Katy’s wedding ….sorry… Katyma’s wedding ...sorry…

ABDUL KHALID'S WEDDING

A family wedding is something that is not to be missed whatever else we don’t care to miss. It is like a multistarrer where you get to see in one place all the offshoots of the one we consider as the common oak.

If you look back on your life you cannot recollect it as a continuum but only as events , good or bad . Life is made up of events. On the 8^th July 2010, a pleasant event interrupted our routine . I found myself moving to Chennai with my family Shakila , Abil Arqam and Ammarah Siddiqua and also my friend Mohan .

The Marriage eve get-together was at the SS Mahal on Thirumangalam road. The blue neon lights against the dark background were inviting. There I found Bhenamma , Waheeda , [two people who are always found in the forefront in every family function , who come early and go last] , Sohail , Gullu , Raheem, Sana , Abdur Rehaman , Naazia , Hiba, Shahnaz , Hussain , Waseem , Dillu , Adil , Dillu’s Hiba , Qamar, Jafar, Afaaq , Mymoona , Siraj , Reqaab , Sameer, Farheen , Misbah , Syed kareem my Brother in law and the still child looking but 28 year old bridegroom Khalid.

Had a sumptuous dinner with a lot of meaty stuff thrown in. Had some guffaws with Raheem..The night I slept at PSN Guest House near MM Hospital.

Before proceeding to the marriage hall the next day on 9 ^th July 2010 I had an urge to visit the resting places of some of those who had left earlier. I made a visit to the Mosque graveyard in Padi at around Asar time , where my Sister Mazherunnisa lies buried. It’s a sombre place which urges the heart to be forgiving, kind and good. . The marriage was at the auditorium in New College and the Nikah was to be solemnized after the Moghrib namaz. I did my Moghrib namaz at the New College mosque after which I made a visit to the nearby Ram Ram Bagh masjid where my Mother lies buried . By the time I came to the auditorium the bridegroom had reached the dais and the Qazi was starting with the ceremony.

Somewhere from the balcony a small kid shouted ‘Biriyaani Hona’ .

The groom was surrounded by old and young people .The Qazi made good the opportunity to chastise the gathered public for being negligent of their prayers. He said the children nowadays knew the names of all movie stars and their fathers but few if at all knew who was Musa or Abraham .

The little kid shouted ‘Ice cream hona’.

The Qazi even used a spattering of english sentences and brought the attention of the public to the fact that contrary to what is generally thought , a marriage ritual would fall flat if the bride does not say Qubool hai to the query of the bunch of men who shuffle their way through the women’s section with a register in hand and the airs of the ambassadors of the Caesar.

The kid was still shouting ‘Biriyaaaaaani Hona’

Marriage over , all the embracing over, people started to move around meeting and chatting with old friends and relatives . Yellow metal was visible. Shining Pink , green and red stones , silvery embroideries made sparkling curves in the air as young people and children moved about. I remembered a verse from the Quran to the effect that Young boys would serve in Heaven with shining goblets . The food was served as buffet minus the shining goblets and it was good.. I saw a kid his hand still carrying specks of biryaani running towards the icecream table.I took my plate and went to the food area and helped myself .I found a large piece of pinkish mutton in my plate, soft and delicious which melted in my mouth.

The party seemed to end too soon. In addition to the people I have already mentioned I saw Akajaan, Bhabi, Javed, Sofia, Shamshudeen , Mumtaz , Raiyaan, Salauddeen , Saifuddeen , Sumaiyya , Shahjahan , Aapi , Qhursheed , Raziya ,Shazia , Beapa, Afroze , Murtaza, Murtaza Kids [3Nos] Shuveb , Shadab , Mustaq, Ansar Bhai, Shameem Apa, Shafi , Zia , Munni, Samdaani , Ghousee , Allah baksh .

Then I came back to Sameer’s house where the Bridegroom and Bride also were brought in a Mercedes [ Rs.10,000 I ve heard for one evening ].Inside the house the bride was sitting on a sofa with a lot of kids around her. I wondered how it would be to go to somebody’s house totally strange till the day before and then wait not knowing what to expect. Imagine the women of earlier days where the woman sees the husband for the first time . I remembered the story of long gone days of the mother of a certain person by name Dawood. She had seen her husband for the first time on her nuptial night , perhaps through bleary eyes and she forgot him the next day. The next day she was taken along with the luggage in a train ,off to some place. When her husband tried to talk to her and sit near her in the train, she jerked away thinking some stranger was trying to make a line to her. My grandmothers , mother and sisters went that way .Poor girls. But they all brought sunshine to their homes and became centres of their families.

The Walima function was on 11 ^th July 2010 at the Breeze hotel on Poonamalli high road. The place was fairly grand with a serene atmosphere and light music going. Met some more people , Farooq , Muheet , Basheer , Saleem , Shameem and her husband Iqbal . Some Hadiths flashed across my mind

• A tribe must desist from boasting of their forefathers; if they will not leave off boasting, verily they will be more abominable near God, than a black beetle which rolleth forward filth by its nose; and verily God has removed from you pride and arrogance. There is no man but either a righteous Mu'min or a sinner; mankind are all sons of Adam, and he was from earth.

The Filth which the Beetle rolls is actually shit . But its true that some men walk with the bottom line of their noses at 30 degrees to the ground. Now you can call them beetles.

Coming back to the walima function , in the course of the interactions I got into a philosophical talk with a certain person . After a patient listening when it was my turn to talk I found the man looking at the fast depleting level in the large icecream bowl on the table.

“So this is everything that there is ever to know” I thought. All of us are in pursuit of things that give us pleasures and comfort , prestige and all those things that make us feel good . Now money is a one stop shop for all these things and therefore the run and rub for money . In the midst of the "Hi there" "Hello" etc I saw a young lady staring at another young lady and when I asked her the reason for her close look she said "How dark she is". "good God" I thought ,The world still continues with its prejudices.

