FREEWHEELING

About: A break free commentary on events on our Planet, anchored on the news of the world, garnished with humour. Any comments beyond the story, are entirely mine, without prejudice -take it or leave it. This is a run from 14 March 2025 to 2 April 2025.

Enter the Dragon

It took Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring back stranded Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), who were first deposited in the cold, in Space, by Boeing’s Starliner Spacecraft in June 2024.

Boeing’s Starliner, with stars in its eyes, carried two astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams in its first ever human crew carrying mission. It was intended to be a 8-day-stay and its successful return-with the crew’s hair intact-meant NASA could certify Boeing’s spacecraft to make routine trips to and from the ISS. Elon Musk’s SpaceX had already reached that exalted status and was freaking out making round trips-about 44 trips to the ISS (only Elon’s young son did not make the grade, as yet). The Starliner encountered serious problems with its thrusters, and its propulsion system was leaking helium gas like a sieve. Boeing’s Engineers worked furiously to resolve the issue and succeeded, but NASA decided not to risk lives and ordered the return of Starliner without the crew. And it did return ‘pretty safely’ in September 2024. Meanwhile, Sunita Williams let loose all her hair (and even had Donald Trump counting the strands) and in typical Indian tradition perhaps decided not to tie it until she returns Home. Thank India, it worked.

Now, enter the Dragon.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying up to 7 passengers to and from Earth orbit, and beyond. It is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth, and is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station.

Sunita’s hair relayed the message, and a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft lifted-off on 14 March 2025 from the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida with a crew of 4, consisting of NASA Astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Is this not collaboration among fighting Nations at its best? The inward crew will spend 6 months in Space until another crew replaces them. Sunita Williams, who had been the commander of the Space Station, handed over to the new team, and after ‘taming her hair’ shifted into home gear.

Returning along with Sunitha and Butch-both of them after a nine month stay-will be NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov, who have themselves been in Space for 6 months.

The reusable Crew Dragon Freedom Capsule undocked from the ISS and successfully splashed down off the cost of Florida on 18 March 2025 and was well received with a splash of applause by a pod of dolphins swimming in the neighbourhood. The crew were then successfully extracted from the Capsule and planted on Earth. Looking forward to them growing at Home.

Wars

Israel got back to its old ways, collapsing the ceasefire agreement with Hamas as the latter was not keeping its side of Agreements in releasing hostages. There are now 59 hostages still being held in brutal captivity. And Israel started a major ground offensive in Gaza to clear, seize and occupy large swaths of land, in addition to many other plans to kill the devil. I would say that Israel must annex some Gaza territory every day for every hostage not released.

On the sidelines, ‘Negotiation Liking Nations’ Egypt and Qatar are desperately trying to revive the ceasefire and tunnel a deal in the dry desert conditions. And I wonder why the people of Gaza are not rising-up against Hamas for making their lives unalloyed hell. Wait, someone heard, there is indeed some rumblings of an uprising demanding that Hamas release the hostages and get out of their lives. But it begs the question, is this true? The same civilians that cheered the 7 October barbarism have turned a new leaf, unbelievable? It is yet another drama by Hamas?

Meanwhile, Israel announced that it is going to take back full ‘security control’ of Gaza. Enough is enough.

On another War front, on 18 March 2025, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin grabbed the phone and spent over 2 hours talking about ending the Russia-Ukraine War and also about improving frosty relations between them. Love was in the air. The blood and treasure that Ukraine and Russia have been spending in the war would be better spent on the needs of their people-that’s wisdom oozing through every pore. The wily Putin deflected Cupid’s arrows, did not hug an immediate ceasefire, but said he will not police every move and every breath of Ukraine’s electricity grids and gas supplies. The dialogue goes on and a breakthrough ‘may or may-not’ be expected. And Putin is an awfully tough customer. That’s the way it is. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President has put off his plans for shopping for new suits.

India: Traitors, Poop, and Loose Cash

Freedom of Speech needs freedom to be more freely defined in India. Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, called Maharashtra’s State’s Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde a Traitor (gaddaar) in a show titled ‘New India’. Kamra referred to Shinde’s 2022 defection from the Shiv Sena, which triggered a major political crisis leading to a vertical split in the Shiv Sena and subsequently Shinde’s Group being ‘legally’ recognised as the real Shiv Sena – with the Bow & Arrow. In the Show, Kamra sang a parody of a Bollywood song alluding to Shinde as a traitor, outraging his supporters who called it derogatory. The studio in Habitiat, Mumbai where the Show was shot, was attacked by Shiv Sena supporters who ransacked the place and made meat of the furniture.

Freedom of speech works on a knife-edge. Shinde is surely not a traitor as the Law of the Land-the Courts-has said that he leads the ‘real’ Shiv Sena, and further he has won the people’s trust by winning the Elections. The traitor is now on the other shoe? Surely comedy is great fun with the laughs it generates, but where is the fine control and ‘honouring facts? Looking back, the undivided Shiv Sena was the original traitor after winning the Elections jointly with the Bharathiya Janata party (BJP) and then dumping them. The Shiv Sena supporters are surely outside the law – taking law into their own hands in going physically after the Physical Studio. And they should be dealt with as per the law. Surely they have no right to react in the manner they did. Unless you want to make a comedy of ‘self defence’? Finally, why cannot our Politicians and famous people just laugh it off with a shrug, take things in their stride?

In another stinking story in the Southern State of Tamil Nadu, Health Department sanitary workers – about 20 of them in uniform – invaded the house of Savukku Shankar, a You-Tube and Political Activist, and dumped sewage waste and human faeces in his house in Chennai. And hurled the choicest expletives, and used abusive language on his Mom who was alone at home. This is supposed to be in the wake of some comments and allegations made by Savukku Shankar about sanitary workers, Greater Chennai Police, and the Commissioner of Police. Since when did Sanitary Workers not get dirty? And again, taking law into their dirty hands? The poop deserves to be its rightful place- underground. Surely, this is a smelly new trend in India.

Swinging over to India’s Capital New Delhi, for Justice Yashwant Varma, a judge of the Delhi High Court, the Festival of Holi turned unholy when a fire broke out in his official Bungalow, on the night of 14 March 2025. Actually, it was in an outhouse on the grounds and the fire burnt through bundles of cash stashed in the store room. About four-five bags of partially charred Indian currency notes – estimated to about INR 150 million – were discovered by firefighters who doused the flames and captured digital evidence. Of course, Justice Varma categorically denied the ‘money hoarding’ labelling it-you guessed it-a larger conspiracy to tarnish his (great?) reputation. There was an attempt to quickly transfer the Judge to another Court, which was protested by the lawyers of the receiving Court. Why should we handle such dirt? And don’t we have to guard our reputation, as well?

The discovery of the cash-stash was a thunderbolt strike on the reputation of the Indian Judiciary. Are they a law unto themselves, answerable to none? The method of selection of Judges to such Posts was naturally called into question. And there is a colourful fire burning right now in the house of the Judiciary! Urgent reforms needed here-before the next fire!

Earth Shakes

Earthquakes are back with a Big Bang. Since when did they leave? Myanmar, already reeling with internal insurgency and a footloose Army was struck by a 7.7 magnitude Earthquake on 28 March 2025. It killed over 2700 people, injured over 3900 people and caused the collapse of numerous man-made structures.

In faraway Bangkok, Thailand, about 1000 km from the epicentre, a lone unfinished under-construction high-rise building fell unbelievably, like the proverbial pack of cards, into a pile of dust. Experts reasoned that it was because a ‘flat slab’ construction process was adopted, where floors are made to rest directly on columns, without using beams. And Thailand wasn’t thinking Earthquake resistant construction at all?

The Earth’s upper layer is split into different sections called tectonic plates. These plates are moving constantly, which causes earthquakes and volcanoes. And Myanmar sits uneasy atop the convergence of four of these tectonic plates-the Eurasian, the Indian, the Sunda, and the Burma plates. Like it or not Myanmar is considered to be one of the most geologically active areas in the World.

More earth shaking stories ahead. Ride with ‘Freewheeling’.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-51

About: the world this week, 15 December to 21 December 2024: the wars; death of a tabla titan; Top Gun honours for Tom Cruise; India – State and Parliament; Test Cricket, and a fabulous Indian spinner retires.

Everywhere

The Wars

A top Russian General accused of using chemical weapons on the battlefields in Ukraine was killed in a bomb blast in Moscow early Tuesday-an attack swiftly claimed by Ukraine.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces was killed, along with an assistant, by a remotely detonated bomb planted in an electric scooter outside an apartment building. This came a day after Ukrainian prosecutors sentenced Kirillov, in absentia, for Russia’s use of banned chemical weapons in the ongoing war.

With Hamas down but not out, Hezbollah almost out, and Syria staring a grim possibility of returning to the Stone Age, Israel turned its sights on the Iran-backed Houthis of Yemen.

This week, the Houtis launched a ballistic missile into Israel’s Tel Aviv damaging a school, but no injuries were reported. The missile was intercepted by Israel. Within hours, in a quick response Israel completely paralyzed three Houthi-controlled Ports in Yemen during airstrikes, targeting capital Sanaa for the first time. Dozens of fighter jets, along with refuelling aircraft, hit targets up to 2,000 km from Israel.

Wonder how Israel plans to deal with the ‘Mother Ship’ – Iran.

On another front, news floats-in that hostage deal negotiations between Hamas and Israel are nearing conclusion. As part of the deal, Palestinian terrorists convicted of murder will be exiled to Turkey and Iran. Discussion is ongoing regarding the names and sentences of the Palestinian prisoners who will be freed as part of the deal. The deal being worked on would consist of three phases. The first phase, which would last 45 days, all Israeli civilians and female soldiers being held hostage in Gaza would be released and Israel’s troops would withdraw from the centre of cities, coastal roads, and an area along the Gaza-Egypt border. In addition, residents of northern Gaza would return to their homes. In the second phase, the remaining hostages would be freed, and the Israel would complete its withdrawal from Gaza. The third phase would be a permanent ceasefire and the end of the current war. Will it work out this time?

Wah Ustad!

This week Zakir Hussain Allarakha Qureshi the legendary tabla virtuoso and global ambassador of Indian classical music died, aged 73, in San Francisco, United States. His death was due to health complications. Besides being a percussionist, Zakir Hussain was a music composer, music producer, and film actor.

The tabla-a pair of drums used in Indian classical music-is historically viewed as an accompaniment to the main performance.

Think Tabla, and Zakir Hussain flashes across the mind with those trademark long curly locks of hair, which danced to his fingers that made music in the iconic Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea advertisement, of the 1980s. Taj Mahal Tea was a premium Indian tea brand launched in 1966.

