WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-51

About: This is a light-hearted story on what happened this week, in our World.

Everywhere

Brexit, what exactly is happening over here? Let’s cross the English Channel.

The United Kingdom consists of the island of Great Britain and the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands, collectively called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Looking from another angle, the UK consists of the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Island. Capitals are London, Edinburg, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. What most of us know as Britain is loosely applied to mean the UK, as defined above. Now, we have the boundaries in place!

The European Union (EU) was born in the year 1993 as a political and economic union of 27 member countries of Europe to develop together as a ‘single market’ for goods and services. Chief among the members are, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark. Chief ‘not among’ them is Switzerland, which is not part of the EU, but is associated though a series of treaties to participate in the single big market.

Going backwards in time, Britain has ‘exited’ from almost all the countries it conquered and ruled in the long tortuous history of the World. And these liberated counties make it a habit of celebrating their independence (from Britain), year after year – refreshing memories. It could be, that the hangover effects of colonisation that led the British to join the European Union (EU). Supreme loneliness got to them, I guess?

But then, over a period of time the once mighty British Empire probably realised that occupying other countries is one thing and others coming-in to occupy their own, under immigration, is quite another. Sovereign and monetary issues grew to be a stranglehold on the minds of the British, and they began thinking whether the marriage with the EU was indeed beneficial to delivering the kind of offspring they expected? The thoughts began to bulge. Then, a British Prime Minister won an Election promising to hold a referendum on ‘remaining’ with the EU or ‘leaving’ (Britain exiting the EU, called Brexit). On 23rd June 2016, the referendum was held: ‘Leave’ won with 51.9% votes and ‘Remain’ lost with 48.1% votes. On that day Britain decided to exit the EU.

After years of wrangling with how to go about it – and after many British Prime Ministers left Office on this account – Brexit finally happened, becoming an island, again, when the UK left the European Union on 31st January 2020. However, both sides agreed many things will ‘remain as they were’ for eleven months to allow the partners to get used to the divorce, feel the emptiness, and reach a deal by building bridges, on life thereafter. That time runs out on 31st December 2020.

When the UK was with the EU, Businesses could buy and sell goods across the EU borders without paying taxes (tariffs). If there is a no-trade deal, Businesses will have to start paying taxes, which could make things more expensive. Same for services. Agreements on movements across the borers, airline safety, medicine and hiring, or information about security threats are also very important.

I think that Brexit should not have happened at all, in the first place. Now that it has indeed happened, they should either sign clever trade deals to benefit from the common market – maybe, think and learn from Switzerland – or simply apply to rejoin the EU. Why ‘remain’ in splendid isolation. They voted to ‘leave’, didn’t they?

The Space above our heads has been dominated by The United States of America (USA) and Russia, until China and India began catching-up. India’s, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), became a force to reckon with due to its dirt cheap method of launching satellites throwing them into successful orbits; as many as 104 satellites in a single rocket launch from Sriharikota, India in February 2017. Remember, that was a world record. While our heads were spinning with satellites, private agencies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic came into being and suddenly Space was getting crowded, after all.

We lost count of the number of times Astronauts and Cosmonauts left for and returned from the International Space Station, riding on the many options before them. Space became another place on Earth.

After ISRO’s great struggle in the initial years and reaching this level of superiority – except in manner missions – I was wondering when would an Indian private player first launch a rocket from India.

We are reaching there, and we just need to keep looking hard at the skies during 2021. And learn to distinguish between shooting stars and man-made rockets.

Hyderabad-based, Skyroot Aerospace is getting its Vikram series of launch vehicles ready, and in the month of August this year successfully test-fired its upper stage Engine called ‘Raman’ which used a 3D-printed propellant injector -reduces engine mass by 50% and drops the components required and manufacturing time by as much as a whopping 80%. ISRO is lending a shoulder to this and other start-ups, and its Chairman K Sivan said, such new players should explore disruptive technologies and break away from conventional methods of manufacturing launch Vehicles. Wow, I reckon Skyroot was all ears on that one and got to the root of the message!

Chennai based, IIT-Madras incubated Agnikul Cosmos is also quietly building a satellite’ launch vehicle called ‘Agnibaan’, while yet another, Coimbatore-based Bellatrix Aerospace is working on its ‘Chetak’ launch vehicle. Looking for a ride is Pixxel which aims to put a constellation of 30 earth observation micro-satellites in a sun synchronous orbit anytime soon. All these companies started-up over the past few years.

While the new stars are rooting for the cosmos, ISRO quietly launched its 42nd communication Satellite, CMS-01 using its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C50, on its 52nd mission, on Thursday. Is was the 77th launch mission from India’s Sriharikota. Need I say more? India is one of the best in this kind of business.

Unbelievable pace of development in India for a slice of Space. In the month of June this year, India’s far-sighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi set up the launch pad by opening the space sector to private players and allowing use of ISRO’s facilities and technical know-how. That’s a rocket step for India, and an ISRO step for the Private Sector, I’m sure! Proud to be an Indian.

Meanwhile, with what’s happening to the World, we need another Planet to inhabit should Plant Earth decide to quit! Ask the sun, maybe a friendly black hole?

We are not done with space – the one just above the Earth – and ‘waves’, not yet. Not the loudly familiar waves of the coronavirus but a second wave of Locusts. New swarms of desert locusts are eating into the livelihoods of millions of people in the Horn of Africa and Yemen despite a year of efforts to control the spread. This year has already seen the worst East Africa invasion in 70 years.

The Locusts destroy large tracts of crops, vegetation and pastures and in turn deprive livestock of food, which in turn endangers the people dependent for a livelihood on one or all of them.

Central Somalia and Eastern Ethiopia received higher than average rainfall in the rainy season from September to November, which meant the ground saw significant generation and expansion of vegetation. This then become fertile breeding ground for the locusts. And these areas are really huge! With these conditions, within a couple of months locusts move from single insects to ganging-up as a group. This then leads to small bands of wingless hoppers and small swarms of winged adults. Desert locusts can multiply massively and within a year there can be 160,000 times as many as when they first started out.

Of course we can spray pesticides to get rid of them, which requires enormous funding and timely action based on close-knit surveillance. Maybe, we should hire all the Satellites India in pumping into space and eye the Locusts without battering an eyelid.

Is there no end to the kind of things that can happen in 2020? Should we learn to eat locusts for breakfast, lunch and dinner? No Time To Eat – the next Locust Film.

With COVID-19 Vaccines becoming the last word as we close this year I read this wonderful explanation about why we should not fear the ‘Virus in the Vaccine’ or that it would mix with our DNA. No it doesn’t.

“An mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine doesn’t actually contain the virus itself. Think of it as an email sent to your immune system that shows what the virus looks like, instructions to kill it, and then – like a Snapchat message – it disappears. Amazing technology”. Long live the world!

Please Yourself

I’ve been reading Tamil historical fiction writer, Kalki’s, old classic Sivakamiyin Sabatham (Sivakami’s Vow) revolving around real historical events, in the Tamil region of South India. This was only my second foray into ‘epic reading’ of this kind after having first read and enjoyed the fantastic Ponniyin Selvan.

https://kumargovindan.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/on-first-reading-kalkis-ponniyin-selvan-2/

Initially, I was put-off by beautiful Bharathanatyam dancer Sivakami’s mindless love for the crown Prince Narasimhavarman, aka Mamallar, when the Pallavas ruled from Kanchi, but the story gets thrilling in the second half. The Pallava King, Mahendravarman, tries to break the romance of his only son and the heir to the throne, and instead tries to hook him on to a suitable Princess (read as a Pandya Princess) who can carry forward the royal bloodline and also strengthen the Kingdom with a regional marriage alliance. He does succeed, but in the process Sivakami is captured by an enemy Chalukya King, Pulakesi, who unsuccessfully tries to break -in the impregnable and heavily fortified Kanchi Fort. Sivakami is taken and held captive in his capital, Vatapi and forced to dance in front of visiting emissaries. Sivakami vows to return to the Pallava Kingdom (despite having a chance to escape during a rescue attempt by the Prince) only when her lover Narashimavarman burns down the city of Vatapi and rescues her.

I takes nine long years, a marriage to the Pandya Princess, two heirs produced for the next-in-line for the once-madly-in-love-with-Sivakami Mamallar and now King, to get the job done with the supremely combat-qualified Pallava Army Commander, Paranjothi, to assist him.

In the end Sivakami realises her fruitless love for the Prince who became King, and only learns about his marriage after being rescued. She dedicates her life to Lord Shiva of Kanchi and ‘continues to wow’ the Pallava Kingdom with her flawless, sculpture-making, bharatnatyam moves.

Writer Kalki keeps the language simple and the narrative pulsates with the dance rhythm at every twist and turn. If you can fairly read Tamil, it’s worth a fighting read, I swear!

Read that Warner Bros-DC Comics’ Wonder Women 1984 has just hit the movie screens. I liked Amazon woman, Diana (played by the ravishing Gal Gadot), getting in our world -to save it, in the first edition, and the reviews of this one say that, it is a full-of-heart, spectacular extravaganza, and one of the best releases of 2020. Look up, and wonder!

‘I wish’ Wonder Woman 2020-21 could rid the world of the coronavirus and use the Lasso Of Truth to get to the bottom of how the pandemic began. We need more superheroes, don’t we?

More ‘wonder’ful stories coming up in the week(s) ahead. We are here to stay for the long term.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-50

About: This is a light-hearted story on what happened this week, in our World.

Everywhere

The woman I married was from a small growing up Town, Attur, in Salem District, while I was working as a power plant erection & commissioning Engineer at Neyveli, Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu. After working in various Companies across India never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I will end up starting a ‘Blouse Construction’ (Oh, I could not do the commissioning on a personal level, though!) Business in Attur, which my wife & I did in 2015. Here we are.

Over the years, I’ve watched Attur develop slowly, but remain rigid to drastic change. One of the best things to happen is garbage collection, where the ‘Garbage Collector’ now wearing hand gloves (I wish they are given more protective gear, and powered carts as a takeaway) and some kind of uniform, pushes a small cart through the narrow streets, and the wides ones a well- like the one where I have set up shop- collecting the garbage and separating them out into various blue, green and white bins on the cart.

It has become my morning routine to first take-out the garbage and then wash my car. The Garbage Collector appears about this time with his cart and I made it a habit to make small conversation with him, about his life, family and the pressures of garbage collection, often cracking a joke to see his wrinkled face light up with a broad, stained-teeth smile. We soon became good ‘garbage friends’. We met again this Monday morning, and he says, “It’s nice to talk to you and I’m glad that you spend some time with me. Nobody else does this. Honestly, I look forward to seeing you every morning”. Wow, that made my day!

I wish Attur could become a modern Town with wide pavements, specified parking lots, neat lanes, traffic signals…and clever Garbage Bins at the right places. Make more garbage friends, I guess!

Mount Everest is the tallest Mountain in the World and from my school days the height of 8,848 metres grew into me so much that it became a part of my brain. And often I shot down any quizmaster with the curvaceous data. Well, now I have a problem. This Tuesday, Mount Everest grew by more than two feet. So agreed Nepal and China (that’s a height of cooperation between them), the two countries that share the mountainous border. They announced that they had determined the exact height of the world’s tallest mountain, which officially, according to them stands at 8,848.86 metres (29,031.70 feet). For 65 years, the consensus height had been 8,848 metres (29,028.87 feet).