This is an inescapable rule for the living organism but in the midst of the pursuit those who find the time and inclination to be courteous and gentle and good to the other runners – slow , fast or handicapped - they qualify to call themselves humans.

• Humility and courtesy are acts of piety.

Courtesy is a lousy word nowadays. I have seen a lot of people who do not care to receive guests with a handshake .They say ‘Hi’ from their seats. And when the guest is leaving , most of the time they are deep in sleep. Forget leaving the guests upto the door. And the holy prophet had to say this about the guest.

It is of my ways that a man shall come out with his guest to the door of his house.

He who believeth in one God, and a future life, let him honour his guest

No man hath given his child anything better than good manners.

When the Photo sessions were over the , walima function was slowly getting to its end. In between my chitchat with the people around I turned to look around and saw the Groom and bride exchanging pleasantries among themselves and with others.The servers looked bored. All parties have to come to an end. Gradually the guests started leaving. I have a tendency to linger on but I had to go. The kid who was shouting for Biriyaani was asleep on his Grandpa's shoulder.

Gulnaz came to the gate to see us off .She is a good organizer.

So Khalid got married to continue with an ancient custom of this world.

Winston Churchill's Souvenir

Recently I came across a news item that Winston Churchill was a member of the Banglore club from 1896 to 1899 when he was in the army in India.When he left the club he is reported to have given them a parting souvenir - a debt of Rs.13

So much for his integrity

Stress -1

Why Do Yoga ?

It is reported from research studies that yoga helps manage or control anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain, blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes, epilepsy, headaches, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, stress and other conditions and diseases. It helps to improve muscle tone, flexibility, strength and stamina, reduces stress and tension ,boosts self esteem, improves concentration and creativity , Lowers fat , Improves circulation , Stimulates the immune system, Creates sense of well being and calm.

Developed in India, yoga is a spiritual practice that has been evolving for the last 5,000 years or so. The original yogis were reacting, in part, to India's ancient Vedic religion, which emphasized rituals. According to the yogis, true happiness, liberation and enlightenment comes from union with the divine consciousness known as Brahman, or with Atman, the transcendent Self. Pranayama breathing exercises help clear the nadis, or channels, that carry prana the universal life force, allowing prana to flow freely. When the channels are clear and the last block at the base of the spine has been opened, Kundalini rises through the spine, through the central channel called the sushumna-nadi, and joins the crown chakra. According to the tradition, the release of Kundalini leads to enlightenment and union.

Between work, home and all of the demands and stresses in between, it's easy to lose touch with who we are, that core essence with which we were born. Rushing around all day it sometimes feels like the "I" inside is simply the result of the things we do all day -- or the effects those things have on our minds, bodies and spirits. When we say "I am hungry" or "I am stressed"? We identify with our conditions. It's like "hungry" or "stressed" is a name ( What's your name? Hi. I'm Stressed ) As a result, our identities shift with our moods and conditions.

In truth, however, we are not the conditions we experience or things we do. We are not our jobs or the thousands of tasks that make up our jobs. We are not the sensations or emotions we feel. We are not the car we drive or the house we live in. We are not "S/he Who Must Pay Bills." We are not Mr. and Ms.Stressed. Strip away the emotions, sensations and conditions and somewhere deep down inside you are still there. Strip it all away and you find out who you really are.

The techniques developed by the yogis to transcend also help us strip away the things that try to mis-define us -- the emotions, sensations, desires, achievements and failures of daily life. Through yoga we learn to develop a greater awareness of our physical and psychological states. As a result, we're in a position to better manage our reactions to the thoughts, feelings and responses we have to the various situations we deal with every day.

With greater awareness comes the sensitivity and skill to find and remove the physical and psychological blocks that often keep us from our true selves. We no longer identify with our conditions. Instead of saying, "I am stressed," we begin to say, "I feel stress," or "stress is present." It's a subtle but powerful difference.

Or better yet, we say "I feel anxiety and fear, and that's causing stress and in particular it's causing tension in my neck and shoulder." So we breathe deeply to soothe the anxiety. We review the events that led to the onset of those feelings, and in the process they lose their grip on our nervous system. We intentionally relax our shoulder and neck to prevent the stress and tension from building into a permanent condition.

Yoga gives us control of ourselves. It helps cut through the layers of mis-identities that arise in response to our actions, experiences and feelings. It calms the frenzy, clears the clutter and allows us to get back in touch with ourselves. Yoga is union with self. Or, as Patanjali, one of the great yoga sages, said: Yogashcittavrittinirodhah (Yoga stills the fluctuations of the mind). Tada drashthuh svarupe' vasthanam (Then the true self appears.)

However, yoga is not about self-absorption. Yoga is about being in the world. Although most books, videos and websites focus on yoga postures, breathing and meditation, the tradition also emphasizes love, compassion, knowledge and right action as paths toward union. Whether you pursue yoga as a spiritual path or for its psycho-physiological benefits, yoga is a methodology for developing a deeper experience of your self and the world.And it makes you feel really good.

Afluenza and climate change

Here is a good read by Madhav Mehra President World Council for Corporate Governance

Climate change has suddenly become sexy. With Kyoto protocol being the hottest topic the C-word is what everyone is talking about. Whether you name it carbon dioxide, carbon trading, carbon credit or carbon footprint gas has become gold. Billions of dollars are changing hands to buy and sell carbon credits. CO2 is the hottest commodity being traded today. Brokers and traders and consultants are mushrooming everyday.

Chicago Climate Exchange is the world’s first carbon exchange transacting over 3 million tonnes of CO2 every month. It has launched a futures and options market in carbon and sulphur and owns European Climate Exchange, world’s biggest climate exchange where trading volumes achieved a record of over 3 million metric tones a day in March this year.