The advertisement opens with Hussain seated against the backdrop of the beautiful Taj Mahal, effortlessly playing the tabla. Later, he sipped on a cup of Taj tea. When a voiceover praises him saying, “wah ustad, wah” (Wow Ustad – as skilled musician- Wow!) he responds, “Arre huzoor, wah Taj boliye!”( Come on-annoyingly- sir, praise the Taj). This exchange, though brief, became iconic, drumming itself in the collective memory of Indians. At a time when television was still a novelty in India, the advertisement resonated with viewers for its simple yet impactful message and Zakir’s humble charisma. The television commercial portrayed the perfection in playing the tabla as the result of hours of dedicated work, just like the work of a master tea blender. Wow indeed!

Zakir Hussain was the eldest son of tabla master Ustad Alla Rakha Qureshi. Two of his brothers Taufiq Qureshi- a percussionist-and Fazal Qureshi-a tabla player-are also in Indian classical music. He spent his early days in Mumbai training, under his father; studied at St. Michael’s School Mahim, Mumbai; and graduated from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He moved to the United States in 1970, where he lived and ‘played’, up to his death. And kept the long hippie locks!

Zakir Hussain was a child prodigy and collaborated with Indian classical icons like Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, and Shivkumar Sharma and global musicians like John McLaughlin and George Harrison. His journey, from a child prodigy to an internationally celebrated percussionist, is a masterclass in balancing tradition and innovation.

Hussain played on George Harrison’s (lead guitarist of the famous Beatles) 1973 album ‘Living in the Material World’ and John Handy’s 1973 album ‘Hard Work’. He also performed on Van Morrison’s 1979 album ‘Into the Music’ and ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’s (an American Band) 1983 album ‘Powerlight’.

Hussain joined Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead(an American Rock Band) to create the special album ‘Planet Drum’, featuring drummers from different parts of the world including Vikku Vinayakram (known as the God of Ghatam) from India. The first Planet Drum album, released in 1991 and went on to win the 1992 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album – the first Grammy ever awarded in this category. In later years the same team came together to make the album ‘The Global Drum Project’, which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album at the 51st Grammy Awards Ceremony in 2009.

Awards came by the beat to Zakir Hussain. He won a total of four Grammys over his career. India awarded him the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Vibhushan besides the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for contributions to Hindustani Classical Music.

Hussain composed, performed, and acted as Indian music advisor for the Malayalam film ‘Vanaprastham’-a 1999 Cannes Film Festival entry, and won awards at the 2000 Istanbul International Film Festival, Turkey; 2000 Mumbai International Film Festival in India, and 2000 National Film Awards, India.

He has composed soundtracks for several movies, most notably ‘In Custody’ and ‘The Mystic Masseur’ by Ismail Merchant. And has played tabla on the soundtracks of Francis Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’, Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘Little Buddha’, among other films. He starred in several films specifically showcasing his musical performance both solo and with different bands, including the 1998 documentary ‘Zakir and His Friends’. Hussain co-starred as Inder Lal in the 1983 Merchant Ivory film ‘Heat and Dust’, for which he was an associate music director.

In 2016, Hussain was among many musicians invited by President Obama to the International Jazz Day 2016 All-Star Global Concert at the White House.

Eight years after Zakir Hussain moved to the US, he met, dated and married Antonia Minnecola, a Kathak dancer and teacher, who was also his Manager. They have two daughters, Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi. Anisa graduated from UCLA and is a film-maker. Isabella is studying dance in Manhattan. The story goes that Hussain married Antonia without telling his mother who had rigid views, and Hussain was the first to marry outside his community. But his father was there to marry him off. And took on the responsibility to explain to his mother to bring her on-board. In later years his mother met Antonia and grew to like her.

Hussain’s life revolved around rhythm from the very beginning. He leaves behind a timeless legacy that will inspire generations.

Top Gun Cruise

Tom Cruise, 62, was awarded the US Navy’s highest civilian honour for outstanding contributions to the military with his screen roles. The Distinguished Public Service Award was presented to Cruise during a ceremony this week at the Longcross Film Studios in Chertsey, Surrey. Tom Cruise expressed his gratitude for the ‘extraordinary acknowledgement’.

Cruise happened to be around in the neighbourhood, working on his next film, ‘Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning’, due for release in May 2025.

Tom Cruise’s lead role as a young naval aviator. Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, a in the 1986 smash hit ‘Top Gun’ shot him into celebrity status, and the film’s record-breaking success spiked military enlistment. The Navy thanked the action hero, who it said had “increased public awareness and appreciation for our highly trained personnel and the sacrifices they make while in uniform”. The movie Top Gun was so influential that the Navy even set up recruitment tables in theatres screening the movie.

Tom Cruise reprised his role as Lieutenant Pete Mitchell in the 2022 sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, which the Navy said ‘reinvigorated’ military interest from younger audiences.

The prestigious civilian honour was previously awarded to Academy Award winners Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks for their work in the World War II movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’.

Cricket, Rain, and Ashwin

The Third India versus Australia Cricket Test Match played at the Gabba, Brisbane, Australia, had a third force trying to get in to bowl, bat, keep, and howl. Rain wrecked havoc throughout the match, and ultimately had the final say. The Test ended in a draw, which saw India struggling at one point way behind Australia. And defeat was staring down on them. Thanks to the rain, ‘they escaped jail’.

Then there was a fourth force, well actually an announcement. India’s ace spinner Ashwin Ravichandran, 38 called it quits and announced retirement from International Cricket. Ashwin is widely regarded as one of the greatest spinners of all time. He represented the national team that won the 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy-where he bowled the match-winning final over. He plays for Tamil Nadu and South Zone in domestic cricket and for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

First, some mind-boggling statistics.

Ashwin took 537 wickets in 106 tests with 37 five-wicket hauls; made 3,503 Test runs with six centuries and 14 half centuries. He Played 116 ODIs and took 156 wickets and 65 T20s with 72 wickets. He was the fastest bowler to reach 300 test wickets in terms of number of innings. He is one of the only three players to have scored 3,000 runs and taken 500 wickets in Tests. As of September 2024, he is the highest-ranked bowler in the ICC men’s player rankings and the highest rated Indian bowler ever in Test cricket.

He played as a right-arm off spin bowler and a handy lower order batsman. Ashwin started as an opening batsman but dropped down the order due to limited success and turned into an off-break bowler. He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in December 2006 and captained the team the following season. In 2011, Ashwin made his Test debut against the fiery West Indies and became the seventh Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul on debut.

He had greater success with the turning tracks in the Indian subcontinent. He won the ICC Cricketer of the Year and ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year awards for 2016. He has been named five times to the ICC Men’s Test Team of the Year and was named in the ICC Men’s Test Team of the Decade 2011–20. In 2015, he was awarded the Arjuna award by the Government of India.

In his bowling, Ashwin produces several variations and flights the ball, thereby giving it more chance to spin and dip on the batsman. In addition to his normal off-breaks, he produces an arm ball and the carrom ball, the latter of which he uses frequently in the shorter formats. In IPL 2013, he bowled leg-breaks and googly as well. He evolved his carrom ball from the soduku ball, a finger-flicked leg-break used in tennis ball cricket on the streets of Chennai. However, he refrains from bowling the doosra as it requires him to bend and straighten his arm, which he finds difficult to do.

Ashwin resides in Chennai Tamilnadu. He married his childhood sweet-heart, Prithi Narayanan in November 2011, and the couple have two daughters.

I get that creepy feeling that Ashwin has placed his himself above the country. He could have waited till the end of the India-Australia Test series to announce his retirement. His Dad said he was humiliated, but Ashwin quickly called for it to be ignored. Whatever, good luck to him.

India Melange

State

There was outrage in Tamil Nadu, which saw the funeral procession of a convicted terrorist S A Basha attended by a huge crowd, with 2000 to 5000 police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel being deployed in Coimbatore City! SA Basha was sentenced to life for the 1998 Coimbatore Bomb Blasts.

On 14 February 1998, bombs went off at 12 locations in Coimbatore city, just ahead of BJP leader LK Advani’s visit, killing 58 people and injuring another 200. Basha was found guilty by the Courts and was sentenced to life imprisonment along with 12 others in 2007. Fundamentalist organisations including the Al-Ummah founded by Basha, the All India Jihad Committee, and Islamic Defence Force, were all held responsible for the 1998 bombings.

Basha founded Al-Ummah after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on in December 1992. As ties between Muslims and Hindus in Coimbatore and elsewhere became increasingly strained, Al-Ummah was able to radicalise young Muslims.

Basha was granted parole recently for undergoing medical treatment for an illness and died when he failed to respond to treatment.

It was a shame to see political parties such as Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) an Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) Seeman, alongside many Muslim and Kongu leaders vying with each other to ‘condole the death’. These parties has earlier demanded the release of those sentenced for the 1998 blasts.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised the state government for granting permission to Basha’s funeral procession, accusing it of ‘minority appeasement’.

Centre

India’s Parliament is working its Winter Session and conducting business has become a heated job with the Opposition Parties shouting-down the Government and disrupting proceeding over finicky issues. The Government introduced the ambitious ‘One Nation One Election Bill’ and promptly sent it to a Parliament Committee for more discussions.

Journalist Tavleen Singh (who I follow on X) described a controversy over a supposed insult to Ambedkar-architect of India’s Constitution-as nothing to do with him, but a juvenile high jinx more suitable to a rowdy school yard.

Towards the end of the week it became bloody with the Leader of the Opposition – Rahul Gandhi-accused of pushing a senior BJP MP leading to this fall and admission to Hospital.

India’s Parliament is a place to watch when in session: guaranteed entertainment. They seem to discuss everything, except what matters for the country.

More top-gun stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-16

About-the world this week, 16 April to 22 April 2023: Revenge arrests; a stampede for food; lots of gunfire; a rapid unscheduled disassembly; and a ‘kota’ beauty.

Everywhere

Tit-for-Tat

This week a Russian Judge ruled that American Journalist Evan Gershkovich, 32, must remain in jail-at least till 29th May-on espionage charges, in a case that is part of Russia’s crackdown on dissent and press freedom. This is happening in the background of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting war. If convicted, it would be 20 years in a cold Russian jail.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Evan Gershkovich, who is based in the capital Moscow, had been trying to steal State secrets. This is the first time, since the Cold War, that a United States (US) news correspondent has been detained in Russia.

Evan works for the Wall Street Journal, which is published by US company, Dow Jones. He was born in a jewish family, to parents who fled the then Soviet Union during a period of mass emigration amidst rumours that Jews would be exiled in Serbia. His parents ended up in the US in 1979. And Russian is a language spoken at home.

The arrest of Evan Gershkovich comes on the heels of the US announcing charges, about a week ago, against a Russian national, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov accusing him of being a Russian spy.

Tit-for-tat?

