SandPrints

For Indian Traders in Yiwu, Fear is the key

chandrashekhara — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:05:31 +0000

Two Indian youth, Deepak Raheja and Shyamsundar Agarwal, who were employed in a firm owned by an Yemeni national in the Chinese city of Yiwu in the Zajiang province, had a horrowing experience over last few weeks.Their firm was involved in the export trade. They would buy goods in the Yiwu market from local traders and export the same. Over last few months, this firm had accumulated huge payables or debts to Chinese local dealers, who were continuously pestering them for immediate payments. When the total debts crossed 1.58 Million US$ on 10 Million RMB, the Yemeni owner of the firm, just disappeared. These two Indian youths, who were left behind to face the music, had absolutely no clue about the whereabouts of the Yemeni owner. Realizing that the owner of the firm is absconding, the Chinese creditors of the firm got real mad and actually abducted these two Indian employees.

When these youth sent an SOS to the Indian Consulate in Shanghai, Mr. Balchandran, a consulate official was sent to Yiwu to secure the release of these two youth. Mr. Balchandran had long negotiations with the Chinese traders. The negotiations went on for such a long time, in which this consulate official was not even offered food or water to drink, he fell down in a fit and became unconscious. When things became that very serious, the Shanghai consulate contacted Indian Government. Things moved at highest level and official Indian complaint was launched with Chinese Consul in India about this lawless behaviour on part of officials in Yiwu. Only after this, Chinese Government intervened and these two youth were released.

This is not the first case of abduction that has taken place in the Pearl river delta cities like Yiwu and Shaoxing from southern China. In Shaoxing an Indian trader was abducted and held up by the Chinese traders for more than a month. Indian consulate in Shanghai has received during last few years at least six calls from panicked Indian traders in desperate situations.

Twelve diamond merchants from India, who were under arrest in Schenzen and accused of trying to smuggle diamonds, were released by the Chinese Government recently. However there is a basic difference between their case and Yiwu abductions. The diamond merchants were accused of tax evasion and Chinese Government had arrested them. No Government agency was involved in Yiwu abductions.

It is generally observed that any monitory dispute in Yiwu and Shaoxing ends amicably when full payment is made. However,this must be the first case where employees of the trading firm were abducted by Chinese traders as the owner of the firm had disappeared. Local police normally do not interfere in such monitory disputes. One of the abducted youth, Deepak Raheja had come to Yiwu only an year ago. He was warned by other Indian in the city about the treatment Chinese traders give to defaulters in Yiwu. He might never would have imagined that he would have to face that situation within an year. Deepak Raheja says that Chinese Traders had hired thugs from hei shehui, or black society (An underground criminal organization.) to torture them. Chinese traders take help of this underground criminal society because police are not ready to interfere in such trade disputes. These days, because of the global recession, the situation in Chinese markets is extremely unstable. This has resulted into large number of defaults on part of foreign buyers. Chinese traders therefore have become extremely wary because of the unwillingness or inability of law enforcement agencies to solve many cases.

The State-run Global Times newspaper said in a warning to Indian businessmen, “they should obey rules”. “If they cannot get rid of their bad habit of defaulting on debts, both Chinese and foreign businessmen will keep away from them,”.It also hit out at the Indian government’s ‘narrow nationalism’, saying the latest dispute was a confrontation between ‘ nationalist sentiment’ of Indians and what it described as Yiwu’s ‘steady market regulations’.

Even after Indian Government’s warning to Indian traders to keep away from Yiwu, it is doubtful whether this would happen in reality. Yiwu market is thriving and is a great place to do business. Indian traders therefore may not listen to the Indian Government advisory and may continue to do business in Yiwu.