China, India and Brazil are major players in the emissions market. For each tonne of carbon dioxide saved, the UN body on climate change gives a certificate called Certified Emissions Reductions(CER). The certificate becomes a tradeable instrument and can be sold to any entity that wishes to offset its carbon emissions. This is what is known as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Indian enterprises have already committed investments to generate more than 379 million tonnes of CERs. Worldwide investments aim to generate 2 billion tonnes of CERs by 2012. The main worry is what will happen when the treaty expires in 2012. This has lent uncertainties about carbon trading.

All is not hunky dory with carbon trading. A recent investigation by UK’s Financial Times revealed large scale manipulations under the smoke screen of carbon trading and complete lack of audit and verification.The study has found that while a large number of companies and individuals are rushing to go green spending millions on carbon credits projects, these have resulted in little environmental benefit. Some organisations are paying for emission reductions that do not take place at all . Carbon credit or carbon neutralisation industry is making a bomb from good intentioned companies and the green gold rush sparked by the Kyoto Protocol under the belief that offsetting their own energy use by buying carbon credits can reduce the impact of climate change. Their findings showed:

i. Instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not
yield any reductions in carbon emissions.

ii. Industrial companies profiting from doing very little or from gaining carbon
credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited
substantially.

iii. Brokers providing services of questionable or no value. A shortage of
verification making it difficult for buyers to assess the credits true value.

iv. Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private
purchase of the European union carbon permits that have plummeted in value
because they do not result in emissions cuts.

HSBC, the UK’s largest bank that went carbon neutral in 2005, said they found “serious credibility concerns” in offsetting market after evaluating for several months. They urged the government to launch investigation into the system by the police, the fraud squad and trading standards and went on to invent their own scheme thus adding to the existing muddle.

Some companies like DuPont are asking green consumers to pay them for the mess they themselves have created. DuPont asks consumers to pay them $4 a ton to eliminate carbon dioxide from its plant in Kentucky that produces a potential green house gas HFC23. Companies have set up carbon offsetters without any idea as to how the markets operate. Blue Source, a US offsetting company invites consumers to offset carbon emissions by investing in enhanced oil recovery which pumps CO2 into depleted oil wells to bring up the remaining oil. This process was profitable in itself because of the high price of the oil. Operators were making extra revenue from selling “carbon credits” for burying the carbon.

Climate change poses a classic spill over problem. It is not the individuals but the society at large that suffers the full burden of producing emissions. To offset governments can either create markets for carbon by using tradable permits or impose carbon tax. So far, the preferred method has been tradable permits.

But this is now causing problems as markets are not perfect and susceptible to manipulations by the greedy quick rich gangs. We need smart market designs to overcome problems of tradable permits. Besides, carbon markets fix the amount of carbon reduced, not the price. “Excessive volatility or unduly high prices of quotas on carbon emissions might disrupt the economy severely. Taxes create needed certainty about prices while markets and emission quotas create unnecessary certainty about short term quantity of emissions”, says the Financial Times in its editorial of 26 April 2007. Both carbon tax and markets put undue burden on the poor. FT argues that taxes are a better option to set the price of CO2 provided governments can counter the regressive carbon taxes by lowering the levy on labour.

Goldman Sachs, the investment giant says their research indicates that the impact of NGO pressure or SRI funds or single pollution incidences on shareholder value is much less than government regulation. Self-regulation here does not work. They strongly advocate government regulation to create long term value for greenhouse gas emissions reduction and new technologies.

The business opportunity inherent in climate change is not confined to trading in carbon. Goldman Sachs says, “Money is already flowing to alternative energy sources … markets have to be enhanced to significantly increase these flows globally and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels”.

In November 2005 Goldman Sachs surprised the financial world by announcing an ambitious environmental policy framework. The slew of green measures included commitments to consider environmental and social impacts of investment, encourage the development of markets and reduce investment bank overall climate footprint. On 21 January this year it quietly released its year-end environmental report demonstrating how its environmental commitments were in line with Goldman’sraison d’etre: making money. On the occasion, Sonal Shah, its Vice President Corporate Citizenship, said “We want to show that there is a way to make money on this”. The message is valuing environment can create wealth.

Climate Change is big money. According to Sir Nicholas Stern, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, head of the UK Government Economic Service and the author of Stern Review – Economics of Climate Change, cost of not taking action and allowing unabated climate change could amount to 5% of GDP which could be a staggering figure of $650bn.

As such investors are deciding that successful stock-picking is about more than whether a company meets its quarterly profit target. AXA, the French Insurance Company has become the latest socially responsible investor. It has signed up Enhanced Analytic Initiative (EAI) to reward brokers that publish research on extra-financial issues such as climate change and brand management. The Initiative controls assets in excess of $2.4 trillion. Another initiative called UN Principles for Responsible Investment has come $5 trillion worth of assets with members ranging from ABP, the Dutch Pension Fund to Sumitomo Trust of Japan.

Joachim Faber, Allianz AG board member responsible for asset management, says “As an investor, we are concerned to know whether the companies we are investing in are adequately taking account of climate-related risks. However, the data is often not available, sometimes not comparable or of poor quality. As a part of the Carbon Disclosure Project, we hope to collect more reliable data, so eventually, a common emissions measurement methodology can be developed.”

Companies such as Marks & Spencer have already taken the bull by the horn and put climate change, zero waste and sustainability on top of their business agenda and invested £200 million to go green. BP has attempted to restyle itself with its Beyond Petroleum label. Toyata has made substantial investment in hybrid cars; and Tesco plans to ‘carbon label’ its products, to show how much carbon dioxide is emitted ruing their production, transport and consumption. Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin group claims to have made huge investments to reduce emissions of Virgin airlines by 30%.

Back home ITC Chairman Yogi Deveshwar in his keynote address at the Global Conference on Social Responsibility in Vilamoura (Portugal) in February 2007 claimed “It is matter of pride that ITC became carbon positive during the year on the back of several energy conservation measures, usage of carbon neutral fuels and carbon sequestration through large scale agro-forestry programmes ITC is making rapid strides towards attaining zero waste status”. Tata Steel has also done pioneering work in this.

