Man, armed with sophisticated weapons, has made many an animal extinct. All his might, however, has been brought to nought before the humble mosquito who you rightly label as The Tiny Terrorist on your cover (Oct 23). With one pinprick, the mosquito alone may one day reduce man to an endangered species.
Brij Bhushan Vyas, Jodhpur
The present firefighting measures against dengue are grossly inadequate. Aedes aegypti eggs can withstand long dry spells, often for more than a year. This has to be factored in in any control programme. Unlike other disease-carrying mosquitoes, Aedes also transmits the virus on to her offspring, thus multiplying the number of carriers. Preventive measures like repellents are used at night, but the Aedes bites during the day, with peaks in feeding activity during early morning and late afternoon. When a person infected with dengue fever virus starts responding to treatment symptomatically, he relaxes his guard without realising that the virus never leaves the body. If bitten again by a dengue-carrying mosquito, he gets infected with a more virulent strain which can assume even fatal form.
M.M. Gurbaxani, Bangalore
Even when not declared an epidemic, the dengue-chikungunya outbreak continues to be one. As usual, the government woke up, but too late. Sanitation remains a primary issue for government and individuals, and we need to make it a part of our lives instead of waiting for an epidemic to clean up our act. For, as you rightly point out, the tiny terrorist remains more dangerous than the real one, because it can kill millions without using even one gram of rdx! And that the female of the species is the real terrorist, while the male continues to be henpecked!
V.K. Tangri, Dehradun
The recent outbreaks have only exposed our utter inability to predict, control and tackle such crises. Rapid urbanisation, increased construction activity coupled with more national and international travel has created new and innumerable breeding sites for mosquitoes. Global warming-related erratic weather patterns have added fuel to fire by extending mosquito longevity.
Dr Rajni Kant, on e-mail
Despite their long existence, large manpower and generous allocation of funds, institutes like aiims, the Malaria Research Institute or the Institute of Tropical Diseases have contributed hardly anything that can be adopted on a commercial basis. The series of health ministers have done nothing to channelise resources into areas that have a direct bearing on the masses of this country. Meanwhile, India’s first family, the Nehru-Gandhis, donates a huge sum of money to the Harvard University to start a Rajiv Gandhi chair for research in public health. Charity is well worth beginning at home.
Kaly Bose, on e-mail
Chikungunya’s after-effects are more severe on the sick and elderly. A word of caution, based on my personal experience, for diabetics. Chikungunya, if ignored or not treated properly in time for diabetics, attacks the kidneys causing a steep rise in the levels of blood urea and blood sugar.
S. Bakthavathsalan, Chennai
A mercy petition ceases to be one if the person making it questions the judgement against which it’s being moved. Afzal Guru’s wife says the apex court did not give him a fair trial and so his sentence should be overturned (The Swing Vote, Oct 23). Outlook too seems to concur. The procedure by which the President has to seek the advice of the government and has to abide by it makes the whole exercise absurd. The power to grant mercy by altering the sentence must be based on objective criteria and not be influenced by the subjective views of those vested with the authority to consider and act on the matter. It also seems strange that the government sits over the sentence ratified by the apex court. Does it not detract from the majesty of the apex court and create an impression that instead of the judiciary, government machinery is supreme, at least here?
G.R. Saha, Calcutta
Apropos Barak Bites (Oct 23). After a long time, some sensible stuff in Outlook. The Trishul and Prithvi missiles are absolute failures, but the drdo has never acknowledged this fact, since its very existence depends on the ‘Swadeshi Missile’ theory. The Barak missile deal, by all accounts, is a good one because we got a cheaper and a better missile. It’s up to the cbi to establish whether any kickbacks were paid to George Fernandes. This should not affect any of the deals. One shouldn’t forget how we were short of spares during Kargil when the Bofors gun was employed successfully against the Pakistani infiltrators.
Vishwanath Rao, Bangalore
This Ship Is Loaded, you say of India busting a North Korean ship carrying missiles in 1999. However, one questions begs an answer. Why on earth did the North Koreans stop at Kandla and not proceed directly to Karachi which is not too far away?
Azeem Taqi, Nashville, US
Gobind’s Shorn Flock (Oct 23). A controversial subject at best, and many thanks for bringing out this stage of evolution in the Sikh religion. Note must also be taken of perhaps equally large numbers of urban Sikhs in India and abroad who have chosen to shed their long hair and turbans. As also of the large number of Sikh women who choose to cut their hair even if the menfolk in their family don’t.