Dying for Food

This week, a stampede in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, left over 80 people dead and dozens seriously injured. Hundreds of people crowded at a School in Sanaa to receive alms, which amounted to 5,000 Yemeni Riyals or about USD 9 per person of people, waiting to receive donations during the last days of the Muslim Festival Eid al-Fitr, Ramadan. Houthi fighters- who’ve been running the city since 2015- had shot into the air to disperse and control the crowd, striking an electrical wire that sparked an explosion. The series of events spooked the crowd, leading to a deadly stampede. Two organisers of the event have been arrested, and it seems there wasn’t any coordination with local authorities. Now, there’s an investigation underway. The stampede happened right before the Muslim Festival holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Yemen has been stuck in the deep pit of an eight-year conflict that pits a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia against the Iran-aligned Houthi group. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis, months after the group ousted the internationally recognised government from Sanaa. The conflict is seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, wrecked the economy and pushed millions into hunger. The United Nation’s World Food Programme feeds 13 million in Yemen, but funding shortfalls have curtailed its activities.

The stampede shows the plight of the people in a war-torn country, fighting (and dying) for food, in Yemen.

The Guns of Africa

Late last week clashes broke out across Sudan, mainly in the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region, between rival factions of the country’s military government. Into this week, almost 330 people have been killed and about 3,200 injured. The clashes erupted amid an apparent power struggle between the two main factions of Sudan’s military regime.

The Sudanese armed forces are broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler, while the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militia, follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The power struggle has its roots in the years before a 2019 uprising that ousted the dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir, who built up formidable security forces that he deliberately set against one another.

When an effort to transition to a democratic civilian-led government faltered after Bashir’s fall, an eventual showdown appeared inevitable, with diplomats warning, in early 2022, that they feared such an outbreak of violence. In recent weeks, tensions have risen further.

Sudan is in a volatile region bordering the Red Sea, the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa. Its strategic location and agricultural wealth have attracted regional power plays, complicating the chances of a successful transition to a civilian-led government.

Several of Sudan’s neighbours – including Ethiopia, Chad, and South Sudan – have been affected by political upheavals and conflict, and Sudan’s relationship with Ethiopia, in particular, has been strained over issues including disputed farmland along their border.

The history of conflicts in Sudan has consisted of ethnic tensions, religious disputes, and competition over resources. In its modern history, two civil wars between the central government and the southern regions killed 1.5 million people, and a continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur has displaced 2 million people and killed more than 200,000 people. Since independence in 1956, Sudan has had more than fifteen military coups and has been ruled by the military for the majority of the republic’s existence, with only brief periods of democratic civilian parliamentary rule. That’s a tinderbox situation in Africa.

The Guns of India

One of India’s rowdiest states fires into the news, this week too, with gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother being shot dead while being escorted by the police for a medical check-up. In a brazen act, the killers, seemingly unmindful of the police being everywhere, ‘gate-crashed the party’, simply pulled out a gun and shot dead the gangsters. And then promptly surrendered to the Police.

Just last week, the gangster’s son had been killed by the Police in an encounter, while trying to escape and making deadly plans to rescue his father from jail. Now they are together in another place.

He who lives by the Gun dies by the Gun?

The Name is Gandhi

One of India’s Member of Parliament (MP), Rahul Gandhi, who was found guilty, convicted by India’s Courts, and disqualified as an MP lost an appeal to stay the conviction on criminal defamation – on the ‘Modi surname issue’. The Court said he failed to show the ‘exceptional circumstances’ to grant a stay on the conviction. Jail beckons, and the wait outside Parliament’s Gates stays.

This is only the second time since 1860 that someone has been punished with two years for jail for criminal defamation. That’s ‘rarest of rare circumstance’ – perhaps good enough reason to hand out a jail term!

A Successful Failure

The United States’ Space Agency NASA has long been in the game of Space and appears to have wisely outsourced all risk-taking to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, who grabs them by the tail-for the lessons to learn. I admire the man for such daring.

This week, SpaceX’s Starship Spacecraft and Super Heavy Rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – the largest and most powerful rocket ever built- blasted off from a SpaceX Starbase on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas. However, after a successful launch, Starship blew up within minutes into the test flight that SpaceX, hoped will be the first step on a human journey to Mars.

After a cancelled launch earlier this week because of a pressurisation issue, the 120 metre Starship finally kicked off its base. It gathered speed, but then started to spin at altitude before exploding about four minutes after leaving the ground. It appeared that the two sections of the rocket system-the booster and cruise vessel -were unable to separate properly after takeoff, possibly causing the spacecraft to fail. It was not immediately clear whether the rocket exploded spontaneously or if the Flight Termination System was activated – a failsafe that destroys the spacecraft to prevent it from veering too far off course.

Starship is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It is capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable fuel. Starship leverages tanker vehicles (essentially the Starship spacecraft minus the windows) to refill the Starship spacecraft in low-Earth orbit prior to departing for Mars. Refilling on-orbit enables the transport of up to 100 tons all the way to Mars. And if the tanker ship has high reuse capability, the primary cost is just that of the oxygen and methane, which is extremely low. The Starship is designed to carry 100 people on long duration interplanetary flights.

SpaceX had cautioned that the chances of success were low and that the aim of the test flight was to gather data, regardless of whether the full mission was achieved. Employees at SpaceX cheered even after the rocket disintegrated. “As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,” SpaceX said in a statement, referring to the explosion. Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly-that’s Space equivocating at its best spin!

Indian Beauty

Miss India, or Femina Miss India, is a national beauty pageant in India that annually selects women beauties to represent India to compete in the Miss World Contest, one of the Big Four major international beauty pageants. It is organised by Femina, a women’s magazine published by The Times Group. Since 2013 to 2022, Femina also organised Miss Diva as a separate competition, with participants competing at Miss Universe.

This week India chose its Miss India-to represent India in the upcoming 71st Miss World Contest 2023, to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year. Rajasthan’s 19 years old Nandhini Gupta was crowned Miss India in the pageant held on 15th April, followed by Delhi’s Shreya Poonja as the first runner-up and Manipur’s Thounaojam Strela Luwang as second runner-up.

Manipur hosted the grand finale of Femina Miss India 2023, a first in the pageant’s history where it was held outside Mumbai. One contestant from 29 states (including Delhi) and a collective representative for all Union Territories adding up to 30 participants competed for the title.

Sini Shetty was Femina Miss India World 2022 from whom the crown passes to Nandhini Gupta.

Miss India’s official Instagram page said of Nandini Gupta, ‘magnetism, charm, endurance, and beauty’.

Nandini Gupta is 19 years old and hails from Kota, one of the biggest coaching hubs in the country for engineering and medical aspirants. Could perhaps become a coaching hub for beauty and brains too? The new Miss World India holds a Business Management degree. The Tata Group’s Ratan Tata is the most influential person in Nandini’s life. International Actor and Miss World 2000, Priyanka Chopra is one beauty queen who inspires Nandini the most.

Kota Doriya is a fabric famous for its quality manufactured in the region. And the new Miss India wants to help the artisans by promoting it on a national and international level. Time to get our quota of Kota?

Melange

In other news, India became the most populous country in the World with a head count of 1.428 billion, about 17.8% of the World’s Population. Quickly behind is China with 1.425 billion.

Meanwhile, a debate is underway in the India’s Supreme Court on same-sex marriages.

In India’s Jammu & Kashmir, five Indian soldiers were martyred when a vehicle in which they were travelling was fired upon by terrorists in the Poonch area, on Thursday. The unidentified attackers took advantage of heavy rains and low visibility, and the army truck probably caught fire due to a grenade attack. I’m sure, India will give a befitting reply in time to come.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, trigger-happy Russia accidentally bombed one of its own cities-the city of Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border. A Russian Sukhoi-34 fighter-jet was involved in the ‘special operation’. Maybe Russia itself is an accident over the past year(s)?

More cat-walking stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Make-up and stay beautiful with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-08

About-the world this week, 19 February to 25 February 2023: The US in Ukraine; a melting Thwaite Glacier; a canal dry Venice; Israel’s Supreme Court; Trains and Tunnels; Canada’s Super Pigs; Two leaves, and a Bow & Arrow; and Japan’s roll with an iron Ball.

Everywhere

This week United States (US) President Joe Biden made a surprise dash to Ukraine to walk with President Zelensky on the streets of Kyiv, hear the air-raid alarms, deliver bear-hugs, show solidarity, and announce additional support and aid. That should be morale boosting for Ukraine. This is Biden’s first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago and it comes almost on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of 24th February. Biden said the US would stand with Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’ and praised the heroic fight-back. He then went on for a three-day visit to neighbouring Poland, where he declared that Russia will never be able to capture Ukraine.

Meanwhile, European Union (EU) foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss how to make sure Ukrainian forces are supplied with enough ammunition to keep the war going.

And in Russia, President Vladimir Putin made his state of the union address, where he recycled the same lines about his rationale for invading Ukraine; and he outlined no vision of how the so-called ‘special military operation’ he launched might end. But Putin did offer at least one headline, announcing that Russia is suspending its participation in the ‘New START’ (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the US-Russia bilateral agreement on nuclear arms reduction. Putin repeated the same baseless claim that Russia had no choice but to use force against Ukraine. And he doubled down on blaming the West for the conflict. “I want to repeat: it was they who unleashed the war,” Putin said. “And we used and continue to use force to stop it.” Wow, what an inventive, foggy reason!

Doomsday could arrive sometime in the future and Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, also nicknamed the ‘Doomsday Glacier’, may drown many parts of the World on a probably irreversible path. Over the years, this unusually broad and vast Glacier, about the size of Great Britain, alone has contributed to 4% rise in global sea levels. Thwaites is melting rapidly and all the Oceans being connected, a full melt-down could result in a 1 to 3 metre rise in sea levels all across the World.

Presently a floating ice-shelf called the Thwaites Ice-Shelf braces and restrains the eastern portion of the Thwaites Glacier. In recent years, this ice sheet has been steadily disintegrating and Scientists predicated that it is likely to collapse within a decade from 2021. The Thwaites Glacier itself acts a natural dam for enormous ice lakes sitting behind it. They will slide down the mild slopes of continental Antarctica and into the sea once Thwaites collapses.

The Glacier is named after Fredrik T Thwaites, a glacial geologist and Professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What would be the effects? Think, major cities such as New York, Miami, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Tokyo would be inundated. And low-lying Island nations such as Maldives (Indian Ocean), Kiribati (Central Pacific Ocean) and Tuvalu (South Pacific) may be swallowed up.What can we do? Some have suggested building of underwater walls with robots, and others have suggested enormous cooling tunnels under the ice to cool the slightly warmer water beneath the Glacier, which chips away at the ice.

