park, Down Under

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic became just the second man in history to reach 300 Grand Slam wins with a fluent win over Canada’s Milos Raonic in the fourth round of the Australian Open. He whipped the big-hitting Raonic, in four sets, in just under three hours. On Thursday he beat Russian Aslan Karatsev to reach the finals.

Up ahead of Djokovic, in Grand Slam wins, is Switzerland’s Roger Federer – I miss him – the only man to previously reach the 300 win mark at Grand Slams, now sitting on a pedestal of 362 wins. Rafael Nadal is third, with 285 wins. And he is out of the Australian Open.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Naomi Osaka beat America’s Serena Williams to set up a Women’s Finals clash with American Jennifer Brady – happening this Saturday.

The Men’s Finals will be on Sunday, 21st February…and Novak Djokovic has never lost an Australian Open Final. Worth a watch!

Test Cricket

England’s Cricket Team is touring India at the moment and India got whacked by England in the first test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, losing by 227 runs.

India came back strongly in the second test, also in Chennai, to wallop England by one of the biggest ever wins, beating them by 317 runs, levelling the four match Test Series. India was lying under a heap of a losing streak of Test Series under ‘new Father’ Virat Kohli’s captaincy and this win has put a stop to that. Kiss the baby? Ravichandran Ashwin scored a total of 119 runs and picked up eight wickets turning into a kingpin of India’s win.

The next two Tests are slated to be held at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, 24the February to 28th February and 4th March to 8th March 2021.

India requires ‘Iron Wins’ in the Sardar Patel Stadium to weld the Test Series into a strong performance and qualify for the World Test Championships.

COVID-19, the Pandemic

New Zealand’s Fight

I have read and clapped my hands with joy on New Zealand’s superb handling of the coronavirus pandemic, going for months without reports of new infections. With a population of about 5 million it recorded just over 2,300 cases of COVID-19 and 25 deaths.

The country closed its borders to people coming-in or going-out, early on in the pandemic, aiming to keep-out the virus. It maintains a tight vigil on the borders to make it a rock-solid buttress against the nano-invader. And it is succeeding.

However, this week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the country’s biggest city, Auckland, to go into lockdown after the discovery of three new local COVID-19 cases. One of the cases was traced to the laundry department of an airline catering facility and with the obvious border connection, New Zealand is looking for holes to seal.

Three is definitely a small number but the country’s action is big and putting a mighty effort with the goal of stamping-out the virus. Keep it up New Zealand! Until the vaccines arrive, in many shots, we have no other option but to keep injecting ourselves with lockdowns?

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is still fishing in the troubled waters of Wuhan, China, to pin-down the source of the pandemic, but China keeps muddying the waters and is not supplying enough bait, leave alone fishing rods.

Vaccination Tracking

The speed of vaccination, to overturn the pandemic, is improving, but we need to jab faster. More than 199 million doses have been administered across 87 countries, i.e., roughly 6.50 million doses per day.

Israel is an outlier, with 79 doses given per 100 people. About 47% of the population has received at least one shot and 31.8% are fully vaccinated.

India has administered about 1.07 crore doses till date, at 0.76 doses per 100.

To provide a perspective, at current vaccination rates the prediction is that India will be fully covered by late 2022. And Israel, the USA, the UK, and much of Europe will be fully covered by the end of this year 2021.

India has seen a steady reduction in coronavirus infection cases across the States, but recently the States of Maharashtra and Kerala have seen a rising trend, which is a case of concern. This is not over and let’s stick to the basics of prevention dynamics until the Science and the Experts declare we are safe.

Please Yourself

I’m a die-hard fan of Hollywood’s Tom Hanks and this weekend I’ve scheduled myself to watch ‘News of the World’, on Netflix.

I’ll be back with more news of the world…and we have that helicopter waiting to take us on flight, in Mars!

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-07

About: This is the news ‘boxed in the ring’ this week, in our World. And it’s a week loaded with looks. Look inside.

Everywhere

Everywhere I see lots of unrest and turmoil. Humans are perhaps becoming impatient and trying to grow in various dimensions at the same time. Is it the age of impunity? It seems to be spreading and non-accountability is going viral. Authoritarianism is the new normal. According to the latest, The Economist Survey, only 8.4% of the world’s population live in a fully functioning democracy, while more than a third live under authoritarian rule – and it is getting worse. Look at Russia’s Putin – the Underpants Poisoner, look at Myanmar – the House Arrestor, look at Afghanistan – the Home of Taliban, look at the oldest of them all, North Korea – the Lost Kingdom. Look at China, where the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been banned this week over said to be spreading ‘fake news’, look at various African Regimes, and look at the Desert Countries. Why, look at what happened in America’s Capitol Hill, the trial of the second impeachment of the ex-President is underway. And we are looking to colonise the Moon! Somebody must be waiting for us, over there, with a lasso?

Once in a while, some fresh breezes do blow especially in deserts, maybe a fragrance. I talked about Saudi Arabia’s Activist Loujain al-Hathloul, in World Inthavaaram, 2020-45

https://kumargovindan.wordpress.com/2020/11/07/world-inthavaaram-2020-45/

This week she was finally freed, after spending 1,000 days in jail. Welcome back, hope to see her driving soon – she was responsible for women in Saudi Arabia being given the steering wheel, to drive a car! Something anywhere in the world women would take for granted.

Going back to Afghanistan, I liked this quote by Afghanistan Vice President Saleh, ‘We welcome the decision of the Biden administration to review US policy on Afghanistan with wide eyes and open ears.

Wow, we ought to look at this World this week, with wide eyes and open ears. And closed mouths?

Boxing Champions

Remember Boxing Champion Leon Spinks? He died last Friday, aged 67, in Las Vegas, USA. He beat the great Mohammad Ali in a stunning split-decision verdict to win the undisputed Boxing Heavyweight Title, in a 15 round fight, in 1978, at the age of 25. After the win, he famously said, “I’m not the greatest, just the latest.” Of course, later, the greatest beat the latest, again – Mohammad Ali beat Spinks in a rematch.

Spinks won the light heavyweight division gold at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. His brother, Michael Spinks, who would later become heavyweight champion himself, won the middleweight gold.

I can recall Leon Spinks with that big grin, often showing off his gap-front teeth. He had an easygoing personality, with a ‘well-developed, muscular’ drinking habit, and naturally, drank all his earnings. And for a time after retirement, cleaned locker rooms in YMCA, Nebraska.