Mountains grow in mysterious ways…and we humans are not the ones to be left behind. At least not Nepal and China. They measure up to the task!

A mysterious disease that began spreading in Elluru, Andhra Pradesh has claimed one life and made over 400 people sick. People were suddenly falling unconscious after suffering from symptoms such as, three to five minutes of epileptic fits, nausea, forgetfulness, anxiety, vomiting, headache and back-pain. The reasons are unclear at the moment and Doctors are unable to pin down a credible source of the outbreak.

Initially, it was suspected that water contamination could be the cause, but sample tests ruled it out. There is another suspicion that anti-mosquito fogging may be a cause, but nothing is confirmed as yet.

A preliminary study report found traces of heavy metals, lead and nickel, in blood samples but strangely not in water or any other food substance in the locality. Experts have clarified that the mysterious disease is neither a bacterial, or a viral infection, nor a contagious disease. Medical and Expert teams are out on the ground looking for tell-tale clues and leads. I hope they crack this code quickly.

Meanwhile, most of the victims have recovered and others are stable.

What an ‘outbreak’ year this is getting to be!

The COVID-19 Vaccine is finally here and a 90 years old woman, Margaret Keenan, originally from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and living in Coventry for more than 60 years, on Tuesday became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine-after official approval in the United Kingdom (UK). And the UK became the first Country to start jabbing people in the arm, outside trial conditions. Margaret received the jab at University Hospital Coventry from Nurse, May Parsons, at 6.31am and declared it was a privilege.

Margaret is a grandmother of four and worked as a jewellery store assistant until her retirement, four years ago. She will receive a booster shot in 21 days to complete the vaccination sequence. Margaret turns 91 next week and what better advance Birthday present than this? Nurse May Parsons originally from the Philippines has worked in UK’s National Health Service (NHS) for the last 24 years. That’s lot of age and experience getting together in that one vaccine injection.

This is indeed an historic leap in the fight again virus’ in general and the coronavirus in particular. And development of a vaccine in less than a year after the world discovered a never-before-seen disease is truly incredible.

We are in the last spikes of the year 2020 when various Newspapers and Magazines rush to name their Persons, or ‘Things’ of the Year: people who made a huge difference to life on Earth. This time, Time Magazine has named Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as Time Person of the Year. “For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world”, wrote its editor-in-chief.

Playing on, LeBron, the Los Angeles Lakers star has been named Time magazine’s ‘Athlete of the Year’ in recognition of what the 35 years old has achieved both on and off the court.

The Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles.

James led the Lakers to a record-equalling 17th championship title in October this year, during a season unlike any other. It was James’ fourth National Basketball Association(NBA) title and fourth finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. He is the first player in NBA history to win the accolade with three different teams. Only Michael Jordan, with six titles, has more.

Moving ahead, for most of us, I reckon, the ‘coronavirus should be named the ‘Thing of the Year’ for attempting to wipe out the human population. And without doubt, in my opinion, the PERSON OF THE YEAR – of any magazine or newspaper worth its name – should go to the Frontline Health Care Workers all over the World, for tirelessly helping us battle with the virus, and many having given up their lives for us. Also the Vaccine Developers should be included for bringing out a vaccine so unbelievably quick.

At the time of posting this article the United States (US) reported 2,32,000 coronavirus cases in one day, setting a new record.

In another decisive moment the US Supreme Court has rejected Trump’s bid to overturn the US Presidential Elections. Has Biden-Harris finally won?

Absolutely challenging times!

Please Yourself

American Singer-Songwriter Taylor Swift, who released her Album ‘Folklore’, in July this year is literally living up her name and has ‘swiftly tailored’ a second surprise Album, ‘Evermore’, which was released at midnight, this Friday. Her 9th Studio Album.

Folklore was recorded during the pandemic quarantine, and the record topped the US and UK Charts earning Swift six Grammy nominations, including Album of The Year. It is also the first album of 2020 to sell more than one million copies.

Swift described Evermore as a ‘sister album’ of Folklore. ‘To put it plainly, we just could not stop writing “, she said. Swift draws a lot of inspiration for her songwriting, from her personal life, and also confirmed that boyfriend, Actor Joe Alwyn, in the mystery Folklore co-writer. That sure is a Love Story pulling the heart strings and generating the music notes.

Swift’s debut single ’Tim McGraw’ was released on 19 June 2006, and she’s grown from being a teenage country singer to one of the most famous pop stars on the planet.

The song that first got me to start listening and fearlessly falling in love with her narrative songwriting and singing is, the Romeo-Juliet themed ‘Love Story’, of the Album, ‘Fearless’. Listen to it, to understand Taylor Swift’s music.

I’m a huge fan of Hollywood Actor, Harrison Ford and his man-on-the street style of acting. No superhuman stunts or mind-boggling acts, just a smart presence of mind, courage, wit and intelligence gets him through the toughest situations. And he manages to survive. Nothing exemplifies this better than ‘Indiana Jones’, or Indy, in ‘The Raiders of the Lost Ark’ 1981, and the many adventures in the series of movies that followed.

Now Harrison Ford, at 78, returns as Indiana Jones for the fifth and final episode, planned for release in July 2022. The Film producer said he has no intention of replacing the actor in his iconic role. That’s well said. Only James Bond is replaceable.

Meanwhile, we have to think Indy and keep our wits and intelligence with us to survive till 2022. Maybe, go back to the old Indy movies and relearn new tricks? Grab the whip and ram that hat? I still remember that during a hair-raising chase in the crowded streets of Cairo, Indy is confronted by one of the bad guys who dances with his hands & legs showing-off twisted karate skills. Indy after coolly watching just takes out a handgun and shoots him! That’s a whip-lash finish! Typical Indiana Jones!

More graceful and skilled stories coming up in the week(s) ahead.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-49

About: This is a light-hearted story on what happened this week, in our World. I have reduced the marked boundaries this week hoping that we slowly evolve to a boundary less world. Imagine!

I’m also moving away from a pure reporting style to what I call, a ‘pulsating style’, with my breath in it. Hope you can feel it.

Everywhere

We look forward to new tidings in the New Year, and why not? The US is surely looking for inspiration in this direction with the ‘almost newly elected’ – yet to be wholly certified – President-elect Joe Biden looking to crank up the year(s). He is getting there, with his Transition Team receiving formal briefings since this Monday, and making announcements on new people additions – diverse, I must say – to governing portfolios. And they look to be just the right people behind the right desks. A team that looks like America!

One State after another is legally certifying the Election results in favour of Biden-Harris, in what seems to be a long-drawn process, consistently debunking the ‘baseless’ road-block charges of cases put up by the outgoing golf-playing President. Look, this is America, again.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister (PM) Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 2019 for talking peace with neighbouring Eritrea and unlocking many chained freedoms in his own Country, after decades of untold repression. Now in 2020 he is in a bloody ethnic war with rowdy elements in the country’s northern Tigray region, bordering Eritrea.

Ethiopia is divided into ten regions, and two cities, each with great autonomy, regional police and even militia. Abiy wanted to coalesce these divisions into a united country, which the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules Tigray, saw as usurping of its powers. PM Abiy had dismantled the ruling coalition, led for years by the TPLF, and created a new Prosperity Party. This created a situation where the TPLF had to join the new Party and agree to PM Abiy’s dictations, or not. The TPLF opted not to join.

Recently, Elections called in the Tigray region, by the Government, were postponed due to the pandemic, which the TPLF disobeyed and went ahead with its own causing the present conflict to flare up, with the PM not recognising the Election results – rightfully so. Then the TPLF attacked an Army Post and the firing broke out. At the time of this post PM Abiy has subdued the TPLF – at least for the time being.

The TPLF should abandon its ‘illegal’ occupation of the minds of the people, join the Prosperity Party and work for the prosperity of Ethiopia. War of this kind gets one nowhere and the constant abrasion wears out everyone thin on both sides.

Early this week, as super cold winds descended on the North, India witnessed sordid protests by Farmers mostly in Punjab and Haryana against the New Farm Laws unleashed by the Central Government. Nearly every known Agricultural Expert in the Country has ‘certified’ that the New Farm Laws are path-breaking and the best thing ever to happen to Farmers in decades. Nevertheless, a section of powerful farmers are refusing to lean-in.

The New Laws basically throw open the up-to-now within-mandis /Government controlled markets of farm produce, enabling Farmers to sell directly to who ever they think offers them the best price, besides sticking to parts of the old system if they feel unsafe. This kills gangs of middlemen, many of whom live and propagate in swanky five-star Offices – mostly in the Punjab-Haryana area, from where the protests are the loudest. Now you know why! Many rich Politicians in India claim they are humble farmers – owning swathes of land. Other aspects of the New Farm Laws remove many foods items from the over 60 years old Essential Commodities List; and allows Contact Farming – a form of which has already been successfully introduced in Punjab. Think about this statistic: Farmers in Punjab (followed by Haryana) are the wealthiest Farmers with receipts 600% higher the that of the average ‘poor’ Indian farmer.

The way I see it, the New Farm Laws are progressive and gives absolute freedom to Farmers. Further, I’m for making a new Law, which taxes five-star rich farmers so that the poorer ones stop gaping at the stars and grow richer indoors.

News breezes in that Farmers in the State of Maharashtra are already reaping the benefits of the new laws being planted, and in recent time they have harvested over Rs 100 million in out-of-mandi sales across many districts. The heart of a farmer needs more!

India has always had a broad-based, deep-digging, farming community and this Government wants to lift them up to flower a better living. You cannot do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Let’s adopt the new and remove weeds in our path as we grow. The Farmers must listen and get back to their farms. Opposing for the sake of opposing is a fruitless endeavour.

“Let us change everything. If not now, never”, thundered one of India’s biggest movie superstars, the stylish Rajinikant, on 30th November, ‘announcing that he will announce’ the launch of a brand new Political Party on 31st December 2020’. He plans to contest all 234 State Assembly Seats in Tamil Nadu in the Elections to be held in May-June 2021. No doubts on the speed: he is known to be quick on the draw and super quick enough to catch a bullet by his teeth, when fired at him; and believe me there is no cigarette in the world that has not enjoyed the olympic journey from the pack, to the hand, to the lips, than Rajini’s master flick. Rajini’s ‘punch’ dialogues (one line statements sandwiched with meaty stuff, as the one at the top of this section) are legendary and changed the course of an Assembly Election, many years ago. “Even God cannot save Tamil Nadu if Jayalalithaa comes back to power” – that was the whip-lash, death-blow punch in 1996, which knocked-out the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa…and reverberated for a long time.

Hope the punch dialogues now works for his own party-when formed.

Of course he had his no-speed, Hamlet moment, ‘To do or not to do Politics’ since 2017 and Fans had almost given up. Now they are cheering non-stop. And the cigarettes are firing about like crazy and punches are being thrown in the air.

On 2nd December the United Kingdom became the first country in the World to approve (licence) the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination. Britain’s medicines regulator declared it safe to be rolled out. Recall, that Russia and China have already approved use of the Vaccine without waiting for final test results.

