WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-12

About: the world this week, 20 March to 26 March 2022, war, prison, a plane crash, girls education, killing fields, and not saying goodbye.

Everywhere

The War

The Russia-Ukraine war bangs-on and Ukraine is hanging-on out there against the unrelenting Russian attack, even pushing them back from a suburb around the capital, Kyiv. Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine is facing the brunt of the attack, mercilessly bombed with about 80% of the city destroyed, but it isn’t giving up. Not yet.

Over a month into the invasion, Ukrainians continue to defy the odds, showing a deadly fighting streak in defence of their country and in keeping alive freedom. Outnumbered in tanks, troops, aircraft, and in other armoury, the highly motivated Ukrainian forces, reinforced with steely citizen volunteers, have in many places fought the Russian Army to a standstill.

The command and control, steadfastly operating out of Kyiv, is effectively co-ordinated over several battlefronts. Sound battle tactics are being deployed to outwit the Russians. And Ukraine is far ahead in the information war. Is victory in sight?

During the week, Anatoly Chubais a key aide of Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped down from his role as an international envoy. This is the senior most official to resign since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Chubais was responsible for coordinating Russia’s sustainable development goals internationally. After the war began, he posted a picture of a murdered opposition figure, in what was seen as a critical gesture. Now, he has followed-through and given-up on Russia’s unholy aggression.

United States (US) President Joe Biden travelled to Europe’s Brussels to meet with his NATO allies. He thundered that any chemical attack launched by Russia in Ukraine would be met ‘in kind’ by NATO. One clear winner of this outrageous war is that the NATO Allies have become ‘great FRIENDS’ again. They put up a united front and told Ukraine that they are with them through this unfolding disaster-supplying them with copious amounts of arms, ammunition, training, food, supplies… and morale.

In another front, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said it will seek payment in rubles for natural gas sold to ‘unfriendly’ countries, and European Union (EU) gas prices soared on concerns that the move would exacerbate the region’s energy crunch. Russian gas accounts for about 40% of Europe’s total consumption. The EU continues to buy about USD 600 million of oil & gas, daily, from Russia. USA lifts and pays for 8% of its energy needs from Russia.

The ‘unfriendly countries’ are, the US, EU member states, Britain, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and Ukraine. Some, such as the US and Norway, do not purchase Russian gas.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky is continuing his address to the World, garnering support and requesting Governments to do what it takes to put pressure on Russia to pull back from its egregious invasion. This week, Swiss Firm Nestle, ‘under ferocious attack from Ukraine for selling in Russia’, withdrew some of its brands such as Kit-kat and Nesquik, from Russia while keeping only the essential food items in supply, on the shelf.

Every week I write about this war, I’m flabbergasted and pained by the destruction and inhuman cruelty happening in Ukraine due to one man’s crazy mind driving the proceedings. How can he get away with such a brutal act with others just watching? We have to find a way to stop this war.

Russia’s Opposition

Alexei Navalny, remember him? This week, the 45 years old Russian Opposition Leader was sentenced to nine more years in prison for fraud and contempt of court, in a maximum security prison. Navalny is already serving more than two years for a parole violation. Despite being lodged in jail, he has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And called on people to protest, leading to thousands of arrests.

Will Alexei Navalny’s time come? He faces a seemingly endless series of ‘prejudiced’ prison sentences based on bogus charges; and maybe, the result of the Russia-Ukraine War would liberate him!

Plane Crash

This Monday, a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800, with 132 people on-board crashed in a wooded area of the Guangxi hills in Southern China. Flying at a safe cruising altitude of about 29,100 feet, the plane took a sudden nose-dive to 7,425 feet, recovered briefly to 8,600 feet, and was last tracked at 3,225 feet, before plunging down almost vertically. This, at about the time when it would normally start to descend ahead of landing. The plane disintegrated, starting a fire in a heavy bamboo tree filled area. There were no survivors reported. China has a healthy record of aeroplane flight safety and this crash was unexpected.

Flight MU5735 was flying from the city of Kunming, capital of the Yunnan Province to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong, when the tragedy occurred.

It’s estimated that there are 4,208 Boeing 737-800 passenger planes in service, with over a quarter of them based in China.

Boeing 737-800s, which were first produced in the late 1990s, have a strong safety record. The plane involved in Monday’s crash was about six years old. Boeing has been struggling to recover from two fatal crashes involving its 737 MAX aircraft, which claimed the lives of 346 passengers and crew.

The reason for the crash is under investigation, and among the usual technical and weather issues, pilot illness or suicide is being seen as a possibility. The pilot and co-pilot had more than 39,000 hours of combined flying experience, adding to the mystery of why the plane crashed.

Still Flying on Mars

Meanwhile, with sufficient rest, NASA’s Helicopter Ingenuity is still ‘alive and kicking’ on Mars? Over the weekend, the Mars Helicopter took its 22nd flight: the trip lasted 101.4 seconds and Ingenuity got up to 10 meters in the air. The team is busy planning the next flight while Ingenuity conquers a tiny amount of Mars air-space, every time it grabs the Martian air.

Girls in Afghanistan: We Need Education

I follow BBC’s Yalda Hakim on Twitter, and she has been diligently keeping a count on the number of days teenage girls across Afghanistan have been prohibited from secondary school (grades 6 to 12) education, and kept away from classrooms, by the Taliban-ever since they took control of the country (in a manner Russia’s Putin thought he could, in Ukraine). The count stood at 186 days!

This week was expected to be a turning-point with the Taliban announcing that 23 March 2022 will be the date when teenage girls can return to their classrooms. During its previous rule from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban had banned girls from receiving education and this time around it did just that. On introducing the ban last year, the Taliban claimed that their restrictions on girls studying was ‘temporary’ and will be back in place once they are able to ensure all workplaces and learning environments are ‘safe’ for the girls.

However, on 23 March when girls turned up at school gates, the Taliban reneged and sent the girls back to their homes, saying that the time is still not right for them; that officials are yet to draw up a plan for schools that aligns with their interpretation of Islamic law. And that an appropriate Islamic dress has to be designed for them before opening the schools. This brought tears to the eyes of many girls and parents were visibly outraged by such a U-turn.

One million girls in the country are affected by the Taliban’s stance. And if they aren’t back in class soon, it could impact the aid that Afghanistan gets, since Western countries have made it clear that girls’ access to education is a ‘sine quo non’ for the cash to flow.

Amazing that after all the far-reaching development of humankind brought about by education and learning, some are being denied such a basic right, in the name of religion.

Killing Fields of West Bengal

Over the past month, it has been a horrific state of affairs in India’s State of West Bengal, ruled by a ‘permanently scowling and endlessly fighting-with-the-Centre’ Chief Minister (CM) of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Party, Mamata Banerjee. Her only superpower has been that despite what happens, or does not happen in the State, she keeps winning election after election. If such people-power cannot be used to ensure the safety of people and their betterment, of what use is it?

A student activist was killed by local Police on 18 February, a Congress and TMC Councillor were shot dead on 13 March in two different incidents. And worst of all on 21 March, a TMC deputy Panchayat head of Barshal Village, Rampurhat, Birbhum Disctrict was killed. The same day, it what appeared to be a revenge attack, eight people, including women and children were burnt alive inside their homes in Bagtui Village, Rampurhat. The Television channels showed charcoal-black charred bodies being piled up and taken away, in a heart-wenching scene. Most of these incidents seem to be related in some way to the TMC, the ruling party, headed by its woman CM.

Such medieval violence has no place in a democracy and the buck stops at the CM’s table. Act or leave?

An Ace Tennis Shock

Women’s Tennis World No 1, Ashleigh Barty of Australia announced a shock retirement from tennis at the age of 25 (and Roger Federer is still hitting those balls at age 40 upwards).

Ash Barty is quitting the sport at the peak of her powers, as the reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon Champion. She has held the world No 1 position since winning the 2019 French Open Title.

Barty said, “I just know that I am absolutely spent, I just know physically I have nothing more to give. And that to me is success. I have given absolutely everything I can to this beautiful sport of tennis.”

Turns out that Ash Barty has superb talent in cricket and golf, and maybe we could see her in new avatars on these green fields. Or has somebody seduced her to change track at this station of her life?

Whatever, Ash Barty has redefined sporting success as Quality, not Quantity.

Movies

Over the previous weekend, tired of the news headlines and the macabre incidents swirling around the world, I crashed into the movie, ‘Without Saying Goodbye’ (2022), on Netflix, and promptly fell in love with the romantic, finding-your-purpose-film. It stars Maxi Igelsias and Stephaine Cayo in the lead roles.

It’s about a successful workaholic, ‘gadget-tied’, Spanish Architect, Salvador (Maxi Igelsias) who travels to rural Peru to buy tribal land -in front of a world wonder, Cuzco, navel of the world -and build a luxury hotel for his father’s Business. He is constantly working, scheduling, and getting tasks done. He stays in a little House-Hotel run by Lichi (Wendy Ramos)- who’s land he intends to buy for the project-and bumps into Ariana (Stephanie Cayo), Lichi’s free-spirited artist niece; when a broken-key takes him to her side of the House, watching her sing and dance. And he ‘lights her tail’-a piece of protruding paper in the rear of her dress -with a candle, while dancing, as a way of signalling interest. And it works; love catches fire!

Ariana helps her Aunt run the place, and also takes tourists on treks through the spectacularly beautiful region. She is vehemently against her Aunt selling the land to build a ‘huge chunk of concrete and cement’.

Salvador first falls in love with Ariana and the land, and easily glides into acquiring appreciation for a more eco-friendly way of life, sustainability, and the local culture. Ariana, who has no interest in romantic love, happy endings, or marriage, resists his kind of approach to life and work. Their values are at odds, but he begins to consider the benefits of a less hyper-scheduled life, and she opens up to the idea of sharing her life with someone who’s so willing to change his way of thinking. They discover each other over a ‘bag-pack trek’ through the luscious land, where Salvador learns the yoga of meditation. How can you stop thinking?

Salvador quits his father’s company, takes a sabbatical, and goes on a search to find Ariana, who left in a huff (without saying goodbye) disagreeing over selling the property. Ultimately, as he persists, she comes to value what they have together.

The views of Peru are breathtaking, and we get to see the 15th century Inca citadel Machu Pichhu – one of the seven wonders of the world. And of course, the beautiful chemisty between Salvador and Ariana.

I cannot leave without saying, goodbye. Fall in Love with World Inthavaaram. Discover more wonders. Goodbye, until next week!

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-11

About: the world this week, 13 March to 19 March 2022, the ‘Z’ of war, a basketball heroine, return from jail, scarfs of a religion, and Kashmir.

Everywhere

Z

The wholly unnecessary, irrational Russia-Ukraine war grinds on with no end in sight, but the Russians and Ukrainians are still talking, and that is something to hang on to. The enormity of destruction unfolding on our screens everyday, is beyond imagination in these advanced times. Does the ‘Z’ marking on the invading Russian armoury signify the end, ‘of something’?

Russians are slowly finding their voices. Marina Ovsyannikova, a Russian State Television Channel-1 employee interrupted a live news broadcast with a placard carrying an anti-war message: and all the time, the news-reader continued unperturbed with that unflappable, unmistakable, cold, robot like Russian look. She was promptly arrested, presented in court, and fined 30,000 Russian Roubles for breaking protest laws. The ‘lean punishment’, by Russian Standards, was awfully surprising. Later, Ovsyannikova said that Russians are zombified by State media propaganda. However, she could face other charges-someone must be working overtime to find them. But, in a way, Ovsyannikova has already won a great battle against propaganda in Russia and, maybe, galvanised the like-minded to find their charge.