Leon Spinks had been married thrice. He married his current wife, Brenda Glur, in 2011. He lived in Las Vegas and had three sons – one shot to death in 1990 and another son, Cory, becoming a Boxing Champion.

Spinks was part of a group of ex-fighters who had their brains studied for Brain Health. And was found to have brain damage and shrinkage, caused by a combination of taking punches to the head and heavy drinking.

’Boxing, and Drinking is a dangerous combination – inside the ring, and outside the ring!

Sighting an Outbreak: Dr. Li Wenliang

While we are surely climbing out of the coronavirus epidemic – at least in India – that locked down our lives, physically distanced, and masked us over the past one year, there’s one person we should remember and be ever thankful to: Dr. Li Wenliang, an eye doctor working at a hospital in Wuhan, Central China, where the first case of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was detected at the end of the year 2019. Did he have a special sight, I wonder?

Right now there is a United Nations team ‘looking around’ the Wuhan area trying to find out how it all began.

Dr. Li was the first to raise the alarm on the outbreak and had tried to warn fellow medics of a disease that looked like SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which is another deadly coronavirus. But he was told by the Police to stop making false comments and was even investigated for spreading rumours. Eventually, Dr. Li himself succumbed to COVID-19 on 7th February 2019, after contracting it while treating patients in Wuhan. And this week we are at his first death Anniversary. A year gone by looking-out for the virus.

Dr. Li’s death prompted a rare wave of grief and public anger over the Chinese Government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak – downplaying the severity and concealing the extent of its spread. Later, in another rare instance, the Chinese Government, looked, listened, felt the anger, exonerated and honoured Dr. Li as a hero.

Public anger over a ‘clearly visible poor sight’ by the Government can always make corrections happen. And we should always be on the look-out of vital-signs of a disease outbreak – never take a myopic view of infectious diseases. Long sight is the answer. Lesson to learn. Looking helps!

The Glaciers Are Coming

Over many years, we’ve been hearing about the possible effects of Antarctica Glaciers melting, and raising sea levels. Without having to go that far, this week near Chamoli, in the North Indian State of Uttarakhand Himalayan Glaciers broke away from the bonding forces of nature – maybe due to mankind’s climate change needling – named itself a deluge, became a devastating avalanche of water. It bursted into the nearest valley river stream, effortlessly smashing its way through a hydro-electric Dam, flooding villages and small Towns, downstream. Dozens of people are missing and many feared dead.

The exact cause of the ‘burst’ is unclear and Scientists are trying to ascertain what triggered the Glacier to break-away. A 2019 study found that Himalayan Glaciers are melting twice as fast as the last century, losing almost half a metre of ice each year.

However small, our actions do influence something large somewhere in the world? Here we are talking about Glaciers and Avalanches.

India’s Prime Minister (PM): when he speaks you better listen.

India’s Parliament Houses, the Upper, Rajya Sabha and the Lower, Lok Sabha witnessed one of the best performances by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who made lucid and absolutely stirring speeches.

In the Rajya Sabha he defended the Government’s progressive Policies and clearly explained the Farm Laws to dissuade Farmers from continuing with their Protests of the past two months. He also shed tears for an outgoing Opposition Member, who was retiring, praising his work done over the many years of slogging in Parliament.

In the Lok Sabha, replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Speech, he pitched for the private sector asserting that the culture of abusing it for votes is no longer acceptable. If the public sector is important the private sector is vital. I liked him using the word ‘Wealth Creators’, who he said are required to redistribute wealth among the poor. What can be achieved by handing over the nation to the ‘babus’ (Government Officials)?

I read this on Twitter and it pretty much sums it up, ’In our country a young man of 25 years of age gets more respect and recognition, just because he has got into IAS (Indian Administrative Service) or IPS (Indian Police Service), than a 60 years old Entrepreneur, who has created wealth of crores along with hundreds of jobs. This needs to change’. I am a nearing 60 Entrepreneur and you need to start looking-up at me. The PM just made me look majestic!

When the PM is at his convincing and talking best, there is none to equal him. No wonder the Opposition walked out to avoid being burnt and fried in the Parliament dish.

Kanaka Raju’s Gussadi Dance

The Padma Awards are one of India’s highest civilian honours, announced annually, every January, on the eve of India’s Republic Day. The Awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan – for exceptional and distinguished service, Padma Bhushan – for distinguished service of higher order, and Padma Shri – for distinguished service. The intent of the awards it to recognize achievements in all fields of activities where an element of public service is involved.

The Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The nomination process is open to the public. And self-nomination can also be made.

This year, a not-much heard of person, a Senior Citizen, an Adivasi from the Gond Tribe of Marlavai Village of Telangana’s Kumarambheem-Asifabad District, Kanaka Raju was awarded the Padma Shri. He won the award for his efforts to popularise the dying art, Gussadi, an ethnic tribal dance form of the Raj Gonds from the Telangana-Maharashtra border.

The Gussadi dance is performed during the harvesting season when Gonds wear a Gussadi Topi – a large header made of many peacock feathers, locally known as Mal Boora – and animal skin tied around their waists.

The 63 years old Kanaka Raju struggles to make ends meet, living in a thatched house with his eleven member family, relying on his 6 acre land for a livelihood. He teaches dance to the local children, who pay a small honorarium. To supplement his income, he works as a cook, on a daily wages basis, in a tribal welfare hostel in the village.

Kanaka Raju has said that while he is extremely happy to have won the award, he would be happier if shelter and food could be arranged for the rest of his life. For such an art form to survive, the artist has to survive. As simple as that!

With the Padma Shri Award, the Government has surely noticed Kanaka Raju, and I’m sure they are listening to his plight. I hope they dance to his tunes to keep him alive so that Gussadi dance lingers in our minds and hearts for years to come. There are many other dying arts around there India which need to fished out and stored in our tanks of knowledge.

Miss India for Miss World

We need to set our beauty sights on the Miss World Pageant to be held in December 2021 where India’s Manasa Varanasi from Telangana’s Hyderabad, will showing us all the beauty within and about her, in trying to win the Miss World Title. On 10th February, the 23 years old Financial Information Exchange Analyst was crowned Miss India 2020.