The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with as many as 800,000 due in the coming days.

I’m hoping that the Vaccine isn’t garnered by a powerful few and is made available to those who desperately require to be shot with it – to stay alive, longer.

So, the Vaccines are here and many might be wary of them as the Vaccines are made of ‘conked out’, clueless viruses or bits & fragments of them. Well, let me enlighten your decision-making process. Roughly about 8% of human DNA is made up of ancient viruses that used to infect us millions of years ago – they are buried in our DNA. We are just adding to our inner stockpile of virus ammunition. Go out and get vaccinated, when the Vaccine does arrive. Your kids will carry them forward and have a story to tell, in generations to come. That’s domesticating the virus, is it not? We have it chained to our DNA.

Please Yourself

I reckon this is vacation season. I’ve been reading about a few Bollywood starlets, some ‘newly married’, some ‘old married’ heading for gorgeous sea-green holidays in the Maldives. And spraying sizzling photographs on Instagram, and the kind. They can be seen on the beach-front, on the water, in the water, under the water, and on the marriage bed with fishes swimming above on the ceiling among other wonderful, picturesque sights. Difficult to choose between the starlet, the fish, and the scenery (…and the bed). I hope secrets tumble out soon – we know where to look, for the special effects!

Over the past week, I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix and kept in-step with Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Family moves in ‘The Crown‘. And also watched the true-story based 2007 year movie ‘American Gangster’. It’s a fascinating story of an honest cop who refuses to hide a million dollar cash-stash he finds in an abandoned car in a crime scene – instead hands it over to the Authorities. And the story of the clever rise to ‘indecent power’ of a drug-lord Kingpin who fearlessly establishes a cocaine drug-empire in America. Later, the cop busts the thriving drug-dealing gang which results in half of the New York Police being arrested for being complicit in crime. The honest cop goes on to become an Attorney – after doing evening classes – and gets the convicted Kingpin released after a jail term of 15 years. Russel Crowe honestly plays the honest cop and Denzil Washington drugs the Drug Lord. I thought both essayed their roles to perfection as Richie Roberts and Frank Lucas respectively, in a well-directed movie by Ridley Scott. Go watch it for the superb performances.

Honest pays and being honest is a reward in itself. Let’s live up to the policeman image of Richie Roberts. Worth emulating for a million dollars!

After months of scrubbing and soap-washing my hands I think I’ve finally reached the bone of the coronavirus. It’s a matter of time before I smash it with an over 95% efficient Vaccine hammer. Will 2021 be the year of the hammering the virus? Meanwhile, please wear that layered mask, keep washing – to remove bone stains – and, mind the gap between fellow humans. That actually keeps the virus away. It works!

Il’be dishing out more pulsating and honest stories in the weeks ahead. Our World is complex, but we do not have to understand everything – just the few that matter and ‘cook the food’ for us. And keep at it.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-48

About: This is a light-hearted commentary of what happened this week, in our World.

Wisdom

“I’m tough, ambitious and I know exactly what I want, If that makes me a b***h, Okay” – Madonna, Singer-Songwriter.

Everywhere

New Zealand’s Parliament

I just cannot stop talking about Jacinda Arden’s New Zealand. When Jacinda was re-elected as Prime Minister in a landslide last month, she brought-in to the law-making business people from diverse backgrounds, in what is considered as the most inclusive Parliament in the world. Almost half of New Zealand’s newly sworn-in Parliament are women and 11% are LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning). Both New Zealand’s Indigenous Māori and people with Pacific Island heritage are represented at a slightly higher rate than in the general population.

“It looks like New Zealand looks. We’re not male, pale and stale anymore”, said a professor of Politics at the University of Auckland, of the country’s Government.

Vaccines

The coronavirus Vaccine Station is beginning to fill. Over the past weeks, we had Sputnik V, Pfizer, and Moderna come up with positive results of ensuring coronavirus negatives. On 23rd November, Oxford/AstraZeneca of the United Kingdom wriggled in to the Station with claims of about 70% efficacy levels going up to 90% if a lower dose is used. Smells like Homeopathy? The Oxford Vaccine is cheaper, easier to store and distribute.

In China, a company called Sinopharm claims its vaccine has been given on an experimental basis to nearly a million people and has no adverse reactions, as yet. However, it has not provided any clear clinical evidence of efficacy levels.

If the coronavirus is listening to all the Vaccine Noise it must be packing its bags to return home (China?) and lie-low until we again put up the ‘Welcome Home Board’ – lets not!

Vaccines take years to develop, but thanks to advancement in science & technology and great minds working awfully hard, we are getting quicker results and perhaps longer lives.

The United States (US) of America.

US President Donald Trump, a loser, is getting close to agreeing to hand-over to the winning Biden-Harris team in January 2021 and the Transition seems to be happening. But he is yet to concede. ‘Biding’ his time?

Meanwhile, with the pandemic hitting many highs in America, accelerated by the Thanksgiving movement, Trump is spending more time on his golf course.

Does it help? Could it be that he tried his best to ’go out’ famous but settled down to become infamous? That’s famous anyway!

India

Violin Making

Antonio Stradivari (1644 to 1737) hailing from Cremona, Italy is said to be the greatest hand-made violin maker in history and a Stradivarius Violin is considered the finest string instrument ever created. They are highly prized, valued, and used by professionals the world over.

Baluswamy Dikshitar – one of the trinity of carnatic music composers – is believed to be the first, in India, to introduce the violin into traditional carnatic music in the 17th century. With this background here’s a story.

The art and craft of indigenously making a hand-made violin did not reach India, until recently. Four craftsman: Renjith K P of Mallapuram, Kerala, a father-son duo of Murali E D & Vinay Murali from Ernakulam, Kerala, and Satyanarayana of Tamil Nadu achieved a historic milestone in completing hand-made copies of the famous Stradivarius Violin after attending rigorous training workshops, knowns as ‘Violin Wise’, organised by the Lalgudi Trust, founded by late Lalagudi Jayaram and now run by his violinist son G J R Krishnan.

Over many years, beginning in 2013, the four craftsman diligently attended the annual workshops making steady progress in learning the art, and every aspect of hand-making a violin. James Wimmer a renowned Luthier – someone who builds and repairs a string instruments – from Santa Barbara, USA who trained in Germany under Wolfang Uebel – a violin making specialist- has been engaged by the Trust to train the craftsmen, which has eventually brought hand-made violin making (and repair) to this finelytuned stage. It takes about two to three months to hand-craft a violin and costs about Rs 1.5 Lakh.

In India, teak and jackfruit tree are used for making violins while European woods, such as maple spruce, are the best to bring out the right tone. Other kinds of Violins are mostly made in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh and in Kolkatta, West Bengal.

Can you recall some Violin greats? I can, a few: Late Yehudi Menuhin is one, Joshua Bell, Nicole Benedetti… are others. India? Late Kunnakudi Vaidyananthan, Late Lalgudi G Jayaraman, L Subramanian…

Sport

Football: The ‘Hand of God’ goes back to God.

On 25th November, Diego Armando Maradona, of Argentina, one of the greatest, superstar, football players of all time passed the ball to God who was standing outside the Football arena, and ran to him, forever – never to return, falling to a ‘red card’ cardiac arrest. He was 60 years old, and we all wish he could have shown us more of his magic play, conquering our hearts with his divine talent of running and scoring magnificent goals with the ball. Who can forget the ‘Hand of God Goal’, but better still the second goal by Maradona – voted the ‘Goal of the Century’ four minutes after the Hand of Gold Goal, in the very same game. Let’s go back to that game.

It was a sunny 22nd June 1986, the FIFA World Cup Quarter-Final between Argentina and England in the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City. There was a shimmering tension in the air as the game was set to begin.

In the background was a humiliating defeat in the Falklands War over ‘territorial’ claims, ‘handed’ down by Iron-lady Margaret Thatcher’s England, to Lieutenant General Leopoldo Galtieri’s Argentina. On the football field, the then 25 year old Captain Maradona said, ‘Let’s get on with the Game’

The scores were tied 0-0 at half-time. Six minutes into the second half of the match, Maradona while trying to dribble past the English defenders passed the ball to team-mate Jorge Valdano. However, the ball was cleared towards the England goal by English defender Steve Hodge. Maradona pounced on the chance but struggled to get to the ball with England goalkeeper Peter Shilton heading up at almost the same time. But Maradona ‘grew a leg’ on his left arm to nudge the ball-in what looked like a header – and found the net, giving Argentina the much-needed goal lead. The English players complained to the Referee on the use of arms, but the goal stood up to the challenge – given that there was no video refereeing at that time and the Referee was obstructed (by God?) from having a clear view. The benefit of doubt went to Argentina. Later, Maradona said the goal was, “a bit with the head and a bit with the hand of God.”

Four minutes after the ‘Hand of God goal’, in the 55th minute, Maradona collected the ball in the Argentine half and in a magical, extraordinary solo run, weaved his way through the England defence as if it wasn’t there, before striking a low hard shot into the nets. It was voted one of the greatest goals of all time.

Said somebody from the England side, ‘The first goal was a disgrace, It was handball, and it was a dreadful mistake, but the second goal was a miracle. One of the most brilliant I had ever seen. He (Maradona) has such grace, such poise on the ball. I didn’t like the second goal, but I couldn’t help but admire it.”

Going on, Argentina beat Belgium, 2-0 (Maradona scored twice) in the Semi-Finals, to reach the Finals with Germany, which it won, 3-2. Argentina lifted the Football World Cup for the second time in 1986, the first being in 1978.

Diego Maradona was the son of a maid and a factory worker and grew up in a shack in Villa Fiorito, in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He stood five feet, five inches, but his stocky body and muscular legs gave him awesome explosive power.

Like the game of Football, Maradona’s life can be divided into two halves – God being a full-time Referee in the first.

In the first half, Maradona began his professional career at age 15, at Argentinos Juniors, a historic but modest club. Success there took him to Boca Juniors and then to Barcelona and Napoli. But he found fame and fortune hard to handle; and craved affection. Nightclubbing, with the wrong people, led to dribbling with cocaine addiction – a habit he struggled to tackle and overcome. There were many women in his life, and they say he had enough children to form a football team of his own.

The second half of Maradona’s life was tragic. Obese, looking worn-out, and often in pain he made pathetic attempts at comebacks. He failed as a Manager, especially of Argentina’s national team and was often in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In his sagacity, he predicted that compatriot Lionel Messi would become one of the World’s greatest players. Kind of handing over the ball? No 10.

Rest in Peace, Diego Maradona. We’ll miss the Hand of God. But those trademark surging solo runs with the ball as-if glued to the football boots, and the instinctive dashes of brilliant vision will forever stay glued to our memory. He is Legend. Never mind the second half!

Melange

Spider Silk

There are about 40,000 known species of Spiders, and they have been around on Earth spinning their webs for over 300 million years. They can be found in every Continent except Antarctica. If the world’s population of spiders worked together, they could theoretically eat every human on Earth in one year. Planet of the Spiders? Not all spiders build webs, but every species produces silk.