J.P. Singh, Delhi
While people of any religion are free to dress as per the prescribed code of their religion, I doubt if God cares whether one wears a turban, cuts one’s hair or prays within the walls of a temple, mosque, church, gurudwara, synagogue, under a tree or under the open sky. Matters of dress and where one prays have everything to do with religion, very little to do with real faith, truth or God.
B. Ramdeo, Springfield, US
It shouldn’t really matter to the core of excellence in the Sikh religion if the mass of uncouth, semi-literate [ex]-Sikh peasants of Punjab leave the fold. Sikhism has survived other external and internal terrors and banalities—Ahmed Shah Abdali, Bhindranwale and so on. It’ll survive this as well. On a trivial note, tying a turban takes less time than a shave. And a simple hairwash with soap is less of a problem than the myriad unguents, gels, perfumes, sets, sprays, creams, streaks which the youth seem obsessed with.
Premendra Singh, New Delhi
It’s wrong to associate kesh with Sikhs. The Sikh panth was started by Guru Nanak who was against any religious symbol or dress code. According to him, anyone who believed in the three principles of life—Kirt karna (work), wand chhakna (share) and naam japna (pray)—could be a Sikh. It was only later that the 10th guru, Gobind Rai, laid the foundation of the Khalsa panth to save the Hindus from Mughal barbarism. It was he who prescribed the five kakaars (kesh, kaccha, kara, kangha and kirpan) and bestowed the title of Singh on the Khalsas. The five kakaars are necessary for the Khalsa who necessarily has to be a Sikh. A Sikh need not be a Khalsa and conform to the kakaars. This confusion was created by the British to wean Sikhs away from Hindus.
A.K. Sharma, Chandigarh
Though a Hindu, I respect the Sikh community for its culture of hard work and their ability to laugh at themselves. It’s a pity the youth want to forsake their distinctive Sikh identity and be a part of the non-descript masses.
Vinayak Modak, on e-mail
Much as the trend distresses me, a Keshdhari Sikh, it has to be said that simply cutting one’s hair does not stop anybody from being a Sikh. To be a Sikh is to follow the teachings of Nanak and other gurus and they’re not about practising religion in its visible forms, but in our deeds, thoughts and motives. And why blame the sgpc? In our pursuit of modern life and learning, we parents have forgotten the importance of the Sikh identity and the meaning of these symbols. How can we meaningfully pass them on to our children?
Mantosh Singh, on e-mail
It seems old monk Hiuen Tsang has made Hindi-Chini bhai bhai again, bringing them together on a memorial in his name (The Blend Sutra, Oct 23). Hopefully, this convergence of interests between the two emerging super-economies could help ease the decades-old mistrust and ill-will. Close cooperation on the economic front and in the realms of art and culture would lay a sound foundation for a broad spectrum engagement.
R. Raveendran, Trivandrum
You say Hiuen Tsang returned to China in 647 AD. Actually, during his stay in India from 629 AD, he attended King Harshavardhana’s religious assembly at Kanauj in 643 AD and then the assembly at Prayaag five years later too. He returned to China only after attending these assemblies, where he died in 664 AD. Also in ‘Fine Living’, the ‘MIND’ segment has the 3rd statement in the answers printed incorrectly. When subtracting equation (2) from equation (1), we obtain 700, not 900.
Sakshee Kumar, Pune
Editor: The monk’s 17-year India stint is generally dated 630-647. As for the equation, we did derive 700, before going on to crack the puzzle.
I wish Hiuen Tsang’s memoirs could be printed in paperback in all Indian languages and copies distributed globally so that funds could flow to the Hiuen Tsang memorial and Nalanda university, howsoever belatedly.