It’s been a long time since India won a Miss World Title. The last was in 2017 by Manushi Chhillar and before that, in 2000, by Priyanka Chopra, 1999-Yukta Mookhey, 1997-Diana Hayden. Aishwarya Rai won the title in 1994. This was 28 years after Reita Faria became the first-ever Indian to win an International Beauty Title, way back in 1996.

India surely misses the Miss World Title. Bring it Home, Miss Manasa.

The Nano of Reptiles

Talking of small things, Scientists believe they may have discovered the smallest reptile on Earth, a male Brookesia Nana, or nano-chameleon, in the montane rainforest region of Northern Madagascar.

The chameleon subspecies reptile is about the size of a seed with a top-to-tail length of just 22 millimetre (mm); the body alone is just 13.5mm. While the males are so awfully tiny, the females are only slightly bigger at 29mm.

You mention the word ‘Reptile’, and what springs to mind is something huge, which can make you feel nano size. Well, now it’s the other way around. The growth of mankind?

Scientists are in huge demand these days, across boundaries and of various colours. And in these times, everything appears to be at a ‘nano-level’! Hollywood Director Steven Spielberg’s next movie might well be ‘Nano-Jurassic Park – minus 1’.

Australian Open Opens – the 109th Edition

After being COVID-19 postponed many times Tennis’s first Grand Slam of the year, The Australian Open finally got started this Monday at the Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and the balls started flying over the net, on to the net while all the time trying to stay inside marked lines.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic is a clear favourite having won a record eight times at the Melbourne Park grounds. France’s Dominic Thiem, the reigning US Open Champion and a last year’s losing finalist at the Australian Open will be playing to open his account at this ground. Spain’s Rafael Nadal is also playing, eyeing his 21st Grand Slam. Meanwhile, ace veteran Switzerland’s Roger Federer, is recovering from knee surgery and should be watching from home, caressing his knees.

Among the Ladies, World No.1 and home favourite Ashleigh Barty hopes to serve and make a return. American Serena Williams will be wearing a one-legged, Nike made catsuit, purring for her 24th Grand Slam Title, while defending champion, also American, Sofia Kenin, and the current leading lady of Tennis, Japan’s Naomi Osaka, are the other top players hoping to ace here.

At the time of publishing World Inthavaarm 2021-07, Sofia Kenin’s bid to defend her title ended in disappointment on Thursday, after she was knocked out of the tournament by world No. 65, Kaia Kanepi, of Estonia. She lost 6-3, 6-2 in straight sets in over an hour and drowned herself in tears. Blame the pandemic?

Speeding-Up COVID-19 Vaccinations

Carrying-on from the previous weeks, more than 168 million doses have been shot across 77 countries, i.e., roughly 5.84 million doses per day.

Israel continues to ruthlessly dominate with 68 doses given per 100 people. About 41.8% of the population has received at least one shot and 26.7% are fully vaccinated. That’s amazing, look at what a small country can do?

India has administered about 7.5 million doses till date, at 0.55 doses per 100. But India has not been stingy, sending out its vaccine production to many other countries as well.

Please Yourself, e-bikes.

I saw this coming and was wondering why e-bikes weren’t happening in Tamilnadu. Finally, somebody heard me.

This Wednesday, a company called Pi Beam, an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Chennai-incubated startup launched an electric two-wheeler called PiMo, that can charge faster than a smartphone and can run 50 kilometres until the next charge.

Priced at Rs 30,000 it comes with battery swapping features and a top speed of 25 kilometres per hour (km/hr). Owning this two-wheeler doesn’t require registration or a driving licence. Pi Beam hopes to sell about 10,000 two-wheelers by end March 2021.

I wish they had given it a more dashing name.

That reminds of Ather an electric Scooter which also got its spark and wheels from IIT Chennai, and has been launched in eleven cities across India. Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Kochi, Hyderabad, to mention a few.

The Ather is priced at over Rs 1 lakh and has a top speed to 80km/hr, and requires a driving licence.

The future indeed looks electric. I promised a lot of ‘looking’ this week. Hope you looked and noticed! More coming up.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-06

About: This is the news cooked this week, in our World. I’ve dug out some old dishes and flavoured it with present day spices.

Well Said

“There should be no boundaries to human endeavour. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” – Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything

Everywhere

Oh Myanmar, The Military, Suui Kyi, and the Rohingya!

I can clearly recall the many times a proud House Owner, on showing-off his newly built house, would proclaim on touching wood, ‘that’s made from original Burma Teak’. I heard the sound!

Teak grows throughout much of Burma and due to its natural water resistance is sought out for a variety of uses, especially furniture-making and shipbuilding. And it is an important part of Burma’s economy.

Burma was renamed as Myanmar in 1989 by the then ruling Military Government. Both names can be traced to the majority ‘Bamar’ ethnic group living in the region. Some say the names are derived from ‘Brahma Desha’, after Lord Brahma (one of the Hindu Trinity Gods).

Myanmar has a population of about 54 million. The biggest city is Yangon (Rangoon) and the capital is Nay Pyi Taw. The main religion is Buddhism.

These days, Myanmar is in the news for reasons other than its trustworthy hard teak. Let’s do a flashback.

Myanmar gained independence from the British (who else was a better coloniser?) on 4th January 1948 largely due to the efforts of Aung Sung who founded the Myanmar Armed Forces and headed the Transition to the country’s Independence. He is considered the Father of the Nation, of modern-day Myanmar. Unfortunately, he was assassinated just six months before Myanmar officially gained its independence. His surviving children are, a daughter, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was two years old at the time of his death, and a son, Aung San Oo, now an US citizen and estranged from his famous sister.

Following Aung Sung’s assassination, his colleague, U Nu, took over as Burma’s first Prime Minister. And the wife of Aung Sung was appointed the Burmese Ambassador to India, which led to Aung San Suu Kyi studying in the Convent of Jesus & Mary School, New Delhi, and graduating from Delhi University’s Lady Sri Ram College. She married a British historian Dr Michael Ari who later died of cancer in 1999.

In March 1962 the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d’état following internal ethnic strife and civilian unrest. And the government has been in direct or indirect military control ever since.

Entering active politics, Suu Kyi formed and headed the democratic, National League for Democracy (NLD) Party during the uprising of 8th August 1988 (called the 8888 uprising) in the country. In all the instances – mostly on international pressure – when the military woke up and allowed General Elections, and when Suu Kyi’s NLD participated, it invariably swept the Elections, often winning in a landslide. And also invariably the military government would ignore the election results, refuse to hand over power and instead detain Suu Kyi and place her under house arrest. She spent a total of 15 of the 21 years from 1989 to 2010 in this manner of a cat & mouse game until the time of her final release from ‘house arrest’ on 13th November 2010.