Spider silk is stronger by weight than steel and as tough or even tougher than Kevlar – the toughest man-made polymer. It is finer than human hair and able to maintain its strength below – 40 Degrees Centigrade. Spider silk is also more elastic and waterproof than silkworm silk.

Spider Silk is primarily made up of proteins- chains of amino acids. There are about seven types of silk, for different uses, produced by seven separate silk glands. A single spider does not possess all seven glands and has about three or four of them in a life. The glands are located at the lower side of the abdomen and contains a watery fluid known as ‘dope’, which is the first stage of silk production. This fluid passes through a spinneret (a web spinner) and in fractions of a second, this goopy, liquid slurry of proteins is transformed. And it doesn’t just turn into a solid. On their way out of a spider’s bottom, the protein building blocks in silk, called spidroins, fold themselves and interlace, creating a highly organised structure – many fibres bound together like a cable – without a catalysing outside force. The diameter of a single fibre is controlled by the muscular action of a valve. The faster and tighter the silk is drawn, the stronger the silk. That’s how they generate different qualities of silk.

Scientists have spent years trying to mimic spider silk hoping that it will someday revolutionise the construction of ultra-strong, sustainable materials.

How about a spider silk sari with a matching spider silk blouse for an Indian Wedding? Lots of strength in there!

While spiders produce tough silk, the World is continuously spinning a web or hard news. There’s lots of turmoil in Africa: Ethiopia, Nigeria are hitting the brutal headlines. This Friday, a top Iranian Nuclear Scientist was assassinated in Iran: he died in Hospital after an attack on his car. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is showing signs that he may finally give up power after months of protests against his disputed re-election in August. Down under, Australia is seeing spectacular success in eliminating the coronavirus. Read that the Australian Open Tennis Tournament opening in a new January 2021 may be postponed by one or two weeks.

The World is a happening place. Enjoy every single day. Spin your story, with or without Spider Silk and leave the rest to the Hand of God.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-47

About: This is a light-hearted recount of what happened this week, in our World.

Wisdom

‘Too many people underestimate what they are and overestimate what they aren’t’ – Bill Gates…and many others.

Everywhere

The United States (US) of America.

America’s Constitution and Election Laws are being severely challenged with the incumbent President, Donald Trump, still refusing to concede defeat to the clear winner of the 3rd November Presidential Elections. The writing on the wall is clear to everyone looking, except the President who is ‘trying to find the wrong way to a place he cannot go’. Seldom has the US President looked like a ‘Total Recall’ of the many infamous African Dictators who clung on to power and had to be ‘couped-out’.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus surge in the US seems to know no bounds, with ever-growing spikes across the States, and Americans would be thankful if Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated as it was in the past. Better to keep the celebrations low-key, within the household bubble, say the Experts. Strong Leadership is required at the moment to give a sense of direction to the abysmally poor handling of the pandemic. And the Biden-Harris Team appear to have many tricks up their sleeve – if only they are ‘declared to transition’. This is not happening at the moment, as all kinds of strings are still being pulled and road-blocks built, making it tough of the new President to drive smoothly.

I’m hoping the Donald Trump concedes and exits peacefully during the course of the upcoming Week. Will he? God Bless America.

Russia, War & Peace

Tired of talking about America? For a change, let’s go to Russia.

In week No 41, we read about the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict melting into war again, over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. The problem of ownership was in deep freeze all these years and the brewing heat got to it from both the Parent countries.

This week, the over six-weeks of fighting finally came to an end after Armenia, being defeated in battle by Azerbaijan, agreed to sign a Russian brokered peace accord. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Aremenian PM, Nikol Pashinyan, put their signature to paper.

Broadly, Russia supplies Peace Keeping Forces – Russia has not done this kind of thing in a long time – to monitor the truce, for a period of five years, Azerbaijan receives significant territorial concessions, holding on to areas that it had taken during the conflict. And Armenia agreed to withdraw from certain areas under its control, handing them over to Azerbaijan, by 15th November.

People say it is actually a victory for Azerbaijan as its capture of the town of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh brought it close to taking down the region’s largest city, Stepanakert, and appears to have forced Armenia to come to the Peace Table.

Tails up for Azerbaijan and hope to see peace return to Nagorno-Karabakh. I’m sure Armenia can adjust quickly and move ahead to find victories in other domains.

Vaccines

About this time there are over 200 different COVID-19 vaccines under development around the world.

Last week Pfizer announced the results of its COVID-19 Vaccine, and we were elated. This week we heard about a second Vaccine coming up. A Massachusetts, USA, based biotech company, Moderna, announced that its Vaccine has cleared Phase-III trials and is 94.5% effective against the coronavirus.

Like Pfizer’s, Moderna’s vaccine works by programming the body’s own cells to produce non-infectious bits of protein from the coronavirus that train the immune system to recognise and prevent illness from the actual invading virus.

Comparing the two Vaccines, while Moderna’s is almost 95% effective, needs to be stored at – 20 Degrees Celsius, for up to six months, and has a refrigerator shelf-life of 30 days; Pfizer’s is 90% effective, needs to be stored at – 75C and has a refrigerator shelf-life of 5 days. The actual vaccination consists of two injections 21 days apart for Pfizer; and two injections 28 days/ 4weeks apt for the Moderna Vaccine.

In a late shout, Pfizer announced that its vaccine too has reached 95% effectiveness in the final round of analytics. Cheers to that!

The other Vaccine that hit the headlines is the Russian Sputnik -V Vaccine and claiming to be the first registered COVID-19 Vaccine, is about 92% effective.

So, here we are with three Vaccines at a needle’s reach. Is the end of the pandemic in sight? It’s a matter of time, but I’m sure it is.

India

An Acting Legend Passes

Bengali Actor Soumitra Chatterjee who starred in over 300 movies and is best known for his work with the renowned filmmaker, director, Satyajit Ray, died at 85, in Kolkata, this Sunday. He was in Hospital for over a month and is reported to have been suffering from COVID-19.

Soumitra Chatterjee was also an accomplished playwright, theatre actor and poet. The late Satyajit Ray had this to say about him, “He is an intelligent actor, given bad material he turns out a bad performance”.

Satyajit Ray created the fictional character of detective ‘Feluda’ – the Indian version of Sherlock Holmes – in short stories and novels, some of which were made into movies. If Sherlock lived at 221-B Baker Street and had Dr Watson as a sidekick, Feluda lived at 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Kolkatta and had his cousin ‘Topshe’ for the side part. If Sherlock smoked a pipe, Feluda smoked Charminar Cigarettes.

Soumitra Chatterjee played Feluda in the movie Sonar Kella (released as The Golden Fortress, in the USA) and the Apu-Trilogy, among a long list of movies, which showcased Indian cinema to the World and won enormous recognition.

He was awarded India’s third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, in 2004, and received the Dadashaeb Phalke Award, India’s highest award in Cinema, in 2012 , in a long medal of Awards.

Chatterjee leaves being a wife, a son, and a daughter.

I haven’t seen much of Soumitra Chatterjee’s Films, but intend to catch up with the legend.

Sport

Surfing in India: Ishita Malaviya

Despite peninsular India having an abundance of coastline, most Indians prefer surfing the internet to the waves of the great Oceans surrounding us.

One person has decided to show us how to catch and ride these waves, and her name is Ishita Malaviya, 29, India’s first professional female surfer. When Malaviya first took up the sport in earnest – ever since she caught her first wave – while in Manipal University, Karnataka, there were only about thirteen professional surfers in India. She and her partner Tushar Pathiyan went on to start the Shaka Surf Club in the fishing village of Kodi Bengre on the West Coast. And surfing is taught free for the kids from the village. She and Pathiyan shared one board between them, in the early days, before they started to fix up broken boards from traveling surfers passing through the Country.

Last year Malaviya featured in the Forbes 30 under Asia list alongside Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka. Her story finds a wave in a book ‘She Surf’ written by a fellow surfer, Lauren Hill, recounting tales of female surfers around the world.

Surfing debuts in the Tokyo Olympics next year on the Pacific Coast of Chiba, Japan. We do not know, as yet, whether Malaviya would participate being a long-board specialist. But we hope the waves take her there.

“I remember smiling on my first wave, all the way to the shore and all the way back home from the beach. I live a very unglamorous life, I live in a village, a simple, peaceful village. But I’m really grateful doing what I do with the story that I have”. Malaviya said in an interview.

“The challenge of surfing, but it’s also the beauty of surfing, is you have to wake up and respond to the happenings in the living world around you. It’s not like almost every other aspect of modern life where you can plan into an uncertain infinity”, says a surfer.

Her story should inspire this generation of Indians, to look beyond King Cricket, and indulge in other challenging sports in which they can become Kings & Queens. It’s for the taking – I’ll wave to that!

Potpourri

Royal Enfield Motor-cycle: The Bullet

I remember the early 1980’s when heavy, fuel-guzzling bikes such as Jawa, Bullet and Rajdoot were the glorious ones that motor-cycled Indian roads. We had a hellva time trying to kick-start these bikes, and often we gave up on them. Then came the easy-start, light weight 100cc fuel efficient bikes and the oldies almost disappeared. Only just.

Kicked-up in the year 1901, The Royal Enfield motor-cycle probably has the longest lifespan of any motorcycle manufacturer in the world and remained unknown in markets outside India.

Royal Enfield’s original British Company operations closed in 1970; the surviving Indian remnant was heading the same way before a stunning revival that saw annual sales grow from 31,000 bikes in 2006 to more than 800,000 in 2019, transforming the value of Enfield’s parent company, Eicher Motors, India a tractor-maker, from just a few hundred million dollars to over eight billion. Now the company is accelerating into the wider world and has touched ground in the USA too.

The four-stroke, distinctive sounding, over 350cc Enfield motorcycle, simply called ‘Bullet’ in India, is a throwback devoid of modern frills and with the looks of a classic bike. Enfield decided on riding in the middle of the road: declining to enter the largest part of the Indian market, which is for small and cheap bikes, or in making the expensive, tech-laden machines that motor-cycle enthusiasts generally hanker after in other countries. Improvements have tackled mechanical shortcomings without undermining the existing sound, feel and look.

They must, says Eicher’s boss, provide “everything you need and nothing you don’t”.

I recall, starting the Enfield was a huge challenge, with one hand on the choke, one eye on the amps-meter and one leg on the kick-start lever. After a few hisses and misses it splutters to a start and the ‘royal, thud-thud, sound’ is good on the ears. These days they have introduced a push button battery start, and we leave the starting worries behind, in the thin wispy smoke. Trademark Retail showrooms that have silently sprung-up in the small Towns and Cities are stunning, selling various models of the Enfield, besides awesome riding gear, and have an irresistible urge to peek inside – I did, in a Showroom in Attur, Salem, India. Why not set a goal of ‘biting the Bullet’ in the year ahead?

Netflix

The pandemic lockdowns introduced me to the World of, ‘Sitting in Front of the Television’ and it didn’t take me long to discover that the usual TV Channels, with a few exceptions, weren’t worth much of a watch. Then, my son, on a visit home from London in middle of January this year, lead me to Netflix and pointed out a few Movies and Drama Series’ to watch. I got hooked, for sure.