The best part is that the media in Russia is behaving as if nothing happened, as if Ovsyannikova never existed. Of course, this follows the Russian Standard Operating Procedure of, ’It’s not me”-denying everything. And ‘lying’ is becoming the spinal cord of the present unhinged Russian Regime.

In another development, a leading Bolshoi prima ballerina, who denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine left Russia to join the Dutch National Ballet. Olga Smirnova, 30, an exceptional dancer, said last week she was, “against this war with every fibre of my soul”, and was supported by other Russian ballerinas. Smirnova has a Ukrainian grandfather and has described herself as one-quarter Ukrainian. Earlier this month, Smirnova said: “In a modern and enlightened world, I expect civilised societies to resolve political matters only through peaceful negotiations”.

That’s very well said. She needs to be listened to!

Over the week, it was heart-warming to see Leaders from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia bravely board a train and visit Kyiv, to meet Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky and show support for Ukraine. We need more of this kind. Wish all world leaders would catch their own trains to Ukraine!

The International Court of Justice also entered the battle-field and ordered Russia to immediately halt its invasion of Ukraine, in a 13-2 decision. Out of the 15 Judges, India’s Justice Dalveer Bhandari too voted against Russia, joining with the majority. The court said, ‘It is profoundly concerned about the use of force by the Russian Federation, which raises very serious issues in international law’. That’s some distance!

The Russian hostilities continued unabated and this week they bombed the Mariupol Drama Theatre where hundreds of civilians were sheltering underneath the Theatre’s bomb shelter. People were trapped inside and the extent of damage is being assessed.

Meanwhile, President Zelensky carried on addressing Parliaments of various countries to highlight Ukraine’s plight. This week it was Canada and the US.

Late this week, in a phone call between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Russian leader set out his demands to end the War. At last, perhaps some light?

The world has to find a way to stop this senseless war. The United Nations (UN) should work harder. Else it might become another ‘League of Nations’.

A Star Disappears

She’s arguably the greatest female basketball player of all time: American Professional Basketball player Brittney Griner been detained in Moscow amid a war. The 6 feet 9 inch tall Brittney, 31, entered Russia on 17 February, landing at the Sheremetyevo Airport, outside Moscow, to play another season with a Russian league team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, during the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) offseason.

While going through Airport security, a sniffer dog led Russian authorities to search Brittney’s carry-on luggage and they found vape cartridges containing hashish oil. She is believed to have been arrested on drug charges. Since then, her whereabouts are unknown and Russia has so far blocked consular access to the US embassy. She could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Few have accomplished what Brittney Griner has. A native of Houston, Texas, she won the college championship, WNBA and Euro-League titles, and an Olympic gold medal. And, famously, her ability to dunk (score by shooting the ball down through the basket with the hands above the rim) is unmatched. She is one of the WNBA’s most dominant players in history, widely considered the best offensive player in the League.

Off the basketball court, she has been a trailblazer, coming out as gay at age 22, just about the time of her entry into professional sport. She then became the first overall draft pick in the WNBA that year and, soon after, the first openly gay athlete to be endorsed by Nike in its advertisement campaigns.

An Iranian-British Woman Appears: ‘Is that Mummy?’

On 17 March 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, who holds dual British and Iranian citizenship, along with her nearly two years old daughter Gabriella, travelled to Iran to visit her parents to celebrate the Iranian New Year. She lives in Hampstead, London, with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and Gabriella, and was visiting Iran on holiday. She was born in Tehran.

On 3 April 2016 Nazanin was arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards at Imam Khomeini Airport when she and her daughter were about to board a flight back to the United Kingdom (UK). She was then held in solitary confinement.

At the time of her arrest, she was employed by Thomson Reuters Foundation – a charity. She had previously worked for the BBC as an administrator, and for multiple charity organisations, including the Japanese International Co-operation Agency, International Federation of Red Cross, Red Crescent Societies, and the World Health Organization (WHO) before coming to the UK on scholarship to study Communication Management at London Metropolitan University.

The reason for her arrest was not made public, but she was later accused of spying. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said she was leading a ‘foreign-linked hostile network’ when she visited. And also alleged Nazanin was plotting to topple the government in Tehran, though no official charges were made. On 9 Sept 2016 Nazanin was jailed for five years following a conviction on charges that remained secret. She spent four years in the Evin Prison in Tehran and one under house arrest at her parents’ house in Iran.

In April 2021, after she completed her five-year term, Nazanin was sentenced to another year in jail and was banned from leaving Iran on charges of spreading propaganda against the country’s government. She was also charged for taking part in a protest 12 years ago in London and talking to the BBC Service during that time.

The UN had on several occasions called for Nazanin’s release. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had also formally called for her immediate release in its Opinion adopted in August 2016. Further, calls for Nazanin’s release have been made by the US Congress, the Canadian Parliament, and the European Parliament.

In June 2019, both Richard and Nazanin went on hunger strike, in protest of Nazanin’s imprisonment, with Richard Ratcliffe camping outside the Iranian Embassy in London, and she in jail. They both ended the hunger strike on 29 June 2019, after 15 days.

On 24 October 2021, Richard Ratcliffe went on a second hunger strike to persuade the British government to expand the efforts in calling for his wife’s release from Iran’s detention. His hunger strike took place outside the Foreign Office in London. On 13 November 2021, with mounting concerns on his health, Richard Ratcliffe ended his hunger strike after 21 days, stating that their daughter ‘needs two parents’.

Finally this week on 16 March 2022 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and another British-Iranian detainee, Anoosheh Ashoori were released from detention and returned to the UK. On landing, the first question that a waiting Gabriella asked was, “is that Mummy?”

Anoosheh Ashoori is a British-Iranian businessman. He spent 10 years in the UK from 1972, while he studied mechanical and aeronautical engineering, before returning to Iran to take care of his ailing father. He returned to the UK in 2005 to expand his business abroad. In Ashoori’s case, he was arrested in August 2017, when he visited his mother. He was awarded 12 years in prison-10 years for ‘spying for Israel’s Mossad’ and another two years for ‘acquiring illegitimate wealth’. Ashoori was subjected to torture, repeatedly interrogated without a lawyer present, and forced to sign confessions while sleep-deprived.

What could be the reason for this torture by Iran? In 2018, Iran was accused of holding British Nationals because of a multi million GBP debt owed by the UK to Iran.

Iran has stated that the UK government owes the Iranian government 400 million pounds for the sale of some defence equipment in the 1970s—before the Iranian Revolution when both the countries used to be allies. Iran claims that Britain promised 1,750 Chieftain Tanks and other vehicles for which Farah Diba, the widow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was ousted by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, paid for but none were delivered.

In the end it is said that Britain agreed to pay Iran GBP 393.8 million, which can only be used for humanitarian purposes – details of the arrangement are not known.

Not-Essential

This week, in a landmark Indian Court ruling, The High Court of Karnataka upheld a government ban on the headscarf in schools and colleges on the grounds that wearing it was ‘not essential’ to Islam. And that it has ‘something to do with culture but certainly not with religion’.

The verdict came in the wake of a polarising row over the hijab, which flared up early this year in the State of Karnataka. The Government stepped-in to ban hijab-wearing in schools and colleges and the students who stoked the controversy took the issue to the courts-for their judgement.

Quoting passages from the Koran, the Court ruled that: “It is not that if the practice of wearing hijab is not adhered to, those not wearing hijab become the sinners, Islam loses its glory and it ceases to be a religion.” Therefore, it added, the state has the right to prescribe a uniform without the hijab – it dismissed the students’ objections, saying the rule was a ‘reasonable restriction’ on their constitutional rights.

Kashmir

First, a brief history.

According to legend, an ascetic called Kashyapa reclaimed the land now comprising Kashmir, from a vast lake, which came to known as Kashyapamar and, later Kashmir – the land desiccated from water. King Ashoka The Great introduced Buddhism in the 3rd century BCE and the region gradually grew into a centre of Hindu culture. A succession of Hindu dynasties ruled until 1346 after which it came under Muslim rule that lasted almost five centuries. Then in 1819, Kashmir was annexed to the Sikh Kingdom of Punjab by Ranjit Singh and then to the Dogra Kingdom of Jammu in 1846. After the Anglo-Sikh war the British sold Kashmir to the Ghulab Singh of the Dogras for INR 7.5 million. Maharaja Hari Singh was the last Dogra King to ascend the throne in 1925. He signed the Instrument of Accession Act to India in October 1947 making it an integral part of India, when Pakistani Tribals invaded the North Western part and ‘illegally’ occupied it.

Kashmir is historically a plural land where all religions peacefully coexisted for centuries. Islam became a majority religion only in the 13th century. Kashmir’s Sufi-Islamic way of life complimented the rishi tradition of the Kashmiri Pandits who worshipped Lord Siva and Goddess Sakthi, in what is known as ‘Kashmiri Shaivism’.

It is a historical fact that in the end of the 1980’s and early 1990’s, close to half a million Hindus were ethnically cleansed from the Kashmir Valley by marauding Islamic gangs instigated and supported from within and across the Border-primarily Pakistan. Brutal murders and rapes followed. A Judge of the Srinagar High Court, Neelkanth Ganjoo, was shot in broad daylight in November 1989, by Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) cadres when he had sentenced the JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat to death for the murder of a Police Inspector, Amar Chand.

This happened under the rule of the then J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah who was seen as completely abdicating his responsibility in controlling the gangs. About 500,000 Kashmiri Hindus had no option but to leave or stay back and die. Many died in squalid camps and most moved on with their lives with pitiable scant support from the Indian Government; picking up their lives and hoping one day to get back to their homes where their ancestors survived many earlier genocides.

The Kashmir Files an Indian film directed by Vivek Agnihotri and produced by Zee Studios released late last week. It is a film based on exodus of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits during the Kashmir insurgency and tells the true story of brutal sufferings endured by the Kashmir Pandits living in India’s State of Jammu & Kashmir, in the year 1990 when they were forced to leave their homes.

It is the untold story of Islamic militants storming the houses of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley with the chant, ‘Either convert to Islam, leave the land, or die’. The Kashmir Files has become the most contentious film of the year with its ruthlessly bold presentation of the inhuman sufferings of the minority Kashmiri Pandits due to intolerance of the majority Islamic community, in J&K.

The film revolves around the fictional story of a university student who discovers his Kashmiri parents were killed by Islamist militants- and not in an accident as his grandfather had told him, and goes on to discover the chilling genocide of Kashmir Pandits.

The Kashmir Files has since scorched the box-office and generated heat and dust, and strong feelings on the sufferings of a people rendered refugees in their own land.

I am looking forward to watching the film and will come back with a full story.

More real and fiction coming up in the weeks ahead. Read World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-10

About: the world this week, 6 March to 12 March 2022, war grows, Ganga flows, Covid19 again, rains floods, elections and elections, tree driving, and a pig heart.

Everywhere

Ukraine: Fighting Back

“I am prepared to die for my country, for what I love,” said a Ukrainian in perfect English. “Putin doesn’t understand we don’t want his authority-his world. All of us here know what we want-the right to live our lives, the right to choose who leads us. That’s our right, not Moscow’s.” That sums up the steely, courageous mood against all odds, which has invaded Ukrainian minds.

It’s over two weeks since the Russian invasion and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky is holding-on with his people in the capital Kyiv amidst the mad, relentless attack on his country. He has been on a continuous talking spree to world leaders explaining the situation, and trying to enlist their understanding and support. His speech to the United Kingdom’s (UK) House of Commons received a standing ovation. “We will fight until the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost,” he said. Brave words, which will go down to the wire.