In between all of this, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for, ‘her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights’. And for ‘being involved in the second struggle for national independence employing non-violent means to resist a regime characterised by brutality’. The Nobel Committee as also said that Suu Kyi ‘emphasizes the need for conciliation between the sharply divided regions and ethnic groups in her country’.

In the General elections of November 2015 Suu Kyi led the NLD to yet another landslide victory in Myanmar’s first openly contested election of 25 years.

Meanwhile, the clever Army Generals, had made statute changes, and were prepared to gun her down with new Laws. Under the current Constitution, which came into effect from 2008, she was barred from becoming President, being the widow of a foreigner (her husband was British) and the mother of foreigners (her two children are not citizens of Myanmar ). A post called ‘State Counsellor’, akin to Prime Minister, was created for her, alongside the President, from the NLD.

But since becoming Myanmar’s State Counsellor, her leadership has been defined by the treatment of the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.

In 2017 hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to the neighbouring Bangladesh due to an Army crackdown sparked by deadly attacks on police stations in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

The Rohingya, who numbered around one million at the start of 2017, are one of the many ethnic minorities in the country. Rohingya Muslims represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in Rakhine state. They have their own language and culture and are said to be descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have lived in the region for generations.

But the government of Myanmar, predominantly Buddhist, has denied the Rohingya citizenship and even excluded them from the 2014 census, refusing to recognise them as a people. It sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Since the 1970s, Rohingya have migrated across the region in significant numbers.

In the last few years, thousands of Rohingya made perilous journeys out of Myanmar to escape communal violence or alleged abuses by the armed forces.

The exodus began on 25th August 2017 after Rohingya Arsa militants launched deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts. Rohingyas arriving in Bangladesh said they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, burnt their villages and attacked and killed civilians. At least 6,700 Rohingya, including about 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out. And – according to reports – the Myanmar military raped and abused Rohingya women.

Suu Kyi’s is accused her of doing nothing to stop the mayhem, possible genocide, or ethnic cleansing, by refusing to condemn the powerful military or acknowledge accounts of atrocities. The Nobel Peace Prize hung upon her. Maybe, she was a pragmatic politician, trying to govern a multi-ethnic country with a complex history and trying to find an opportune moment to shoot the goal she wanted, playing ball with the military? Could be that the military did the Rohingya Act to besmirch Suu Kyi and show that a civilian government cannot rule? I wish I knew, only time will tell. I would place my trust in Suu Kyi – she having endured so much.

Her personal defence of the Army’s actions at the International Court of Justice hearing in 2019 in the Hague was seen as a new turning point that obliterated what little remained of her international reputation.

At home, however, ‘the Lady’, as Suu Kyi is known, remains hugely popular among the Buddhist majority who hold little sympathy for the Rohingya.

Trooping over to the present, in the General Elections of 8th November 2020, the NLD again won by a landslide securing 83% of available seats in what many saw as a referendum on Suu Kyi’s civilian government. It was just the second election since the end of military rule in 2011.

But the military, true to its nature, has disputed the result, filing complaints at the Supreme Court against the President and the Chair of the Electoral Commission demanding a rerun of the vote, claiming widespread fraud. The Election Commission, in turn, has said there was no evidence to support the claims.

The New Parliament was set to convene on 1st February 2021 to acknowledge the Elections, swear-in new members and open-up for business, when yet another coup was staged by the military. And power was handed over to the Commander-in-Chief, Min Aung Hlaing. Back to Military Rule. Here we are.

Suui Kyi is again under House Arrest and several charges have been filed against her such as, breaching import and export laws and possessing unlawful communication devices – aka walkie talkies!

Fascinating to learn that this is happening right next-door and there is nothing much we can do about it. What next? Another round of Elections? Another round of House Arrests? Another merry-go-round? And a timeless drift for Myanmar to become the seasoned wood of a Burma Teak?

I think the United Nations and all right-thinking Nations ought to put some sense into the Army Generals and fire them to return to their barracks; live and let live.

Russia

Meanwhile, last week’s Person in the Russian News, Opposition Leader, Alexei Navalny, was handed a three years jail sentence, by the Courts, on parole violations; charges which appear specially cooked-up and politically motivated. As more pro-Navalny protesters across more than ten cities were detained many Western Nations including the US, Germany, and France condemned the violence against the protestors and called for Navalny’s immediate release.

Changes in Russia do not happen quickly or easily. However, Alexei Navalny has at best galvanised a movement, and the direction it takes will be worth a watch over the coming months… and years.

It’s an uphill task fighting for a cause and finding the momentum. Someone in some part of the world is fighting for Freedom. And it always comes at a price?

India’s Promised ‘Never Before Budget’?

It was a fantastic effort in book-keeping and was neatly written on a foundation of six defined pillars: health & well being, physical & financial capital & infrastructure, inclusive development, human Capital, Innovation and R&D, and Minimum Govt & Maximum Governance. And read out from a paperless ‘made in India’ Tablet. Wow! However, it presses the growth accelerator after a pandemic year of continuously topping up the fuel tank and guzzling fuel – running the engine standstill at seemingly endless red signals and not covering ground. The Government is still spending more than it earns – this is estimated as 9.5% for this year and 6.8% for the next.

Broadly, the Government is tirelessly focussing on infrastructure: roads, airports, ports, urban transportation, power, etc., ‘creating assets to catalyse future growth’- as someone put it aptly. Also targeting to sell off inefficient Public Sector Companies to realise money for its various operations. And creating a ‘Bad Bank’ – a Sink for non-performing assets, which can be cleaned up by selling the collected dirt that has some value. All this is happening keeping the sights on much needed healthcare – for the wellness of the nation, and education – hoping it leads to greater wisdom. There are plans to set up a National Language Translation Mission (NLTM) to enable the wealth of governance, policy information, and knowledge on the internet being made available in major Indian languages, so that people can understand each other better in addition to what’s happening around the world. Namaste – Vanakkam.