Whatever, the impacts of melting glaciers can always be mitigated depending on how we humans respond in the coming decades. And there is no reason to panic. Maybe we should never use the word ‘Doomsday Glacier’ as it gives the inaccurate impression of something inevitable?

Meanwhile, in yonder Italy, the City of Venice would certainly do with lots of water. Its iconic canals are running dry, making it impossible for the city’s famous gondolas and water taxis to navigate the waterways.

This follows weeks of dry winter weather with the Alps having received less than normal snowfall. A combination of factors are to blame, including lack of rain and unusual low sea tides.

Imagine, Venice built on over 100 islands and crisscrossed by 177 canals, which was once at the risk of drowning, is now starving for water!

Israel has a problem. It’s about judicial reforms which aim to overhaul the country’s legal system. Its Supreme Court (SC) has remained supreme, may be too supreme and the Government brought in reforms to curb a ‘dictatorial streak’. The changes would limit the SC’s power to rule against the legislature and the executive, giving the Israeli Parliament – Knesset- the power to override the SC decisions with a simple majority of 61 votes out of the 120 seat Knesset. Another change proposes to do away with the SC’s authority to review the legality of Israel’s Basic Laws, which function as the country’s constitution.

Supporters agree with the changes. Opponents think it would threaten’s Israel’s democratic nature and may lead to majoritarian rule. People are out on the streets to protest the changes. Others say there is more than meets the eye, and the conflict is not about the role of judges; rather it is over different visions of Israel. May the best vision win?

We have often heard of stories of tunnels being made and to speed up the process -the digging erroneously begins are the two ends. And how they fail to connect due to a wrong alignment – and you either find a way to connect them, abandon them, or get two tunnels.

Now leaving the tunnel alone, there is a story in Spain of how new commuter trains were ordered that could not fit the non-standard tunnels in the northern regions of Spain’s Asturias and Cantabria. However, the mistake was spotted before the trains could be actually pushed into production.

Spain’s Rail Operator Renfe ordered the trains in 2020, but the following year the Manufacturer realised that the dimensions it had been given for the trains were inaccurate and ‘on a hunch’, stopped work.

The rail network in northern Spain was built in the 19th Century and has tunnels under the mountainous landscape that do not match standard modern tunnel dimensions.

The Government launched a joint investigation to find out how the error could have happened and fired a Renfe manager, and the head of track technology, over the blunder. The botched order cost nearly USD 275 million.

Looks like it’s the season of ambitious wide-bodied thinking failing to fit into our straight-jacket world.

Farmers in Canada wanted to breed large-bodied pigs that are far more resistant to cold so that they are able to survive and reproduce at temperatures that would have killed off other types of livestock. Hence, they came-up with and made a new hybrid species –The Canadian Super Pig-by mating domestic pigs and wild boars. Though they initially lived in captivity, a decline in the market for Pigs and Boars led to many of them being freed.

A group of these Super Pigs are now travelling down from Canada to the Northern US and pose a serious threat to native wildlife and humans alike, by spreading disease, and gobbling up crops. These Super Pigs are considered to be incredibly intelligent, learning as they eat and find their way around new places. The fear is that these pigs, swine, hogs, boars – whichever name you give them – these omnivores are poised to wreak havoc on the environment in both Canada and the United States.

In India, two State level political parties have been fighting over control of their parties after the death of their respective charismatic leaders and after a few years of ruling the State in their light and shine.

In the first, in the Western State of Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena founded by Bal Thackeray saw the majority of the party led by Eknath Shinde break away from the family-faction led by the son Uddhav Thackeray. And collaborate with the Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a Government, with Eknath Shinde becoming the Chief Minister. This week India’s Election Commission (EC) ruled that the faction led by Eknath Shinde is the real Shiv Sena and awarded it the Party Symbol – Bow & Arrow – and associated Offices. The decision was challenged in the the Supreme Court of India, but the Court sided with the EC’s decision. Later, the Election Commission awarded a ‘Cone Ice-cream’ Symbol to what was left of Uddhav’s party, which was anyway melting away into oblivion.

In the second, in the Southern State of Tamil Nadu, following the death of Supremo Jayalalithaa, two leaders Ottakarathevar Pannerselvam (OPS) and Edappadi Karuppa Gounder Palaniswami (EPS) teamed-up staying true to the ‘Two Leaves’ Symbol of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). And ruled as Deputy Chief Minister and Chief Minister respectively for a while, only to lose the last Assembly Elections to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). But the EPS led AIADMK gave a decent fight, and he went on to become the Opposition Leader. Then the bickering and fighting began and the dual-leadership model broke down, and it became awfully tough for the two leaves to stay on the same stem. Single Leadership seemed to be the best option to take on the ruling DMK and the growing-by-leaps-and-bounds BJP. After many a run to high and higher courts with, you-lose-some, I-win-some games, this week the SC ruled that bye-laws brought-in to make EPS the single leader are legal. This makes the way for EPS to be formally elected General Secretary and undisputed Leader of the AIADMK, graduating from being the ‘interim’ General Secretary.

Parties should choose symbols carefully: A bow cannot wait to dispatch an arrow. And two leaves on a stem cannot stem the growth of more leaves!

Oh Buoy!

This week Japan was rattled when a rusty metal sphere, about 1.5 metres wide, washed up on a beach in Hamamatsu. Could it be a Godzilla egg (the effect of watching too many movies), a Dragon Ball, something from outer space, a spy ball… a mooring buoy? This was in the background of the Chinese spy balloon saga, and a hostile North Korea pumping test missiles into the Sea of Japan.

The area was cordoned off and by the Police and even a bomb squad was sent to check out the object. Then it was X-rayed, declared safe and picked-up for disposal.

Turns out it was a hollow sphere, a steel mooring buoy, used to carry instruments or act as floating markers. The buoys can break free from their anchorage in the sea, either in a violent storm or from being pulled by a big fishing vessel. The objects can float in the ocean for decades, and can lose their markings and get rusty when they wash ashore.

Many Japanese were embarrassed that they could not recognise a buoy in a sea of thoughts.

More fighting, melting, wide-bodied stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Stay buoyed-up and afloat with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-01

About: World Inthavaaram is news that made the week. ‘Inthavaaram’, in Tamil, means ‘this week’. I began in week 41 of the year 2020 and have been writing and publishing every week with a unique calligraphy doodle -in my own hand -to match the stories. I collect news from all over the world and present it in a fresh, light-hearted manner.

This week is about a never-ending war, lingering Covid19, a path-breaking medical invention, politics of economics, bidding bye to a Pope and a legendary football player.

Everywhere

New cold winds are blowing in January of the brand New Year. The sun itself has become awfully shy and wears a blazer to keep itself warm, I guess. But dear Earth is getting warmer by the degree. In the United Kingdom (UK), for example, last year 2022, was the warmest year on record. The average annual temperature was more than 10 degrees Centigrade for the first time. Is this a hot sign of things to come?

Kick-starting the New Year, the diaries, calendars, and resolutions are singing all over the world. I started a new Bullet Journal-doing it fo the past four years. In every month I allocate a page titled ‘World’ to record the ‘news temperatures and flare-up’s’ of the year. Some events keep hugging the pages, hogging the headlines seemingly forever.

Ukraine is fighting back like hell in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. This week a Ukrainian missile strike killed 89 Russian troops – the actual death toll is still being assessed: we may never know. The attack was one of the deadliest by Ukrainian forces since the war began last year. It involved four rockets fired from United States-made launchers targeting barracks in the Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region. And it is a massive blow to Russia’s ill thought-out, meaningless invasion of Ukraine. Russia surely finds itself at a stage where it does not know how to exit honourably.Late in the week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ceasefire for 36 hours on 6th and 7th January along the entire line of contact between the armies in Ukraine. This is to allow Russian Orthodox Christians to attend Christmas services, considering the appeal of Patriarch Kirill, Bishop and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Perhaps, he should appeal and pray for the war to stop?

Covid 19 has a stranglehold on China and is tearing through the country, with most of its people never exposed to the coronavirus and the elderly not fully vaccinated. While the coronavirus Omicron variant causes mild symptoms in most people, a large number of Chinese are still vulnerable to severe illness. The country’s weak health-care system is already under huge pressure.

The always tight-lipped and walled China says only 13 people have died from Covid19 so far in December. The real toll is undoubtedly much higher. China only counts as Covid19 deaths those who die from respiratory failure or pneumonia. But the virus often causes death by damaging other organs-other kinds of failure. China’s crematoriums are busy: it is estimated that over 5,000 people are probably dying of Covid19 every day; the burial queues are getting longer. And a model predicts that in a worst-case scenario 1.5 million Chinese will die from the virus in the coming months. The World Health Organization (WHO) has demanded that more information be shared with the World. And has accused China of ‘under-representing’ the severity of its Covid outbreak and criticised its ‘narrow’ definition of what constitutes a Covid death But, is China listening?

Base Editing: A Path-breaking Invention

First, a quick basic lesson in the science of Genetics.

Bases are nitrogen containing biological compounds which store information and is the language of life. We must have learnt in school that the four types of Base – Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), and Thymine (T)-are the building blocks of our genetic code-the DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid). Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instruction manual for our body. In RNA (RiboNucleic Acid), the base Uracil (U) takes the place of T.

The incurable cancer of a teenage girl, Alyssa from Leicester, UK, has been cleared from her body in the first use of a revolutionary new type of technology medicine, called ‘Base Editing’.

Alyssa was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May last year. T-cells are the body’s guardian angels-seeking out and destroying devilish disease threats – but for Alyssa they had become the danger and were growing out of control. Her cancer was aggressive. Chemotherapy, and then a bone-marrow transplant, were unable to rid it from her body.

All other treatments for Alyssa’s leukaemia having failed, doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, Bloomsbury, London Borough of Camden, UK, used ‘base editing’, which was invented only six years ago-to perform a feat of biological engineering to build her a new living drug. Six months later, the cancer is undetectable, but Alyssa is still being monitored in case it makes a comeback. This would have been unthinkable just a few years ago and has been made possible by incredible advances in Genetics.

Base Editing allows scientists to zoom to a precise part of the genetic code and then alter the molecular structure of just one base, converting it into another and changing the genetic instructions. The large team of doctors and scientists used this tool to engineer a new type of T-cell that was capable of hunting down and killing Alyssa’s cancerous T-cells. They started with healthy T-cells that came from a donor and went about modifying (editing) them.

The first base edit disabled the T-cells targeting mechanism, so they would not assault Alyssa’s body; the second removed a chemical marking, called CD7, which is on all T-cells; the third edit was an invisibility cloak that prevented the cells being killed by a chemotherapy drug; the final stage of genetic modification instructed the T-cells to go hunting for anything with the CD7 marking on it so that it would destroy every T-cell in her body – including the cancerous ones. That’s why this marking has to be removed from the therapy – otherwise it would just destroy itself. Looks so easy!