The city of Kyiv has been transformed into a fortress and from the looks of it, the people are determined to defend the city to the last man standing. Almost 40,000 volunteers joined the Territorial Defense Forces in the first two days after the invasion began. In Kyiv alone, 18000 people picked up weapons when authorities called for volunteers and reservists to do so.

Those who couldn’t join the forces are helping in other ways: making Molotov cocktails, sewing camouflage nets for barricades, distributing food, hot drinks and cigarettes to those standing guard. They are raising money for the military, building more road blocks, and even painting over traffic signs in an attempt to confuse the invaders.

Over the week, Russia bombed a Hospital in the city of Mariupol that injured 17 people, including children, women, and doctors. Three died, among them one child, a girl. Civilians are being increasingly targeted and this is a huge cause of worry, as is the precision of Russian weaponry becoming suspect.

India successfully evacuated nearly all its citizens and students in Ukraine. Many would not budge without their pet cats and dogs, which also earned space in the Operation Ganga flights. One man, an Orthopaedic Doctor chose to be different. He had a pet panther and a jaguar and refused to leave without them. Last heard he was hunting for food to feed them. Another who was shot, during the Russian shelling, was rescued and taken home in an Indian Airforce Plane.

While we talk about Ukraine, think about Afghanistan and Myanmar where its people invaded their country causing endless internal strife. And Taiwan living in constant fear of a Chinese invasion. Another rogue nation North Korea is busy firing missiles into the Ocean, what if they turn and attack South Korea? The possibilities for war is limitless. In Taliban’sAfghanistan it’s Day 175 since girls have been banned from returning to secondary school: teenage girls remain stuck at home, waiting for the Taliban to decide the future of their education. And they are busy lecturing Russia and Ukraine to talk it over and take things cool. Wow!

This week, the US further turned the screws on Russia by banning all imports of Russian Oil, Gas, and Energy. US based companies such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola, temporarily closed their stores in Russia to show their solidarity with Ukraine. And in return, Russia threatened to seize all these abandoned assets. Well, that’s another front opening in this war!

I often wonder what did the Ukrainian people do to deserve this: homes destroyed, lives shattered, and tens of thousands crossing the Borders into Poland, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia as refugees.

A third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia was unproductive. And they are still talking. Ukrainian President Zelensky indicated he might not want to join NATO after all-as they are cold towards them. He might also give up in some eastern provinces which Russia recognised as Independent. These maybe the building blocks for further negotiations.

South Korea’s New Unfavourable President

This week, South Korea chose the opposition conservative People Power Party’s candidate, Yoon Suk-Yeol, as the country’s next President following a tightly contested Presidential Election, the closest in its history-with the final count separated by less than 1%. He takes over from the outgoing President Moon Jae-In, who held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in an attempt to bridge the gap between the Koreas.

Yoon, a political novice, scraped out a victory over the liberal Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-Myung, based on promises to tackle class inequality. Both presidential candidates were considered widely unpopular throughout the campaign. And voters appeared so disenchanted by the frontrunners that local media dubbed the vote as ‘election of the unfavourables’. However, polling day saw a high turn out, with 77% of eligible voters casting their vote. Yoon Suk-Yeol’s victory over his rival Lee Jae-Myung is far from decisive. The razor-thin margin being a sign of just how bitterly divided politics in the world’s tenth largest economy has become.

Except is authoritarian regimes, where we may never know until the very end, most democracies are deeply divided over many factors, with new fault lines and fissures discovered all the time.

New Zealand and The Virus

New Zealand defences against the first two waves of the Covid19 pandemic was the sturdiest, the toughest, and the tightest. Only a few viruses slipped through, which were caught at the borders and mercilessly thrashed. When the world was baffled on how New Zealand did it, the mutated virus -the Omicron fellow- heard, and taking law into its hands invaded New Zealand like never before. Daily infections climbing into Space-as high as over 20,000- which is the highest ever in the country since the pandemic began. However, deaths were insignificant with over 90% of the weakest population vaccinated against the virus. Vaccination works.

The cases are beginning to dip and I’m sure New Zealand would be wiser at the end.

The virus is indeed a great leveller. You cannot take it for granted.

Australia’s Emergency

New Zealand’s big island neighbour had a different kind of problem: unending rain, growing floods; it’s becoming harder to live in Australia. Over the past week, severe rain along the country’s eastern coast has caused some of the worst flooding in Australian history and inundated swaths of two of its largest cities, Sydney and Brisbane. The provinces of New South Wales and Queensland have been pummelled by heavy downpours that have caused floods, and Sydney was hit by widespread flash-flooding.

The situation forced Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison to declared a national emergency this week. It was the first time that a national emergency-a legislative power created after the deadly wildfires in early 2020-had been declared.

Experts say the flooding emergency has been worsened by climate change and a ‘La Nina’ weather phenomenon. A La Nina develops when strong winds blow the warm surface waters of the Pacific away from South America and towards Indonesia. In their place, colder waters come up to the surface. In Australia, a La Nina increases the likelihood of rain, cyclones, and cooler daytime temperatures.

Whoever coined the term ‘Down Under’ probably knew what was coming!

India’s Five State Elections

Finally the last of the five States, Uttar Pradesh, that went to the polls to elect its new Legislative Assembly finished voting in the final phase on 7 March 2022. And once the voting was over that evening, Exit Pollsters started shouting out their kind of voting, and the prediction was that India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will win in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Manipur, and maybe Goa. While Punjab will go to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) presently governing the Union territory of Delhi.

The counting of votes was on 10 March 2022 and the results were generally on predicted lines. The BJP smashed many ceilings in winning 273 (with its allies, 255 on its own) out of 403 seats in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh where it was the incumbent governing party. The election strategy of pushing for a ‘double-engine’ (Centre and State ruled by one Party) growth seems to have worked, and it fired on all cylinders. The Grand Old Party of India, The Indian National Congress (INC) was decimated in the State winning a miserly 2 seats. Overall, it was mauled at the hustings in other States and left licking its wounds. It had bungled and messed-up big time in Punjab and ‘reaped a bare minimum support’ from the voters.

The BJP went on to record remarkable victories in all other states except Punjab where the AAP, which has the broom as its symbol swept-off every other party including the BJP with a magical, massive, first ever win – 92 out of 117. In Uttarkhand the BJP won 47 out of 70; in Manipur it won 32 out of 60; and in Goa it won 20 out of 40.

The BJP shattered a battery of records in Uttar Pradesh with its present Chief Minister(CM)Yogi Adityanath, nearing 50, becoming a tall leader in his own right. He is the first CM to retain power in 37 years; the first CM to complete a full tenure and be re-elected; the fifth CM to win a second consecutive term; first BJP CM to return to power; first MLA to become CM in 15 years and the first CM to break the Noida Jinx. According to legend, whichever CM visits the city of Noida during his tenure either loses the next election or does not complete his tenure. Many past CM’s used to deliberately avoid this city and those who dared, succumbed to the fate of the Noida Jinx.

The State of Punjab saw an incredible performance by the AAP which won a landslide of 92 seats of a total of 117. There is also a story there.

Maybe this is the year of the Comedy Actors getting their timing right, fighting it out in the world of Politics and leading the charge afterwards. Punjab’s Bhagwant Singh Mann who is the Chief Minister-elect is a comic poet, writer of political satire and competed in the popular Indian TV show, ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ in 2008. He is currently a Member of Parliament for the AAP and was chosen to lead the Punjab Elections based on a public poll in which 93% wanted him to become the Chief Minister of Punjab. That’s almost an Indian Zelensky!

One ‘handed-down’ lesson from the elections is, ‘never take the voter for granted’.

India’s Tree Scooter

India is the world’s biggest producer of areca nut, with an output of 1.2 million tonnes in the year 2020-21. Much of this is produced in the southern coastal states of Karnataka and Kerala.

The areca nut is the seed of the areca palm and is commonly referred to as betel nut. It is known to be a major ‘cancer causing nut’; as with chewing tobacco, its use is discouraged by preventive efforts. Consumption by hundreds of millions of people worldwide is described as a much neglected global public health emergency.

On the brighter and taller side, 50 years old Ganapathi Bhat farms areca nut in the coastal town of Mangaluru in India’s Karnataka State. He faced a problem: regularly scaling palm trees as tall as between 60 and 70 feet to inspect and harvest his crop. Too old to climb, and unable to find cheap labour, Bhat took it upon himself to invent a device that would make climbing areca nut trees easier.

Starting in 2014, Bhat spent around INR 4 million on research and development. After four years of climbing work, he and his engineer partner came-up with a working prototype of a ‘Tree Scooter’. It consists of a small motor; a rudimentary seat, which straps a person to the seat and to the handlebars in a kind of tree-embrace; a set of climbing wheels, foot-bars; and the handle bar of a scooter with hand-controlled accelerator and brakes, which is revved to swiftly move up and down the tree and brake to a stop where required.

Bhat has sold more than 300 of the ‘tree scooters’, which cost about INR 62,000 each.

Last seen he was effortlessly zipping up and down trees grabbing the fruits of his labour!

Pig Heart

In the United States, 57 years old David Bennett had terminal heart-disease, was confined to a bed, and was given no chance of survival – certain sudden death.

However, in a ground-breaking experiment, Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Centre, were granted a special dispensation by the US medical regulator to carry out a heart-transplant from a genetically-modified pig. Bennet thus became the first person in the World to receive such a heart, and would otherwise have died sooner.

He underwent the surgery on 7th January, and in the weeks afterwards he spent time with his family, watched the Super Bowl, and spoke about wanting to get home to his dog, Lucky.

But his luck ran out, and his condition began to deteriorate over the past week. And he died this week on 8 March. Bennett knew the risks attached to the surgery, acknowledging, before the procedure, it was ‘a shot in the dark’.

More light stories to dispel darkness coming up in the weeks ahead. Climb with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-09

About: the world this week, 27 February to 5 March 2022, war, a country fights for its life, Operation Ganga, Justices, and floods.

Everywhere

Russian Aggression

This week was almost surreal with a full-fledged war developing right in front of our eyes and we being powerless, in the face of numerous odds, to do anything to stop the fighting; despite all the right noises we made at the start. And we, Homo Sapiens, thought we had advanced far enough to call weapons of killing and destruction, that we had cleverly invented, just that. And not use them at all.

The war in Europe between Russia and Ukraine galloped across new frontiers driven by an irrational President of Russia. Sirens howling, guns firing, tanks rolling, missiles flying, and people fleeing to basements of buildings for cover or to the borders, from the ever-growing hot-spots. Unbelievable that this happening in our time when we thought the World’s superpowers would behave with utmost sacred responsibility.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is fast acquiring a pariah status for his dangerous act of invading Ukraine and the unholy, brutal devastation unleashed in the process. If he had hoped for a quick victory it evaporated in the face of fierce resistance by Ukrainian soldiers and its armies of citizen volunteers.

Let’s face it. Russia is attacking-without the slightest needle of a physical provocation-a sovereign, independent, fledgling country, Ukraine, on a perceived, imagined threat to itself, despite it having one of the world’s most advanced and sophisticated security apparatus. In the aftermath of its break-up from the Soviet Union, Ukraine had given-up its nuclear arsenal to Russia with a guarantee that its sovereignty and borders will be respected. Its people freely and overwhelmingly chose to align with the West-the market of the European Union, for their betterment – it’s their choice, and rightfully so. And they were taking the first baby steps in joining the defensive North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO) – for their own safety against the bewildering next-door giant. The Russian President decided that he did not like a neighbour freely doing all of this-sleeping with the enemy of his mind-hence the invasion. The goal seems to be to overthrow the democratically elected Government and perhaps install a puppet regime that would dance only to its tunes on strings pulled from Moscow.