Having been stirred and shaken in battling the coronavirus pandemic, the Government has pledged to fund four new National Virology Institutes, nine new High-Containment Laboratories for studies on highly infectious pathogens and a National Institution for ‘One Health’ to coordinate research and surveillance on animal and human infections. Viruses living on Bats & Friends beware, India will hunt you down.

Meanwhile, the citizen has not been loaded with any new taxes and tax compliance has been encouraged with easing of some complex rules. In a first, Income Tax has been done away for pension & interest dependant Senior Citizens over 75 years old (No Time To Die?)With the average Indian Life expectancy near about 71 years, I wish the Government had climbed down to 65years to keep us alive. I’m hitting sixty next year and wish the cool definition of senior citizen – 60 plus – is lent real meaning. Proud to be a Senior Citizen, I must say?

Growing COVID-19 Vaccinations

More than 119 million doses have been administered across 67 countries, averaging 4.54 million doses a day.

India has vaccinated near about 5 million people (Source: Ministry of Health), about 0.33 doses per 100 people, and it’s an awfully long drive to reach the ’70% to 75% vaccinated’ herd-immunity milestone.

I continue my story on the vaccination effort in Israel, which is by far the first country where vaccinations are starting to curb the pandemic and experts claim with caution, ‘the magic has started’.

Israel has been able to rapidly rollout its vaccination drive due to a well-laid out healthcare system that requires every citizen to be a member of one of four non-profit, Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)s, which collectively operate clinics throughout the country. A resident connects with his HMO to make appointments, manage prescriptions, and get test results.

Having secured vaccine supplies from both Pfizer and Moderna, Israel was able to use this solid healthcare infrastructure to push ahead with vaccination faster than any other country. The HMOs send alerts to all people over 60 years old, to say they are eligible, and outlines who could self-book via Phone, Website or App. At the vaccine centre – ranging from stadiums to drive-throughs – A nurse confirms the medical history including allergies on an iPad in less than 30 seconds to clear the person for a jab. People can book an appointment for the second dose while waiting for the first.

As of Friday, Israel had given roughly 59 shots per 100 people in the country, while the United Kingdom has given 16 doses per 100, and United States, almost 11.

New Vaccines such as Johnson & Johnson’s one shot Vaccine are expected to reach our arms in the coming weeks and months, and it would surely accelerate the vaccination drive. Get that arm ready!

Please Yourself

A Steven Spielberg movie is always a delight to watch. Who can forget the dramatic jaw-dropping scenes of the 1975 movie, Jaws? We never get to see the deadly shark until about half-time into the movie, where the music, the sound effects, and the images do all the talking. Isn’t that what a motion picture should do?

This week, I finally got to see the ‘greatest war movie ever made, one of the finest movies of our time, nominated for eleven Academy Awards and winning five, including Best Director for Steven Spielberg’s 1998 movie, Saving Private Ryan.

This is the story of eight marines tasked with saving the life of an ordinary solider, Private James Ryan, who no one knew before, and bringing him back home, safely from behind enemy lines. This is because Private Ryan lost three brothers, killed in the same war he was fighting. And his mother was to receive three telegrams, at the same time, informing their deaths and the US Army General deciding this was more than anyone could possibly bear.

The story is set in 1944 during Word War-II when American soldiers land at Omaha Beach as part of the Normandy Invasion and the opening scene presents one of the bloodiest battles of the war. I could feel the thud of the bullets, ‘hear the smell of blood’, and see the images as if I was in that battle, in a fantastic, riveting 20 minutes of the incident.

Hollywood stars, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon (Ryan) and Vin Diesel form part of the awesome cast. Watch it to see the very best of film-making and feel what war can do to human civilisations.

There’s nothing like a good song, a good book, or a good movie to inspire the best in us, isn’t it?

There’s a new story hatching every day in some part of the World. I’ll make sense of them and bring them to you every week.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-05

About: This is the bread we’ve baked this week, in our World, and I’ve cut it down for you, also adding a slice of history, on what was before us.

Everywhere

Pressure in Russia: From Russia Without Love

I’m tired of climbing hills in the US and my eyes have moved to what’s happening beyond the mountains, in Russia. Yes, it’s about Alexei Navalny, the Russian Opposition Leader who is having a very tough time out there in the awfully cold Russian winter. Arrested, jailed, poisoned, arrested, jailed. Repeat.

Navalny, a lawyer-turned-activist came out of the cold in 2008, when he began exposing high-level corruption in Russian politics through his blog. He has since spearheaded many anti-corruption rallies, is considered to be the face of the Opposition in Russia, and has been arrested numerous times. He was barred from challenging current President, Vladimir Putin, in the 2018 Presidential Elections because of a previous conviction for fraud in a criminal case said to be politically motivated. The conviction was overturned by Russia’s Supreme Court, but he was found guilty in a re-trial, which earned criticism from the European Court of Human Rights.

Russia is known to eliminate dissidents and political activists by poisoning them, and Navalny too had a taste of this when in August 2020 he was poisoned with the soviet-era banned lethal nerve agent Novichok, which almost knocked him off. Of course, it will be hard to prove it in Russia. He managed to get himself on a plane to Germany where he was treated and recovered from the poisoning effects. And this was not the first instance: two years before, he had a bright green liquid dye sprayed upon him in Barnaul, Siberia, by an assailant who pretended to shake his hand, resulting in considerable damage to an eye.

In the current upturn of events, Navalny was arrested, on return from Germany, on the bizarre rule-break that he violated a suspended criminal sentence by remaining in Germany for further treatment after being released from Hospital – following his treatment for poisoning. The suspended sentence was from a 2014 trial termed as ‘arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable’ by the European Court of Human Rights for which Russia was ordered to pay Navalny and his brother near 76,000 Euros in compensation. Instead of finding out who poisoned the victim, Russia is running after the victim?

Now you get the picture? Having grown really big as a country and lived this long there are many Laws & Rules, but legalities don’t really matter in Russia where the rules of the game are changed and the goal posts are shifted for any curling shot to become a goal. Look at what a man fighting the system is up against!

A very tough road ahead for Navalny, and he has unstinted support coming his way, with spontaneous protests against his arrest, erupting across Russia.

Let’s delve into history to understand the ‘coldness’ of Russia and its ‘Iron Curtain’ (coined by the then British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill) calling. The explosive Russian Revolution of 1917 – actually consisting of two cataclysmic revolutions, both happening in that one year, the February Revolution, and the October Revolution, changed Russia like never before.