It is easy to understand the trigger of such investments when one realises that a group representing institutional investors controlling $41 trillion worth of funds are monitoring companies worldwide on the level of their carbon emissions. The group known as Carbon Disclosure Project and launched on 4 December 2000 at 10 Downing Street has recently sent an information request to 2400 world’s large corporations asking them to report on their emissions.

CDP is the world’s largest investor coalition comprising 284 institutional investors. That includes ABN Amro Bank, California Public Employees Retirement System, CIBS, Deutsche Bank, Development Bank of Japan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Holdings plc, Morgan Stanley, Old Mutual plc, Rabobank, UBS Global Asset Management, Warburg-Henderson and Zurich Cantonal Bank. It is funded by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation,Bridge House Trust , Polden Puckhan Charitable Foundation. UK’s Departement of Environment ,Food and Rural Affairs, Oak Foundation,The Marmot Charitable Trust and WWF-UK.

Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, NTPC, Ranbaxy, Infosys are all part of the 2400 companies that have received a questionnaire seeking disclosure on:
(i) regulatory risk/opportunity(eg limits on emissions)
(ii) physical risk opportunity (eg changes in weather patterns impacting
operations)

(iii) consumer sentiment risk/opportunity (eg reputation)

(iv) total company wide global greenhouse gas emissions

(v) steps taken to manage/reduce emissions.

Clearly business is appearing to move faster than the governments in responding to this monumental threat to the survival of business. Al Gore’s persuasive film “An Inconvenient Truth”, The Stern Review and the startling report of IPCC together with daily reminders of impending disaster have finally had their effect in raising the public psyche and busienss awareness of this global crisis of unprecedented proportion. The reality is coming home that if we continue to waste resources and generate green house gases, we will sink without a trace. Yet, the actions are not matching the gravity.

It is the insurance industry and that too in US that is getting its act together. Post-Hurricane Katrina, a report on the insurance industry, commissioned by a national coalition of institutional investors and environmental organisations has found that insurers, government and consumers are all at great risk of rising cost from severe and sudden weather related disasters. Actuaries would simply go bust setting off a domino effect that would adversely impact the business right across the world.

The scenario in India is much worse than it looks. The inequity of climate change is writ large everywhere. The only glacier that feeds our seven rivers first be flooding India’s coast for the next 40 years and then will dry up completely. So our grandchildren will have no fresh water and face severe drought conditions within half a life time. Yet, the action we are taking is nothing more than making a few movies and engaging in symbolic acts. It is an irony that while the world has been polluted by the rich industrialised north, the real sufferers of climate change will be the poor of the east and inhabitants of African continent.

The developing countries are being criticised today for being unmindful of environmental damage caused by the high growth economies like India, China & Brazil. Whilst there can be no mercy for any kind of environmental pollution north have to realise that developing countries have a right to grow and that it is only fair that north meets the costs of South’s growth at least upto a take off stage. In fact it was this moral compulsion that brought the concept
of carbon credits. But over the years the price of these carbon credits has reduced so much that they have lost their shine.

There are already 25 million climate refugees displaced by climate-induced disasters such as those in Papua New Guinean Carteret Islands. They have been forced to relocate because of the rising ocean level. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world. 259 km of river delta islands near the Bay of Bengal have vanished in the last 30 years. The strategy, therefore, to deal with climate change is going to be different for poor countries.

While carbon tax, financial incentives and increased insurance premia can force people to go green in developed countries, the grim poverty of Asia and Africa calls for an integrated action plan where the north implements the polluter-pays-principles and provides scientific and technological know-how as well as infrastructural support and transfer of technology to the south to bring it to a level playing field.

The saving grace of poverty is that the environmental footprint of the poor is a fraction of their rich counterparts. Creating wealth through unbridled consumerism and proliferation of products that create unneeded wants can be disastrous for the ecology. India’s ecological footprint i.e. the natural material used per person per year is one twelfth of US and Europe. If the rapid rate at which the developing economies are growing translates itself into consumerism, our mission of the bridging the gap is going to result in an ecological catastrophe.

We therefore need to change our growth model and move our economy from acquisitional mode to experiential mode. We have to find ways to dematerialise products and opt for minimalist designs. India will thus have an even more legitimate right to demand from the north credits for saving environment & CO2 by adopting a dematerialised, low carbon, experiential model of growth.

Just as it is real that climate has changed due to human activity, humans have the power and technology to reverse the damage. For this to happen business has to be brought to the forefront of the climate change agenda. Never before in human history has the gap between an impending catastrophe and an infinite opportunity been smaller. Hence our focus has to be on galvanising businesses for a robust response to climate change in a way that opens new vistas of growth and development advancing human happiness.

The 8th Environment Conference in Palampur brought to the fore an eleven point plan called PROACTIVATE. The acronym denotes the action required for regeneration of the planet. It calls upon businesses to Price natural capital; Radically increase energy efficiency; Opt for minimalist lifetyles that emphasise the value of experiences as opposed to acquisitions; Adopt zero waste and closed loop systems Capture CO2 through forestation; Turn to renewables; Invest in green issues; Vigorously pursue market mechanism to punish polluters; Activate women and children to drive the change; Train staff to eco-innovate and focus on Execution by example than exhortation.

Climate change calls for a holistic and approach designed to reduce the human footprint on the planet by committing to make a 180 degree shift in lifestyles. It challenges our current paradigms of wealth and prosperity. Who would prefer to be a billionaire with a parched throat in the arid world of 2050? It is time we started recognising the price of natural capital, of greens, rivers, mountains, oceans, glaciers and moved our natural assets way above the financial capital in the balance sheets.