Death defying circumstances such as these often throw up a hero, and a young Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, 44, is turning out to be exactly that. He refused to be cowed-down by the might of Russia and lay down arms; and in what I call a ‘Winston Churchill moment’, broadcasted to the Russian people on the ills of war, appealing to their belonging as people from the same land, and a call to reign-in their wild President. And to his own people he inspired and motivated them to come out and fight this together, shoulder to shoulder. Blood, sweat, and tears.

When offered an escape from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, by the United States, Zelenskyy was awfully quick to reject it saying. “I need ammunition, not a ride.” It showed selfless leadership and a kind of ‘Hollywood courage’. Zelensky has suddenly emerged as a convincing war-time leader alongside the greats of Winston Churchill and George Washington. He has rallied the nation with his addresses and video selfies and given voice to Ukrainian anger and defiance of Russian aggression.

Going back to his origins, Zelensky’s entry into politics is a case of life imitating art; reel turning into real. Initially, he performed on Ukraine’s version of the American dance competition, television series ‘Dancing with the Stars’, which in turn is the US version of the UK series, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. The show pairs celebrities with professional dancers. And from 2015 to 2018, he played a history teacher frustrated with corruption who accidentally becomes President of Ukraine on a popular TV show called ‘Servant of the People.’ Zelensky then parlayed his success into politics, running for office in 2019 on the back of a political party named after his show, ‘Servant of the People’. He went on to win with 73% of the vote, promising to fight corruption and bring peace in the faction-riddled east of the country.

Zelensky is the son of Jewish parents. He married his school-mate Olena Kiyasko in 2003 and the couple have a daughter, Aleksandra, and son Kyryli . Wife Zelenska studied architecture at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Kryvyi Rih National University.

Ukrainians have been fending off the Russian army for over a week. But attacks have intensified on cities throughout the country: in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and the capital, Kyiv. Now, Russian forces have made key advances on Kherson-a strategic Black Sea port in southern Ukraine. And suddenly Russia is seen to be attacking on all fronts.

Meanwhile, the toll on civilians is mounting with an estimated 2,000 civilians dead as more than 1 million fleeing the country as refugees.

The US, UK, and other Western countries came to Ukraine’s aid by imposing economic sanctions to cripple Russia. The measures imposed are so potent that they have triggered chaos in Russia’s Trillion Dollar economy and prompted Vladimir Putin, to issue nuclear threats by putting the country’s nuclear forces on watch. The instant impoverishment of a big economy is unprecedented and will cause alarm around the world. The West’s priority appears to be, to win the economic confrontation with Russia.

Germany has long soft-peddled policies targeting Russia, but its chancellor, Olaf Scholz, made a moving and extraordinary change, committing an additional USD 100 billion to defense-spending immediately, shipping weapons to Ukraine, and ending the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was constructed to bring gas from Russia to Germany.

Switzerland, which steadfastly held a neutral position over so many decades decided to give up its neutrality and joined the sanctions bandwagon, sanctioning Russia and closing its airspace to Russian aircraft. These are never-before decisions – waking up other kinds of ‘unknown’ powerful sleeping giants.

Civil activism is the lifeblood of free societies, and Ukrainians have been excelling, including the sunflower lady, who cursed Russian soldiers; civilians lining up to collect arms and make Molotov cocktails, or change out street signs to confuse the invaders; and breweries retooling to produce weaponry. These stories will live and be told to build a new nation.

The United Nations is struggling to tame the Russian rogue, but Russia’s veto power renders any effective action from emerging, beyond some kind of a strong-worded condemnation. India abstained from voting due to its own compulsions. I wish it had voted along with the majority of nations, condemning Russia’s unwarranted aggression. India is a great civilisation and has always stood by dharma. I hope it shows more backbone in the days to come.

Now, the build-up on the other side. Russia friendly Belarus announced it was revoking its non-nuclear status after a referendum, allowing Russian weapons to be placed in Belarus. The move provoked rare protests in the country. What’s even more alarming is that Belarus may be preparing to send its soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion.

There was a fire near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant- the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant responsible for about 20% of Ukraine’s power generation- following ‘unacceptable’ Russian shelling in the vicinity. And there is an imminent danger lurking in such places. For e.g., if something were to happen to this nuclear power station, the impact could be ’ten times larger’ than the Chernobyl disaster. With missiles shattering buildings and killing civilians in Kharkiv, Mariupol and Kyiv, and Russia continued to warn of further escalation, there is little reason for hope for an immediate reduction in hostilities.

Where do we go from here? How do we stop the war in the event there is no clear victory on either side and the fighting drags on?

Russia and Ukraine have met on the border of Belarus to hold two rounds of negotiations, but nothing concrete has emerged, as yet. Still, the two sides are talking. Sooner or later, if a deal is to be reached, concessions will need to come from both sides.

Ukraine will certainly not undergo any ‘denazification’ by ousting its own democratically-elected government led by President Zelensky who happens to be Jewish. He is the strongest person to negotiate with at this stage.

On the Ukrainian side, Zelensky may need to promise Ukraine will not join NATO. This is at the core of Putin’s illogical reasoning for the invasion, and he is unlikely to back down from this demand. Russia will press for demilitarization in Ukraine, and it will be a non-starter for the Ukrainians. But they might well be willing to think about it once peace is clearly established: maybe accept limitations on the amount and types of weapons they can maintain, and also agree not to have foreign forces based in Ukraine. Of course, hedges should be built-in if there is an external threat to Ukraine.

Crimea appears destined to remain under Russia’s control, and Luhansk and Donetsk may likely be granted significant autonomy within the Ukrainian system.

Ukraine will expect commensurate concessions from Russia. Paramount among them will be a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. The withdrawal will need to be accompanied by a drastic reduction of Russian forces away from Ukraine’s borders, including eastern Ukraine, Belarus and the Black Sea. Ukraine cannot be expected to rebuild and return to peacetime life with the Russian mill-stone around its neck.

There is talk of imposing a No-Fly Zone over Ukraine, which experts say, should not be done. A no-fly zone is airspace where certain aircraft are not allowed to enter. In the context of conflicts and wars, it is typically used to stop banned aircraft from entering airspace to launch attacks, transport troops and weapons, and conduct surveillance. But then, you need someone to enforce it, which may trigger its own problems. It is best US and NATO avoid stationing their forces in Ukraine; the intent being to avoid pushing a nuclear superpower into a corner when it has no other option than to use it.

The concessions that come with negotiations are often painful when they are a climb-down from the original hard stances. But they are infinitely preferable to an indefinite continuation of battle, and even when conflicts are driven by irrational acts, the logic of diplomacy can take hold. The World prays that is the case here. Meanwhile two countries are being destroyed and one of them can stop it.

Operation Ganga

India has near about 20,000 of its nationals, including students studying in Ukraine, and this week India scrambled its forces to get them out safely, naming the mission as ‘Operation Ganga’. Besides evacuation, another goal was to provide humanitarian assistance to Indians who had crossed over to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine: Romania, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia.

Operation Ganga is being planned and executed by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Indian Armed Forces. Airlines that were roped in are Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Air India Express. Four Union ministers were flown to the neighbouring countries to expedite the evacuation.

The first flight happened on 26 February and over 10,300 Indians have been brought back to India, in 48 flights in a massive exercise. Most had crossed the borders into neighbouring countries. However, one Indian student lost his life in the city of Kharkiv due to Russian shelling, when he went to buy groceries during the curfew relaxation period. Along with him, ten others died in various attacks by Russia. Another was reportedly shot and is recovering in hospital.

Supreme Court Justice

US President Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise by nominating the first Afro-American woman Justice to the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson a 51 years old former public defender turned federal appellate judge. She’s been a leading contender to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer (who she clerked for). Now, the Harvard-trained judge hopes to head to the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson may be confirmed as soon as April this year.

The US Constitution states that Justices ‘shall hold their Offices during good behaviour.’ This means they can serve for life– their terms only ending if they resign, pass away or if they are impeached and convicted by Congress.

The President nominates someone for a vacancy on the Court and the Senate votes to confirm the nominee, which requires a simple majority. In this way, both the Executive and Legislative Branches of the federal government have a voice in the composition of the Supreme Court.

Australia Down Underwater

Australia is experiencing its worst floods in decades. Intense rain and record-breaking floods have hit eastern Australia.

A river in the northern New South Wales town of Lismore broke its banks and rose to a level of near about 14.40m, which quickly earned it a place between the ‘once in 500 years to 1000 years flood event’. And in Queensland, the Brisbane River flooded, causing extensive damage.

Nothing better explains the speed and severity of the flooding than the sight of some people with their cars, and a few horses being caught on a bridge over the Richmond River on Woodburn, outside Lismore in northern New South Wales when rising floodwaters cut them at both ends leaving them stranded in the middle, overnight. They could be rescued only in the morning, when the lights came on. Such was the suddenness of the water rise.

This is becoming a recurring event in Australia. Either it’s fire, water, or spiders and rodents giving them one hell of a time.

I’m not leaving Australia, not yet: the last news, I spin this week is the unexpected passing of legendary Australian Cricketer, Spin-bowler Shane Warne at the age of 52, due to a cardiac arrest. His spin was so good that even God did not know it was coming! RIP Shane Warne: you did teach India how to spin better.

More fire and water stories spinning-up in the weeks ahead. Live with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-08

About: the world this week, 20 February to 26 February 2022, war-an invasion, chess, a not so noble gas, elections, and a Western movie that hopes to lasso a barnful of Oscars!

Everywhere

War (and Peace?)

Finally, after weeks of invasion of the media by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the stalemate ended. And the world’s worst fears came true: Russia ‘royally’ invaded Ukraine through the Donbas region on 24 February 2022 calling it a ‘special military operation’ with the goal of ‘demilitarising and denazifying’ Ukraine: it made claims (false) about genocide perpetrated against ethnic Russians in the eastern parts of Ukraine, and they asking for help as one of many reasons.

I never knew invading another Country was so easy-never mind the preparation-without any kind of overt provocation by Ukraine. And all along implying that it was going to happen.

Read the basics of the build-up of the story at:

https://kumargovindan.wordpress.com/2021/12/26/world-inthavaaram-2021-52/

We have to give it to the United States (US) for using their superior ‘intelligence’ with President Biden’s relentless invasion theory bearing fruit. But they could do nothing to prevent it. Ukraine, despite its intent, has not yet joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). If it had, NATO troops can enter Ukraine to defend it. Now, the best that NATO can do is watch from across the Borders. And keep gathering intelligence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “We do not intend to occupy Ukraine. To anyone who would consider interfering from the outside: if you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history. All relevant decisions have been taken. I hope you hear me”.

The scope of the Russian attack appears to be massive, with cruise and ballistic missiles targeting infrastructure near major cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Dnipro.

This come days after Putin recognised the independence of Ukraine’s two eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk and ordered Russian forces into these regions as what he called ‘peacekeepers’, wow! And this also comes weeks after Russia amassed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders.

A fantastic case of Russia being the criminal, the prosecutor, and the judge – all rolled into one tank and shot into Ukraine.

Recall, Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014, and pro-Russia rebels have since been fighting Ukrainian forces in the eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. More than 14,000 people were killed in that conflict.

Ukraine is also known for the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster – considered the worst nuclear disaster in history – that occurred on 26 April 1986 in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. Russia would be looking to seal off this site to prevent any new kind of new danger spilling over from the, now shut-down and boundary isolated nuclear power plant. Well, it did just that on entering Ukraine.