If the therapy works, Alyssa’s immune system-including T-cells-will be rebuilt with the second bone-marrow transplant. She is the first patient to be treated with this technology. This kind of genetic manipulation is a very fast-moving area of science with enormous potential across a range of diseases. What a start in the New Year!

America Fails to Elect a Speaker: Speechless

Meanwhile, in the United States (US) of America, for the first time in a century, the House of Representatives, one person did not receive the necessary 218 votes on the first ballot to become Speaker of the House. Speaker hopeful, Kevin McCarthy secured 203 votes, leaving the top job up for grabs as Republicans took control of the Chamber. Hard right lawmakers followed through on their threats to oppose him as Speaker. By the end of the week Kevin McCarthy lost a historic eleventh vote over three days. And still no US House Speaker. Democracy is a work in progress!

A Pope Dies

Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI the first Pope to resign in 600 years, died on 31st December, aged 95. He had resigned in February 2013 citing a ‘lack of strength of mind and body’ due to his advanced age. Speaking in Latin he had said: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

Pope Benedict’s handling of sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church and opposition to usage of condoms in areas of high HIV transmission, despite their effectiveness in preventing the spread of HIV, led to substantial criticism in the public domain.

Amazon Sheds Fat-Letters

This week, e-commerce technology giant Amazon announced that it is shedding about 18,000, A to Z roles as it goes on a drive to cut costs. The job cuts amount to around 6% of the company’s roughly 3,00,000 strong corporate workforce. Amazon is the latest technology firm to unveil major layoffs as the cost of living crisis sees customers cut back on spending. Amazon said it had to announce the layoffs sooner than they wanted to, as the information had leaked out.

India’s Demonetisation is OK

Most of us may faintly recall that dour day of 8 November 2016 when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appeared on National Television to announce that all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes, of the Mahatma Gandhi Series, will no longer carry legal tender.

He said the action would curtail the shadow economy, increase cashless transactions and reduce the use of illicit and counterfeit cash that funds illegal activities and terrorism. The Govt also announced the issuance of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 banknotes in exchange for the demonetised banknotes. Oh, I loved those new green 500, pink 2000, which first emerged, followed by the orange 200 and blue 100 notes, later on.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stipulated that demonetised notes should be deposited with the Bank over a period of 50 days until 30 December 2016. In the final tally, the RBI said that approximately 99.3% of demonetised currency was deposited- returned to the Government coffers.

The announcement of the demonetisation decision sparked massive confusion and chaos for several weeks as people scrambled for the new currency notes, forming snaky queues before Banks and ATM kiosks, for days. Some people even died waiting to have their money exchanged. The move was severely criticised by those opposed to the Government, as poorly planned and unfair, sparking protests.

India has previously demonetised bank notes in 1946 and 1978 with the objective of curbing counterfeit money and black money.

This week the Supreme Court of India upheld the demonetisation decision with a 4:1 majority. A five-judge Constitution bench dismissed a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise. It said that the decision, being the Executive’s economic policy, cannot be reversed. And that Centre’s decision-making process cannot be flawed as there was consultation between RBI and the Government. It is not relevant whether the objectives were achieved or not.

The ruling comes as yet another badge to pin on the chest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had been subjected to tremendous outrage on the demonetisation drive by the Opposition Parties. And the BJP is shining the light and ringing the bell on the awesome changes, especially the significant rise in digital payments, brought about by demonetisation.

A Dragging Horror in New Delhi

India’s capital Delhi has a knack of getting into gruesome acts, every year, at stunning regularity.

This year on New Year’s Eve a young 20 year old woman, Anjali Singh along with her friend, Nidhi drives a few streets away from her home to a Hotel for an event management. On the return, after midnight, she and a her friend after some kind of an altercation mount the scooter to ride Home. On the way they are hit by a car with Nidhi on the pillion ‘safely’ falling off and Anjali getting trapped under the car along with the scooter. And being dragged for about 10km and mauled to death in a horrific manner, with body parts split-up. It appears that someone in the car knew Anjali was stuck as the car went forward and backwards with Anjali screaming before dragging her in an unmindful manner. It appears the five people inside the car were drunk and with loud music running, they did not hear anything! Heart-wrenching. Police weren’t around despite being called to the scene and the city being under a New Year Security blanket. Nidhi, who could have shouted her guts out, scooted from the scene – fled, fearing ‘everything’ and stayed silent without telling anyone anything for almost two days. Further, Nidhi said Anjali was in an ‘inebriated’ state while the post-mortem report she was not under the influence of Alcohol. As the stories spin, investigations have begun to find out what exactly happened. Unbelievable that a friend could do this to a friend. It is a combined failure of the Police System in particular and the community at large?

Everybody needs to do their part, and unfortunately not one person did theirs, that day.

Goodbye Pele

Football King, Pele passed away last week, and this week his funeral was held in the city of Santos, Brazil. His coffin was kept in the Urbano Caldeira -Vila Belmiro- stadium, home of Pele’s former club Santos, for mourners to pass through for one final look at one of history’s most magnificent athletes, before entombment.

Pele’s coffin was then driven to the mausoleum that he had bought 19 years ago inside the Memorial Ecumenical Cemetery, a high-rise building that holds the Guinness world record as the tallest cemetery in the world. The Santos soccer club estimated that 230,000 mourners had been through the stadium. And huge crowds turned out to accompany the procession.

The procession had started at the Stadium and his coffin was carried through the streets of Santos, including the street where Pele’s 100 year old mother lives.

Hundreds of thousands of people waited for hours under a burning sun on Monday to file past Pele’s coffin. “This is no sacrifice,” said one who traveled three hours to the Stadium and had to be at work in five hours, yet had another few hours before he would be through the line. “He gave us so much joy that it’s a pleasure to be here.”

Pele being a footballer like no other, his final resting place is exceptional too: a large replica stadium complete with artificial turf inside the world’s tallest vertical cemetery.

Some of Brazil’s best-known footballers have faced a furious backlash as fans questioned why they had failed to attend ceremonies bidding farewell to Pele. And only a handful of Brazil’s World Cup winners made the trip to pay homage. “Pele is a citizen of the world, at the same level as Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi, but Brazilians don’t know how to recognise that,” lamented a former player.

Pele married three times, fathering seven children. He leaves behind his present wife, Marcia Aoki.

Play well through the year 2023. Fix the posts and shoot your goals, with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-52

About –the stories of the world this week, 25 December to 31 December: the blizzard of the century; Covid19 again; a fierce Prime Minister; discovery of new plants, animals, and fungi; a rush to Heaven; and the cheek of looking good.

Everywhere

A cold wave is doing a scathing run across the world from North America to Japan and through India’s New Delhi – where temperatures dipped to frightening low levels putting to shame ‘traditional owners of the cold weather’ in the region, Nainital, Dharmasala, and Dehradun.

Meanwhile, a Crown Prince aka Pappu, of a certain Royal Dynasty in India wore a white T-Shirt during a visit to his Father’s grave in freezing Delhi, and his Palace Clowns declared him superhuman and ‘fit to be Prime Minister (PM)’. And he walked away into the cold. Said a scientist: One in five Italians have a mutation in the ACTN3 gene because of which they can withstand extreme cold. Come again?

The severe winter storm that has swept across North America has left the city of Buffalo, New York, looking like a war zone in what is being called ‘The Blizzard of the Century’ with at least 60 people dead. On another front, lakefront homes in Ontario were encased in a thick, spiky coat of ice after the blizzard whipped frigid waves on shore. And as it barrelled through Erie County, last weekend, residents found themselves stranded in howling snow with nowhere to go, their cars dwindling in gas supply and with police unable to come to their rescue. The situation is expected to improve over the first week of the New Year.

Following neighbour China falling for Covid19, time and again, India isn’t impressed. And it’s getting ‘its looks ready’, and renewing its fight against the coronavirus, should it dare the formidable Indian PM’s 56 inch chest. This with countrywide mock drills, booster doses, masking, and screening tests at International Airports being carried out in a flurry of activity. The great RT-PCR test is back and is mandatory for people arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. The new ‘virus rascal’ threatening us is BF.7 a sub-variant of Omicron, which is behind the current explosive spike in China.

This time, India has a new weapon too. Bharat Biotech, the makers of the hugely successful Covid19 vaccine, COVAXIN have come up with the world’s first intranasal non-invasive, needle-free vaccine, which stimulates a broad immune response at the site of infection – essential for blocking both infection and transmission of Covid19. It goes by the name of ‘iNCOVACC’ and is for people above the age of 18 years and for those who have not had their third precautionary or booster dose.

Medical Experts in India say that there is nothing to fear but warn people to ensure wearing of masks in crowded places and to keep applying the basic prevention techniques we have learnt so well over the past two years.

Nepal has a fierce new PM who was once a Maoist guerrilla and led a decade-long insurgency against the Hindu Monarchy. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who even in peaceful times wears the name Prachanda – meaning ‘terrible’ or ‘fierce’ was appointed PM this Sunday for a third time. This was on the strength of an alliance with the main opposition after last month’s election returned a hung parliament. He will head the new government for the first half of the 5-year term with the support of the Communist Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) Party and other smaller groups. Prachanda, replaces Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress Party and will himself step down in 2025 -on a power-sharing agreement, making way for the UML to take over.

Prachanda’s Maoist Centre Party won 32 seats in the 275 seat House of Representatives. The UML has 78 seats, and the rest, required for the 138 number majority, will be controlled by smaller groups. The Nepali Congress Party will be the main opposition with its 89 seats. Himalayan navigation skills are required to stay in power and make a difference, leave alone climb every kind of peak, in this part of the world.

The Russia-Ukraine War needlessly and senselessly started by Russia, in February this year, meanders-on, refusing to come to an end. This week under the continued merciless, intensified attacks by Russia, civilians fled the city of Kherson. Only last month, on 11th November, there had been jubilant scenes in this city when it was liberated by Ukraine, after being taken by Russian forces on the second day of invasion.

The Pope noticed and made a fervent appeal to stop the mindless war during his traditional Christmas speech at the Vatican.

Over the week Russia rained a plethora of cruise missiles-probably the most massive ever, since the invasion-on Ukraine, making life more miserable for Ukrainians who have stood-up boldly to the might of a bully. The attacks come after Russia said it will not negotiate with Ukraine under the terms of its President, Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposed peace formula.

In another kind of war, it’s more than 466 days since the Taliban banned teenage girls from school. Afghan women and girls continue to be shut out of their classrooms, denied their basic human rights and the world remains mostly muted. International aid organisations suspend operations in Afghanistan following Taliban ban on female NGO workers. Said an official, “We cannot operate without women, we will not operate without women… this crosses a humanitarian red line. Do they want millions of Afghans to starve and freeze?”