The pendulum of asset valuation has moved beyond tangibles. People have begun to question the very purpose of work and wealth creation.In 1930 John Maynard Keynes imagined that richer societies would become more leisured ones, liberated from toil to enjoy the finer things in life. Yet, most people today work harder, have less leisure and less happiness. In his recent book on happiness LSE economist Lord Layard reveals –

(i) money does not make people happier;

(ii) middle class people who become upper class do not report feelings of happiness;

Richard Farleigh, the Australian tycoon, says “You see all these boats [in Monaco] and think, well, actually I’m not that rich at all. If I’d stayed in hedge-fund game in 1995, I’d be a multi-billionaire by now. However, the billionaires I’ve met are some of the unhappiest people I know.”
The psychologist Oliver James has written a new book, Afluenza. In this he describes afluenza as an obsessive, envious addiction to consumerism that “increases our vulnerability to emotional disorders and causes high levels of anxiety and sleeplessness.” Psychologists like Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University recommend ‘experiences’ over ‘commodities’, pastimes over knick-knacks, doing over having as happiness giving. With all this evidence why should business not adopt policies and processes that make people happier rather than overload them with proliferations of products that create unneeded wants and disastrous for the ecology? As for capitalism’s wasteful materialism, even Adam Smith had a problem with it. “How many people ruin themselves by laying out money on trinkets of frivolous utility?”

On 8th December 1927, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Young India “A time is coming when those who are in the mad rush today of multiplying their wants vainly thinking that they add to the real substance, real knowledge of the world, will retrace their steps and say: ‘What have we done?’These words have a rug of truth even after 80 years.

Is it not the time business considered a growth model that focused on ensuring happiness not acquiring goodies? That would make some virtue climate change.
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A trap called THE HUMAN BODY

In the recent days , two events have actively engaged my attention to dwell on the miracle and tragedy of the human body. A package of billions of cells of different combinations holding the crucible of thought , storing attitude, character, and a myriad of other qualities. One was about Lakshmi. I have attached below a news item


Girl born with 8 limbs regains consciousness following surgery

Lakshmi , a 2-year-old Indian girl was born joined at the pelvis to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in her mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus . She was born with four arms and four legs. On Wednesday, a team of more than 30 surgeons concluded the 24-hour operation, removing the extra limbs, transplanting a kidney from the twin and reconstructing Lakshmi's pelvic area. She regained consciousness on Friday, wiggled her toes and smiled at her parents, 48 hours after massive surgery removed the extra limbs.Doctors said the complicated surgery was a great success, meaning she would not need further major reconstructive surgery. However, Lakshmi will need further treatments and possible surgery for clubbed feet before she will be able to walk.Children born with deformities in deeply traditional rural parts of India such as the remote village in the northern state of Bihar that Lakshmi hails from are often viewed as reincarnated gods. But some had sought to make money from Lakshmi. Her parents kept her in hiding after a circus apparently tried to buy the girl, they said.Her father, Shambhu, who only goes by one name, had told reporters that her family had been worried for her future before the operation and he was looking forward to seeing her with "a normal body."


Nearly thirty pairs of hands and thirty pairs of eyes volunteered to repair the body of Lakshmi . Imagine what would have happened to the girl if she had had to live with her deformity. And the cold-bloodedness of a world that tries to make money out of somebody else's misfortune. The circus guys attempting to buy her and perhaps trying to teach her a trick or two such as cooking as well as washing at the same time.
Ive heard that once in a while such children are born in this world . Such a sad thing to happen. Ive heard of a young man who carried an extra face behind his head. It used to always be grinning. The sorrow and disappointment killed him. In carnivals in the US such specimens are shown packed in glass jars.

Another recent event was that of a known person getting bedridden suddenly with stroke. He could not speak or move his right limbs. He lay watching people who came to see him. Doctors pumped in some medicines which just stabilized his condition but did not cure him. When I tried to take leave of him he tried to say something but only gurgling sounds came from his mouth like he was a month old baby. It was such an agony to watch another person’s debilitating handicap.A learned mind trapped in a body that will not vocalize the thoughts and needs of a person.

Why there is Immense disappointment and utter helplessness in life is confounding and beyond the realm of human understanding.

Environment-2

Konrad Lorenz the Nobel prize winning ethologist, says in his essay

"On Life and Living”

One of the problems with people today is that most of them deal only with lifeless, artificial objects in their daily work, with objects that are not particularly beautiful and that are by no means appropriate to inspire awe and respect. That's why most people have forgotten how to live with living creatures, with living systems.

Konrad Lorenz, says that it can be demonstrated easily that any one who is bereft of genuine values spent his/her childhood far removed from nature. He goes on to add that any one who has spent time in the countryside — snorkelled in a coral reef or wandered in a forest is unlikely to be a slave to money and social positions. He advocates a process of de-urbanisation to counter this effect and regain emotional well-being.
Educators have recognised the importance of this link. In the wake of the awakening on environmental issues that swept across the world in 1972, Environmental Science was included in school curricula with an idea to sensitise kids. Unfortunately it has degenerated into one more examination, another classroom subject. Children are rarely taken out of the classroom to see things, not even to observe a tree.

Should we care about global warming?

Almost 15 years after the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and nine years after the Kyoto Protocol that set targets for 35 industrialised countries to reduce emissions of GHGs, the world is much clearer about both the science and the economics of global warming.