I’ve immensely enjoyed, ‘The Last Kingdom’, ‘Resurrection Ertugrul’, and now ‘The Crown’, besides catching up with the movies that I’ve always wanted to see. The advantages are they come without the interruptions of commercial advertisements; and you can simply stop at what ever scene you are watching and come back to it later.

The drama series are extremely well-made, bring to life the characters and the scene of the times and stay in the mind screen for a long time.

More light and sound coming-up in the weeks ahead.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-46

About: This is what happened this week, in our World.

Wisdom

“Life is in the transitions. We can’t ignore these central times of life; we can’t wish or will them away. We have to accept them, name them, mark them, share them, and eventually convert them into fuel for remaking our life stories.” – William James, American Philosopher and Psychologist.

Everywhere

The United States (US) of America.

Transition is the word ruling the US, at the moment, with the Presidential Election yet to be formally declared as complete. The Biden-Harris team scored a winning 306 (with Arizona, and Georgia-on recounting-siding with Biden) Electoral votes, to Donald Trump’s 232, over the median 270 required to become the 46th President.

The President and Vice President-Elect combo of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got down to serious work, after shaking their legs in the victory celebrations. We liked their moves, especially the formation of an impressive COVID-19 Advisory Board and Task Force to control the spiralling coronavirus cases in the US. The team is vaccinated with Scientists, Doctors and Disease Containment Specialists. Must be giving the virus sleepless, scary days and nights.

However, President Donald Trump refuses to concede, accept defeat, and allow for a smooth transition of power. A seamless transition has always been a hallmark of US Democracy. And this too is being put to a challenge.

Donald Trump is still crying like a child refusing to grow-up, throwing tantrums as when a favourite toy has been pinched by the boy next-door. And making wild, baseless election-fraud charges. Meanwhile, the US’s Transition Act kicks-in to allow the ‘President-Elect’ to choose his team players, and practice playing ball before starting to shoot goals from 20th January 2021 onwards.

Lots happening in the US with the ‘borders of the law’ and the American Constitution being severely ruffled and tested. A Time to Heal?

Vaccines: Prevention is always better than cure.

Vaccine developers all over the World, are working at a furious, accelerated pace to produce a vaccine that would safely prevent us from being infected by the novel coronavirus and suffer from the effects of COVID-19.

We breathed the first sign of relief when on 9th November, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that its COVID-19 vaccine trial was over 90% effective in getting the job done. And it has not produced any serious safety concerns. The company’s vaccine trial is in Phase-III and involves more than 43,000 global volunteers.

What is Phase-III? This is the final phase of testing for approval of a new drug or a new vaccine. In Phase-III, the vaccine is tested at multiple locations on thousands of volunteers and must prove itself to be efficacious, potent and safe to deliver its intended purpose-as specified by the Vaccine makers.

Early results suggest the Pfizer vaccine is working – putting it at the top of a global vaccine race.

What next? The vaccine moves to Phase-IV when it is approved and licensed to be manufactured in a large scale and delivered all over the World without loss of potency.

Meanwhile, we need to hold our breath, behind those masks and hold a No-Entry placard to the virus.

India

State Elections

The counting in the 243 seat Bihar State Assembly Elections took place on the 10th November. The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was voted back to power with 125 seats and the Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) rising-up to carve out 74 seats on its own as the second largest Individual Party, to the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) 75 seats. The counting saw a see-saw battle between the NDA and the Mahagathbandan – an alliance of the Challengers-, but the NDA kept its nerves and prevailed. The Modi – Shah team keeps delivering election victory after election victory.

Most Opinion Polls and Exit polls found mud flying on to their faces having predicted a clear win for the RJD led Mahagathbandan.

I think it would be wise for the BJP to keep going with Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister-for the fourth time, despite his Party, the Janata Dal (United), dropping its clothes, down to 43 seats (from last time’s 71). Nitish has lost his charm and political good looks; needs to rediscover his magic – add colour to his hair – to walk the ramp, again. The BJP should look to the future, and have somebody to blame should things go topsy-turvy in Bihar.

Diwali – row of lights.

In week 42 we talked about how Navratri was one of Hinduism’s most celebrated festivals. This week, we add Diwali to ‘that ones’ list.

Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, symbolises, again, the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. It also signifies new beginnings. We are tired to the end of our finger nails (with soap washing), at the fag end of a dreadful year and maybe we should lie back and begin a new beginning of the end of the year.

Across India, the reasons to celebrate have many Hindu stories. One is the festival marks Lord Krishna’s defeat of the demon Narakasura. Another is the homecoming of Lord Rama and Sita to the city of Ayodhya after vanquishing Ravana, when they were welcomed with a row of lighted diyas (mud lamps). Yet another is the commemoration of the marriage of Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi.

We all need a reason to celebrate: have that oil bath, wear new clothes, light diyas, exchange sweet gifts with family and friends, and ponder on how to live a brighter and better life. Transition here too!

Sport

Cricket

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 Cricket Tournament concluded in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on 10th November, with Mumbai Indians winning the Champion Title for the fifth time. They beat Delhi Capitals by five wickets.

Earlier, Delhi Capitals won the second qualifier against Sunrisers Hyderabad, who failed to rise any higher.

Kings XI Punjab’s K L Rahul stayed the course as the top scorer with 670 runs off seventeen games, while Mumbai Indians’ Ishan Kishan scored the maximum sixes – 30, in fourteen games

Time to move over to other games

Potpourri

Hyperloop

It’s been a never-ending endeavour of Man to finds mean of travelling the Earth faster and safer.

British Businessman Richard Branson’s Virgin Group having grounded its flying-in-the-air business, Virgin Atlantic, is trying the flying thing on land.

Virgin Hyperloop gave the first ride on its test track this Sunday in Las Vegas, US, but it will be years before the public can actually take a high-speed ride on a Hyperloop.

A Hyperloop is a work-in-progess, unproven, transportation system in which people travel in a vehicle, a pod – in a vacuum tube at speeds as high as 960 kilometres per hour (kph). The tubes may be located in underground tunnels or just placed overground. Imagine a long pipeline traversing the country – filled with people!

Virgin’s Hyperloop system includes magnetic levitation, similar to that used in the Japanese high-speed Bullet Trains. Magnetic levitation works on the principle of magnetic repulsion between the train cars and the track. It lifts a train car above a track, as the magnets’ like poles push the train upward, eliminating contact friction. The magnets also propel the train as like poles repel and push the train forward, and the opposite poles attract and pull the train forward. The ‘zero friction’ between metals and the ‘zero air resistance’, due to vacuum in the tube make possible the awesome speeds.

Virgin Hyperloop’s pod could only touch 160 kph on a 500 meters long track; apparently longer test tracks need to be built to reach the target 960 kph.

Richard Branson started his first business, a mail order Record Business, in 1970, which later turned in Virgin Records and went on to become the biggest independent label in the world, signing-up Music Artists to produce best-selling Albums. Mike Oldfield was their first such Artist producing the number one selling Album, Tubular Bells. Others were, The Sex Pistols and The Rolling Stones.

Incidentally, the name Virgin came into being because when Branson started, he was entirely new to business.

Virgin flew into the aviation Business with Virgin Atlantic, in 1984, and gradually expanded into other businesses.

Time to declare that Richard Branson is ‘no longer a Virgin’?

Flamingoes

Flamingoes are those long-legged, bright pink, flame-coloured birds with a curved beak.

They are not born with curved beaks, which takes months to take shape, and are not born with that trademark pink colour. In fact, they are born grey and become pink over the years by eating beta-carotene (a red-orange pigment) loaded crustaceans and shrimp prevalent in their wetland environment. It takes about two years for the pink colour to load, if they keep at their exclusive beta-carotene diet. They have black colouring under their wings, which can be seen only when there are up in the air. The flamingoes are a classic example of, ‘you are what you eat’. The next time you see a white flamingo, don’t gasp in surprise, you know why.

Nearer our dining table, carrots are known to be heavy with carotenoids. If we humans persist with eating tons of carrots every day, there is a fair chance that one can acquire some degrees of an orange shade. Seen any orange men or women around?

Flamingoes pair for life sometimes hang around up to 50 years with the same mate. Wow, that sure is single-minded dedication. Marry a Flamingo?

Flamingos can sleep in ponds that freeze around their legs at night, drink water at boiling temperatures, and survive in conditions that expose them to arsenic and poisonous gases.

Lots of survival lessons to learn from them flamingoes

Movies

I love Hollywood movies – they make them so well – and there is an ever-growing list of must-see-movies to tick off. The problem is I keep going back to see the ones I like the most. One such movie is ‘Robin Hood’, 2010, directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russel Crowe – as Robin Hood – and the ‘appropriately beautiful’ Cate Blanchett. Out of the many Robin Hood movies out there this one impressed me the most.

Watch it to know how a smart undefeatable fighter in a Kingdom becomes an Outlaw, only because he was good at what he was. And a King got jealous because Robin Hood was ‘actually the King’ in warding off a French attack on England, and demanding that a Charter of Rights be made Law – ensuring the rights of every Englishman to his land and work, and to unite the Country.

More stories to tell in the week(s) ahead – watch this space for the way the world transitions.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-45

About: This is what happened this week, in our World.

Wisdom

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” – Bruce Lee

Everywhere

The United States (US) of America.

The World is watching and even the most noisy democracies are looking in the mirror and finding a better reflection of them, over what’s happening in the US.

The US has finally decided to name Joe Biden as ‘President-Elect’ in a gridlocked, knife-edged, roller-coaster Presidential Election, with every vote riding single in a large saloon car, crowding the roads, where the signals are coming on too fast for too short a time.

It could take days, even weeks, before the US Presidential race is finally settled, and there is not much hope that the incumbent President, Donald Trump, will ever utter the great words, “I concede”. He showed the best of his worst behaviour shouting-out that he has won, and that the counting be stopped, in baseless allegations of a fraudulent election – under his watch, as President? Damn! He has showed enough red signs of ‘not accepting the results’. He has even threatened to go to the US Supreme Court and is tweeting lies every time he opens his beak to speak. Meanwhile, the news channels are humming with reports of ‘dead people’ coming alive to vote and markers, using ‘Sharpie pens’, that disappear on ballot papers.

Most of us in India are stumped by the US Election process and I have never followed an US Election this closely – learning the names of all the States! It’s a fact that Americans actually do not directly vote for the President – as many of us might have believed – Something called the ‘Electoral College’ chooses the President. Let me explain.

The winner of the US Presidential Election is determined through a system called Electoral College. Each of the 50 American States, plus Washington DC, is given a number of electoral college votes adding to a total of 538 votes. More populous states are get more electoral votes than smaller states. A candidate needs to poll 270 plus 1 to win. In every State the candidate that gets the most votes wins all of the states electoral votes except in two states of Maine & Nebraska. Hence a candidate can win an election without getting the most votes at the national level.

Americans are also electing members of the two chambers of Congress: House of Representatives and the Senate.

At the time of this Post, Joe Biden was leading with 253 Electoral College Votes (ECV) over Donald Trump’s 213 and has just been projected to win the 20 EVC of Pennsylvania taking his score to 273. Votes are being carefully and furiously counted and all eyeballs are on the battleground States where results are yet to be declared: Pennsylvania – 20 ECV, Biden projected to win; Georgia – 16 ECV, Biden leading by over 7200; Arizona – 11 ECV, Biden leading by over 29800; Nevada – 6 ECV, Biden leading by over 22,000 votes. Alaska – 3 ECV, Trump leading by over 51 000 votes.