Why does the Taliban do this? It springs from their fundamental ideology that women are second or third class citizens are cannot have the same rights as men and should be subjugated. They follow Fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudences and believe women are ‘polluted’ and that gender equality ‘destroys families’. This ideology, known formally as Deobandi, goes back to ‘themes’ developed by political Islamists in response to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, that ruled from today’s Turkey and stretched across the Middle East and North Africa at its height. In the aftermath homegrown movements focussing on women’s rights in Islamic countries such as the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, later Hizb ut-Tahrir in 1953 came into being. These two-pan Islamic groups promoted a particular narrow interpretation of sharia and spread it throughout the Islamic world.

“The Taliban and Al-Qaida are the ideological continuation of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb ut-Tahrir,” said an Afghan Islamic scholar. The Muslim Brotherhood was against a wave of movements that supported natural and citizen rights of people including women. Women’s rights made up the central piece of the dispute between the Muslim Brotherhood and these new movements, in the Arab world in the early 1900s.

While Afghanistan is preventing education of its women folk, Iran is after what women wear. A wave of executions in the country is imminent following the persisting protests that have swept the country following the death in September of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by Iran’s notorious morality police for improperly wearing her hijab.

Shahid Alikhani square in the historic Iranian city of Isfahan, and the grand entrance to one of the city’s main metro stations, is in the centre of the news. An execution platform has been installed where many fear high-profile Iranian footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani faces imminent execution along with at least 43 others. Nasr-Azadani is accused of involvement in the killing of three security officers, including two volunteer Basij militia members, during protests in Isfahan on 16th November.

Authorities have already executed at least two people in connection with protests in Iran last month, one of whom was hanged publicly. This is a result of a rushed judicial process in Iran where charges which could carry the death sentence are often handed down in a single sitting.

The Russia-Ukraine war; the abysmal, pathetic condition of women in Afghanistan; and the continuing protests in Iran again the stringent Islamic Dress Code for women, are perhaps the three worst events of the year 2022, which I hope comes to a close in the year 2023. Is humanity sliding downhill? Wonder why the United Nations cannot play a more muscular role.

On the sidelines, Writer Yuval Noah Harari has argued that the greatest achievement of mankind has been the decline in war, now that is in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the rule of the military junta in Myanmar continues and Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi just got sentenced to another 7 years in jail, for corruption. The court’s latest action leaves her with a total of 33 years to serve in prison following a series of politically tinged prosecutions since the army toppled her elected government in February 2021.

Every year we discover so much that makes us realise how little we know about the world and how big it actually is. And the tree of life keeps growing. This year, The California Academy of Sciences researchers and their international collaborators discovered 146 new animal, plant, and fungi species. The previously unknown creatures and plants were found around the world, in the mountains of California, Australia’s Queensland State, the rocky peaks of Brazil and the Coral Reefs of the Maldives. Scientists made discoveries on six continents and within three oceans.

Among the new species were 44 lizards, 30 ants, 14 flowering plants, 13 sea stars, 7 fish, 4 sharks, 3 moths, 2 spiders, and 1 toad. Keep looking around, under, and above: there’s more to discover in the year ahead.

Over the year many have left this world for the skies above. Some, maybe, waited until the last month, the last week of this year 2022 to give up their valuable breath.

Brazil’s Edson Arantes do Nascimento famously known by his nickname, Pele – the Black Pearl – the greatest football player ever who brought ‘passion to the heart of football’ died this week at 82, after battling cancer. He is the only player to win three World Cups for his country 1958, 1962, and 1970 and leaves behind a rich football legacy. Pele was voted Player of the Century in the year 2000. And his 1,279 goals in 1,363 matches is a world record that is unlikely to be surpassed.

British fashion designer and style icon Vivienne Westwood died aged 81. She passed away peacefully at her home in London. The media called her ‘the high priestess of punk’ and the ‘Queen of Extreme’. In the world of fashion she was a beloved designer and pushed the boundaries of the fashion industry until her death.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother Heeraben Modi passed away at the ripe age of 99 years after stepping into her 100th. She must be a proud mother having delivered for India one of its best prime ministers, ever. PM Modi carried out the last rites, just like any ordinary citizen would, and rushed back to work – keeping his tight pre-planned schedule.

May their souls rest in peace. Without doubt, each one did their job extremely well in their respective fields. And will be remembered in times to come.

Please Yourself

Over the past few weeks, buccal fat removal has become a hot-button topic on social media after several celebrities were said to have had the procedure. American model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen who is married to singer John Legend is one celebrity having admitted to doing the procedure. And we can see the cheeky difference.

Buccal fat removal is the removal of fat from the buccal fat pad, a mass of tissue located deep within the cheek. The procedure is typically conducted under anaesthesia. A surgeon will create small incisions on either side of the inside of the patient’s mouth to expose the buccal fat pad, and then remove some or all of the fat. By doing this, you can accentuate the cheekbones by removing the fat that is in the buccal fat compartment. The procedure can create the appearance of more sculpted, defined cheekbones. A person interested in this effect might not have a full face, but they just want to see a little more definition in the cheekbones and looking to emphasise the sub-malar hollow below the cheekbone.

Everyone wants to look beautiful.

More incisive stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Grow beautiful with World Inthavaaram – without surgery.

Build a legacy to leave behind. A Happy New Year and wishing you unalloyed happiness in your lives.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-47

About –the stories of the world this week, 20 November to 26 November: onward to the Moon, the ongoing war, a political odyssey in Malaysia, Covid19 hangs on, climate change goals, World Cup Football, population growth, and a python is pulled off.

Everywhere

America’s NASA’s Artemis-I Moon Mission, launched on 16 November is doing just great, and spacecraft Orion – now on its own – has arrived at the Moon, sweeping about 130 kilometres (km) above the lunar surface, as planned. And has been ‘kicked by the Moon’ into a Distant Retrograde Orbit – about 64,000 km away from the Moon, after reaching the end of which it will return to the Moon Space and receive another ‘Moon kick’ to return to Earth. Orion is sending back, to the NASA Mission Control Centre in Houston, Texas, awesome pictures of what it’s seeing.

The Russia-Ukraine war battles on and Ukraine is bracing itself for the coming harsh winter; made terrible by power blackouts, caused by the blistering assault of Russian missiles on utility facilities. The Ukraine people are standing on the ground against the ferocious illegal Russian invasion and this is yet another painful test of their endurance and fortitude. When will all this end?

This week, Malaysia got itself a new Prime Minister. Actually, an old hand who has been relentlessly chasing the job over a remarkable odyssey of 25 turbulent years that saw him jailed twice on sodomy and corruption charges. And charges overturned by the Supreme Court and later pardoned by the King of Malaysia, to fight another day. Veteran opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, 75, was sworn in as PM this Thursday by Malaysia’s constitutional monarch, King Abdullah.

Anwar’s Pakatan Harappan Party (PH) won the largest share of the vote in last Saturday’s Elections, but not enough to form a government on its own. Then, after days of intense negotiations, Anwar cobbled together an agreement with two other Political Groupings giving him the majority he needed. The King was convinced by the numbers and called him in.

Anwar has promised to forgo his PM’s salary and will focus on tackling Malaysia’s rising cost of living, besides combating corruption. His reformist-minded PH has a goal of promoting a more pluralist and inclusive Malaysia.

Anwar Ibrahim entered politics surprisingly joining the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) – Malaysia’s Grand Old Party – and rising through its ranks. And being mentored by Former Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammad, with who he had a love-hate Tom & Jerry relationship through the vicissitudes of his political life. There’s a lot of Malaysian expectations riding on his shoulders, and he should deliver.

In China the coronavirus caused COVID-19 is not letting go easily and is experiencing its worst outbreak in six months. Localised lockdowns have surged over the last couple of weeks. This week, China recorded more than 28,000 new cases in 24 hours, which are in every single provincial-level region. The country maintains a zero-Covid policy, where entire communities are locked down over single cases of the virus, in order to prevent its spread.

COP27

The results are out, and maybe we can look up and breathing slightly easier-find more Oxygen than Carbon di-oxide in the air- in the years to come? At the 27th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties(COP27) in Egypt which concluded on 18th November, almost 200 countries struck a landmark deal to launch a fund to help nations worst-hit by climate change. Applause broke out as the historic fund was approved just before dawn after negotiations ran through the night.

The vulnerability of developing nations to climate impacts has been recognised by the fund for climate loss and damage, but many rich nations will be disappointed about fossil fuels.

New language added in the final political statement includes ‘low emissions’ energy alongside renewable power as the energy sources of the future. That could be used to justify new fossil fuel development, which is exactly what global climate scientists in the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) advise against. It could refer to gas, which is cleaner than oil and coal, but not a renewable fuel like wind or solar.

The summit also seems to have moved the commitment to try to limit the average rise in global temperatures to 1.5 Degrees Centigrade by the year 2100. That’s the crucial temperature threshold scientists say we cannot go above if we are to avoid the worst of climate change. Leaders warned about this from the beginning, and it will be deeply disappointing for rich nations if there is now less global ambition to urgently cut fossil fuel use.

The message is absolutely clear: we have to consciously cut-down on using fossil fuels for energy generation, in whatever manner we can. This has to be inhaled by each one of us on Planet Earth.

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

The 22nd edition of ‘Federation Internationale de Football Association’ -FIFA (International Federation of Association Football)-World Cup 2022 began in Qatar, a tiny gas-rich Gulf kingdom, this 20th November: the first to be held in the Arab world, and the second World Cup held entirely in Asia, after the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar, brought with it lots of controversies, which could hold centre-stage and be debated between the goal-posts, more than football. But first, let’s whistle about the game itself.

Football giants Brazil have won the World Cup 5 times, Germany and Italy 4 times each, Argentina, France, and Uruguay 2 times each, and England and Spain 1 time each. The previous World Cup, in the year 2018, was won by France beating Croatia, 4-2 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia. Now Russia seems so far away and is off the World Cup Guest list. We all know why: Its illegal war in Ukraine, of course.

No Player in the history of the World Cup has won the Golden Ball-Player of the tournament- twice, which was first introduced in the year 1982. The inaugural was won by Italy’s Paolo Rossi and then by Argentina’s Diego Maradona in 1986, Italy’s Salvatore Schillaci in 1990, Brazil’s Romario in 1994, Brazil’s Ronaldo in 1998, Germany’s Oliver Kahn in 2022, France’s Zinedine Zidane in 2006, Uruguay’s Diego Forlan in 2010, Argentina’s Lionel Messi in 2014, and Croatia’s Luka Modric in 2018.