26 January 2012

Filed under: Current affairs Tagged: Abduction, china, indian origin, payment default, Shaoxing, traders, Yiwu

Solar Telescope in Ladakh

chandrashekhara — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:57:44 +0000

Pangong lake is one of the most picturesque tourist spots in east Ladakh. It became even more famous, when a film song from one of the Bollywood super hits, was picturized here. Tall mountains with snow clad peaks, surround the azure blue waters of the lake from all sides. Any visitor, who visits this place gets spellbound with the stunning beauty of nature here. This lake is at a height of 14270 feet and is 134 KM long and 5 KM wide. As per present political situation, this lake is right on the India-Tibet border with 3/4 of its area in possession of China.

Science and Technology department of the Government of India, has recently taken a decision to erect a 2 meter diameter Solar Telescope on the bank of this lake. This place has been selected because of long sun light hours throughout the year and with almost zero pollution in the air. There are one or two small villages like Spangamik in the vicinity. These villages have no means of livelihood except for cultivation of sheep, that produce Pashmina wool, and summer time tourist traffic. This project should improve living conditions of these people.

Gigantic activities continuously take place on surface of the sun because of the atomic reactions going on there. These include solar flairs, hundreds of miles high and the dark spots formed on the surface, These raging events on sun, create major magnetic storms on earth and streams of tiny particle are let into space, hammering all objects around the sun. This is known as solar wind and is a major problem area for man made satellites orbiting the earth. To watch and observe the sun for any such upcoming solar phenomenon, solar telescopes have been installed at many places in the world. La-Palma islands belonging to Spain, host a Swedish made 1 meter diameter Solar Telescope. In the state of Arizona in US, Macmuth-Pierce Solar Telescope, having 1.6 meter diameter, is presently the larges in the world. The Ladakh Solar Telescope at Merak, when completed would be largest such facility in the world.

Swedish 1 meter diameter Solar Telescope

Two major difficulties are faced in the operation of Solar telescopes. The land in the vicinity of such telescopes gets heated up, creating turbulence in the air just above. Such turbulence affects the resolution of the telescope. To avoid this problem, the solar telescopes are installed inside high concrete towers. Secondly, the incoming sunlight heats up the air within the telescope. To overcome this difficulty, suitable air conditioning equipment is required to be fitted. Ladakh has extremes of weather and would require some such arrangement for sure.

Any person, who has visited Pangong lake would immediately agree that this is perhaps the best site for this project because of crystal clear air and almost total absence of almost any cloud cover any time of the year. This makes the selection of this site ideal.

Telescope at Hanle, Ladakh

A large telescope for night observations, already exists at Hanle village near Skarchu river in the Changthang region of Ladakh. The Solar Telescope at Merak would be a good new complimentary addition installed not very far from this place.

22 January 2012

Filed under: Current affairs Tagged: host, India, Ladakh, Merak village, meter diameter, Pangong lake, solar phenomenon, Solar telescope, solar telescopes, spain, tibet border, tiny particle

1143 year old printed book- Diamond Sutra

chandrashekhara — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:02:43 +0000

In the ancient and medieval times, the cultural and commercial interaction between countries like China, Persia and India from Asia and European nations on the Mediterranean sea coast, mainly took place through a 7000 mile long caravan route. Traders, monks and preachers, nomadic tribes and soldiers on campaigns, travelled on this very same caravan route. Even though the caravans carried all kind of goods, bulk of the trade was of the items like silks, musk, perfumes, jewels and decorative glass. Because of this, the caravan route became known as the ‘Silk Route’. This route was in use for at least three millennia. The main silk route started from Xian in Chaina and reached the borders of the Roman empire through Kazakhstan, Iran and Iraq. Another subsidiary or feeder road came to India via Iran and Afghanistan. Number of taverns and water points were built on this route for the convenience of the caravans.

A famous Archaeological explorer of twentieth century, Sir Aurel Stein, led three expeditions on the silk route, between 1900-1901, 1906-1908, 1913-1916. Combining the three expeditions, Stein and his team walked about 25000 miles on foot. They crossed places like mountain ranges of Kashmir and Afghanistan as well as deadly deserts of ‘Takalamakan’, ‘Lop-Nor’ and ‘Gobi’ number of times. he faced number of life threatening incidences in his travels. Nevertheless, he managed to discover many ancient frescoes, banners, books and other items of significance. Perhaps his most important discovery was ‘Magao’ or ’1000 Buddha’ caves near the town of Dun Huang in Gansu district of China. This town was on the old silk route. Stein came to know about the ancient caves hare and befriended the self appointed monk in charge ‘Wang Uanlu’. Stein negotiated with this monk and managed to collect a huge cache of banners and document from a sealed room in these caves.