Three decades ago, the newly independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third-largest nuclear power in the world. Thousands of nuclear arms had been left on Ukrainian soil by Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But in the years that followed, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearise – destroying or returning its nuclear arsenal to Russia. In exchange, the US, the United Kingdom(UK), and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty and border security in a 1994 agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum. Now Russia has failed that trust. And the US and UK too?

It beguiles me, what do you call such a reckless invasion by a responsible nuclear superpower? Can it ever be trusted? Russia’s action is unacceptable and condemnable. It sets a dangerous precedent in attacking an independent country on fictitious, flimsy reasons; a country that has chosen its own path and has not shown any unprovoked military aggression against Russia.

What options does Ukraine have? Fight it out or lay down arms-to avoid bloodshed -talk it over with Russia and accept not to join NATO, for a start? Where does the United Nations (UN) come in, when will it grow teeth?

There is enough of Russia for Russia. Otherwise there is all of Space to occupy, if they can. Live and let live!

Chess

‘I was just enjoying myself’, so said 16 years old Chess Grandmaster (GM) Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa from Chennai, Tamilnadu, India, when he stunned the World No 1, Magnus Carlsen, in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters Online Rapid Chess Tournament. He became only the third from the country- after Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna – to earn a victory over the Norwegian Chess superstar, in any form of the game.

Praggnanandhaa is a chess prodigy, the fifth-youngest person ever to achieve the title of GM, behind Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Dommaraju Gukesh (Gukesh D), and Javokhir Sindarov. He is the younger sibling of Woman GM Vaishali Rameshbabu.

Praggnanandhaa won the World Youth Chess Championships Under-8 title in 2013. In 2016, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest international GM in history, at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days.

We have a new King in the Castle. And he comes armed with a coolness beyond his years and ash smeared on his forehead. Mind it!

India has nearly 70 GM’s now, up from 20 in 2007. Twelve of them are women. That’s a formidable army: Russia, and others, beware!

Radon

The ‘Airthings’, in the Rapid Chess Tournament Title, quickly caught my eye before Praggnanandhaa could make his next move. What is Airthings?

Established in 2008, Airthings is a global tech company which aims to educate people on the prevalence of Radon, as well as other indoor air contaminants, and develop technology solutions to help people measure the dangers lurking inside homes and tackle them to live a healthy indoor life.

Airthings makes user-friendly Radon detectors to measure Radon levels in Homes and Buildings akin to the common smoke detectors. Radon testing for homeowners has been stationary for almost 30 years. Traditionally, people only had two options: call a professional to test radon levels, or purchase a single-use charcoal test which was then sent to a laboratory for the results. Airthings broke this tradition by designing, making, and supplying affordable Radon and other indoor air quality sensors trying to make them essential and a universal element in every building.

Next, what is Radon, why does it need to be measured?

Radon is an inert, colourless, odourless, radioactive, noble gas, present in the atmosphere in trace amounts; produced by the natural breakdown or radioactive decay of uranium and thorium present in rocks, soil, and groundwater. Since it emanates from the earth’s crust, the level of Radon at a place varies depending on the uranium content of the location. When Radon deteriorates, it releases radioactive energy, which is a health hazard. And can cause lung cancer. People can be exposed to the gas primarily from breathing Radon in the air that comes through cracks and gaps in buildings and homes from the base foundation. There is Radon in water too, because it can permeate well waters, hot and cold springs, making water unsafe to drink. When these gases are confined inside houses, it accumulates to dangerous concentration levels.

Outdoors, Radon disperses rapidly and, generally can be ignored. Breathing Radon over time increases risk of lung cancer and is the second leading cause of lung cancer (in the US, for one). Only smoking causes more deaths.

Indoor Radon can be controlled and managed with proven, cost-effective techniques based on Testing. If Radon levels are high, a certified Radon service professional can fix the problem.

A , 0 to 48 Becquerels/cubic meter (Bq/cubic meter) level of Radon is safe and normal. If it reaches 100 Bq/cubic meter, a ventilation solution has to be found. Guidelines suggest a mitigating action if levels are at or above 148 Bq/cubic meter . Usually, Radon problems are fixed using an underground ventilation system or by increasing the rate of air changes in the building-through fresh-air and exhaust fans.

I brought this up to bring awareness on indoor pollutants, especially Radon, as I could hardly see it ‘permeate’ our knowledge!

Elections

Elections seen to be always happening in India’s noisy democracy, in a never-ending cycle. An election buzz seems to be everywhere, every few months.

This week saw the counting of the Urban Local Body Elections in the State of Tamilnadu-held after 10 years -where the party ruling the State romped home. But not before the national party, ruling at the Centre made its mark in the State. Analysts are out there, with their calculators trying to work out the math from the wins and losses.

I think people voted for continuity to see that the party which just won the State Assembly Elections, also rules the Local Bodies. No excuses hereinafter, for the winners. Deliver, or pack and leave.

Meanwhile, State Elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Manipur, and Uttarakhand are in various phases of completion. Punjab, Goa, and Uttarakhand voted on a single day on 14 February. Manipur votes in two phases on 27 February and 3 March 2022. Uttar Pradesh is voting in seven phases: 10 February, 14 February, 20 February, 23 February, 27 February, 3 March, and 7 March 2022.

Counting of votes for all the Sates that went to the polls over the past weeks of February is scheduled on 10 March 2022. Testing times ahead.

Please Yourself

This week I found time to see the power of The Power of the Dog, a movie expected to make a big bite at the Oscars with an awesome 12 nominations in various categories in the 94th Academy Awards Night, coming up later in March 2022. I read that this year it will be hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes.

The Power of the Dog is a powerful, haunting, psychological Western movie thriller where instead of guns you have the bango, the piano, the cattle, the landscape, and the raw cowhide doing the shooting. It is based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Phil), Kirsten Dunst(Rose), Jesse Plemons(George), and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Peter), and is directed by New Zealand Director, Screenwriter, and Producer, Jane Champion.

A wealthy American ranch in Montana, is run by brothers Phil and George. While Phil is blunt, cruel, and aggressively emulates his late mentor Bronco Henry in his traditional rawhide cowboy dressing, George is cool, polished, a perfect gentlemen with suit, tie, and hat to boot.

During a cattle drive George falls for inn-keeper Rose who is a widow with a teenage son, Peter. George lifts Rose to the ranch after marrying her, and sends her son to College to study medicine-surgery. Phil plays on the emotions of Rose with his coldness, pushing her into drinking, turning her in an alcoholic wreck, all the while mocking Peter’s effeminate manners.

Peter comes over to the ranch during a College break, feels his Mom’s condition, and snares and dissects a Rabbit to show-off his dissecting skills. He is befriended by Phil after Peter catches him bathing in a secluded pond and masturbating with a Bronco Henry scarf around his neck. Peter also discovers a stack of the magazines of nude men with the mentor’s name on them near the secret pond.

Phil teaches Peter to ride a horse and even starts making a lasso of raw cowhide for him to twine their friendship. Their warmth irks Rose and drives her further in an abyss. And one day, in a drunken stupor, she defiantly sells unused hides – normally burnt off by Phil – to a native Indian, when Phil & Peter are out for a ride together.

When Phil discovers his hides are gone, he creates a ruckus, and is unable to complete twining of the lasso he was working on. Peter offers him some hide he had himself cut-off, using a surgeon’s gloves, from a cow, which had died of Anthrax. Phil works through the night, with Peter watching, to finish off the lasso inadvertently allowing an injured bloody wound in his hand to soak in the solution used to soften the rawhide. During the process Phil narrates a story of Bronco Henry saving his life in freezing weather with the heat of his body and does not answer Peter’s question of whether they did it naked. Peter, in turn tells him about having to cut down the corpse of his alcoholic father who had killed himself by hanging. And that his father told him he was not ‘kind enough’.

The next day Phil is found sick in bed and later dies (of Anthrax – says the Doctor). George is puzzled about the Anthrax as Phil was awfully careful in staying away from dead cattle.

In the end Peter, who avoided Phil’s funeral, smiles on seeing his Mom embrace George outside the ranch, and perhaps live happily ever after. He pushes the Phil-made lasso, with a gloved hand, beneath his bed. You need to figure out yourself on what happened to Phil – that’s an unspoken, but ‘clear’ mystery.

Superb acting by the cast, especially Benedict Cumberbatch, and Kirsten Dunst who drinks into the character.

I found the music score, composed by English musician Jonny Greenwood who is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead, filling the film to the brim. Made me grow my ears!

More Eastern and Western stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Wars do not work-live peacefully with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-07

About: the world this week, 13 February to 19 February 2022, Wars, Emergency, King Kong, Humara Bajaj, Workhorses, a Disco King, and Space.

Everywhere

Russia Re-thinks Borders and Tanks

While Russia was amassing its troops at the Ukrainian Border, the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries developed ‘war fever’ and built-up high border temperatures, ‘Russia is going to invade in the next several days, today, tomorrow, Wednesday, Friday, 4am, 6pm…Your guess is as good as mine. Meanwhile, Russia began withdrawing some troops, bordering Ukraine, after completion of a number of combat training exercises, including drills. Some Units of the Western military districts have already been loaded on rail and road transport and began moving to their military garrisons. True Lies?

The ‘Warm War’ gets slightly cold (before it gets warm again?) Wonder what’s running through Russia’s mind with the tension build-up on war: A return to the Law of the Jungle, where a powerful predator wolfs down another, or a farewell to arms? India’s Ashoka the Great gave-up on war in 260 BCE: Russia should take history lessons from India.

Emergency Drives in to Canada

Across the Atlantic Ocean, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared a national emergency in response to the truckers protest against various Covid19 restrictive measures and vaccine mandates, which had swelled-up over the past weeks to vomit all kinds of grievances. And had besieged streets and roads. The Emergency Act which was enacted in 1988 has never been used before in Canada’s history-there is always a first! The emergency powers come into immediate effect and will last 30 days. This gives the Government stronger powers to disperse gatherings of protestors; go after crowdfunding platforms and payment processors, which funded the protest; and compel financial institutions to freeze accounts of individuals and organisations linked to the agitation. Looks to be too deadly a drive.

Coronavirus, the King Kong of Hong Kong

Just when we thought we are beginning to see the last spike of the coronavirus, Hong Kong was hit by a stunning tsunami of new Covid19 cases that overwhelmed Hospitals and left more than 10,000 people waiting for treatment.

This is the worst wave in Hong Kong in two years since the pandemic, throwing-up more than 15000 cases in the last two weeks with about 12 deaths. And shattered the ‘Zero Covid’ strategy of ‘Find, Test, Trace, Isolate, and Support.

‘Zero Covid’ is a control and maximum suppression strategy, the goal being to get the affected area back to zero new infections and resume normal life across the spectrum.

It appears that the huge back-log of testing – three to four day testing lag- is the primary cause of the spiralling outbreak.

Humara Bajaj, Made in India

In the days India was under the Licence Raj, in the tight business-regulated seventies when bikes were scarce and scooters ruled, getting a Bajaj Scooter was like manna from Heaven. You make a booking and wait for near about 10 years for the Scooter to arrive. And when it did arrive you have to lovingly put it to sleep on its side for a moment, wake it up, and kick it, to start driving. If it doesn’t start, repeat the process. Everything in the scooter made the right noise except the horn which had a distinctive ‘murmur tone’ – one had to get horribly close to hear it. Nevertheless, it was an iconic scooter and India lived on it.