This edition of the World Cup beginning on 20 November 2022 plays up to 18 December 2022. A total of 32 teams, who qualified to reach here, play over 64 games. Two top teams from each group will make the cut for the Round-16 Qualifiers or the Pre-Quarter Finals. There are Eight Groups, A to H, each consisting of four teams.

The Round -16 will be held between 3 December and 7 December, the Quarter Finals, 9 to 11 December, Semi-Finals on 14th and 15 December, 17 December will be the play-off for third place, and the Finals on 18 December at the Lusail Stadium of Qatar’s Al Daayen City.

The Opening Ceremony was held at the 60,000 capacity Al Bayt Stadium 40 km north of Doha and the first kick-off, a Group ‘A’ match between Hosts Qatar and Ecuador, set the ball rolling. Ecuador won easily 2-0 with its skipper Enner Valencia scoring both goals. He missed a hat-rick when another of his goals was disqualified.

Now, rolling over to the controversies part. Qatar is accused of human rights violations, the deaths of migrant workers and being vocally anti-LGBT.

The authorities in Qatar, have always strongly denied that their bid to host the World Cup involved corruption of any kind. Yet, cash seems to have sloshed around. A prominent Qatari appears to have spread largesse, apparently on his own account, but nothing has been conclusively established. FIFA officials overlooked Qatar’s blistering summer heat, which meant the World Cup itself was moved to November, instead of the usual June – July. The legions of foreign construction workers, mostly from India, who built the glitzy new stadiums and other infrastructure were treated like slaves: some have died. Many more were paid paltry wages and forced to stump up exploitative recruitment fees.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s criminalisation of homosexuality may put gay supporters off going to watch. Some players plan to wear rainbow armbands in a stand against discrimination. Murky dealing, exploitation, prejudice: what ought to be a festival of harmony will instead be a showcase of international woes, not least the rise of petro-fuelled autocracy.

Qatar is a conservative Muslim country and it tightly regulates alcohol sales and usage. In September, officials said ticketed fans would be able to buy alcoholic beer three hours before kickoff and for one hour after the final whistle, but not during the match. Organisers had promised it would be available in match venues and in fan zones – and that it would also be reasonable priced.

However just before kick-off, FIFA announced that alcohol will be banned for World Cup fans at grounds in a major and unprecedented volte-face: alcohol will not be sold inside or around the perimeter of stadiums.

The last-minute alcohol ban is emblematic of the contradictions at the heart of this World Cup.

The FIFA World Cup sponsor Budweiser has announced that the alcoholic beer it cannot sell in stadiums in Qatar will go to the winning country of the tournament.

The Winner takes it all: lots of beer to drink.

The week, the Group level games are being played and in a historic upset, Saudi Arabia stunned Argentina with a 2-1 win in their Group match, but only after Argentina’s Messi scored a goal. In another astonishing upset, Japan defeated four-time World Cup winner-the mighty Germany, 2-1. That’s a number to watch?

Coming to high scoring matches of the week, Spain whipped Costa Rica 7-0, and England thrashed Iran 6-2. I guess football fans were overwhelmed by the goals and some dazzling display. I loved the way Spain played clinical football with surgical passes and found myself ‘stitched to my seat’.

Meanwhile, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo made history as the first man to score in five World Cups; this after he scored in a penalty shot to give Portugal a 3-2 win in its match against Ghana. The goal is significant, as previously only women had done the five goal thing in the FIFA Women’s Football: Marta Vieira da Silva, Brazilian striker is the first footballer of any gender to score at five World Cup editions, a feat matched by Canada’s Christine Sinclair in 2019. That’s the 5 star line-up: Marta – Christine Sinclair – Cristiano Ronaldo.

Population Growth

Over the past months we have heard expansive talks about India’s Economy growing at break-neck speed to become one of the largest in the World, in a few decades’ time. Comparisons with China are inevitable and many say, we are many years behind China’s Economic development. Whatever, there is one area India will surely be overtaking China: easy to guess, population.

You think of population and immediately China pops up in the mind. It has been the world’s most populous country for hundreds of years, but now there is a dead serious challenger. The United Nations (UN) guesses that India’s population will surpass that of China on 14 April 2023. And India’s population on that day is projected to be 1,425,775,850. Watch that bulge!

It’s time India cranks its own counting mechanisms and finds a means of keeping the burgeoning population under control.

Please Yourself

In Australia, a five year old boy survived being bitten, constricted, and dragged into a swimming pool by a 3 m long python snake, about three times his size.

Beau Blake was enjoying a swim at home when the python, which was probably waiting to snap up someone whole for lunch, struck the boy-biting into him- when he was walking around the edge of the pool. The python wrapped itself round the leg of the boy and dragged him inside the pool. But before it hit the bottom, Beau’s 76 year old grandfather, Allan, saw it and without the least hesitation jumped into the pool, pulled out the boy-snake combo and passed it to his son Ben who was also around the pool. Ben then prised free the boy from the python and released it back into the vegetation. Beau is in good spirits and escaped with mild injuries. And the python finds itself something else to coil around, another day!

“Once we cleaned up the blood and told him that he wasn’t going to die because it wasn’t a poisonous snake… he was pretty good actually”, said Ben.

If generations get together the snakes can be outwitted. In Australia, something is always lurking around the corner. And pythons are a fact of life in certain areas.

More ‘hissing’ stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Keep your Dad and Grand-Dad always around; live with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-41

About –the stories of the world this week, 9 October to 15 October 2022, a bridge gets attention, uncovering head-covering, trying to get to the moon, multiple news in India, and dwindling wildlife on Earth.

Everywhere

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Long before the present round of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia had ‘captured Ukraine’s Crimea’ in 2014 and officially annexed it in 2015. The Russians then quickly got to work and built what’s called the Crimean bridge, or Kerch Bridge, across the Kerch Strait linking Crimea’s Kerch to Russia’s Taman Krasnodar Krai. It is a 19 kilometres long bridge with a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway. The bridge became one of the longest in Europe.

President Vladimir Putin himself personally opened the Kerch bridge by driving a truck across it in 2018, hailing it as the ‘construction of the century’. The Rail part was inaugurated in 2019 – and there were no reports of Putin having driven a train this time. The bridge connecting Russia to the Ukraine mainland, through Crimea, is an easy means of moving military equipment, ammunition, and troops during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Late last week -early Saturday- an explosion severely damaged parts of the road and rail bridge. The explosion originated at the road bridge, and the blast started a fire on a fuel train on the overhead rail bridge: it is not clear whether it originated above the bridge deck, or below. The blast caused one span to rupture at its middle. The adjacent span on the Crimean side remained intact, but was pulled off and also collapsed into the sea. A third span on the Russian side remains standing, while the next span fell off. But the Russians recovered, got cracking, and brought the bridge back to safe mode in double-quick time.

The bridge plays a strategic role in the ongoing war, and Ukraine has said it is a legitimate target, as they vow to retake the peninsula. They responded with a thinly veiled approval to the explosion, but have not indicated that their forces were behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Putin in a display of brutality and vengeance unleashed a streak of missile attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, blaming Ukraine for the attack on the bridge, calling it an ‘act of terrorism’, Wow!

In this modern era it is unbelievable that we allow a rouge county to effortlessly pull-off attacking another sovereign country and seemingly get-away with it. And we are all reduced to ‘rubble spectators’. The Ukrainians are trying their best to go about their business as usual, and one has to admire their tenacious spirit in building bridges to a normal life.

Uncovering Iran

The protests in Iran over the Islamic Dress Code continues. Dozens of protesters have been killed since the unrest began last month following the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in custody when she was detained by the morality police for not covering her hair properly. Another incident uncovered the hijab further, when 16 years old Nika Shakarami, last seen standing on a dumpster and burning her headscarf, as others chant slogans against the Islamic Republic, disappeared after telling a friend she was being chased by police. She was found dead ten days later.

“Under authoritarianism it’s not easy to voice your opinion. Even though their courage is extraordinary, their demands are not. They’re asking for equality, to be able to have dignity, justice, not to be judged on what they wear” said award-winning British-Turkish Novelist & Activist Elif Shafak.

School students participating in street protests are being detained and taken to mental health institutions. And referred to what are called ‘psychological institutions’, where the students are reformed and re-educated to prevent ‘anti-social’ behaviour. They are then released into the education stream, after they’ve been reformed!

That’s another revolution happening in Iran.

NASA’s Honey Moon

After many forces, technical and natural, challenged America’s NASA’s Artemis Moon Mission and succeeded in keeping it grounded, NASA is finally breaking free. The target for the next launch attempt for the Artemis-I Mission is 14th November 2022. And I look forward to seeing Artemis-I ‘honey the moon’ and comeback with sweet stories for launching the Man & Woman Mission, Artemis-II – I hope.

India Melange

In a gruesome and shocking suspected incidence of human sacrifice in Elanthoor, Pathanamthitta District, Kerala State, two women, Rosly and Padman were killed in a horrific manner. And it is believed that cooked body parts were eaten that would enable ‘the sacrificers’ to preserve their youth, besides achieving financial prosperity.

The prime accused is a history-sheeter, sexual pervert and psychopath, Muhammad Safi, 52, who along with Laila, 59, and her husband Bhagaval Singh, 68 – a traditional healer and masseur – carried out the brutal act that stunned India this week. Safi had befriended the couple through a Facebook profile in the name of ‘Sreedevi’, and later masquerading as Godman Rasheed influenced them to do his bidding. Police cracked the case while probing the missing Padman – based on a complaint by her son- and the three suspects were arrested. One of the victims was lured with money for acting in a pornographic video while the other was promised sex work. The bodies of the victims were cut into pieces and thrown away, and Police recovered 61 packets of body parts.

Absoultely disgusting that such cannibalism and antediluvian beliefs exist in these modern times.

Elections are always happening in India, throughout the year, and the end of season announcements were made this week: the State of Himachal Pradesh with 68 Assembly seats will go the polls in a single phase on 12th November. The counting will be on 8th December. The elections in the Prime Minister’s home State of Gujarat, which is always seen as test of his grip on the voters-is expected to be announced soon.

A former Delhi University Professor, Saibaba – in Jail for about 7 years – was acquitted and ordered to be released by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. This was following his conviction in March 2017 for links to the banned Maoists and indulging in activities amounting to waging war against the country. ‘Urban Naxalism’ is the modern term used to describe such behaviour. It springs from the Naxalbari uprising in India where tribals fought landlords as well as the Government to protect their rights over land ownership, means and way of living.

India’s highly entertaining, fitness-minded, scion and Prince of the Grand Old Party of India -The Indian National Congress- Rahul Gandhi pounced upon an idea to boost the dwindling popularity of his Party, in the tempest of Election set-back after setback. And while still searching for that elusive President of the Congress Party of which his Mom is the acting President. The election of a real President is finally in progress after a very long time, with two candidates in the fray, trying to show which ‘hand’ is the best.