In these artifacts obtained from Magao caves, Stein found an old book, which could be considered as the most important or a masterpiece. This book has been printed and published on 11 May 868 (1143 years ago) on a thick and continuous roll of paper. The printing was done by preparing wooden blocks and then pressing these blocks on the paper. The book is a form of a continuous roll of paper about 16 feet long and contains full version of Diamond Sutra. This Sutra is considered by Mahayana Buddhists as perhaps holiest Sutra preached by Buddha himself. In fact the famous Chinese monk, Xuen Zang had travelled to India in AD 520 by a land route to translate and take away with him Diamond Sutra and other Sutra’s in their original form. However we can not really say whether the Diamond Sutra fiund in Magao caves is a true version of the book or some curruptions have sneaked in again. At the beggining of this book, there is a hand drawn sketch of Buddha guiding one of his descipals, Subhuti in presence of many other monks.

The book,in its original form in Sanskrit, is called ‘Vajrachedikapragnyaparmita Sutra’ (. ‘वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र ‘ ). However in short it is known as ‘Vajra’ or Diamond Sutra. The Buddhists Sutras or hymns were to be rote learned and then chanted. Since these were to be chanted, in the beginning few lines of the text, express instructions were given about purifying the mouth and the body of the monk before Sutra can be chanted by him.

A sutra is a sermon spoken by the Buddha. All sutras begin with the phrase, ‘Thus I have heard’, and then describe the place where the sermon was first given. The Diamond Sutra was originally preached in a park in northern India. The first few lines of text here also report that there was a large crowd present, including over a thousand monks. Among them is Subhuti who asks Buddha to explain to the crowd how to achieve enlightenment. In the first section Buddha explains that learning four lines of this text and teaching them to others would bring Subhuti more merit than if he filled three thousand galaxies with treasure and then gave it all away to the poor. This shows the importance of copying Buddhas teachings in the Buddhist tradition.

A central doctrine of Buddhism is that the material world is an illusion, and therefore there are no individuals or objects. This is called the principle of non-duality. And since there are no people or other living beings, there is really no suffering. In this text Buddha elucidates this doctrine by asking Subhuti questions about the ‘world’. One of the questions concerns the number of grains of sand in the River Ganges. ‘Suppose’, says Buddha ‘there were as many River Ganges as there are sand grains. Surely, the total number of sand grains in all these rivers would be immense?’ But this is a trick question. Sand grains are part of the material world and, as Buddha explains, the material world is an illusion. Really, there are no sand grains at all, just as there is no River Ganges and no Subhuti.

In the next section, Buddha names his sermon. He tells Subhuti that their dialogue should thereafter be known as ‘The Diamond Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom’. The diamond – ‘vajra’ – is a symbol of indestructibility and power over illusion. ‘The Perfection of Wisdom’ refers to a larger group of sutras, all preaching the doctrine that the world is illusory. Of course, naming the sutra is also part of the illusion, as Buddha points out. Subhuti is moved to tears on hearing this and understanding the Buddha’s teaching.

After his return from central Asia, this book was handed over to British Museum as per previous agreement between Stein, Government of India and British Government and has been lying in their collections for last 100 years,. Few days back, British library has made few of such invaluable books available in digital form on the internet. Diamond Sutra is one book from this collection. The original books has been printed on a paper roll and is to be read by unrolling from left to right. On the internet this book is available in form of 5 slides. At the end of the book the publisher of the book ‘Vang Jie’ has mentioned that he has published this book ” Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 15th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong [11 May 868]“.\

19 January 2012

Filed under: Books Tagged: ancient caves, British Library, caravan route, commercial interaction, Diamond sutra, feeder road, Magao caves, Oldest complete printed book, silk route, Sir Aurel St ein, Sir Aurel Stein

Ignorance is bliss (sometimes)!

chandrashekhara — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:25:45 +0000

In the month of November of 2011, US State department, published a map of India on it’s web site. In this map, parts of Jammu&Kashmir state, in illegal possession of Pakistan, were shown as parts of Pakistan. It was natural that India’s foreign affairs ministry as well as Indian consulate in US, protested against this error. After this, US State department removed the map from it’s web site.