There are still some doubters; there are also countries like the United States, one of the biggest contributors to GHGs, which refuse to accept externally set targets or timetables for GHG reduction. But, by and large, industrialised and developing countries now accept that the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the chief greenhouse gases, has already begun the process of global warming as evident in rising temperatures. Most countries are clear that we need action now to stem the deterioration even if it is too late to reverse the process.
Only a few countries, principally in Europe, have taken the issue seriously and have made a genuine attempt to reduce emissions of GHGs. The U.S., on the other hand, continues to follow its own agenda. The response that the former U.S. Vice President, Al Gore, is getting to his film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, holds out a slim hope that ordinary people in the U.S. will finally get the message about what "the American way of life" has done to the world. California, the most populous American State, seems to have understood that and is the first to put a cap on GHG emissions for utilities, refineries, and manufacturing plants despite having a Governor who belongs to same party as President George W. Bush.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which came into effect in February 2005, only set targets for reductions in emissions of GHGs. It did not envisage a phasing out or substitution of fossil fuels. There has also been considerable debate about whether one of the mechanisms devised as part of the effort to reduce global warming, namely the Clean Development Mechanism, is effective. Despite several billion dollars being spent by industrialised countries to provide clean technology to developing countries to compensate for their contribution to global warming, the results are disappointing. The switch to cleaner technologies is not on a scale to make a difference. Meanwhile, industrialised countries continue on their old path with only minor adjustments. In the long run, such small steps will not stave off what could be a big disaster in the decades to come. This is one of the many reasons that there has been a demand to review the Kyoto Protocol. However, there was no agreement on this in Nairobi. All that was agreed upon was to meet again in 2008.

Unfortunately, conferences and negotiations do not stop a process like global warming. The latest document to add to the mounting evidence that things are going very wrong in the world was the report by a former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Sir Nicholas Stern, to the British government. The Stern Review stated that global temperatures have risen by half a degree Celsius as a result of carbon emissions and that if nothing is done, there is a 75 per cent chance that temperatures will rise by two to three degrees Celsius over the next 50 years. This will have a devastating effect on weather patterns resulting in floods, droughts, melting ice caps, and rising sea levels. The countries that will bear the brunt of this are the poorest. The Stern report estimated that there would be a loss of one per cent of the global gross domestic product caused by extreme weather.

Such a loss will affect everyone, including the fast growing economies of India and China. Inevitably, one of the issues that came up in Nairobi was whether India and China, because of the size of their economies, should also take some steps to limit greenhouse gas emissions. In 1992, when the problem was first addressed, there was an agreement that poorer and developing countries should not be penalised for a problem that had been created largely by the industrialised countries and their burning of fossil fuels to power their economies. The concept of "common but differentiated responsibility" was accepted. It was also argued that to ensure that the developing countries adopt cleaner technologies, the industrialised world needed to finance their efforts to "decarbonise" energy systems by providing them with the latest clean technologies.
Alternative forms
Energy is central to that growth and the cheapest form of energy is coal-based. More coal-based plants necessarily mean we are adding to the carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere. Are efforts to promote alternative energy forms even as we use the cheapest forms of energy, such as coal, necessarily mutually exclusive? Is enough being done in this country to promote energy saving and efficiency as well as clean energy? It is interesting how wind energy is only just being recognised as a viable option in India when it has been promoted and used in several European countries for some years now. An Indian company producing wind turbines has shown spectacular growth because of this global demand. India comes fourth among countries using wind energy.

Our current pattern of development is already making the air in our cities unfit to breathe. Our water sources are polluted, our fields are laden with chemicals that travel through the food chain into our bodies, and our forests, the lungs of this country, are disappearing faster than any effort to plant more trees. Is there any point in rapid economic growth if people have to drink, eat, and breathe poisons? In the long run we damage not just the global environment but ourselves too. A tough negotiating position in international meets need not detract from policies at home that contribute to an environmentally benign pattern of development. If there is one thing the debate on global warming should teach us it is that, ultimately, if you treat your environment carelessly in one part of the world, the consequences will catch up with you in another.

A Thing called Love

A couple of years back in Neyveli I heard the story of a young guy who had gone nuts, though not in the range of Boston strangler and Jack the Ripper. Nevertheless one in whom psychology students might evince keen interest. Our young man had a different way of expressing his hatred for women as compared to the hideous repertory that Boston strangler and Jack the Ripper had for their women victims.
It was a smelly and ghastly technique. He would fill both the cups of a brassier with fresh shit, roll it up and throw the package through a window. Some unwary housewife thinking it to be her own, would soon be picking it up, surprised by the warm softness inside, stunned by the greasy discovery, and thereafter run bewildered and wide eyed to vigorously rub her palms beneath a jet of water. This had gone on for some time but the guy was one day trapped by police and taken to task. It was obvious that he had been deeply hurt somewhere by some woman but he had erred in the same way as all nuts do-generalization .In fact generalization is a dangerous trend to which most people fall victim in their thinking. About generalization sometime else

Hormonic Love

Falling in love is a strange concoction of the brain hormones which is difficult to understand. The drive for sex among human beings and animals is understandable, because it serves to help the survival of the species. But animals never seem to fall in love .Then why do humans fall in love. It seems to be a phenomenon not supported by any purpose in evolution. Is it then a mental defect similar to why some are born with homosexual tendencies? Or is it a birth deficiency like a child being born with a sixth finger or a demon face or a single eye.

I remember an incident of a few years back. I was going with my brother-in-law through a busy thoroughfare in Madurai when we stopped for a coffee by a roadside cafe .The sky was a molten copper in the west. The Owner who was serving the coffee , I was told later had got married recently . My brother-in -law in a friendly manner enquired of him as to how his married life was getting on. “Oh fine thank you”. That was the standard reply that I was used to hearing and what I expected. But the man said “She committed Suicide sir” . Shocked enquiries revealed that they had gone to Kodaikanal for honey moon where she had jumped off from a rock . She had been sulky throughout and when she could not take it anymore she had decided to take the ultimate step. Indeed failure in love is like no other disappointment in the book of sorrows. God forbid love failure. A lot of love letters were discovered in her suitcase. The man seemed to be taking it with a stoic face. It must have been hurting to know that they had brought him a bride who was not meant to be hisbut anothers. My heart went out to him. Every time in later days that I crossed the area I would look for that stoic face, feel doleful and my lips would murmur

“Aye Mohabbat tere anjaam pe rona aaya ”

When a youngster falls in love it is just like being stricken by an unfortunate and an incurable disease which will dissolve his/her will, debilitate his/her reason and make him/her acutely vulnerable. The lover opens to himself/herself avenues of being hurt beyond healing. All love affairs may not end up sadly but they sure have the potential for sorrow. Sometimes men and women who fall in love are successful in getting a positive response from the object of their love. It is serendipity. I cannot forget the words of the poet who had said to an young lady who had sought for a place in his heart “My heart is buried in London”. However it is not always equal reciprocatory love but suiting circumstances that make a couple stay together. If however the circumstances don’t suit or the object of love does not reciprocate the love, the consequences can be disastrous. Men can turn aggressive, women can commit suicide.