It’s easy to see that Biden will win, but the twists & turns have been far more than anybody imagined, and the suspense lingers along with a heavily guarded opinion. Watch an Alfred Hitchcock film, we’ll have to wait this out.

History will be made when the Democratic Party candidates, Biden-Harris win the US Elections. Joe Biden, at 77, will be the oldest President of the United States ever to be elected to a first term in Office. He based his campaign on standing for two things: one, workers that built the US and, two, values that can bridge its divisions. I reckon he needs to work real hard, like a Worker, to build great spans of bridges that add iron & steel to his Presidency.

Kamala Harris would become the first Woman Vice President of the US, and the first Afro-American, and the first Asian American. Previously, only Geraldine Ferraro, a Vice Presidential candidate, running with Democratic Presidential candidate Walter Mondale, in 1984, came close. Mondale and Ferraro lost the general election in a landslide receiving only 41% of the popular vote compared to Ronald Reagan and Bush’s 59%.

The election shows that the US is so fractured that the New President will have to learn ‘black-white-brown’ magic, to cast a spell, to mend the broken parts, before he puts the bones to work. God Bless America.

If Donald Trump doesn’t accept the result he may have to be pulled out of the White House, kicking, screaming and screeching – Marshalls around? (Call Bruce Lee, from the Dead?)

Driving in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Women in Saudi Arabia were not allowed to drive a motor car, all these decades, until June 2018, when they were finally granted this right, in what appeared to be an opening-up of the Kingdom.

This was largely due to a successfully campaign by woman activist, Loujain al-Hathloul, 31, who fought to sit on the drivers seat, and a demand to abolish ‘male guardianship’. But, she was arrested in May 2018 on charges of ‘attempting to destabilise the Kingdom’. A number of other activists who fought for women’s right to drive, alongside Loujain, have since been released, but two years on, she remains behind bars. She has, in end October 2020, began a hunger strike to try and urge Authorities to allow her to have regular contact with her family.

Loujain al-Hathloul was named one of Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People of 2019’.

What is male guardianship? Under Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system, every woman must have a male guardian who has the authority to make a range of critical decisions on her behalf. Traditionally, a woman’s male guardian from birth is her father and once she is married her guardian becomes her husband.

Unbelievable that in this modern World a woman had to fight for such basic rights and then on the right being made right, be punished for being right.

The United Nations is sounding the horn, but it needs to drive Saudi Arabia – at Formula-One speeds – into ensuring ‘passenger comfort’ for its citizens – especially women. I’m hoping Loujain al-Hathloul is released at the soonest.

India

Elections, again.

The third and final phase of the Bihar State Assembly Elections are happening this Saturday and counting Day is on 10th November.

Will this be another thrilling cliffhanger?

Space

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is back in action, this Saturday, with the successful launch of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) -C49 in its 51st mission, lifting-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India. The PSLV put into orbit India’s own Earth Observation Satellite (EOS)-01 as primary satellite, along with nine International customer Satellites, a grand total of ten, at one blast.

This is one space the World is cheaply looking up to.

The Pandemic in India

While the World is seeing new waves of the COVID-19, coronavirus pandemic, India after making a slow steady climb in the number of infections, is gradually, but surely mixing all the waves into one and rolling down a declining slope.

I must appreciate India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having the foresight to lockdown very early, saving tens of thousands of lives and brutally locking people in their homes to learn their coronavirus lessons. So much so that every Indian has become fluent, like Donald Trump, and many have confidently declared that they have seen the back of this virus. They shout, ‘Stop the counting. Remove the masks’. I think it’s still too early to call a win as the Festive Season, could ‘un-mask’ new battlegrounds. Let me tell you a story.

On Tuesday evening, after over seven months of strictly adhering to COVID-19 prevention Rules, I reluctantly accepted an invitation to a small Family gathering in a small village near where I was born. My cousin called saying he is putting a knife to the throat of a few goats to propitiate the Gods and cook us all a good meal. This for the well-being of his father, who is struggling to walk again, after a stroke.

I wonder what the poor Goats can do? Maybe if a surgical knife is put to the Father he may recover!

It was late evening and I travelled alone in my Honda City Saloon on a largely ‘signal-less’ State Highway, with my Driver at the wheel. Both of us were masked-up tight, and fully- armed to the teeth with sanitisers, back-up masks, and other virus fighters. We reached the dinner spot, a Farmstead on the outskirts of the nearest Town, by 7.30pm just as the evening was running the last mile, to hand over the baton to Night.

I was welcomed by a few giggling ‘mask-less’ nephews, who when asked about wearing masks ushered us in to see for ourselves a ‘supremely coronavirus-free gathering’ huddled together, holding hands and making small conversation. Welcome to the party, they said.

I was the only one (repeat, only ONE) wearing a mask in the about 100 group.

I told everybody, of the family, either wear a mask, keep physical distance, or I leave. They were stunned for a moment – an Aunt pulled out a mask hanging at her sari folds and waved it. Others said they have no masks. And there is no coronavirus living in these parts, they laughed.

I then thanked the host, my cousin, and promptly walked out! The smell of dinner cooking on the fire was irresistible, but I held my ground.

The pandemic isn’t over as yet. Follow the Rules. I wish my cousin well and hope the day is remembered for the right reasons.

A friend of mine, an evolving Monk, trying to grow his beard to Sadhguru lengths, who drove all over India on a ‘Parikrama’, in his blue Suzuki car, believes the pandemic is a sham and a scam. Says he watched the cash flowing in all kinds of directions, in close quarters. Maybe, we should put him on a new Parikrama flight to the hotpots of Spain, Italy, or the US and hope for a safe return. Some people simply don’t get it!

Sport

Cricket

The IPL 2020 Cricket Tournament is counting the balls in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the last ball will be played on 10th November, to decide the winner, in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai.

Mumbai Indians have kept-up their lead in the points table and have reached the finals. They will play the winner of second Qualifier Match, scheduled on Sunday, 8th November, between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have risen, over the week, to get here.

There’s a close fight at the very bottom with Rajasthan Royals pushing up Chennai Super Kings – slightly – to occupy the last position.

KL Rahul of Kings XI still has the most runs to his name, 670 in fourteen games. David Warner of Sunrisers Hyderabad is the closest with 546 runs in fifteen games. Ishan Kishan of Mumbai Indians has hit the most sixes – 29. Easy to understand how Mumbai Indians gained those points. He has pushed down last week’s Sixer, Rajasthan Royals’ Sanju Samson – 26 sixes.

Potpourri

Half-male, Half-female

While humans are expanding their sex orientation from the basic two of male and female, the Birds are fast catching up. In fact they are mixing it up.

Scientists have found a half-male, half-female songbird at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Powdermill Nature Reserve, USA in what’s being described as a ‘once in a lifetime’ discovery. This songbird is a rare species and is only the fifth such songbird to be discovered out of the nearly 800,000 birds that the Nature Reserve has seen. Well, someone’s counting, for sure. The ‘mixed-up’ bird was identified as a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Male and female Grosbeaks are distinguished by their colour: males have pink ‘wing pits,’ while females are yellow-brown. And, you guessed it: the sides of this songbird’s body were of different colours, typical of the male, and female.

How does this happen? It’s the result of a genetic error when an unfertilised egg with two nuclei fuses with the sperm, and produces an embryo with both male and female cells.

Now, if the female-side has a functional ovary – not known as yet – it could attract a male and make and egg, to reproduce, while the other part can also get to do its job of impregnating ‘other halves’.

Every single day we Humans are discovering something new and it only shows the endless possibilities of life on Earth. Male and Female is ‘two narrow’?

Migration

Keeping the conversation flying with the Birds, I read in the local Newspapers that three new rare migratory birds, Whimbrel, Pacific Golden-Plover (both are Shore Birds), and Eurasian Wryneck (Woodpecker family) have been recently sighted in Salem,Tamil Nadu, near the Mettur Dam region, by the Salem Ornithological Foundation. These rare migratory birds are from the Northern European Region and have been spotted for the first time around these parts.

Over the week, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has been asking the world to invest heavily in India highlighting its Democracy, Demography, Demand, and Diversity – and to build nests in India. The birds have lightly flown in, listened and have come to do a check, to take the tidings to the other parts, I’m sure.

Oh, I wish we could migrate like the birds!

Many fabulous things expected to happen in the upcoming week. Sit back and wait for the results – let others count!

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-44

About: This is what happened this week, in our World.

Wisdom

“Find the smartest people you can and surround yourself with them.” –Marissa Meyer, CEO, Yahoo!

Everywhere

United States (US)

The ‘red’, Grand Old, Republican Party – Trump-Pence, and the ‘blue’ Democratic Party – Biden-Harris teams are in the throw of the Finals of the US Presidential Election. Early voting is underway and ends on 1st November. Election Day is on 3rd November. Meanwhile, the coronavirus is still a star campaigner growing in momentum across many parts of the US, spreading a message of pandemic mismanagement and a refusal to look at the science of virus things.

Will Joe Biden trump over Donald Trump? I hope it doesn’t end in a ‘well shampooed’ hair-raising photo-finish or a refusal to accept the outcome. We should be knowing next week, by this time.

I’m hoping Joe makes it, with Kamala.

France

Awfully tough and horrific times in France, this time of the year.

On 16th October a 18year old Chechen refugee beheaded a School Teacher, Samuel Paty, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb of Paris. This, days after he had shown images of Prophet Mohammed, alongside other caricatures and cartoons, to his students while teaching and discussing the topic ‘freedom of expression’. He has even asked pupils who feared they might be offended by them to look away if they wanted to.

Is there a better way to teach freedom of expression?

The killer was subsequently gunned down by the Police.

Later, in a similar incident on 29th October a knifeman, shouting, ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great), killed three people and injured several others in an attack inside a Church in France’s Nice, on the Cote d’Azur. One of the victims, a woman, was decapitated. The scene was described as a ‘vision of horror’. This time too, the attacker was shot, injured, and taken to hospital. Glad that the Police have acted with superb alacrity and responsibility.

France has a long and cherished tradition of freedom of expression, and there can be no justification for attacking this freedom. French President Emmanuel Macron, enraged by the first incident, said that France will continue to defend the freedom that the School Teacher taught so well, and will bring back secularism; and France will not give up cartoons, drawings, even if others back down.

Macron’s war cry on Islamic fundamentalism has infuriated many Islamic countries denouncing it as Islamophobia, and they in turn are going to Town shouting that anything to do with France be banned.

Fanatic elements in any religion cannot be encouraged and France should be given every possible support in dealing with this hydra-headed problem. Religions Leaders should step in to control such radicals living on the fringes of humanity. I believe religion should be strictly kept in the confines of one’s soul, one’s home, and only the best effects should be visible on the outside.