India’s then Licence Raj strangulated manufacturing and though there were many other two-wheeler manufacturers: Ideal Java, Enfield, Rajdoot, and Lambretta, only Bajaj Auto’s Scooter had a 10 year waiting period. The rules stipulated that a Company could produce only up to 25% in excess of its licensed capacity. The maker of the Bajaj Scooter, industrialist Rahul Bajaj, pleaded with the Government to allow him to manufacture more scooters to meet the ruthless demand, without much success.

The story goes that, when Rahul went to New Delhi to face a three-member commission, the Chairman of Automobile Products of India (API), which Company manufactured Lambretta scooters, had been invited as a competitor. API made a case of their scooter being superior by saying it weighed about 100 kilograms (kg) whereas Baja Auto’s Vespa weighed only 94 kg. Rahul Bajaj famously replied, “Yes, the Lambretta scooter is 100 kg of silver; the Bajaj scooter is 94 kg of gold!”

Initially, Bajaj Auto made Vespa Scooters under license from the Italian company, Piaggio. When the two companies failed to reach an agreement on renewing their ride together, in the early 1970s, the Chetak Scooter was born out of necessity. And went on to become a symbol of aspiration and a house-hold name in pre-liberalisation India.

The Chetak (meaning, one who remains conscious) was eponymous with the name of Maharana Pratap’s horse at the battle of Haldighati in the 16th century when fighting the Mughal Army of Akbar. Those familiar with India’s history know that Chetak valiantly saved the then Rajput King of Mewar, Maharana Pratap from certain death, in spite of it being fatally wounded in battle: impaled by the tusk of an Elephant in one leg. Chetak found the gap, when the King was surrounded by the enemy in a losing battle, and carried the seriously injured Maharana to the safety of a nearby forest. Later, Chetak succumbed to its wounds. Maharana Pratap lived to fight another day and regain his kingdom.

Chetak was the synonym of loyalty, coupled with die-hard endurance. The name suited the scooter because it was a robust vehicle with superb balance. The Chetak’s popularity was ‘driven home’ by the timeless advertisement catchline, ‘Hamara Bajaj’ (Our Bajaj).

Rahul Bajaj was never known to be modest. Brash and assertive, he believed he created one of India’s best companies in the difficult days of the Licence-permit Raj. By 1980, Bajaj Auto was the top scooter producer by far, and the Chetak had a 10 year waiting list. Rahul’s success might have been due to the quasi-monopoly status he got as an early entrant at a time when foreign collaborations and licences were difficult to obtain. However, in the 1980s capacity licensing and foreign collaboration for two-wheelers was liberalised. All the world’s top players, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Piaggio, Garelli, Peugot, entered the Indian market through collaborations or joint ventures. Bajaj Auto met the challenge squarely, and beat the newcomers hands down in scooters. However, Hero-Honda surged ahead to an unbeatable position in motorcycles, when scooters were far more popular in the 1980s.

Rahul Bajaj now saw himself as the hero of Indian manufacturing. His ambition was to overtake Honda and become the world’s largest scooter producer. Then came the Indian economic liberalisation in the 1990s. Initially, this seemed to favour Bajaj Auto, since traditional constraints ended. But Indians began to prefer motorcycles to scooters, and Chetak could only carry Bajaj Auto away to rethink and change its strategy, when Hero Honda won the two-wheeler battle.

Bajaj Auto then took a motorcycle turn beginning with the hugely popular Bajaj M-50 and M-80 motorcycle, which I would call a cross between a scooter and a motorcycle. Bajaj Auto also collaborated with Kawasaki of Japan, to make the Kawasaki Bajaj -KB100 -a 100cc motorcycle-which was a roaring success along with other equally successful brands such as, Yamaha RX100 and Hero Honda CD100. I fell for the Yamaha in those days!

The man at helm of all of this was Rahul Bajaj. He was raised in a family where his grandfather, Jamnalal Bajaj, was treated by Mahatma Gandhi as his fifth son. His father Kamalnayan was a Congress party member who later fell out with its leader. The Bajaj family was politically well-heeled, with senior politicians paying visits to their family home.

Rahul Bajaj had just fallen in love with his future wife Rupa (under Mom’s watchful eyes), but his Dad pushed him to first ‘build-up and assemble’ degrees from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, Government Law College, Mumbai, and the Harvard Business School, US. Armed to the teeth with these degrees, and after marrying his pillion-rider Rupa in 1961, Rahul Bajaj took over Bajaj Auto in 1965 to ride his Company from Vespa, through the Chetak saga, to the Kawasaki motorcycle period.

Meanwhile, in the early 1990s, Rajiv Bajaj, Rahul’s eldest son returned to India from business school in the United States, and this is a story of where a son rides on the shoulders of an illustrious father to reach greater heights.

Rajiv Bajaj saw his Dad’s ambition of becoming world No. 1 in scooters was irrelevant in a global economy where motorcycles ruled supreme, and that the company needed to change its strategy accordingly. He took a hard look at Bajaj Auto and came to very different conclusions.

Father Rahul was extremely proud of the two factories he had created, but son Rajiv saw them as grossly overmanned and inefficient. And with such a flawed work culture reforming them was next to impossible. Instead of ploughing through the old to change, he chose to make an entirely new path. Rajiv built a third factory with a totally new workforce and work culture that could compete with the world’s best. Unlike Rahul, Rajiv did not focus on the disadvantages Indian businessmen faced. Instead, he focused on two huge advantages: Diploma Engineers and Research & Development (R&D) Scientists who were available at one-tenth of comparable wages in the Western World.

The old factories had 20% daily wage earners, 80% skilled workers and no engineers at all on the shop floor. At the new factory Rajiv Bajaj created a workforce with 80% diploma engineers and 20% skilled workers. Wages averaged about the same between the old and the new.

Bajaj Auto taught us that India’s big advantage lay not in cheap labour, but in cheap design and engineering skills.

To his credit, father Rahul Bajaj backed son Rajiv’s new approach. Later, Rajiv launched the Bajaj Pulsar series of motorcycles in the 2000s, which were a mind-boggling success. And recently rolled out an electric version of the ‘grand old’ Bajaj Chetak. In 2005 Rahul Bajaj handed over the keys of Bajaj Auto to son Rajiv and stepped back. In April 2021 he gave-up his position as non-executive Director and Chairman.

The veteran head of the Bajaj Group, Rahul Bajaj, passed away on 12 February 2022, Saturday at the age of 83 of pneumonia and heart related problems. He was a given a State Funeral. He goes over to meet the original Chetak, up above the skies. Bajaj Auto is on safe wheels for sure. He leaves behind sons Rajiv and Sanjiv, and daughter Sunaina Kejriwal. His wife Rupa Bajaj passed away in 2013. Rahul Bajaj was an India-First trailblazer. Rest in peace.

Disco Music in India Loses Solid Gold

Indian singer, music composer, and record producer, Bappi Lahiri (Alokesh Lahiri) 69 died in Mumbai this week.

He is known for his disco-style songs where he brought orchestration and fusion of Indian music with international music, popularising the use of synthesised disco music in Indian cinema. ‘I am a Disco Dancer’ in the film ‘Disco Dancer’ (made in Tamil as ‘Paadum Vaanampadi’) was a hugely popular song in the 1980s and 1990s with his typical disco music. Though he mostly made dance numbers, there are some unforgettable melodious jewels, such as in the movie ‘Chalte Chalte and Zakhmee’.

Music apart, Bappi Lahiri was known for his ‘extremely loud dressing’, consisting of tons of gold chains, jewellery, velvet cardigans, sunglasses. He was inspired by Elvis Presley, in addition to a natural fondness for gorgeous, outlandish jewellery and believed wearing all of them – in the manner only he could-worked for him. It did.

ISRO is Back – in Space

India’s ISRO (The Indian Space Research Organisation) is back in business and is warming up for a Moon-Misson later this year with Chandrayaan-3 expected to find Earth’s Moon in August 2022.

This Monday, ISRO successfully launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C52, carrying three satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, on India’s Eastern Coast. The three Satellites were cooly placed in their respective orbits.

PSLV is the third generation launch vehicle of India, the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages. After its first successful launch in October 1994, PSLV emerged as a reliable and versatile launch vehicle of India earning the title, ‘the Workhorse of ISRO’, with 39 consecutively successful missions by June 2017. It consistently delivered various satellites to Low Earth Orbits taking up to 1750 kg of payload to sun-synchronous polar orbits of 600 km altitude.

During 1994-2017 period, the vehicle has launched 48 Indian satellites and 209 satellites for customers from abroad. Besides it successfully launched two spacecraft – Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013 – that later traveled to Moon and Mars respectively.

Taking a leaf out of the Bajaj Auto handbook, maybe ISRO should consider naming the PSLV as ‘Chetak’. That’s closer to home!

More powerful, jewelled, learning stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Don’t go to war – not with World Inthavaaram

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-06

About: the world this week, 6 February to 12 February 2022, a week which screamed and bursted at its seams in a frenzy of stories about roads, hijabs, oratory, nightingales, cricket, and the Oscar Award nominations.

Everywhere

Roads

Canada has a road-rage problem. Thousands of Canadians have hit the streets in trucks, tractors, cars, and on foot, clogging driveways to protest the Country’s Covid-19 restrictions. With persistent and noisy horn-honking, protesters are demanding lifting of health restrictions, including Covid-19 vaccine and mask mandates, lockdowns, and the kind. This is part of the ‘Freedom Convoy’, which was initially started by truckers protesting a mandate requiring drivers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated or face testing and quarantine requirements.

This week, the protestors stormed and blocked a key bridge that accounts for about 27% of the trade between the United States (US) and Canada. And one that serves as an auto-parts supply chain between the two countries. Well, there are no spare roads and no spare parts too.

While the truckers blocked roads in Canada, across the ‘key bridge’ and yonder border, it’s being revealed that the most dangerous way to travel in the US – roads – became even more deadly during the coronavirus pandemic: roadway deaths soared at the highest rate in recorded history.

Road safety advocates say the numbers match their experience along Maryland Route 210, a six-lane, largely straight stretch with busy business and residential intersections, south of the capital, Washington. It’s called Indian Head Highway, but some call it ‘the highway of death,’ due to dozens of fatal accidents on this highway, over the past decade. “We have roads that are designed for efficient travel, not for safety. These are preventable crashes”, says a Road Expert.

Safety recommendations include increasing enforcement and education campaigns; requiring vehicles to come with collision warning and automatic braking systems; and distracted driving policies that recognise even hands-free devices take a driver’s attention away from the road.

Hijab

It all started with a group of six girls suddenly deciding to wear the Hijab (head-scarf/head covering) to the Government Pre-University College for Girls in Udupi, Karnataka State, last December, when it was never done before. Their argument was, there was no clear instruction on not wearing a Hijab, hence why not? They claimed it was their right under the Indian Constitution. The College decided not to allow girls wearing a hijab and prevented them from entering the College, based on ‘uniform rules’ thinking, which power it owns for the making. Following this incident, in a tit-for-tat strike, a group of boys at the Government Pre-University College in Kundapur, also in Karnataka State, went to college sporting saffron shawls in protest against some girls attending classes wearing the hijab. With the issue spreading like wildfire across Karnataka, Schools and Colleges were shutdown – thanks to the lockdown technology we learnt over the past pandemic months.

The matter was then dragged to the Courts, when the Colleges had the authority to decide and should have simply enforced a uniform dress code -banning any religion proving outfits. The Courts said exactly that: no hijab or saffron shawl, until a more detail uncovering is done. Back to where we started.

We cannot allow religious practices to intrude into Education and it’s time India gets cracking on a Uniform Civil Code, which the Constitution says we must have.