A college senior by name Ponniah once told me ( He was 24 and I was 20) “Love is like a passing gust of wind that will take quite a while to clear up. Take care to duck in time. Hold on tightly like you would when you unwittingly get on to a high speed merry go around. It has got to stop. But if you are already there, well then, remember accidents do happen and sometimes it may be a pleasant ride while it lasts”.

I remember a Tamil Kannadasan song in which Chandrababu dances gracefully with a piercing sad smile.

Paruvam adainda anaivarume kadal kolvadillai
Kadal konda anaivarume manam mudippadillai
Manam muditha anaivarume sendu valvadillai
Sendu valvada anaivarume sendu povadillai
Budhdhi saali manidar ellam vetri padavadillai
Vetri patta manidar ellam budhdhi saali illai


The one who loves assumes

That life will always be a park where you can sing your love songs.
That promises can be kept .
That there will be no other needs.
That we will never one day see the weaknesses of the one we love
That our background and cultures will never matter
That other things do not come with marriage
That there will not be unpleasant relatives to put up with
That life will always be sweet like a love letter
That the face that did the magic will not wither
That the eyes that shone will not shrink

Another kind of Love
.
Here I think I should tell a few words about another kind of love .There was a young woman by name Amina in Mecca who was married to a decent young man. by name Abdulla. Days after their marriage he was sent away by his father to Syria or some place on business. En-route he got ill and died and was buried in Medina. The lady was shattered .She gave birth to a child .When the child was about four or five years old she undertook a trip to Medina and identified her husbands grave with the help of her relatives and spent days by the grave weeping silently. When she was returning to Mecca she developed a blazing fever and died on the way. She was buried by her loving servant girl who dug a grave in the sands with her finger nails somewhere between Mecca and Medina. It’s a moving story.The child was the prophet Mohammad.
Yeah .There is love .Thank God for it.

Iam reminded of a popular song

A Thing Called Love by Jerry Hubbard

Six foot six, he stood on the ground

He weighed two hundred and thirty-five pounds

But I saw that giant of a man brought down to his knees by love

He was the kind of a man who would gamble on luck

Look you in the eye and never back up

But I saw him cryin' like a little whipped pup because of love

You can't see it with your eyes

Hold it in your hand

But like the wind that covers our land

Strong enough to rule the heart of any man

This thing called love

It can lift you up

Never let you down

Take your world and turn it all around

Ever since time nothing's ever been found

That's stronger than love

Most men are like me

They struggle in doubt

They trouble their minds

They in and they out

Too busy with livin'

To worry about a little word like love

But when I see a mother's tenderness

As she holds her young close to her breast

Then I thank God that the world's been blessed

With a thing called love

You can't see it with your eyes

Hold it in your hand

But like the wind that covers our land

Strong enough to rule the heart of any man

This thing called love

It can lift you up

Never let you down

Take your world and turn it all around

Ever since time nothing's ever been found

That's stronger than love

Ever since time nothing's ever been found,

That's stronger than love

Below I am reproducing an article by Gurcharandas Love and Marriage


In India we have always understood that marriage is a conjugal compromise, transforming a fugi­tive desire into a lasting emotion. A mutual desire, both physical and mental, is not enough. Whether it is an arranged marriage or a love match, the essential thing is that both persons think it permanent. Even the money marriage of our middle classes recognises this truth. Hence, civilisations founded on polygamy have always given way to those based on monogamy.
Nothing in this world is perfect, not even love. It is just as difficult to live with a husband as it is with a lover because men and women are different. It is hazardous to admit this in this age of women's libera­tion when women are equally well educated and perform the same jobs very efficiently. The reality is that women are more preoccupied with maternity and love, and men with action. Men are faithful to ideas; women are faithful to human beings. D.H. Lawrence claimed that man's religious soul drives him be­yond woman to his supreme activi­ty. Men realize that "wedlock is padlock", but they dread loneliness more than bondage. So they get married and want their wives to be mistresses when they are young, companions when they are middle aged and nurses when they are old.
Writers have not been kind to the institution of marriage. Shelley thought that love died when put under restraint and governed by law. Bernard Shaw, in Man and Su­perman, felt that marriage was un­willingly endured by men and pas­sionately desired by women. "A married man," wrote Romain Hol­land, '"is no more than half a man." Kipling felt that Captain Gadsby of the Pink Hussars became a good husband but a mediocre officer af­ter marriage. Byron said that women were easier to die for than to live with. And La Rochefoucauld concluded that there were some good marriages, but no delightful ones.
The fact is that marriage does de­stroy love. At certain times in our life, in adolescence and at around fifty, we are in the mood for love. But desire is short lived. How does one make it last — i.e. turn an in­stinct into an institution? The an­swer is to accept that in marriage, as in government, perfection is not possible. We must learn to gradual­ly replace love with friendship, pas­sion with good humour, and rebuild marriage everyday. The game is never won.

ENVIRONMENT - 1

I begin this series with a poem The Future by Andrew Hobbs

We must preserve the environment for future generations.


What does the future hold for us?
Smog-filled skies and poison cars
And broken land with useless dust
And Nature's beauty behind bars.


Can I ever show my children
(If they ever come my way)
The beauty of a sunset
At the ending of the day?

Can I walk into a forest
And surround myself with trees
Yet know that it will remain
For me to visit as I please?

Can I sit upon the seashore
And breathe in salty air,
Or will it be so dirty
That it is unsafe to be there?