In the new year, US State department has published again a new map of India on it’s web site. While talking about this new map, the state department spokesperson gave long explanations about how the errors crept in the old map and how effort has been made to clear the old controversy. The spokesperson said that the new map has been drawn according to official policies of the US Government and for any disputed regions, since the US Government does not take any sides in such disputes, the Kashmir region has been shown in dotted lines. He also explained about the Legend given near dotted lines to explain the present position.

However in spite of the singing about the virtues of this new map by US Government spokesperson, nobody from India or Indian Government is likely approve this new map. This map shows the actual line of control in a proper way. But the areas of Gilgit, Skardu anf Baltistan have been shown within areas belonging to Pakistan. In contrast, Aksaichin area belonging to India (Grabbed by China in 1960) has been shown properly as presently controlled by China but claimed by India. This new map is going to be equally controversial and the disagreement between India and US is unlikely to end even with this map.

B.B.C. has recently published a map of this region on it’s web site. This map is perhaps a perfect example of how a map of disputed region should be drawn by a neutral international organization. If we compare the B.B.C. map with the US State department map, it becomes immediately crystal clear that US State department map is still full of errors and it was better for the US State department not to have any map at all on the web site and hide it’s ignorance. Indian people and Government are least likely to accept the State department map and a new controversy is likely to emerge soon.

13 January 2012

Filed under: Current affairs Tagged: inaccuracies, line of control, map of india, US State Department

Ginger Tea and British Patent Office

chandrashekhara — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:07:07 +0000

I do not know, what the readers of this blog are reminded of, on a rainy wet day, with chill, dampness and biting cold winds. As far as I am concerned, I long and yearn on such days, for a steaming hot cup of tea, boiled with a finger of Ginger. A cup of such Ginger tea, drives away immediately all thoughts of dampness and chill from my mind, as it goes down and burns my throat. One does not have to make such ginger tea only at home in India. Any road side shack will sell you such a cup of Ginger tea with that burning sensation, which would give you the same feeling of comfort. Actually ginger tea is just one of the recipe from a range of eats or drinks, that can be made with Ginger. The Ginger candy or the soft candy balls made with dried ginger powder, sugar and lots of Ghee, are equally tempting and popular. There are other uses of ginger too. My grand mother used dried Ginger powder mixed with water, to mask the forehead in case of colds and headaches. All these teas, candies and home remedies are really part of our traditional knowledge handed over to us by generations.

Any Indian would be aggrieved if someone starts claiming that this traditional knowledge, which has been handed over to us by generations, has been discovered by him only now and tries to make a fast buck from the lie. Five or Six years ago, a person from London, Nicolas John Larkins, applied for a patent to British patent Office under a name ” Pharmaceutical composition for the treatment of excess mucous production”. In his application he claimed to have found a wonder drug using Ginger (Zingiber officinale) and Kutki (Picrorhiza kurroa) to cure cough and lung diseases. This application was filed under patent number (GB2436063).

Government of India found out about this false claim in 2011. They made a demand with British patent office that no such patent should be granted. When necessary proof was furnished by Government of India, British Patent Office rejected Larkins’s application and canceled the provisional patent. I would not have been surprised, , in case this patent had been approved, that this Larkins character would have asked the Indians, to pay royalty to him for drinking ginger tea.