Cartoons are images intended for humour and satire, as a means of communication to convey news, entertainment, and the kind, in a light-hearted manner. It’s best we look at a cartoon as just that, shrug it off with a smile, and not delve too deep into them. Nothing can demean the original, which is forever taken. Why give importance to a cartoon and allow another meaning in a dimension we should not be thinking at all? Why cannot we laugh at ourselves?

Laughter is the best medicine, they say, for many of our ills. When was the last time we enjoyed a Tom & Jerry Cartoon? Imagine if all the Cats meowed endlessly and mice squeaked tirelessly about showing them in caricature? Or, our Politicians -they become famous because of cartooning, didn’t they?

The Vatican City

Last Sunday, Pope Francis announced that Wilton Daniel Gregory, currently the Archbishop of Washington DC, is being elevated to Cardinal, in a list of 13 new Cardinals, all under the age of ‘heavy 80’. With this appointment, Gregory becomes America’s first African American Catholic Cardinal-adding to another of becoming Washington DC’s first African American Archbishop. The primary responsibility of Cardinals is in electing a new Pope, should the present Pope step down or die.

The new Cardinals ‘start getting old’ from 28th November onwards. Cardinals wear the distinctive red vestment to indicate their willingness to sacrifice themselves to the point of shedding ‘their own blood in the service of the Successor of Peter.’

Successor of Peter? Recall, that the primacy of the Pope, also known as Bishop of Rome, Supreme Pontiff, is largely derived from his role as at the Apostolic Successor to Saint Peter, to whom the primacy was conferred by Jesus, giving him the ‘Keys of Heaven’ and the powers of ‘binding and loosing’, naming him as the ‘rock’ upon which the Church would be built.

Pope Francis has been making progressive changes, shaking-up and reinvigorating Christianity. Recently, he approved of same-sex marriages. ‘They are also children of God’, he said. I think that any Religion should constantly evolve, keeping with our better understanding of humanity, without losing sight of core fundamentals. The Pope has listened…and acted. God speaks through him.

Europe

Europe is being demolished and populated by COVID-19 numbers. New cases are a sensation in Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium, and Italy, grappling with positivity rates of between 20% and 31%.

The only way they can be avoided is with aggressive testing, tracing, use of masks, hand hygiene, maintaining of physical distance and avoidance of crowds.

If everyone in the world washed their hands properly, an estimated one million lives would be saved every year, according to researchers in London.

Space

On 26th October NASA revealed that its Stratosphere Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has discovered water in the Clavius Crater of the sunlit parts of the Moon’s Southern Hemisphere. The quantity detected is minuscule – the Sahara Desert contains 100 times the water found by SOFIA – but it is a very significant discovery, which matters a lot in setting up say, a Base on the Moon or as a stop-over for greater and longer Space missions. NASA hopes to put a Man and a Woman on the Moon, in 2024, through its Artemis Mission.

India

Jammu & Kashmir (J&K)

We almost took it for granted, as an Indian, that we could buy land and property anywhere in India. But until the abrogation of Article 370 this was not possible in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Only residents of J&K could buy land on producing a Domicile or Permanent Residency Certificate. Not any longer, and from 26th October the Government has gazetted that any Indian can buy land in J&K just like any other State in India.

This simple notification was long overdue. How about buying a nice little cottage overlooking the Dal Lake? Let’s do it?

Elections

Elections keeping rolling in State after State during the year, that one keeps wondering if Democracy is only about voting and forgetting about whom you voted for.

Democracy can succeed only if there is a constant engagement by the people.

This time it’s Bihar State that is going to the polls to elect a new State Government. Current Chief Minister (CM), Nitish Kumar, has been ruling for three five-year terms and is hoping to make it to a fourth. Isn’t it time to give way to someone else?

Voting started on 28th October in a first of three phases for 243 Assembly Seats. The Second and Third Phases are on 3rd and 7th November respectively. We will know the results on the counting day, 10th November.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Janata Dal(United), JD(U), are together pitted against the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress and the Left Parties. Opinion Polls give an edge to the ruling BJP – JD(U) combo.

CM, Nitish Kumar has governed, and managed the pandemic, reasonably well: comes across as a level-headed Chief Minister. Years ago, he was voted one of the best Chief Ministers of India and even thought of as a best candidate Prime Minister. But, he could do more to develop Bihar faster. I would give him one more term to deliver and, whatever, quit after this period. Make way for more talented people. Moreover, we are tired of the same old faces, aren’t we?

Sport

Cricket

The IPL 2020 Cricket Tournament is still scoring in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Match No 52 will be played this Saturday. After Match No 56 on 3rd November, it will be over to the Qualifiers and Eliminators before the Final, near the middle of November.

Mumbai Indians still lead the points table followed by Royal Challengers Bangalore, and then Delhi Capitals. Chennai Super Kings is well-settled at the bottom of the Table with Sunrisers Hyderabad, ‘keeping close’ company.

KL Rahul of Kings XI has the most runs to his name, 641 in thirteen games, Shekar Dhiwan of Delhi Capitals is the closest with 471 runs. Not far away are, David Warner with 436 runs and Viral Kohli at 424 runs. Rajasthan Royals’ Sanju Samson has hit the highest number of sixes – 26. That’s living up to the ‘power of Samson’, in his name

Motor Racing: Formula One

Six-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has broken Michael Schumacher’s all-time Formula One win record after dominating the Portuguese Grand Prix.

His victory in Portimao, Portugal, was the 92nd of his career, moving past the German’s previous record of 91. Hamilton squandered his lead on the opening lap but after reclaiming it on the 20th lap, he held off all competitors to win the Driver’s Championship.

Lewis Hamilton, of the United Kingdom, competes in Formula One for the Mercedes -AMG Petronas Team. He won his first championship in 2008 while in the McLaren Team before moving to Mercedes. That maiden win was dramatic, making a crucial overtake on the ‘last corner of the last lap in the last race’ of the season to become the then youngest Formula One World Champion in History.

Ever wondered why it is called Formula One? In the beginning when motor car racing was racing to become a sport it was a free-for-all design for the Designer and the Drivers. Then, the Regulators framed a clear set of rules for the design of these cars such as single seating, open wheels, engine power specification, etc. Only cars complying with this ‘formula’ of rules could compete. Somewhere along the road the number One got added, as the sport was the ultimate in car racing. Then it became widely known a Formula One.

With the formula being generated, It begs the question, is there a Formula Two, Three? Yes, with smaller cars and versions, in terms of the power, and the kind.

Potpourri

Taiwan

Taiwan was quick to act when the coronavirus hit the world, and they have the best record in Asia and probably the World, with almost 200 days without a locally transmitted case. What did they do right? In an Island of about 23 million people that had about 553 confirmed cases and only 7 deaths. Their deadly experience with SARS has given them a heads-up start driving them involuntarily into submitting to the strict government directives. They closed borders early, tightly regulated travel, did rigorous contact tracing, enforced technology-driven quarantine and ensured widespread mask wearing.

We have got the experience we never thought we wanted. Should be easy to put ourselves in the shoes of Taiwanese and transplant their mentality to where we live – that’s a good infection to spread, isn’t it?

Enter the Beetle

We have known Superman, Batman, Iron-man; now it’s time to know about a Super Beetle rightly named ‘diabolical ironclad beetle’, biting with the scientific name of ‘Phloeodes diabolicus’. This beetle can survive being run over by a car and is mostly found in the arid western regions of the United States.

The ironclad beetle’s super-toughness lies in its armour. It has two armour like ‘elytron’ (a sheet, cover, protective wing case), that meet at a line, called a suture, running the length of its abdomen. Typically, flying beetles have hardened forewings-elytra-to protect the underlying hindwings, which are used for flight. But the ironclad beetle having lost its ability to fly, its elytra are permanently locked together to provide protection from predators.

The suture acts like a jigsaw puzzle, connecting the beetle’s various exoskeletal blades in the abdomen, which lock to prevent themselves from pulling out. If the suture is broken, another protective mechanism also allows for the blades to deform slowly. That prevents a sudden release of energy, which would otherwise break its neck.

The Beetle can take an applied force of 150 newtons – some 39,000 times its body weight -before its exoskeleton starts to fracture. A car tire would apply force of around 100 newtons if driving over the insect on a dirt surface.

How about a Beetle-Man superhero movie? Anybody dare drive over him?

Until next week with more ‘iron-clad’ stories! Meanwhile, spend the weekend listening to The Beatles we all know so well. ‘Hey Jude, Come Together, I Want To Hold your Hand, Yesterday, Something, In My Life, Love Me Do, While My Guitar Gently Weeps…are some of the best songs strung by them.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2020-43

About: This is what happened this week, in our World.

Wisdom

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognise a problem before it becomes an emergency – Arnold Glasow ( A successful American Businessman)

Everywhere

New Zealand.

New Zealand finished voting, last Saturday, in the triennial General Elections and Labour Party’s Jacinda Arden sprinted-off, from we left her last week, to a landslide win. A majority that is real, the first time since the new Election System kicked-in, with the highest percentage of Party votes (about 49%) in over 50 years. Jacinda Arden gets back to keeping her job as Prime Minister. She would like this ‘second wave’. Ask her daughter, Neve, I bet she must have demanded a sibling to play with – as gift – and to celebrate a ‘second term’. Well, maybe some Prime Ministers have a knack of ‘making’ the best use of everything.

On winning she said, ‘We are living in an increasingly polarised world, a place where more and more people have lost the ability to see another’s point of view’. That’s so awfully true.

The Government also sneaked in two referendums, first, on personal use of cannabis, and a second, on euthanasia, for New Zealanders to vote on. All final results will be declared on 6th November, though we might get a direction by the end of this month. And perhaps a new compass for the rest of the world to navigate these infectious issues.

Czech Republic

They were an owner’s pride and the envy of Europe, being one of the most successful countries in controlling the spread of the coronavirus. They smartly capitalised on a business opportunity in manufacturing masks and supplying the world – in a wartime effort. And also wore them diligently – everyone, everywhere outside their homes, and anywhere else required.

The Czech Republic’s first wave of infection peaked in late March at 408 cases in one day. The highest single-day death toll was just 18, in April. On 30th June, the Czech Republic recorded no new Covid-19 deaths. Then they started celebrating, maybe a tad too soon.

“We didn’t see dead people, we didn’t see people with coronavirus in hospitals”. The Czech people thought that the pandemic was nonsense and they don’t need to wear masks. This is about the same thing my maid told me more than four months ago – ‘I don’t see any dead bodies on TV, in India’, she argued. Now, there are currently more new Covid-19 cases per million people recorded in the Czech Republic than in any other major country in the world.

No Time To Celebrate – the virus still has the license to infect.

My Opinion: We cannot afford to let our guard down. And it’s so obvious that following the basic ‘spread-prevention rules’ can work wonders. The Czech Republic has demonstrated that a simple measure as wearing a mask can successfully keep the virus away… and that by removing them we dashingly welcome the virus inside – lurking behind the door . Can we learn a better lesson in such a bitter time? Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told us about the same, in a Televised address to the nation, even while I was grabbing a brass plate and stick to bang-on. Beware the Festival Season – he warned. Thumbs Up!

United Kingdom

If reports are to be believed, UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson is mulling quitting as Prime Minister as the salary of GBP 150,402 isn’t enough for him to live on, compared to the GBP 275,000 he was earning as columnist with The Telegraph.