1 know that I can today
Do all the things I've said
But when today is yesterday
Will all these things be dead?

This problem is enormous
As we gradually take heed,
So we must fix it quickly,
Using words and thoughts and deeds.

Write a letter, start a group
Or do something that seems small
For whatever is done to aid the Earth
Is fantastic for us all.

If we save what's there before us
So it'll be there when we go,
Then we'll leave a gift more precious
Than our kids will ever know.

Procreation: Khudrat ka khel

!
A garrulous friend of mine at the office by name Juloo had the habit of eating betel leaves after lunch and then he would settle down to reading a cheap one rupee Tamil gossip magazine carrying a centre page of some known and unknown starlets trying to make a future out of their vital statistics. Juloo often facilitated to divert all discussions ultimately to sex. On one such occasion during a lunch break I happened to find myself alone with Juloo and as usual the topic veered round to sex. He looked admiringly at the centre page and said “This kutty looks like the one I went to, in a lodge in Bangalore”. He continued licking the red juice off his lips and added “but the female was not half as good as she looks, the whole time I was at it she was staring at a lizard on the ceiling like some dead woman”.

That revealed a lot to me. The steamy situation suddenly collapsed and I fell to thinking. Trying to sustain the heat Juloo hesitatingly asked me what he had never asked me before others “have you ever gone to a …..” I said “No No”. Fortunately a protected life had never let me challenge the temptation of sex too far.
I remember as an young lad of about fourteen or something I went for a movie one evening in Trichy to the Gaiety theatre. While returning after the movie, waiting for the bus I saw a book vendor selling books by the roadside by the light of a small earthen lamp. Among the books I saw a book which carried a colour picture of an ill clad woman. In the yellow light of the flame the picture had a mesmerizing effect . Many people picked up the book, browsed through it and placed it back . I could not bring myself to pick it up. I noted the cost of the book mentioned in the right top corner of the book .I checked my pockets and fell short of the requirement. The next day I gathered the money and since I did not have enough of it to go by bus I borrowed a squeaky cycle from a friend and traveled fifteen kilometers on it against the wind and after much walking around the book vendor finally I did buy it and like the greatest treasure ever uncovered I thrilled at my possession. I still remember the smell of the brown pages of that book .Such were my adolescent escapades, neither wholly idealistic nor totally wayward , incidents which at the time gave me pleasure but later a kind of remorse .These however were least interesting to Juloo .
It is said that the genetic system plays tricks on us to carry out its only role, which is the survival of the species .So to force us to eat or to make love, it is necessary to add an element of “pleasure” to the act. However, somehow the act of sex makes me feel that the methodology of the act itself is stupid from a certain angle. When a person is aroused, he moves heaven and earth to get to his object, then he indulges in crazy grabbing as Shashi Kapoor does in the movie “Heat and Dust” and while the silent walls seem to watch he comes back to his senses with a stupid shudder like he was being manipulated to do the whole thing . And when a man is in the act of lovemaking he looses his identity, seems to be possessed, cringing to see, feel, touch and generally undo his dignity, the dignity which we see in respectable people. I feel that when a man seeks, he loses his dignity and the act of lovemaking is a kind of seeking.

I remember a quotation by Nelson N.Foote in the beginning of the novel The Chapman report by Irving Wallace
Every act of human coitus has something of a drama; it commences with some form of pursuit and may be climaxed by total intimacy, but often is not .By itself, sex cannot substitute for intimacy…………

There is no point in crying over spilt milk, but still I cannot help wondering “Why” procreation act was planned through a means so tedious, complicated and misused. I have seen the female of many animal species run away from the male of the species when the male tries to approach for copulation. The male of the species tries to entice or force the female of the species for copulation. It appears that the act is not liked by the female of the species. It is said that any act or any body part that becomes unpopular with the majority of a kind of a species, gradually gets eliminated over millions of years. It is said that in the early days of mankind, humans had long canine teeth to cope up with the task of eating raw meat which slowly lost their purpose after man learned to cook his food and gradually the canine teeth became smaller in size. If half the population of any kind of species did not prefer the existing procedure of procreation why did it not gradually get replaced by a simpler procedure? Why does the existing procedure of procreation continue through the years in spite of not being preferred by half the population of any species?
Milton’s Adam says
O! why did God , Creator wise,
That peopled highest Heaven with Spirits masculine,
Create at last this novelty on earth,
This fair defect of nature,
And not fill the world at once with men,
As Angels, without feminine;Or find some other way to generate Mankind?

Milton seems to be blaming the woman for all the chaos but I feel the inadequacy is in the system. What I have in mind is, why not off springs be born through a process like nails growing or hair growing or some process of fertilization in the female by magnetic field of the presence of male species. Just some kind of a simpler link between male and female. Preposterous it might sound. But just imagine the advantages.

There would not be two rapes or more a second in USA
Women would not be looked at as objects of pleasure
Men would not think of having more than one wife
The Pope would not have to remain unmarried
There would be no eloping and no honour killings as in some countries
There would be no stoning to death for fornication or adultery
In movies we would not have to see exploitation of women
There would be no demand for dowry and no dowry deaths
The likes of Hug Hefner would close shop
There would be no pimps, no porn and no brothels
Female child infanticide would be unheard of
Purdah system will loose relevance
Crime against women would vanish
Youngsters would not waste their time in fruitless pursuit of sex
Youngsters would concentrate on their achievements
Women would not be considered inferior to men
There would be no STD or AIDS
Human beings would get more time to enjoy the mountains , grasslands , the
snow ,the stars in the sky and the beauty of the world
No burden of chastity or challenge of morality
No love stories and no poetry on Bewafai
No gays, no weirdoes
More time for work
More time for Love

The story is repeated over and over across the world and it has to go on.
A Mukesh Raj Kapoor song comes to my mind

Duniya Bananewale
Kya tere man me samaayee
Kahe koo Duniyaa banaayee tune
Kahe koo Duniyaa banaayee