Really speaking, this is not the first attempt by westerners to loot the traditional knowledge of India. In 1995, European patent office approved a patent regarding medicinal uses of Neem tree. After India’s complaint and a legal battle of 10 years, the patent was eventually cancelled in 2005. In 1995 only, US patent office approved a patent about medicinal properties of Turmeric. After India’s complaint it was cancelled in 1997.

CSIR or Council of Scientific Research in India has prepared a database of Traditional Indian knowledge. This has been made available on the web and is known as ‘ The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library or TKDL’. There are 24 Million pages in this database and systematic search is possible. The database includes old Sanskrit manuscripts and facility to translate in German, French, Spanish and Japanese is available. No country approves a patent application, if the information given in that application is pre-published. Publication of this database on the internet should have stopped this attack on India’s traditional knowledge, which is available for everyone’s use. Indian Government has requested patent offices of all other countries to refer to this data base, before granting any patent in the related fields. So far no patent office had responded to this call. European patent office has now agreed to use the database. Only the future can tell us the effectiveness of this database in preventing such frivolous patents.

Fighting legal battles to counter such frivolous patents is very expensive and time consuming and therefore can not be done in each and every case. Besides this, TKDL data base lists only the medicinal properties. Patent applications, regarding other uses such as preparation of organic colour from Turmeric for example, can be still approved.

The people of Indian origin, now settled in the western countries, can help to prevent such use of traditional Indian knowledge for individual advantage. They should keep watch on such frivolous patent applications and block these in time to prevent issue of patents. Otherwise looting of this traditional Indian knowledge may continue.

12 January 2012

Filed under: Exasperation Tagged: British patent office, Ginger, medicinal use, Patents, traditional Indian knowledge

Mighty peaks of Eastern Karakorams

chandrashekhara — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:17:54 +0000

The Ladakh region on the northern borders of India, comprises of essentially three mountain ranges, namely Zanskar, Ladakh and Karakorams with deep river basins between these. When you land at Leh airport, this geographical situation gets aptly highlighted. If you enter Ladakh by road, you travel along the banks of rivers and also go to towns, which are all situated also in the river basins. When you look around from these places, you can only see tall mountain ranges on all sides. The really mighty and tallest peaks are all hidden behind these basin side mountains. To see these mighty peaks of Ladakh, you either need to travel by air or go to places, which are at substantial heights. For a non mountain climber like me, there are only two choices of such places. First is the Chang La pass in the Chang Chenmo region of Ladakh. Unfortunately, Chang La is situated at such a geographical location that a tall mountain completely blocks your east side view like a curtain. It becomes therefore impossible to see any mighty peaks from here.

The second option for a place with great height, is the Khardung La pass. Since this pass is at a height of 18380 feet, there are good chances of viewing tall ice clad peaks from here. Unfortunately, it mostly snows in Khardung La or there is a thick cloud cover towards the east. Usually this means that no view can be had from here. Luckily, while returning from Nubra valley back to Leh, I was fortunate enough to have brilliant and clear day with bright sunshine. Since the eastern sky also was clear, I was able to photograph the Eastern Karakoram mountain peaks quite clearly. here is a brief review of the Karakoram peaks that can be seen from Khardung La pass.

Starting from the left the first group of peaks is the Saser Kangri massif group . These four peaks are part of easternmost sub range of Karakorams, the Saser Muztagh. The tallest of these is on left and is known Saser Kangri I(7672 meters). The peaks on right is Saser Kangri III(7495 meters) and Saser Plateau Kangri (7287 meters). The Saser Kangri II(7513 meters) is on further right. Saser Kangri I was climbed by an ITBF expedition in 1973 for the first time. In 1987 it was climbed again by an Ind0-British expedition. Saser Kangri II has been climbed only last year whereas Saser plateau peak was climbed in 1984 by an Indo-Japanese expedition. Saser Kangri III has been climbed by ITBF in 1986. The notorious Saser La Pass on the old Silk Route coming from Xinjiang in China, lies north of Saser Kangri massif.