In the first, the last Tsarist regime, represented by the Romanov dynasty, which celebrated a spectacular three centuries in power (Peter the Great and Catherine the Great were Romanovs), was overthrown, forever ending Imperial Rule, and in the second, the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks and Red Guards led by Vladimir Lenin staged a coup and established communist rule leading to the formation of what we all knew as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Communist Party.

Nicolas-II, the last Romanov Emperor, abdicated soon after the February Revolution, and his family, Empress Alexandra, and their five children were taken prisoners. On a July night, in 1918, the family and four servants were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held, on the pretext that they are to be moved to a new location for their own safety. They were told to wait while the truck meant to transport them arrived. A few minutes later an execution squad of the secret police was brought in and the order of their execution, for countless crimes on Soviet Russia, was read out.

The armed men then gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. Those who were still breathing, when the smoked cleared, were stabbed to death. The bodies were disposed off in a chaotic manner and remained undiscovered for decades leading to speculation that someone from the family might have survived and actually be alive. It is said that the royals had diamonds and jewellery secretly sewn into their corsets, which had a bullet-proof effect, resulting in bullets not making their mark.

In later years, the remains of Nicholas, Alexandra, and three of their children were excavated in a forest near Yekaterinburg, in the year 1991, and positively identified two years later using DNA fingerprinting. The Crown Prince Alexei and one Romanov daughter – Anastasia– were not accounted for, fuelling the persistent legend and fantasy that Anastasia was alive and had escaped: countless stories and movies have been made on Anastasia. In subsequent years, scientists were able to confirm the deaths and the Romanov family was finally put to rest in St. Petersburg. The Crown Jewels became the property of the Soviet Union and a large portion is held in museums in the Kremlin. Given those tumultuous times, some of the fabulous jewels went missing – unable to be traced, to this day.

To further thread the story of Russia, after Lenin, it was Dictator Joseph Stalin, then Nikita Khrushchev over to Mikail Gorbachev until dissolution of the Soviet Union, on 25 December 1991. Russia then held its original name, with Boris Yeltsin as President, who hands over to Vladimir Putin – with Dmitry Medvedev stealing some years in between, due to term limits. Putin has been President since 2012 and in January 2020 modified the Russian Constitution in a way that would scrap term limits for Presidents, paving the way for him to remain President indefinitely. Sounds typical African style ruling, doesn’t it?

I’m breathless…this is the perhaps the briefest history you can get on Russia.

Back from the past to the present, Russian police have detained more than 4,000 people – and counting – in a crackdown on protests in support of the jailed Alexei Navalny. Tens of thousands of people defied a heavy police presence to join some of the largest rallies against President Vladimir Putin, in years.

Russia is one hard country to crack and President Putin, with his KGB secret service background holds the aces, the iron, the jewels, and the aggression to controlling Russia. Who can poison that? Alexei Navalny needs all the bravery and smartness he can muster to melt this iron rule.

Wonder Women of Estonia

Women leaders are rising-up in many countries and are proving to be better rulers than men – watch out! On 26 January, 43 years old Kaja Kallas was sworn as Estonia’s first female Prime Minister since Estonia ‘regained’ independence in 1991. Estonia was an independent country until it was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. On the break-up of the USSR, Estonia restored its independence on 20 August 1991, which is celebrated as ‘Day of Restoration of Independence’. For a change we have a tame ‘Restoration of Independence Day’ rather than the fiery Independence Day most Countries in the world celebrate.

Kallis leads the Reform Party which was founded by her father, Sim Kallas, who was also Prime Minister in 2002-2003. Kaja Kallis studied to become a Lawyer specialising in Estonian and European competition law, and also holds a Master of Business Administration degree in Economics. She will need every letter of her education to stay competitive and administer well.

There’s another woman in the Estonian hierarchy, with the President also being a woman, Kersti Kaljulaid. She achieved that at the age of 46. In the year 2016. That makes Estonia one of the few countries where both the head of State and head of Government are woman.

In 2018, President Kaljulaid ran the New York City Marathon, during a working tour of the United States, and finished in just over four hours.

I’m sure both Women know how to run Estonia. For a start, one is a marathon woman.

Larry King (is) Dead: the Art of Conversation Lives On

After hosting ‘Larry King Live’ on CNN for over 25 years and retiring in 2010 to host ‘Larry King Now’, the legendary American talk-show host Larry King, 87, died on 24 January at Cedars Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles due to COVID-19.

Larry King had diabetes and suffered from a series of medical issues over the years including several heart attacks and a quintuple bypass surgery. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer and successfully underwent surgery to treat it. He also underwent a procedure to address angina.

Larry King married eight times (twice to the same woman) and has four children. Last year he lost two of his children who died within weeks of each other: a son of heart-attack, and a daughter of lung cancer.

King interviewed countless newsmakers and every-day people. He interviewed every sitting President from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama doing more than 30,000 interviews and listening-in to thousands of phone calls from viewers of his Call-in Show(s).

Larry King had a distinctive, unmistakable appearance in his Talk Shows: oversized spectacles and ever-present suspenders. He was known for not spending time preparing for interviews, preferring instead to let his natural curiosity guide the conversation. He read all day long and watched news which made him really well-informed. He would allow his guests to talk and then spring up the questions, with the flow. King adopted an affable easygoing demeanour and perfected a casual approach to the Question & Answer format, always leaning forward and listening intently to his guests, rarely interrupting. He treated every guest the same – Presidents, famous people, and the common man. And he loved being in front of the camera.

“I just love what I do, I love asking questions, I love doing interviews” said Larry King.

We would love him to do an interview with God and allow us a phone call to ask God a question? Rest in Peace Larry King.

COVID-19 Vaccination Updates

The biggest vaccination campaign in history is on a roll with more than 90 million doses in 62 countries have been administered, averaging 4.3 million doses a day.

Israel is on track to probably becoming the first country to achieve herd immunity (70% required) – expected in about 45 days – with about 26% of the population already vaccinated.

India has vaccinated near about 2.92 million (Source: Ministry of Health) people and the vaccination drive is gathering momentum after an initial tardiness, finding about 6 lakh arms per day. On the coronavirus infections front, India is counting about 13,000 downhill positive cases per day and Schools have been opened for Class 10 and Class 12, at least in my region. Getting back to normalcy for sure.

