Your article Man Suicided by Society (March 19) should help bring awareness of this growing problem and the help available to cope with it. As director of aasra, I’d like to inform that our telephone number has been changed to 754 6669.
Susmita Das Gupta, Navi Mumbai
Though you did publish the numbers of helplines, your article didn’t elaborate on suicide prevention. In this regard, the following five methods are found effective: a) life skills education for schoolchildren; b) early treatment of mental health disorders like schizophrenia and depression; c) availability of crisis support in the community; d) help for people who are known to attempt suicide periodically and e) tight control of means used for suicide, like pesticides. There’s also a need to change the current law that makes attempted suicide a crime.
R.Srinivasa Murthy, NIMHANS,Bangalore
Your helplines could put some troubled minds at rest.
Sukanta K. Naskar, Calcutta
Your article Almost Grown (March 19) was very relevant. I was especially interested as I work with periodwatch.com, a website focusing on menstruation. We constantly get mails from teens around the world with questions about their bodies. There’s fear, frustration and depression amongst them. Our aim is to create self-awareness and encourage healthy dialogue between daughters and their parents. Thanks for your article.
Harsha Dandapani, on e-mail
Amitava Kumar needs a reality check ("We are all converts", March 12). All he has to do is compare the reactions of his parents with those he got from his wife’s family. The honourable reaction of his parents far outweighs the narrow-minded queries put to him in Karachi. A pity Kumar couldn’t stand up for his beliefs and principles.
Prabhat Kumar, on e-mail
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians or Buddhists are certainly not Hindus. But being a Hindu, I am all of them. Such is the greatness of my religion.
N. Batta, Bhopal
Even though Amitava’s parents are settled in India and his wife’s in the US, they appear far more secular than the latter. People like Amitava are nothing but pseudo-secularists who love to belittle their own religion.
S. Annapurna, on e-mail
Dear Amitava/Safdar/whatever, don’t kid yourself. You’re now one of those Muslims. Servant of the Dark Lord.
Frodo Baggins, on e-mail
Getting rid of George Fernandes was among the better things to have happened for India’s security. To quote well-known defence analyst Brian Cloughley: "He was ignorant of defence matters, easily influenced by loony-light-bulb enthusiasts for any weird bit of equipment, and appointed only because of his political affiliations." As for drdo, Cloughley calls it "top-heavy, badly managed, a profligate spender... on ‘indigenously manufactured’ items that don’t work. With a combination like that...little wonder India’s defences (are) in a dreadful state..."
Moorthy Muthuswamy, New York
Three per cent of the cost of all defence purchases of the last 50 years that went as kickbacks and one per cent of all commissions to middlemen could have a) wiped out all budget deficits, b) paid back all international loans and c) given us a surplus budget year after year and at the same time given us enough money to feed, clothe, house and educate the country.
Dr Raghunathan Opeh, on e-mail
What a shame that a general (M.S. Ahluwalia) should demand a Johnnie Walker Blue Label just to meet the Tehelka correspondents and the PM who rode to power on the slogan "zero tolerance to corruption" should have his ministers, officials and even relatives deeply mired in it. Tehelka’s is a job well done. Having caught cricketers lbw and the chaddiwalas with their half-pants down, I suggest they now concentrate on the black coats in the judiciary. On with your sting journalism, boys! I only wish the print media, instead of just reporting your daredevilry, decides to join hands with you in rooting out corruption.
Dr Leo Rebello, Mumbai
Tehelka’s exposé was a reality waiting to explode. The rot stems from deep within. The rogues in the army are not only guilty of taking money but also guilty of murdering the very inspiration that a soldier looks up to in his senior officers.
Ben Kanobee, on e-mail
Tehelka’s latest exposé beats Bofors and match-fixing. Why gun for a Quattrocchi’s extradition when you can’t keep your own house in order?
Wilfred Lobo,on e-mail
Why are Advani, Mahajan and other bjp leaders insisting there was no wrongdoing? If that was the case, why did Bangaru Laxman resign? Or why were bureaucrats and officials in the army sacked? Shouldn’t all the guilty be punished? Otherwise how much better than Laloo would they be?
D.N. Phadnis, Mumbai
That was a prompt and informative cover story on the first Black Friday of the millennium (Bear-Hug and After, March 19). In a market meant primarily for investors and speculators, it’s sad that big bulls take over charge and run amok. sebi seems to have become redundant as is evident from its ineptitude in pre-empting such occurrences. Already hurt by the FM’s decision to cut interest rates on bank deposits, the small investors’ confidence has been further shaken.
P.K. Srivastava, Ghaziabad
I’d like to protest against the use of my name in connection with Ketan Parekh. Being a celebrity, a lot of people know me, but the question is, do I know any of these ‘hobnobbers’ with film stars? I DO NOT know Ketan Parekh and if he was there at some party I was present in, it’s his problem and not mine.
Sonali Bendre, Mumbai
The irony cannot be worse. Fred Modofsky, 44, a day trader, of Houston, Texas, was convicted for posting a bogus press release on the Yahoo message board that caused the stock of Lucent Technologies to drop last March. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 m fine. And here’s Ketan Parekh who rigs up select stock prices with impunity at the bse. In my opinion, sebi should be disbanded. We don’t need a watchdog who’s the handmaiden of ruling governments.
Pradeep Kumar, Pune
It’s shocking that the stockmarket crashed only hours after the budget which was expected to do wonders for India’s economy. This shows just how big the influence of the foreign investors in the Indian economy it is. Without the help of the top guns in the stock exchanges, the sebi and the Central government, the crash couldn’t have happened.