The peak on the right of Saser Kangri is known as Chushku Kangri( 6853 meters). This has not been climbed yet. The two completely snow clad paeks in the centre of picture frame, are Kataklik Kangri I (6880 meters) and Kataklik Kangri II ( 6820 meters). These two peaks are right on the line of actual control between India and China. Obviously no attempt has been made to climb these. The peak on right of these two, is the Arganglas peak. This looks quite big in the photo because it is much nearer. This was climbed by an Indo-British expedition of 2002 led by Harish Kapadiya. The last peak on the right, which can be seen from Khardung La is Kunchung Kangri(6751 meters). This has not been attempted as yet.

In the southward view from Khardung La pass, it should be really possible to see the Leh city proper. However a tall mountain here, hides the view completely.

The southward view from khardung La pass

View from the Eastern end of Chang La pass is totally blocked by a mountain

Most of the travellers going to Ladakh have no idea that it is possible to see these majestic peaks during regular excursions. Even the tourism department in Leh, were not able to tell me anything about the sightings. I consider myself lucky to be able to view the peaks.

10 January 2012

Filed under: Travels & Countries Tagged: Arganglas kangri, chushku Kangri, Eastern karakoram mountain range, India, Kataklik Kangri, Khardung La. Chang La, Kunchang kangri, Ladakh, Peaks, Saser Kangri

A jump in to the future

chandrashekhara — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:06:22 +0000

On 31st December 2011, the inhabitants of almost all nations on the earth, welcomed the new year. But they did not do it at the same time. As the clocks struck 12 midnight, according to the local standard time, starting from nations in the east to west, the people started celebrating the new year with great fanfare and revelry. According to Indian standard time, people in New Zealand welcomed the new year first or in the afternoon. People on the Hawaiian islands celebrated it last after almost 22 hours.

The local standard time for any nation is roughly according to it’s geographical location on the earth.If we were to divide the earth’s globe in 24 equal segments along east-west direction, the standard time in each of these imaginary segments would differ from standard time in adjoining segments. In reality it does not happen so. Many a times, standard time is fixed based on social, economic or political reasons, and is quite different from geographical time. As an example, we might consider China, which is spread from Indian borders on west to Korea in the east. As per geographical time, China should have four standard times. Yet all over China only Beijing time is recognized as Chinese standard time. This creates practical problems. In the western province of Xinjiang, where local time is similar to that of India or Pakistan, when its 3 AM Indian standard time, the clocks show 6′O clock in the morning.

An imaginary north-south arc, drawn somewhere between New Zealand and Hawaii islands on the globe, is internationally accepted as the date line. There is a time difference of 24 hours between east of this line to the west of this line. When flying to US from Asia, we cross this line, we suddenly go back in time by 24 hours. Similarly while returning from US, we jump ahead by 24 hours. However I am not writing here about this jump into future by thousands of travellers each day, who undertake this journey from US to Asia. I am writing here about the people and Government of the tiny island of Samoa, which is just along this international date line.

This Samoa island and Tokelau island are situated north of Fiji islands, at about mid way on a line joining New Zealand and Hawaii islands. The co-ordinates for Samoa are (13S,172W) and for Tokelau(9S,171W).

For last 119 years, these two tiny countries were considered the most westwards nations on the earth. Obviously, the new year came to Samoa last, after all other nations have celebrated it.. The population of Samoa is around 180000. But there are about 130000 people of Samoan origin, who live in New Zealand. Naturally Samoa has deep, cultural, family wise and trading relations with New Zealand. These two countries all these years, had a time difference of 23 hours. This created hardships for the people of both countries to keep in touch with each other. When it was a Friday in Samoa, people in New Zealand would be enjoying week end. When Samoans would be resting on a Sunday, New Zealanders would be working on a Monday.

Samoa happens to be a favourite holiday destination for the people from New Zealand. Similaraly, Samoa has substantial trade with Australia. Beacause of all these reasons, the Government in Samoa has decided to jump in to the future. After 29th December last year, there was no 30th December at all. Samoa jumped to 31st December and started new year celebrations first, even before New zealand.