On 7th September, Rahul embarked on a Bharat Jodo Yatra (Unite India March) – a padayatra (walk by foot)- that began in the southern-most tip of India, Kanyakumari in Tamilnadu State, and is scheduled to end in Srinagar in the northern State of Jammu & Kashmir. It covers 12 States in a distance of nearly 3500 kilometres over a duration of about 150 days. This weekend it will be day 37. And while Rahul is trying to make people to ‘overcome hatred’ and come together to strengthen India, he is certainly strengthening his muscles: doing push-ups on the road; tying his Mom’s shoe laces; marching his old Party colleagues to young fitness levels; and growing a beard.

Hope to see a strong and united India to match the 56-inch chest of India’s Prime Minister.

Please Yourself

The World’s leading conservation organisation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released its Living Planet Report 2022 and the situation is deadly alarming.

According to the report, wildlife populations – mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish – have seen a devastating 69% drop on average since 1970. The report highlights the stark outlook of the state of nature and urgently warns governments, businesses, and the general public to take transformative action to reverse the destruction of biodiversity.

“We face the double emergencies of human-induced climate change and biodiversity loss, threatening the well-being of current and future generations. WWF is extremely worried by this new data showing a devastating fall in wildlife populations, in particular in tropical regions that are home to some of the most biodiverse landscapes in the world,” said the Director General of WWF International.

More wild and natural stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Wake-up to the task of conserving Planet Earth and all that it holds. Stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-34

About:the stories of the world this week 21 August to 27 August, trying to kill a brain, a drying-up Biblical lake, education still being denied, a country loosens-up to the LGBT, chess and tennis, a Dancing Queen, and a music diva sings again.

Everywhere

The Brain

The Russia-Ukraine war reached a grim six-month anniversary, on 24 August, and it’s a dark-tunnel conflict where we are unable to see any light at the end. I think, a lot depends on Russia switching-on a light and declaring some kind of pyrrhic victory.

In a dangerous incident in Ukraine, the World narrowly avoided a ‘radiation disaster’ when the last regular power line supplying electricity to Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily cut-off, by shelling. Luckily the diesel generators kicked-in automatically, as programmed, and the Station Staff reacted quickly after the blackout to prevent any damages. What if something went amiss, or if the Plant remains disconnected from the Ukraine Grid? That’s as close as one can get to the next nuclear disaster.

Meanwhile, somebody is trying to get to the ‘brain’ of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This week, the daughter of Russian ultranationalist and political commentator Alexander Dugin – dubbed ‘Putin’s brain’ – died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion – a car bomb – on the outskirts of Moscow.

Dugin is known for developing an extreme rightwing view of Russia’s place in the world. He is described as a Russian Fascist who has helped shape Putin’s expansionist foreign policy. He is the high priest of a virulent brand of Russian nationalism that has become increasingly influential in Russia: from fringe ideologue to the leader of a prominent strand of thinking that sees Russia at the heart of a ‘Eurasian Empire’ defying Western decadence.

Dugin is the spiritual founder of the term ‘the Russian World’, and helped revive the expression ‘Novorossiya’ or New Russia, which included the territories of parts of Ukraine, before the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Well, that’s the brain… thinking.

Looks like the bomb was intended to kill the brain, but with the daughter taking the wheel in a last minute brain-wave swap, the brain was saved. And of course Russia was quick to blame Ukraine as the brain behind!

We Need Education

There is another continuing, hard-to-come-to-terms issue, which is almost a year – over 340 days- old: teenage girls in Afghanistan have been kept away from School by the Taliban, simply because of their gender. And this is denial of a basic human right, which almost every other country on the Planet takes for granted.

How do we bring an unflinching Taliban to book?

Oh Jesus!

Lakes are drying up everywhere and it’s the turn of the Sea of Galilee in Northern Israel, which is actually a fresh water lake. It has sustained life for millennia and is Biblically famous as the sea, in and around, where many of Jesus Christ’s miracles were performed. The lake irrigates vineyards and local farms that grow everything from green vegetables to wheat and tangerines. Its archeology, hot springs, and hiking trails bring tourism and livelihoods for local communities.

The climate crisis is causing huge fluctuations in the lake’s water levels. Now it happens to be fairly full, but just five years ago, it hit a record low.

But the Israeli government thinks it has found a solution – its own kind of miracle: It plans to pump water from the Mediterranean Sea, desalinate it, and send it across the country to top up the lake when needed. That should help keep the faith!

It’s OK to be Gay in Singapore, but…

Singapore is repealing a law that bans gay sex, effectively making it legal to be homosexual in the conservative City-State.

When the British colonized Singapore in the 1930s, they introduced penal code 377A, making it a crime for men to have sex with each other. And even after colonial rule ended, Singapore opted to keep the law in place. Men who had gay sex faced up to two years in prison.

But now, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is thinking ‘out with the old and in with the new’. And announced the decision on national TV, which comes after years of fierce debate on the issue.

LGBT activists in Singapore have hailed the move as ‘a win for humanity’. And Singapore is the latest place in Asia to move on LGBT rights, after India, Taiwan, and Thailand.

However, there is a catch, Lee said that though the government will be abolishing the decades-old law, gay marriage is not being made legal, at this point of time. And that the Government will amend the country’s constitution to reinforce the definition of marriage as only between a man and a woman. It’s unclear when the change will come into effect, and when Gay-Marriages will also be decriminalised.

That’s equivocating at its best?

Sports

India just hosted the Chess Olympiad and coming on the wings of the Tournament, one of its youngest Grand Masters, 17 yrs old Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu defeated World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen for the 3rd time this year, in the FTX Crypto Cup. Previously he check-mated the Champion at the Chessable Masters in May, and Airthings Masters in February.

The kid is growing-up for sure. And Chess is returning to the country of its birth!

This week, 21-time Grand Slam Champion and this year’s Wimbledon Title winner Novak Djokovic announced his withdrawal from the upcoming US Open Tennis Tournament, which plays from 29 August to 11 September.

Djokovic has remained unvaccinated against Covid-19 throughout the pandemic, and current United States (US) Rules stipulate that any non-US citizen must be fully vaccinated against the virus in order to receive a visa and enter the country. The Tournament Director said, “Novak is a great champion and it is very unfortunate that he will be unable to compete at the 2022 US Open, as he is unable to enter the country due to the federal government’s vaccination policy for non-US citizens. We look forward to welcoming Novak back at the 2023 US Open”.

Previously, he was unable to compete at The Indian Wells and The Miami Open in March due to the same US travel regulations. Djokovic was deported from Australia in January this year, preventing his participation in the Australian Open, due to his refusal to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Djokovic’s withdrawal has taken place after the start of the qualifiers, hence a ‘lucky loser’ will be included in the draw. The loser better make best of the chance!

Please Yourself

Dancing Queen

In the year 2019, on 10 December, when Sanna Marin, 34, of Finland’s Social Democratic Party was sworn in as Prime Minster, she became the World’s youngest serving State leader and youngest Prime Minister in Finland’s history. Suddenly, the world seemed to grow younger! Old head on young shoulders was what danced in the mind.

You don’t grow old on becoming a Prime Minister (PM), do you? The young do what they do. And last week videos of the young Sanna shaking a leg and dancing while partying with friends in a private setting, leaked to the media. And the Opposition was quick to shake a finger and accuse Sanna Marin for being un-PM like and bringing disrespect to the Office of the PM.

Responding to these accusations, Marin acknowledged partying ‘in a boisterous way’ but said she was angry that the footage was leaked to the media. She said alcohol was consumed but that she was not aware of any drug use at the party.

The world heard and women across the world posted videos on social media of themselves dancing, to support Sanna Marin’s dance show.

She agreed to take a drug test after senior opposition politicians argued there was a ‘shadow of doubt’ hanging over her, despite her insistence that she had never taken drugs and was not compromised beyond drinking some alcohol.

This week, Marin’s office announced the negative results of the drug test, taken after an opposition MP called on her to get tested: no drugs had been found in her system.

Just when the Dance Floor lights were switched off came another accusation. During a party hosted by the PM in her official residence in Helsinki, Kesaranta, after the Ruisrock Music Festival in July, topless photos of guests were leaked. In it, two well-known women influencers can be seen kissing each other covering up their bare chests with an official-looking sign reading ‘Finland’: the photo was taken in the downstairs toilets used by guests.

Sanna Marin again apologised for the topless photo of guests and admitted “the picture is not appropriate, we had sauna, swam and spent time together,” Marin said. “That kind of a picture should not have been taken but otherwise, nothing extraordinary happened at the get-together,” she added.

Trouble never comes alone, does it? It brings its brothers, sisters, and friends, and family along. I’m sure Sanna Marin would get wiser. And what’s wrong with her dance moves?

Britney, Spears Ahead

This week Singer Britney Spears released her first new music since being freed from a conservatorship that controlled almost every aspect of her life for about thirteen years.

‘Hold Me Closer’ – a duet with Sir Elton John – hit music streaming sites marking Spears’ return to music after a six-year hiatus. The song also incorporates three of Sir Elton John’s classic hits.

Fresh out of her conservatorship, Britney Spears, 40, married Personal Fitness Trainer and Actor, Sam Asghari, 28, on 9 June 2022. Her ex-husband, Jason Alexander, tried to crash the event. This is technically her third wedding and second marriage. Britney was married to Jason Alexander in 2004 in Las Vegas for just 55 hours, and then married Kevin Federline that same year. Britney and Kevin have two children, boys Sean and Jayden, from their marriage.

Great to listen and see Britney do it again.

More crashing stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Dance with World Inthavaaram.

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

Enter the Dragon

Wars

India: Traitors, Poop, and Loose Cash

Earth Shakes

Everywhere

The Wars

Wah Ustad!

Top Gun Cruise

Cricket, Rain, and Ashwin

India Melange

State

Centre

Everywhere

Tit-for-Tat

Dying for Food

The Guns of Africa

The Guns of India

The Name is Gandhi

A Successful Failure

Indian Beauty

Melange

Everywhere

Oh Buoy!

Everywhere

Base Editing: A Path-breaking Invention

America Fails to Elect a Speaker: Speechless

A Pope Dies

Amazon Sheds Fat-Letters

India’s Demonetisation is OK

A Dragging Horror in New Delhi

Goodbye Pele

Everywhere

Please Yourself

Everywhere

COP27

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

Population Growth

Please Yourself

Everywhere

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Uncovering Iran

NASA’s Honey Moon

India Melange

Please Yourself

Everywhere

The Brain

We Need Education

Oh Jesus!

It’s OK to be Gay in Singapore, but…

Sports

Please Yourself

Dancing Queen

Britney, Spears Ahead

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