Meghna Vijay, Ernakulam
Bear-Hug and After was very well-written, understandable even to someone like me who doesn’t normally follow the stockmarket shenanigans.
Anjana Mehta,New Delhi
Why just the 30 per cent fall in sensex, Ketan Parekh’s also caused the 60 per cent fall in the nasdaq. The villain’s also rocked Dow Jones and is also responsible for the Japanese index Nikkei’s being quoted at a six-year low. Why, even the markets all over Europe and Southeast Asia are falling like ninepins and you’ve been the first to identify the culprit. Really, one must laud Outlook for its ingenuity in dishing out one cover story after another that’s gloriously misinformative and sensationalist.
Dr K. Prabhakar, Mumbai
Parekh is a genius. The real villains are the Kolkata bears who have time and again pulled bse down to their advantage. As of course, is anyone who indulges in insider trading. But then that’s the game. The small investor is aware of these risks. Be fair to the man who stayed inside the system and took opportunities as they came.
Vijaya Kumar,on e-mail
It’s high time the government intervened with suitable measures to pull up India’s sagging stockmarket scenario.
Bhaskar Sen, on e-mail
When two elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. So goes an old Chinese proverb. Similarly when a clutch of unscrupulous operators skate on thin ice, it’s the small investor who always catches the cold.
Murali Duggineni, Hyderabad
You say, "Mr Parekh has a stake in Packers’ Nine Broadcasting India along with HFCL..." I advise that Mr Parekh has no equity in HFCL-Nine Broadcasting India Ltd..
Ravina Raj Kohli,
CEO, HFCL-Nine Broadcasting India Ltd
I couldn’t read Tenzin Tsundue’s My Kind of Exile (March 12) in public. How could I explain the sudden outburst of tears, the shattered sobbing and the grotesque grimace on a face otherwise plastered with commercial cream? Deep, stupid empathy wells up ‘from the bowels’ rarely indeed. Every now and then, I get very shaken by Outlook. Don’t lose your ability to rattle your readers and grip their Adam’s apples tighter more often.
Satyabrata Sahu, Mumbai
I’ve been a regular subscriber of Outlook barring the first four or five weeks despite my 20-odd-year loyalty to India Today. I’ve always awaited a coverage of my city/state in your Diary column but sadly, except for one piece by a bbc correspondent in India, there has been no mention of Bhubaneshwar or Orissa. Hope you would acknowledge our grievance and do the needful.
D. Patnaik, Bhubaneshwar
Double standards or double entendres, that’s the question we need to ask regarding our attitude to kissing on the screen (Say No to Kissing, March 12). Our actors and actresses, it seems, are sworn in with a hypocritic oath. Wet saris, pelvic thrusts and roaming hands are part of every film churned out of Bollywood. We idolise these actors/actresses and raise a hue and cry when couples hold hands, hug or, God forbid!, kiss in public. I guess the darkness of a cinema hall or closed doors at home don’t allow enough light to expose these charlatans.
Percy, Hyderabad
Vinod Mehta’s opinion The Power of Silence (March 12) is quite amusing at best. Here’s an editor who’s crying for not being able to create a controversy. Your story about Rigging the pmo (March 5) lacks evidence and is just the raving of bureaucrats upset over losing their babudom. How dare an Ambani meet the PM when a babu can’t? Had you consulted some economic experts and seen if the decisions taken by the government (sorry, pushed by the pmo) were really wrong and didn’t make economic sense, I may have joined you in crying over the fate of the country.
Ashish Panda, Singapore
Apropos Vinod Mehta’s editorial The Power of Silence (March 12). No matter what campaign you run—be it against the government or the corporate houses that corrupt the government—politicians have to have some shame to react to it. So, silence is golden. Worms start coming out of the can only when you open your mouth to speak. It’s said that the people get the government they deserve. Sadly, we don’t even have an opposition we deserve. Especially when we have a Sonia—who can neither speak our language nor has the expertise in government—at the helm. Should the Congress come to power, we’ll have some more minority-bashing, blindfold divestment and a bunch of party workers whose credo is sycophancy by choice. They did nothing to nail the government when the politician-builder nexus was exposed, nor when the Kandla cyclone struck and the government showed little interest in helping those from outside the state. They need an episode of Babri proportions to raise a serious debate. Human values have flowed down the drains of Parliament Street.
Ian Rothman, Ahmedabad
The article A Wicket Maiden (March 5) was ill-timed and in bad taste. Attacking the personal life of the Indian captain just before an important series was to begin is hardly responsible journalism. Now is the time to stand behind our team instead of creating problems in the life of none other than the captain, thereby putting unnecessary pressure on him.
Rudra Sensarma, Mumbai
Will you please let the professionals work rather than poking your nose into personal affairs. Let Ganguly have 10 wives, why should it be your problem? If you can’t do any good for anybody, you don’t have a right to tarnish others’ image either.
Subhasish Maitra, on e-mail
But for a shameful and embarrassing exposure of Indian politicians courtesy tehelka.com, this week would have been a memorable one for a sports enthusiast like me, what with Gopichand’s All-England win and India’s miraculous triumph over the Kangaroos in the Test match at Eden Gardens in Calcutta.
Manoj Joshi, Pathankot
Strange that Sorab Shroff in his letter (A Bit of a Cheat, March 19) should in one sentence claim that Bradman was "clearly caught" by Jack Ikin in the 1946-47 series and then go on to say the "umpire himself was unsure". Perhaps Shroff had the benefit of close-ups, slo-mo replays and the snickometre to come to his conclusion. To call Bradman a cheat is overtly harsh, however much we may love tearing down our heroes once they’re dead and can’t defend themselves.
Gulu Ezekiel, New Delhi