Samoan Government says that it’s people have liked this change. I appreciate this idea, to change local standard time, according to convenience of the people. Even in India, if we could have 3 local standard times, the geographical time would match the local standard time and nightfall occurring at 2.30 or 3 PM in Assam during winters, can be avoided. Such weird timings can be easily avoided having 3 standard times in India, Western, Central and eastern.

9 January 2012

Filed under: curiosity Tagged: beijing time, celebrating the new year, hawaii islands, International date line, samoa island skipping a date, stadard time

Generation Gap

chandrashekhara — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:14:43 +0000

This December, marriage season is on in Pune city with full force. Few years back, people used to get married by thousands at the peak of the summer. The season has apparently shifted to December. During winter, no doubt, the ladies can wear those heavy brocaded saaree’s and wear heavy gold jewelery with most comfort and men can shine off in their new 3 piece suits. It is true that a marriage ceremony in winter is more enjoyable on any day. Recently I was invited to a marriage. The invitation card itself was so elaborate and was designed with such pomp, that it was possible to visualize the wealthiness of both families. The invitation card was in three parts. One for the main marriage ceremony, one for the Mehendi and the third one looked bit different so it drew my rather close attention. This invitation was a personal invitation from the bridegroom and the bride and it was for a cocktail party, two days prior to the main marriage ceremony. I felt rather odd, that the young couple was inviting friends and relatives of all ages, for a drinks and dance party. Since I was not interested in either of the two, there was no point in my going there. Yet somehow, the invitation remained firmly in my memory.

I recollected another incidence that happened about sixty years ago. Dr. Shankar Karve, the eldest son of one of the great social reformer of India, Dr. D,K, alias Annasaheb Karve, who was a medical practitioner and lived in Mombasa, Africa, was visiting India. This small incidence happened in the house of Dr. Shankar Karve’s younger brother Dinkar. In the sitting room, number of people, who had come to see visiting Dr. Shankar Karve, were having a pleasant conversation with him. I was a school going lad then. I was sitting along with one or two other kids in a corner and watching the proceedings. Dr. Shankar Karve, whu must have been in his sixties, was smoking and was explaining something. He suddenly extinguished the cigarette and threw it in the ash tray. When someone asked him about it, he invited the attention of that person to a side portico, from where, his father Annasaheb Karve, who must have been in his Nineties then, was slowly walking into the room with a walking stick in his hand.

I feel that these two incidences are at the two ends of a social spectrum. On one side, we have a sixty years old, eminent medical practitioner, extinguishing his cigarette, because it may not look proper to smoke in front of his 90 years old father, and on the other side, we have this young couple in their twenties, inviting friend and relatives of all ages, for a dance and drinks party. I first thought that this great contrast was an indicator of the social changes that are taking place in the Indian society. However after giving some more thought to it, I feel now that it is really the Generation gap and nothing else.

Many questions arise in my mind. How does extinguishing a cigarette really means paying respect to elderly? Or how is it? that inviting elderly people for a drinks and dance party, would mean that the younger host is showing disrespect. Who decides? which one of these two actions is proper or improper. The new generation, which demands full transparency in all things now, might consider the act of extinguishing a cigarette as sort of Hippocratic behavior or double standards. Similarly if everyone can enjoy and have fun at a drinks and dance party, why not let elders participate in that? In most of the tribal rituals, social drinking is a mandatory ritual. So if it is extended to so called urban societies,what is wrong in that?

I can not say that there is any basic fault in this line of thinking. Yet it may be difficult to make people from older generation to accept it. This is the generation gap. Every older generation feels that the things done by the new generation are wrong. This is just an example from that.

I think that this generation gap would continue for generations to come. Only the incidences might be different. Who knows?