Nearer Home, in Attur, Tamilnadu, a good medical doctor friend of mine was one of the first to receive the Covishield Vaccine -made by the Serum Institute of India – and I’m sure she will frame the photo for the History records. I did share that photo-shoot within my Group, to inspire. And to dispel any doubts, the nay-say people might have. We should roll up our sleeves, when the time comes. We are not safe until everyone is safe.

Please Yourself

Planning to buy a car? Go Toyota, or go electric?

This week Japanese Company, Toyota drove up the ramp to wear the Global Crown of the World’s best-selling automaker. The one runner-up sash went to the German Volkswagen Group.

Toyota sold 9.5 million vehicles around the world in 2020, which includes its Daihatsu and Hino lineups. Volkswagen did 9.3 million units, which includes its brands of Audi, Skoda and Porsche.

Meanwhile, electric car-maker Tesla has set up shop in Bengaluru, India. The future is electric, and we need to keep looking out for the electrifying offers we can get to use clean energy, to clean-up the mess we made of relying on greenhouse gas-emitting petrol and diesel.

More interesting stories, coming-up, in the week(s) ahead

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-04

About: Today’s news is tomorrow’s History. This is some news of what happened this week, in our World.

Everywhere

History Has Its Eyes On US

Finally, afters weeks of playing ‘Raiders of the Capitol Hill’, President Donald Trump took a plane out of Washington to fly into the sunset. Needs to be seen whether he took that whip with him, and we would need to keep our ears ‘out-of-wax’ to listen to the sound of a whiplash, in the coming months. ‘I’ll be back’ (in some form), he said. Sounds like Terminator?

On 20 January 2021, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., all of 77, – described by ex-President Barack Obama as a Lion of American History – royally stepped into the shoes of the 46th President of the United States of America (USA), and in a first in US history, a woman – African-American, Asian-Indian, Kamala Harris, going on 57, was sworn in as Vice President (the 49th of the USA). For President Biden it was one step higher after having served as Vice President for eight years under President Barack Obama. Well-prepared and experienced for the job at hand!

Pop stars Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez offered starting company, singing their hearts out with a fiery rendition of the US National Anthem and ‘This Land is for You and Me’, respectively. Never mind some Spanish was thrown in. Singer song-writer Garth Brooks performed ‘Amazing Grace’ to amazing applause. While a young 22 years old, National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, ‘Climbed a Hill’ to say ‘History has its eyes on US’ and that we should be brave enough to see light and be it.

Now, I wish to see some climbing-up in the right directions and eyes on healing of wounds in a divided America. Light at the end of a four years old tunnel? The fashion colours of the inaugural event matched the rainbow. Singers came in white, black, red, blue; the Poet in royal yellow the new First Lady in cool blue and the Vice President in purple – marrying the red and blue. Ex-Presidents and their wives brought their colours too. Memories to keep.

Let’s raid recent history. Joe Biden lost his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, and daughter in a car accident shortly after being elected US Senator, in 1972. His wife was driving with their three children, on a Christmas Shopping trip, when their car was hit by a Tractor Trailor. Neilia and daughter, Naomi (about a year old) died in the accident while the two sons, Joseph Beau Biden and Robert Hunter Biden though severely injured, survived. In 2015 Beau Biden died after a fight with brain cancer.

In 1977 Joe Biden married Jill Tracy Jacobs, now Jill Biden. They have a daughter Ashley Blazer Biden. From all his children Joe Biden has seven grandchildren. And two German Shepard dogs, Champ and Major, to watch over the family. The White House security detail just got barked-up.

Kamala Harris is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, from Tamil Nadu, India and Donald J Harris from British Jamaica. That makes her of Jamaican-Indian descent. Mother Shamala was a biologist who worked on breast cancer at the University of California, Berkeley and received her PhD in 1964. Father Harris is a Professor emeritus of Economics at Stanford University and received his PhD in economics in 1966. Kamala’s parents divorced when she was seven.

Kamala was a trail-blazer all her life breaking many men-only glass ceilings to get this high. She graduated in Political Science and Economics from Howard University and in law from Hastings College, University of California, and was admitted to the California Bar in 1990. She has worked as District Attorney of San Francisco, and Attorney General of California before becoming US Senator from California, in 2017.

Kamala married Dough Emhoff in 2014 and is step-mother, or ‘Momala’, to Emhoff’s two children, son Cole and daughter Ella, from his previous marriage to film producer Kerstin Emhoff.

We all saw and listened. We hope for a new beginning, a seismic shift, and History being made at every turn.

Sport

Cricket

In perhaps one of the finest Test series wins by any side in cricket, India beat Australia in a fighting game of cricket making a 2-1 series score, retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy they won in Australia two years ago.

India was down on many fronts such as Captain Virat Kohli exiting the series, injuries hitting the players hard – to kick some out of the boundary, and playing in a Stadium which was one of the best hunting grounds for Australia. In the process India broke the – until now – unbeatable winning streak of the Australian cricket team at the Gabba, Brisbane Fortress, which stretched for 31 tests from 1988 to 2020.

India needed 328 runs to win on Tuesday, the final day of the four-test series, as Shubman Gill’s, 91 and Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten 89 led the chase for the touring side. Pant hit the winning runs with just three overs remaining, to inflict a first defeat on Australia at the Gabba and record the highest fourth innings run chase. India erupted in celebration and many looked at retired Test-Cricketer, Rahul David’s, mentoring the young boys, as head of the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, as a rightful reason for the success. That is a tough wall to break, indeed.

I see a new young India climb-up from the battle, charged to win many wars across the sporting world, and a solid inspiration in all walks of life.

Tennis: The Australian Open

The first Tennis Grand Slam Tournament of the year, the Australian Open bounced into quarantine problems after a record 72 players arriving by different flights for the tournament to be held in Melbourne Park, Melbourne, found themselves being herded into quarantine. This, after passengers in their respective flights tested positive for COVID-19. They cannot practice and will have to rust for 14 days. Most have been allotted five hours each day to go out and train in strict bio-secure bubbles. However, the Organisers confirmed that the 8 February start date – three weeks after the original start date – will be kept, despite the contagious times.

For the moment the coronavirus is serving aces. And we need a strong return, over the nets, to keep the game going.