Babu, Dendukur
Having read Outlook’s obscure one-pager Barak Bites (Oct 23), I have come to the conclusion that not only is Vinod Mehta morally and financially corrupt but is also a pervert and champion of slimy yellow journalism. Outlook did four cover stories and filled up a dozen of its pages fabricating my e-mails and concocting an entire ‘Scorpene Submarine Scam’ and got after my life in Feb ’06 (for which I took you and L.K. Advani to various courts for defamation). You levelled false allegations against me, my family, my friends and the Congress. You called us names, called us corrupt, played with our lives and reputations, and brainwashed gullible readers into believing how I allegedly received hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions and kickbacks from the sale of submarines to the Indian navy. Not content, you went on live national TV debates, filed a pil, instigated the disgraced former defence minister George Fernandes and then deputy PM L.K. Advani to hold a joint press conference on Mar 20, 2006, and demand the dismissal of the upa government on this issue. The nda leaders gladly obliged you as (a) they were devoid of any political agenda or direction, and (b) your partner-in-arms Suresh Nanda—a well-known arms dealer close to George Fernandes and other bjp leaders—has been a major funder of the nda coalition (a fact now established by the cbi in their firs filed last week against Fernandes et al). You waged this vendetta against me, non-stop, till I was booked by the cbi in July 2006. However, you failed to publish even a single line when the present government made a public statement in Parliament in Aug 2006 exonerating me in the Scorpene controversy. Now that the cbi’s registered four to five firs against Bonny & Clyde (George Fernandes and his associate Ms Jaya Jaitly) and their bagman arms dealer Nanda—you as Outlook editor didn’t deem it fit to put this scam on your cover, instead you had the dengue mosquito!
Abhishek Verma, New Delhi
Please accept my compliments on an excellent anniversary issue (Oct 16). It’s been 11 years of change, but much has also remained the same. Extreme poverty, for one. The stench and squalour of our slums. Unending traffic jams, despite the flyovers and expressways. Corruption, in all spheres of society, flying in the face of vigilance squads and lofty notices in government offices. Brain drain, where some of our best talent still chases the green card pastures of the US.
S. Chattopadhyay, Mumbai
Wonderland’s Warts was a curious editorial by an otherwise savvy editor. It started with a tongue-in-cheek remark on the ‘humble’ competitor completing 30, stressed a lot on the ‘changing India’, but surprisingly ended with the declaration that "Outlook and its editorial policy will not change in any significant way". Do not be too sure, Mr Mehta. With your ferocious reader constantly snapping at your heel, change you will, Mr Mehta, slowly but surely.
Rumin B.Shah, Vadodara
Aruna Roy (Daughter of the Dust) has shown the way. This is real woman empowerment and assertion of identity.
Pradeep Sharma, Mumbai
Big box retail and malls are two very different animals, and Naresh Fernandes (The Big Sellout) seems to have confused the two. ikea (used as an example) is a big box retailer which sells only ikea products. Its success is based on the quality of its products and their cost-effectiveness, whereas a mall tends to have small stores from hundreds of vendors who can sell whatever product/services they wish. People in Brooklyn are opposed to ikea because it’ll impact small retailers that sell similar products. A mall would do the opposite—provide a clean, organised environment for small business owners to sell their wares.
Vineet Seth, New York, US
It’s peculiar how while revisiting Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, the reviewer asks us to rethink the term "literary" (Pretty In Prose, Oct 23). What exactly does she consider to be "literary" fiction? If you ask me, this is due recognition for a sparkler of a book. One that deserved a wider audience and which, thanks to the Man Booker, it will get.
Prashant Rao, Chicago
It was a proud moment for us Indians when chairwoman of the judges of the Man Booker prize, Hermione Lee, announced 35-year-old Kiran Desai as the winner, making her the youngest woman author ever to scoop the £50,000 honour. The achievement was all the more extraordinary considering that Peter Carey, the best-selling Australian novelist, had initially been tipped to break records by winning for a third time. Desai’s novel, a story rich with sadness about globalisation and with joy at the small surviving intimacies of Indian village life, had always been a favourite in the race.
Farzana Nigar, Ranchi
"...writer Anita Desai, more famous for the three times she’s been shortlisted for the Booker Prize than the 14 novels she’s written so far...." What incredible rubbish to write and to print!
Anna Winterberg, Munich
M.S. Gill in his Cambridge Diary (Oct 23) says that Dr Manmohan Singh is the second Indian after Jawaharlal Nehru to have earned an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University. This is not correct since Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma was also awarded the honorary doctorate similarly at Senate House, Cambridge. I know this because I, as the aide-de-camp to the President, had accompanied him into Senate House in 1993.
Ali Ahmed, on e-mail
I purchased a copy of Outlook for the first time and now am hooked to it.
Rajinder Kumar, on e-mail
It was a decade back that I made the switch from "you-know-who" to Outlook and I am yours forever.
Manish, on e-mail
Many congratulations on your 11th year in which time the magazine has attracted legions of admirers and adversaries. About the latter, one thing is for sure: your adversaries love to hate you but hate to leave you too!
K.C. Kumar, Bangalore