7 January 2012

Filed under: Musings Tagged: drinking, Generation gap, smoking, social conventions

Chakra 2.0

chandrashekhara — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:03:19 +0000

In 1988, India leased one nuclear submarine of ‘Charlie-I’ class from Russia. This submarine was named as ‘Chakra’ and was in service with the Indian navy up to 1991. The officers and men of the Indian navy could get excellent experience of running a nuclear power submarine during that period. Subsequently, no nuclear submarine of any type was inducted by the navy. Because of this, all the experience and the expertise developed by the Navy in running and maintaining a nuclear powered submarine, was lost as all men operating ‘Chakra’ eventually retired. This raises the question as to why this Chakra exercise was done at all? I do not think that any one can really answer this question.

Indian Navy is all set to repeat the same exercise again. On 30th November 2011 , Indian navy received an ‘Akula-2′ class submarine on lease from Russia for a period of 10 years. The original name for this particular submarine was ‘K-152 NERPA’ . India has rechristened it as ‘Chakra’ again. This submarine has been in limelight ever since it has been built. In 2004, Indians had paid 650 Million Dollars to Russia for eventual leasing out of this Submarine. There were number of difficulties in the construction and the project was much delayed. In November 2008, during sea trials, 20 sailors had died during an accident on board due to poisonous gas leakage. Russia now says that the submarine is now ready for operational use. Fifty Indian mariners have been already trained on the submarine and would man it now. The submarine is equipped with a complement of torpedoes and ‘Club-S’ cruse missiles and packs a powerful punch. Still, due to international restrictions, India can not fit any Nuclear tipped missiles on this submarine. Still, India.s dream of having a nuclear Triad (capability to attack from missiles in air, on land and from below sea) is not achievable by having this submarine in command.

Navy’s grand plan appears to be that till the time, when ‘Arihant’ (Nuclear Submarine made by India) joins the navy with full operational capability, operational experience can be obtained on this submarine, leased from Russia.

The idea appears very sound in theory and on paper. Yet, the way operational experience gained with ‘Chakra 1.0′ was totally wasted, no one can say for sure that it would not be repeated this time. The past experience of India made weapons has not been particularly encouraging and have remained only as white elephants. Local made main battle tank ‘Arjun’ was never accepted by the army. The light combat aircraft ‘Tejas’ is still not fully operational for squadron duty. There is no guaranty that ‘Arihant’ may not follow suit. No one can really predict the outcome. Unfortunately if ‘Arihant’ follows the ‘Arjun’ or ‘Tejas’, it is feared that the lease of ‘Chakra 2.o’ would be just an repeat of the exercise ‘Chakra 1.0′.

4 January 2012

Filed under: Current affairs Tagged: Akula II, Arihant, chalie I, class submarine, gas leakage, Indian navy, international restrictions, nerpa, Nuclear Submarine, nuclear triad, poisonous gas

A Nani for the Nano

chandrashekhara — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:41:39 +0000

Finally competition has arrived for the Tata Nano car, which is India’s cheapest car selling under 3000 US$. Bajaj Auto Ltd; world’s second largest motor cycle maker unveiled a new car or an AutoRiksha today. The car named as RE-60 has 200 cc rear mounted, low emission engine and a fuel efficiency of between 35 to 40 Km per litre. The engine is a new water cooled DTSi 4 (Digital Twin Spark Ignition) valve and would give a maximum speed of 70km per hour.

The car has a seating capacity of four people. It has been designed and developed fully by Bajaj Auto.

The managing director of Bajaj Auto says that he may export this car first to SriLanka before selling it to India. The car has such low emission that it emits only 60 grams of carbon-di-oxide gas per km.

The engine for the car is state-of-the-art and environment friendly. The car is frugally engineered and would be produced at three-wheeler plant in Aurangabad, in the coming months.

Bajaj Auto ltd. have not announced the price yet, which is not likely to be crucial factor if India’s Nano experience is recollected. The Nano sales numbers are no where near expectations and present two wheeler owners have simple refused to change over to a four wheeler. The Nano has therefore become just one of the choices for second car.

That is why perhaps Bajaj Auto chairman wants to sell his car in SriLanka and not in India, where selling is likely to be very tough.

3 January 2011

Filed under: curiosity Tagged: Bajaj Auto, motor cycles maker, RE 60, Small Car, Tata Nano