I would agree with him given that he has a truck-load of children (six at the last count) many who are too young to live without support. Plus, he has to pay his ex-wife a ton of money, as part of their divorce deal.

It isn’t safe to marry, it isn’t safe to divorce, it isn’t safe to have lots of children ? Ask Boris.

Nigeria

This is another kind of SARS… no relation of the nano one circulating around, which we have been desperately trying to wash our hands off, over the past nine months.

Nigeria is having a dead serious problem with its infamous Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the Police Force. SARS has been riddled with allegations of unlawful arrests, extrajudicial killings, theft, extortion, abuse, and brutal use of force.

Sounds familiar? Our minds race to count the ‘Encounter Killings’ in India. And what rings is, the familiar Police version that the arrested criminal(s) was shot dead, trying to escape custody.

Having had enough of SARS, Nigerians hit the streets to protest, demanding the end of the rule of SARS. Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, agreed to disband SARS but has been silent thereafter. Instead a new force called SWAT has been formed whose officers are to be trained, by the International Committee of the Red Cross, on policing duties. However, protesters are not convinced and fear this is just a change of gears, and that SARS officers will dissolve into the new unit without facing any accountability for their previous crimes.

Meanwhile, the protests are swelling. We are witnessing a wave of protests that is the biggest display of people power, in years, in Nigeria, as young people demand more sweeping changes. The Nigerian Army was called in to help the Police control the situation and at least 12 peaceful protesters have been killed in the process.

SARS has definitely ‘trigged’ a movement in Nigeria. World over, the Police Force is under immense duress with almost the same accusations of ‘excessive use of force’ in Country after Country. Maybe the United Nations would have to set-up a mix & match Peace Keeping Force in every country – to watch over the Police? Or better still, if all of us take it upon ourselves to keep the Rules of the Land, and do better that what they specify, we won’t need policing at all.

India

Asafoetida

India begins cultivation of Asafoetida, a smelly spice, for the first time, in Kwaring Village, Lahaul Valley, Himachal Pradesh, this October. This is a growing effort of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology. India imports about 1,200 tonnes of raw Asafoetida from Afghanistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan – native to these regions – at an annual cost of about Rs 700 crore. However, you may find them ‘struggling to be smelt’ in some parts of Kashmir and Punjab. It is unbelievable that India never grew this ‘inherently Indian’ spice before.

Asafoetida is a staple ingredient in Indian cooking, known as Perunkayam in Tamil, and Hing in Hindi (I’m for learning at least three languages, in India). It is the dried sap extracted from the stems and root of Ferula Asafoetida plants, which hardens into a brownish-yellow sap. The Ferula is a perennial flowering plant that mainly grows in the wild, and thrives in dry soil in temperatures below 35C. India’s tropical plateaus and plains, humid coast, and heavy monsoons makes it almost impossible to grow the Ferula. But, now India is find a way to make the Spice ‘grow in India’.

Europeans call Asafoetida the ‘Devil’s Dung’, because of its strong aroma. If the Devil is around surely God must be nearby: others, around the world, call it ‘God’s Food’. The choice is yours!

Now we can smell, for sure, that the Government has put its nose into import substitution. Challenge that?

Navaratri

Navaratri is one of Hinduism’s most celebrated festivals, essentially signifying victory of good over evil. Let me refresh the legend, for a better understanding of what it means to celebrate. Stories are good for the soul. “To survive, you must tell stories,” said someone. Survive we must.

The force of Hinduism is represented in the Hindu Trinity Gods of Brahma – the Creator; Vishnu – the Preserver; and Shiva – the Destroyer. Simply put, whatever is created by Lord Brahma (inherently good, with best intentions) is attempted to be preserved (a case of good turning bad) by Lord Vishnu, failing which Lord Shiva steps-in to destroy and level the field. It then goes back to Brahma’s drawing board to start the process of a new creation, and the cycle repeats. The three Gods take different avatars to go about their business in ensuring the checks & balances, and peace & tranquility in the World. Between the main Trinity, up there somewhere, and the mortals on Earth there are layers – Heaven and Hell – filled with many other Gods with different tasks: Sun God, Wind God, Sea God, etc. There is also a boss of the Gods, Indra – King of the Gods.

Mortals living on Earth use different tricks to please the Gods to achieve their goals, which is often to obtain maximum, far-reaching superhuman powers. Most bypass the layers of Gods and try to directly draw the attention of the Holy Trinity by means of severe penance, great faith and undying worship, as a result of which the mortal is given a boon – mostly with strings attached (to ensure some means of a control). The most common ‘boon request’ is of one being closest to immortality – cannot be killed by an earthling, or cannot be defeated. It is hoped, by the God, that the receiver of the boon uses it wisely to make the world a better place. But then it doesn’t work this way, as a bad Demon, a priestly Sage or a well-meaning King have equal opportunities to obtain a boon. How they go about using this acquired power it is another story.

Now a demon called Mahishasura obtained a boon of immortality from Lord Brahma. The rider in this case, as defined by Brahma, was, ‘Immortality-yes, subject to the condition that you can be defeated only by a woman’. Clever (in hindsight)?

Armed with the power of immortality Mahishasura, goes berserk and attacks the three worlds of Earth, Heaven and Hell, unsettling and stirring just about everyone. With the Gods trounced in Heaven and wrested from their abode, they scurry to seek the help of the Holy Trinity to defeat Mahishasura. The Trinity agree and combine their powers to create Goddess Durga – a woman – to exterminate this growing evil power. It is believed that Durga is a reincarnation of Goddess Parvati, the wife of Lord Shiva.

Durga descends on Earth and engages in battle with Mahishasura, who keeps changing his form hoping to confuse and out-wit Durga. After fifteen long relentless days of fierce battle Mahishasura is finally killed by Durga’s trishul piercing his chest, while fighting in the form of a buffalo. Evil is vanquished and the World gets back on its feet. Celebrate that!

The nine nights of Navaratri are solely dedicated to Goddess Durga and her nine Avatars – the Navadurga, with distinctive colours for each day. Navaratri culminates on the tenth day with the festival of Vijayadashmi or Dussera.

There are other stories ascribed to this Festival season, such as those from the Ramayana, Mahabharata; and about Saraswathi, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, learning, music and arts. She is worshipped, along with instruments of one’s trade during this time.

Whatever, the stories give us a reason to celebrate, and Festivals are a time to set aside our differences, keep away the shining screens, look each other in the eye and talk only about love and the good things.

Cricket

The IPL 2020 Cricket Tournament running-between-the wickets at this time in the UAE will be finishing its 43rd Game – what a coincidence with week no 43 – this Saturday.

Mumbai Indians lead the points table quickly followed by Delhi Capitals and then by Royal Challengers Bangalore. Last week’s tail, Kings XI Punjab, have wagged and the bite is on Three-Time Champions, Chennai Super Kings, hugging the bottom, and refusing to leave the spot.

KL Rahul of Kings XI has the most runs to his name, 540 in ten games, Shekar Dhiwan of Delhi Capitals is the closest with 465 runs.

The Nobel Prizes – Never Say Never Again.

I’m not done with talking about the Nobel Prizes, not yet. Latching onto a tweet by Dr Atul Gawande, I read Jina Moore’s article, ‘Just Give Poor People Money’ published in the Boston Globe this October. She argues that the Nobel-winning World Food Program (WFP) is one of many agencies increasingly handing out cash rather than goods. But the international aid system still isn’t putting this powerful idea to its full potential. In 2019, the WFP handed out more than USD 1.2 billion in cash and more than USD 860 million in vouchers to nearly 30 million people in 64 countries. “Households that got cash instead of standard aid packages saved 60% more, consumed 32% more, & expanded productive assets like livestock by 76% more; Recipients’ diets improved and so did their kid’s height, weight, and survival”

The Indian Government is listening hard and putting this to use in the form of direct cash transfers to people’s Accounts. It’s only a trickle, in these times – but do keep checking, hoping for a swell. Remember, someone promised fifteen lakh in each Indian citizen’s Bank Account? If done, this very noble act could fetch the Government of India a Nobel in the future! Let’s vote!

Potpourri

Frogs and Rains

Facing a severe drought in 2019, priests in Bhopal, India, married two frogs to please the Rain God into opening the skies. Two months later, they had to divorce the frogs to provide relief from the relentless rain that destroyed more than 9,000 houses.

Did someone try this in Hyderabad? File a Right To Information (RTI) Petition to the Rain God…and wait for an answer. Meanwhile, it’s still raining cats and dogs in Hyderabad.

Space

Lots happening up there: as busy as a beehive, searching for the Queen.

This week, on 20th October, NASA’s OSIRIS-REX space mission craft, touched down – meaning within one metre- on the surface of Asteroid Bennu, cooly extended its robotic arm, quickly grabbed a sample of the surface material and scooted back – called a ‘back-away burn’. The site ‘lending’ the sample form where it was collected is called ‘Nightingale’. The sampling head of the robotic arm, touched Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds.

Flashback, and the Future: The OSIRIS-REX mission was launched from America’s Cape Canaveral on 8 September 2016 to explore and collect a sample of rock & dust from Asteroid Bennu, which is over 321 million km away from Earth. Bennu has a mean diameter of about 490m and is as tall as America’s Empire State Building. The Spacecraft reached the Asteroid target in the year 2018, and after quietly spying on Bennu for two years, successfully performed this grab stunt. The Spacecraft will return to Earth on 24 September 2023 and release the asteroid sample in a capsule that will land in America’s Utah Desert. Here’s cheers to a successful mission!

Meanwhile, NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian Cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner have safely landed in Kazakhstan this week, spending about 196 days in space, aboard the International Space Station. The spacemen flew out using a Soyuz Spacecraft and touched down with parachute-assistance. Welcome back Home.

Movies

In the middle of the week, I stopped on the Highway of Work and took a break to watch Kevin Costner’s 2019 movie, The Highwaymen an American period (1934) crime drama film, on Netflix. I was enthralled by the beauty of film making. Kevin Costner as Frank Hamer, and Woody Harrelson as Maney Gault, played to their age, as two former retired & idolised Texas Rangers, called back to track down two notorious, vicious, murdering, psychopath criminals, Annie and Clyde.

The movie Director does not show us the faces of the villains – who the people try to bring on par with Robin Hood – until the end, when they are gunned down in a hail of bullets. The picture frames do most of the talking, with smart one-liners filling the gaps. Kevin Costner is one of my favourites, in a long playlist of Hollywood Heroes, and he ‘lived’ up to my expectations. Worth a watch.

Happy Navaratri, have a wonderful week ahead. More stories coming up, more reasons to do good, and to love one another – I’m sure.

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

Everywhere

Please Yourself

Everywhere

Please Yourself

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Please Yourself

Wisdom

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New Zealand’s Parliament

Vaccines

The United States (US) of America.

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Violin Making

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Football: The ‘Hand of God’ goes back to God.

Melange

Spider Silk

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Russia, War & Peace

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An Acting Legend Passes

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Surfing in India: Ishita Malaviya

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Royal Enfield Motor-cycle: The Bullet

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Vaccines: Prevention is always better than cure.

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Diwali – row of lights.

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