Oratory, Elections

India’s Prime Minister hammered the Opposition to pulp, in fiery oratory, in the Lower and Upper Houses of Parliament, defending his Government’s performance and schemes. His timing with the State of Goa was perfect-what with elections coming up- on it getting independence 15 years all other parts of India obtained theirs, and the ‘brother of a Nightingale’ hailing from Goa being chucked out of India’s Radio Station for reciting a freedom fighter’s poem-all in the Opposition ruled years.

The elections in India’s largest northern State of Uttar Pradesh, said to be the bellwether of National Elections in 2024, began on 10 February and will go up to 7 March 2022. It elects 403 members to the State Legislature. Votes will be counted and results declared on 10 March 2022.

Nightingales

Lata Mangeshkar, one of India’s biggest cultural icons and influential singer, called ‘The Nightingale of India’, died in Mumbai, aged 92, due to post-Covid-19 complications. Earlier, in January 2022, Lata was admitted to hospital after testing positive for Covid-19.

The Nightingale began singing since her teens and ended up defining music and melody for generations in a career spanning 73 years, delivering more than 15,000 songs across 36 languages. Her work in India’s Hindi film industry -Bollywood- made her a national icon.

Lata Mangeshkar has received several awards chief among them being, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award – India’s highest award in the field of cinema- in 1989. And the Bharat Ratna-India’s highest civilian honour- in 2001.

Born in Indore in the Central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh in 1929, she began learning music at the age of five from her father, Deenanath Mangeshkar, who was a theatre artist. Deenanath adopted the surname Mangeshkar to identify his family with his native town of Mangeshi, in the State of Goa. Lata was named ‘Hema’ at her birth, but her parents later renamed her Lata after a female character, Latika, in one of her father’s plays. She was the eldest child in the family, with Meena, Asha, Usha, and Hridaynath, in birth order, being her siblings. All are accomplished singers and musicians in their own right. The best known is Asha Bhosle who is as famous as Lata.

After her father’s death, the family moved to Mumbai where a teenage Lata began singing for Marathi movies. She also took-up small roles in a few films to support her family, but would say later that her heart wasn’t in it. ‘I was happiest singing’ she said.

There’s a story that once her father asked one of his music disciples to practice a ‘raag’ while he finished some urgent work. Lata was playing nearby and when suddenly a note of the ‘raag’ that the disciple was rendering, jarred, Lata latched on to it and began correcting him. When her father returned, he discovered a discipline in his own daughter. The rest, they say, is history.

Her big break came in 1949 with the release of a haunting song titled ‘Aayega Aanewala’ for the movie ‘Mahal’. And thereafter there was no looking back.

Initially, she is said to have imitated the acclaimed singer Noor Jehan, but she later developed her own style of singing. She brought a new signature style to Indian film music, moving away from mehfil-style (celebration) performances to suit both ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ female protagonists. A soprano range voice with less volume or amplitude, she had enough weight in her voice to give definite shape to the melody of Indian film songs. Although she had limited coloratura (an elaborate melody with ornamentation and embellishments) skills in her early career, she developed better tone and pitch as she progressed in her playback career. Lyrics of songs in Hindi movies are primarily composed by Urdu poets and contain a higher proportion of Urdu words, including the dialogues. Actor Dilip Kumar once made a mildly disapproving remark about her accent while singing Hindi/Urdu songs; so for a period of time, she took lessons in Urdu.

Lata said that Noor Jehan heard her as a child and had told her to practice a lot. The two stayed in touch with each other for many years to come.

Noor Jehan was a famous Pakistani singer and actress who worked both in India and Pakistan. Being highly versatile, she could sing in several languages including Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Sindhi, and had recorded over 10,000 songs in her career. When the partition of India happened in 1947, Noor Jehan decided to move to Pakistan and settled in Karachi with her family. She was given the title of ‘Malika-e-Tarannum’ (the Queen of Melody) in Pakistan.

Lata Mangeshkar’s solos and immortal duets with Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar along with a legion of other prominent Indian singers, are among Hindi cinemas most memorable and treasured songs.

The 1974 edition of The Guinness Book of Records had listed Lata Mangeshkar as the most recorded artist. But the claim was contested by Mohammed Rafi. The book continued to list Lata’s name but also mentioned Rafi’s claim. The entry was removed in 1991 until 2011, in which Guinness put Lata’s sister (Asha Bhosle) as the most recorded artist. Currently, Pulapaka Susheela ( P. Susheela)-another Indian Playback Singer associated mostly with South Indian cinema- holds the honour.

Lata Mangeshkar recorded her last song ‘Saugandh Mujhe Is Mitti Ki’, which was composed by Mayuresh Pai, as a tribute to the Indian Army and nation. It was released on 30 March 2019.

Lata Mangeshkar never married, staying single, singing like a nightingale until her breath was no more. Rest In Peace, Lata Mangeshkar

India has lost two nightingales since independence. The other ‘Nightingale of India’ was Sarojini Naidu known as such because of her mesmerising poetry. Her works, rich in imagery, covered a variety of themes – love, death, separation among others. Most of her poems have lines repeated across stanzas. This is similar to a Nightingale’s song: repetitive, yet beautiful.

Cricket

The International Cricket Council (ICC)’s Under-19 ‘Boys’ World Cup Cricket Finals was played in the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua, West Indies, last Saturday. A very dominant India won a record-extending fifth World Cup-in seven outings of the game-title beating England by four wickets in an extraordinary campaign that was almost derailed by the Covid-19 outbreak. The triumph bore a ruthless resemblance to earlier conquering adventures of the fabulous Under-19 Indian Teams.

India chased down a target of 190 runs in 47.4 overs, reaching 195 for six. Nishant Sindhu played an unbeaten match-winning knock of 50 runs off 54 balls to help India edge past England’s score. Kaushal Tambe had a heart-in-the-mouth moment when fielding in deep square leg, England’s James Rew, batting on 95 pulled a Ravi Kumar delivery towards him. And Tambe almost spilled the ball while trying to take the catch but recovered in time to jump forward and take a stunning one-handed catch to send Rew back to the pavilion. The dismissal was crucial as it broke a 93-run wicket for England’s fourth wicket and India went on to take the remaining two wickets for just five more runs.

Pacer Raj Bawa took five wickets, while wicket keeper Dinesh Bana hit the winning shot(s)with two consecutive sixes to finish the match in style.

Yash Dhull is the winning Indian captain and Tom Prest the losing England captain.

The phenomenal Under-19 win ensures the ‘Indian Cricket Factory’ keeps up a steady supply of youngsters to challenge the past histrionics of the Gavaskars, Kapil Devs, Sachin Tendulkars, Dhonis, and Viraat Kholis. Keep it up, Young India.

Please Yourself

The Oscar nominations 2022 are out with the Academy releasing its nominations this week.

The Power of the Dog -about a domineering rancher (played by Benedict Cumberbatch)-picked up the most nominations. But West Side Story (a Steven Spielberg remake of the yester-years movie),’ Dune – An American epic science fiction film-and Belfast -a British coming of age comedy-drama- were doggedly close behind.

Denzel Washington (Best Actor in, The Tragedy of Macbeth) broke records as the most nominated Black Actor in history. Actress Kristen Stewart (Best Actress as Princess Diana in the movie Spencer) and Singer Beyonce (Best Original Song alongside Dixon) have won their first Academy Award nominations.

Writing With Fire (about a Newspaper run by women) made by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh of India, secured a nomination in the Best Documentation (Feature) category.

The recently released James Bond movie ‘No Time to Die’ won nominations in Best Sound, Best Original Song, and Best Visual Effects.

More drama and visual stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Bond with World Inthavaaram

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-05

About: the world this week, 30 January to 5 February 2022, misinformation spots, medley news, India’s budget, and the aces of Australian Open Tennis.

Everywhere

Spotify in a Spot

Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded in 2006: the world’s largest, with over 381 million monthly active users. Spotify offers digital copyright restricted recorded music and podcasts, including more than 70 million songs, from record labels and media companies.

Joe Rogan is the host of, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, a podcast exclusively acquired by Spotify in 2020, reportedly for a staggering sum. With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, it’s the streaming service’s ‘milch cow’.

In one of the podcasts, Rogan has questioned the need for healthy young people to get vaccinated and has acquired an image of being a reckless peddler of dangerous conspiracy theories, giving oxygen to radical ideas.

In December 2021, Rogan hosted Robert Malone, a doctor who was suspended from Twitter for spreading Covid misinformation. During the show, Malone made several baseless claims, including that Covid vaccines can put people who have had the virus at higher risk. He also espoused an unfounded theory known as ‘mass formation psychosis,’ which suggests that much of the population has been hypnotised to follow Covid protocols. Rogan has also endorsed using Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine, as a treatment for Covid-19, despite repeated warnings from US health officials. Following this, 270 physicians and scientists signed an open letter last month calling on Spotify to remove Rogan’s interview with the controversial doctor.

Then, musician and songwriter, Neil Young, an outspoken advocate for Covid-19 safety and prevention stepped in. He wanted Spotify to remove his entire catalog because he does not want his music to share a home with vaccine misinformation. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Neil Young thundered.

Over the past week, a chorus of musicians and other podcasters such as Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills and Nash, India Arie, joined Neil Young to condemn Spotify or even remove their content in protest.

Since Young’s music has been pulled-out, Spotify has reportedly lost more than USD 2 billion in market value. But, the episode is still up.

When the world is passing through one of the worst pandemics ever, and just when we are beginning to recover, the least we want is social media influencers spiking themselves into becoming misinformation spreading viruses.

Medley

The World continues to fret and boil over Ukraine with the border crisis with Russia only soaring, getting NATO and the United States (US) on an edge. The US is deploying about 3,000 of its troops to Eastern Europe and has another 8,500 on standby. And Russia has already got about 100,000 of its troops at the border. Now, Russia is calling the US deployments ‘destructive’. There is cold tension in the European air. Watch that space.

Last week I talked about forced religious conversion possibly being the cause of a death by suicide of a young girl, Lavanya, in the Southern State of Tamilnadu, India. A ‘Justice for Lavanya’ movement started on social-media with people seeking a wholesome look into the conversion angle. And this week, the High Court in Madurai ordered the case to be investigated by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and get to the bottom. That, a loss of faith on the local Police.

Tennis superstar Roger Federer has revealed he still hasn’t been able to run as he continues his recovery from a knee surgery, but is adamant he wants to return to the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) circuit. The 20 time Grand Slam champion hasn’t played since Wimbledon last July and had a third knee operation in August last year. By the serve of it, the Swiss icon’s comeback hopes appear very difficult. Of course, we wish to see him rally his knees and return to the game, one knee at a time. There is none like him.

This week, media giant CNN’s (Cable News Network) President Jeff Zucker abruptly resigned saying he had failed to acknowledge a romantic, consensual relationship with another senior executive-whose name he did not explicitly reveal-at the outset. However, CNN’s marketing chief Allison Gollust opened-up about their relationship, which she described as a close professional and personal rapport, built over more than two decades. And that deepened into a romantic tie during the pandemic. She will continue working for CNN. Both Zucker and Gollust are divorced from their respective spouses, but owning up is a class act.

The Beijing Winter Olympics began this week, on 4 February 2022, and it’s getting hot enough to melt the ice.

India announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, where no Indian Diplomat will participate in the opening and closing ceremonies. Indian National Broadcaster Doordarshan also decided to boycott live telecasting the opening and closing ceremonies. Initially, India supported China’s Olympic effort, when nations such as the USA and UK announced a diplomatic boycott over China’s poor human rights record: abuse of its Uighur population, ethnic cleansing in Tibet and suppression of democracy in Hong Kong. But when China put up a Galwan Clash survivor as an Olympic torch-bearer, India saw red and promptly ‘punched a boycott’.