COVID-19 Vaccinations

Over 56.58 million vaccination doses have been administered across the world with the US needling top of the charts with about 17.55 million, quickly followed by China with 15 million. The UK comes in at a distant third with 5.4 million and then Israel with 3.29 million followed by the UAE, Italy, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Spain and India, as on 22 January 2021. From calculations, it appears that Israel will be one fo the first countries to reach the so called ‘herd immunity’ threshold, of over 70% vaccinated, in about 50 days. That sure is a milestone.

India has shot the arms of 10,43,534 (Source: Ministry of Health) people with the Vaccine, since starting the Vaccination Drive on 16 January 2021. In the first phase, India is targeting to administer the vaccine to around 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers. In the second round, people above the age of 50 will be jabbed, while those with comorbidities will be given preference. And Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to lead the charge in the second phase.

Hunting In Packs

While President Joe Biden, in his inaugural speech, called for ‘unity’ and collaboration in tackling America’s generous problems, further South of America, in the Para State of Brazil, in a lake on the Iriri River about 100 adult electric eels were getting together, to practice the art – probably connected to the American Grid – even while Biden was mirror-speaking his speech. The electric eels, a type of knife fish, were found to be cooperating with one another in rustling up a meal of fish. Electric eels are normally categorised as solitary fellows that shock and awe fish into submission.

After spending much of the day wriggling at the bottom of the lake, around dusk and dawn a gaggle off eels start swimming in circles to herd shoals of small fish into shallow waters and follow it up with a synchronised attack, simultaneously zapping their prey with powerful electric discharges, making the fish jump out of water and fall to the surface when there are quickly gobbled-up by the clever eels. Each hunt usually took about an hour and involved upto seven electric-shock attacks.

Electric eels can generate up to 600 volts of electricity – enough to kill a man. Their bodies contain electric organs with about 6000 specialised cells called electrocytes that store power like tiny batteries. When attacking (or threatened) these cells discharge simultaneously delivering that ‘knock-out punch’. Electric eels are air-breathers and must come to the surface frequently. They grow up to 2.5 meters in length and weigh about 18 kg.

Scientists were shocked to make this extraordinary discovery saying nothing like this has ever been documented in ‘electric eel History’.

Other aquatic animals that commonly hunt in groups are Orca (also called a Killer Whale), dolphins, piranha, and some kinds of sharks. The list is growing for sure. Imagine if all the mosquitoes in the neighbourhood get together for a bloody meal?

We now have our eyes on the Electric eels, as well, and need more eyes to watch other animals, least they get together, on land and water, and come after us. We live in a fascinating world of still life…and sudden death!

If there is one lesson we can learn from the eels, it is that if we stick together we can achieve a whole lot of things, besides getting ourselves a decent meal!

Please Yourself

Early this week, magicians and illusionists around the world celebrated 100 years of the famous ‘sawing a woman in half’ trick, first performed by magician P. T. Selbit in Finsbury Park Empire Theatre, London, on 17 January 1921. Selbit is recognised as the first magician to show and promote such a trick on a public stage. This magic trick became as iconic as pulling a rabbit out of a hat, and formed the mainstay of many Magic Shows across the world.

Selbit would put his female assistant into a tight wooden box, about the size of a coffin, and secure her inside with ropes tied to her wrists and ankles. The box was then closed so that the audience could not see her, and placed in a horizontal position. Selbit would then proceed to saw the middle of the box with a large hand saw to give the impression that because of the restraints and no-room in the box the woman’s waist must have been in the path of the saw and hence cut through. At the end, the box would be opened and the woman -still with the ropes attached- would be revealed as being unharmed.

It is said that in later performances, to heighten the drama, Mr Selbit would sometimes tip fake blood into the drains and have an Ambulance waiting outside the Theatre with the sign, ‘in case the saw clips’.

Those were the times when such a magic performance wasn’t considered good unless someone fainted in the audience!

We need magic to spruce up our lives. Look for it all around you – find someone to saw?

More electric stories, coming-up, in the week(s) ahead, for us to sharpen our saws!

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

United Kingdom: The Case For A Return Of Sherlock Holmes

Australia Too

Earth Shakes

The Guns Of Myanmar

America Is Still Shooting, Wild

Lifting The Veil, Again.

India’s Five State Assembly Elections

On the COVID-19 Trail

Music’s Biggest Night: The Grammys 2021

The Oscar Nominations

Everywhere

Meteorites from Outer Space – Aliens throwing them?

Lifting the Veil

Oprah Winfrey, Big-Bang

The Torch of the Tokyo Olympics 2021

Tennis at the Qatar Open

On the COVID-19 Trail

The Sound of Music

The Storm over Saranga Dhariya

The Grammys – up ahead.

Everywhere

Smoke in my Eyes

The Pope in Iraq and the Rivers of Babylon.

Roaming on Mars

Chicks of the Old

Cricket

Vaccination Tracking, COVID-19.

Please Yourself: The Oscars

Everywhere

Words of Wisdom

A World of Protests

It’s Raining Plane Parts

World of Sport

Australian Open Finals, Melbourne Park, Australia

The Wizard of Tennis

Test Cricket: The Short and the Large.

The Pandemic, COIVD-19

Vaccination Tracking

Please Yourself: Now Showing Minari

Everywhere

God Bless America

Bill Gates, now a Window to Climate Change

Sleepless in Texas – Shivering and Freezing too

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) – Starting to Trade

Toolkits: Vocabulary Building

Space: USA’s NASA lands on the Red Planet, Mars

Life in Antarctica, 3000 Feet Under

Sports

Australian Open in the Melbourne Park, Down Under

Test Cricket

COVID-19, the Pandemic

New Zealand’s Fight

Vaccination Tracking

Please Yourself

Everywhere

Boxing Champions

Sighting an Outbreak: Dr. Li Wenliang

The Glaciers Are Coming

India’s Prime Minister (PM): when he speaks you better listen.

Kanaka Raju’s Gussadi Dance

Miss India for Miss World

The Nano of Reptiles

Australian Open Opens – the 109th Edition

Speeding-Up COVID-19 Vaccinations

Please Yourself, e-bikes.

Well Said

Everywhere

Oh Myanmar, The Military, Suui Kyi, and the Rohingya!

Russia

India’s Promised ‘Never Before Budget’?

Growing COVID-19 Vaccinations

Please Yourself

Everywhere

Pressure in Russia: From Russia Without Love

Wonder Women of Estonia

Larry King (is) Dead: the Art of Conversation Lives On

COVID-19 Vaccination Updates

Please Yourself