China’s torchbearer for the Winter Olympics 2022 was captured, by India, in June 2020 when he tried to mount an attack on Indian forces in the Galwan Valley. This was a culmination of skirmishes, face-offs, and aggression beginning in May 2020 between Chinese and Indian troops at locations along the Sino-Indian border, including near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and the Tibet Autonomous Region. The eastern Ladakh border row escalated after the Galwan Valley clashes, on 15 June 2020. Twenty Indian Army personnel were martyred in the border fight that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides, in decades.

China officially acknowledged that five Chinese military officers and soldiers were killed in the clashes with the Indian Army, though it is widely believed that the death toll was a high as over forty.

India’s Budgeting

India’s annual budget presentation is some kind of a ritual where everyone looks to extract some kind of juice for themselves: the individual, for income tax relief; Businesses, for tax concessions and inspiration to start new businesses; States, for blockbuster projects in their region, even new trains…the list is endless. Somebody has to be disappointed – there is nothing for me; nothing for the minuscule income tax-paying percentage of people; nothing Big-Bang, is an annual planetary comment. Actually, it’s a mere revenue report on where the money comes from and where it goes, though it does try to transcend into a show of path-breaking reform or clever intent.

This year’s Budget presented on 1st February was no different. And from the reading of the experts it’s a practical and sane plan to improve the lot of India. The International Monetary Fund (IMF)- they must be serious – said it’s a very thoughtful policy agenda for India that places a great deal of emphasis on innovation in research and development on human capital investment and digitalisation. India plans to release a digital currency by the end of the year and quietly announced a tax on this sphere of activity.

However, some bird-watchers of the economy say there is a looming job crisis, which needs the attention it deserves. Failure to generate enough quality jobs may convert what should be India’s demographic dividend into a restless force to reckon with. I’ll leave it at that.

Australian Open Tennis Aces

Winning a Tennis Grand Slam Title on three different kinds of surfaces is a rarity, and only four players have done it before: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Serena Williams. Now, last Saturday the number grew to five, with Australian Ashleigh Barty, 25, winning the Australian Open Women’s Single Title beating 28 years old American Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6 (2). Apart from Ashley Barty, Serena Williams is the only other in this elite category to have won the first three Slams across clay, grass, and hard courts.

Barty became the first Australian in 44 years, to win the Australian Open since Chris O’Neil did it in 1978. O’Neil was present in the stands, with the crowd, cheering Barty. The prize was awarded by yet another special person, 14-time Grand Slam champion, Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley who claimed the Australian Open singles title on four occasions-consecutively from 1974-1977. That’s as straight as it can be!

After this stupendous achievement by the women folk, the men began roaring. And in the men’s singles Spaniard Rafael Nadal clawed back from two sets down to win an epic five-set duel with Russian Daniil Medvedev, to claim a record 21st Grand Slam men’s title in the Australian Open final. The end set score was a thrilling 2-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

In what is considered to be the greatest era of men’s tennis, Rafael Nadal surpassed the 20 Grand Slam haul of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

More informative stories playing in the weeks ahead. Fight your battles drawing power from World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-04

About: the world this week, 23 January to 29 January 2022, Webb Eyes, a Coup, India’s Republic Day, Faith Matters, a Homecoming, and Rock Music loses Meat.

Everywhere

Webb Eyes

The James Webb Space Telescope docked in its final designated orbit in Space, this Monday, and would be beginning its work of looking, in earnest, once its mirrors are positioned in the desired alignment. America’s NASA announced that Webb has been fully deployed in what is known as the L2 (Second Lagrange) Orbit – a region of balance between the gravity of the Sun and the Earth, at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth. The Sun and the Earth are always on the same side at L2 making it ideal for observatory purposes. It has taken Webb about a month to get to this ‘pole position’.

Webb hopes to unlock the secrets of the making of the Universe, and among other things examine the first light and the celestial objects that formed soon after The Big Bang occurred, 13.7 billion years ago. The Big Bang – when matter, energy, time, and space came into being – brought forth billions of galaxies of which ours, the Milky Way Galaxy, is just a speck in the mind-boggling vastness and emptiness of the Universe.

A Honest Coup

This Monday the landlocked West African country of Burkina Faso saw a Lieutenant Colonel, Paul-Henri Damiba, lead a mutiny that ousted President Roch Kabore, in a coup d’etat. And as is the ‘Gun Standard’ in such coups, the new military leader promised a return to the normal constitutional order ‘when the conditions are right’.

Damiba blamed the overthrown President for failing to contain violence unleashed by Islamist militants in the country.

Burkina Faso, once colonised by France, is one of the least developed countries in Africa. And has been severely affected by the rise of Islamist terror since the mid 2010s.

‘Burkina Faso’ means the land of the honest (upright, incorruptible) men.

Honestly, we need to see that meaning stand upright.

India’s Republic Day

This 26th January, India celebrated its 73rd Republic Day in its 75 year of Independence. This is in the background of one Eternal Flame burning at the War Memorial, a new hologram Statue of ace freedom-fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and the freshly painted, newly built Central Vista Parliament building surroundings.

It was truly a sight to behold, with the military might in war-paint, and the diverse culture of India in energetic, harmonious display of all its vibrant hues and colours.

Normally, the head of another country is invited as Chief Guest to witness the essence of India (and hopefully be intimidated by its power), but this year, owing to the COVID19 restrictions in the midst of a tacky third wave, the President of India stood himself in.

The parade kindled national and patriotic fervour. The unison and discipline of the various presentations by people from all across India was absolutely inspirational, especially the young women in the forefront of many aspects of life in India. There was Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh-India’s first woman Rafael Fighter Jet Pilot for the just-acquired Rafael Aircraft; there was Lieutenant Preeti leading the Indian Navy tableau; there was Lieutenant Manisha Bohra of the Army Ordnance Corps leading an all-male contingent; and then there was a magnificent bike show by the woman officers – the Seema Bhawani Motorcycle Team – of the Border Security Force displaying a number of bewildering bike formations. The Indian Postal Department had Women Empowerment as its theme this year, celebrating their spirit of work.

The evolution of India’s Army uniforms and rifles was on display: three contingents of the Army wore the uniforms of the previous decades and also the old rifles, while one wore the new combat uniforms and the latest Tavor (Israel Weapon Industries) rifles.

A ‘high’ light of the parade day was the grandest and largest flypast ever by 75 aircraft and helicopters, when everyone had to look-up to see a number of perfect aircraft formations, in the sky. The audience was also provided with a cockpit view of the air-harmony and dance.

And there was also a horse, called Virat, of the President’s Bodyguard retiring on the 26th January -having served over 19 years ‘looking after various President’. The President and Prime Minister went over and patted him goodbye, on the cheek.

This Republic Day was also different in other ways with the Prime Minister rolling-out special person-specific letters, in his name, to various people outside India-not necessarily Indians-who have contributed to India in their own unique way. The letters arrived at their doorstep with a bouquet presented by the Indian Embassy of that country, and was an awesome gesture in recognising what the person stood for. Keep it up India.

Faith Matters

This week, the topic that stormed the South Indian State of Tamilnadu, was religious conversion, following the stunning death by suicide, on 19th January, of a 17 year old Class XII girl student, Lavanya, over suspected, attempted, forced religious conversion.

This happened in The Sacred Heart Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Thanjavur, run by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM), a Roman Catholic religious institute founded by Mother Mary of the Passion, at Ooty, then British India, in 1877. The school at the centre of the controversy itself was started in the year 1937 with the primary objective of serving the poor and socially backward children, irrespective of caste, creed, and religion.The FMM consists of an international religious congregation of women representing 79 nationalities spread over 74 countries on five continents.

The parents of Lavanya accused the School Authorities of forcing their daughter to convert. In a video statement- the veracity of which is yet to be proved-the girl said the school had tried to convert her. And when she refused, was forced by the hostel warden to clean rooms and toilets, do accounting work, and switch on & off motors on the campus: the school officials had asked the parents, in her presence, if they can ‘convert the faith of the girl’ and help her for further studies.

Lavanya, unable to bear the torture, following her supposed refusal to ply along, consumed insecticide on the school campus, earlier this month leading to her death.

This week saw protests by political parties demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case, on the grounds of forced conversion. Political meat?

I studied in a Roman Catholic Boarding School in Southern India from the age of four upto the age I was old enough to enter University. And I do not recall even one instance of the Nun Sisters in the early stages, or the Brothers Priests in the later stages in attempting to convert me to their faith. Those were the days!

Homecoming

The disinvestment process in India’s Government owned Air India, started in last October, was concluded this Thursday with the Government officially handing over the management control and transferring 100% shares of Air India to Talace Private Limited a subsidiary of the Tata Group’s holding company. A new governing board will take over the Airline and the first flight under the Tatas began on 28 January 2022, with an in-flight announcement of the historic take-over.

Air India was started in 1932 by JRD Tata in a flight of self-reliance but was nationalized in 1953 by India’s then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Over the years, the Airline accumulated nothing but losses. Then to stop the bleeding, the Government decided to get its paws of the business of running an Airline. The Tata Group- one of India’s most diverse business groups-won the bid and Air India, with all its baggage and a weary Maharaja, arrived at the house of the Tatas, after 69 years ‘in the air’.

The expectations are flying high, given that Air India was once the best airline in the World.

Please Yourself

When Michael (Marvin, at birth) Lee Aday was born in Dallas, Texas, United States, his Dad, a Cop, said he looked like Meat and the name was meat for Meat Loaf to build a dazzling career in the rock and heavy metal genre of music.

Meat Loaf, American singer and Actor known for is powerful, wide-ranging voice, theatric live shows, and considered one of the greatest rock singers this world as ever seen, died this week at age 74 of COVID19 related complications. His bombastic 1977 rock opera ‘Bat Out of Hell’ is one of the best-selling albums of all time, selling an astounding 65 million copies. It held several hits including, ‘Two Out of Three ain’t Bad’. His sequel, ‘Bat Out of Hell-II: Back Into Hell’ had the No 1 hit,’ I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do it). I particularly rocked for the song, ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’.

In 1993, Meat loaf won a Grammy Award for best Solo Rock Vocal performance for the song, I’d Do Anything for Love. He has acted in 65 movies, including, Fight Club, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Wayne’s World.

Meat Loaf’s Dad was a violent alcoholic who would disappear for days at a time and when he did return home, would slap the son and vanish again. His Schoolteacher Mom would hop in to the car and go from bar-to-bar trying to find and bring him home.

His Mom sang in a gospel quartet and once told him, ‘good thing you’re not going to be singer, because you can’t carry a tune in a bucket’. However, in his sophomore year during athletics, when a shot put sailed 62 feet in the air and hit on the head, he discovered he had a three-and-a half octave vocal range.

When his Mom died of cancer, and Meat was 19, he was forced to leave Home as his Dad become increasingly violent, once lunging at him with a butcher knife.

He moved to Los Angeles, started acting, singing in bands, and then bumped in to song-writer Jim Steinman while auditioning for a play. The two then combined well as meat and loaf would, and churned out record-breaking albums that made history.

When Meat Loaf breathed his last, his wife Deborah and daughters Pearl and Amanda were by his side.

Heaven cannot wait: for us, he would be more than an ‘object in the rear view mirror’. There was ‘not a dry eye in the house’ when I mentioned him. RIP Meat Loaf.

More meaty stories arriving in the weeks ahead. Fly with World Inthavaaram.

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

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