17,000 SENSEX

RALLY WITH FOREING FUNDS

THE SENSEX crossed the 17,000-point mark the the Ambani brothers. Three companies held by Mukesh and Anil accounted for 792 points of the Sensex’s jump from 15,000 to 17,000. Of these three - Reliance Industries Ltd, Reliance Communications and Reliance Energy - the first, Mukesh’s flag ship company, has the highest index weightage of 14.47 per cent. In the last six sessions, Reliance Industries moved 18 per cent before slipping 3.4 per cent. "The brothers are trying to outdo each other in the market cap game," is the latest buzz on Dalal Street.

Positive news from the companies maintaining the momentum. The discovery of oil and gas reserves in the Cauvery Basin brought cheer at Mukesh’s end. Though one SMS from a trader said: "The market cap held by the two brothers makes me redefine PE to mean price -to –ego- ratio." Analysts expect more value-adds. If hiving off the cell phone towers business added value Reliance communications, the market expects the hiving off of the exploration and production business o have the same effect on Reliance industries.

Indian Stocks remained on their record-breaking run with the benchmark Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange breaching the 17,000 mark for the first time in its fastest 1,000- a point rally as foreign funds stepped up purchases of Indian equities. The 30-share index, however, failed to hold on to early gains and closed at 16,921.39, still up by 21.85points from its previous close, as investors booked profit.

The Sensex crossed the 17,000- a point level, covering the last 1,000 n points in just six trading sessions. It touched an intra-day high of a 17,073.87, and a low of 16,887.07 B points. The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also closed higher by 1.65 points at 4,940.50, after touching a record high of 4,980.85 and day’s low of 4,930.35 points.

A steep fall in Reliance Industries, the country’s biggest firm by market value, mainly drove the Sensex down. The RIL scrip, which has a weightage of around 15 percent on the Sensex, fell after reports that the company may put on hold investment plans to expand its retail venture in Uttar Pradesh. The oil and gas index dropped 160.57 points at 9,616.94, followed by the realty index by 112.09 points at 8,973.38. The capital goods index lost 109.26 points at 14,654.35 and the auto index ended lower by 35 points at 5,215.27.

Major support for the market came in from the bankex, which rose 172.82 points at 9,117.80 as the IT and PSU indices also gained. Amid the euphoria in the markets, some analysts warned caution and said the markets should consolidate now. However, analysts have also said that both short-term and long-term outlook for the markets were strong as the economy is in good shape and second quarter results are expected to be robust.

The latest 1,000 point rally has been very fast. But markets should consolidate and settle down at these levels. One major factor behind the six sessions, 1,000-point sprint by the Sensex has been strong liquidity and short covering for the futures and options rollover, adding that investors should be ‘cautious in their investments after the Sensex’s climb to newer heights. "The 17,000 mark is a danger signal. This shows that something is not correct fundamentally. This dizzying level should be viewed with caution," one may hear this as well.

Terming the 17,000-point level as a psychological level, A Stock Brokers said, "it is a- better if the market consolidates for the time being. It should take a breather." Going forward, the markets could witness a correction of around 500 to 1,500 points from the present 17K level, analysts said, even as the long-term outlook remains bullish. Regarding Reliance Industries, which contributed significantly to the day’s rally driven s by its strong fundamentals, will always be the leader. The scrip has good operational capabilities.

The other main drivers were Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank. All t these stocks offer good value and foreign investors want safety as well as gain for their investments. The speed with which the markets have gone up is because we are seeing a huge flow from foreign funds. India is one of the safest havens among the emerging markets. Analysts expect the Reserve Bank of India, which has repeatedly increased lending rates over year and a half, to eventually loosen its monetary policy. That speculation has lifted banking stocks and shares other companies whose sales are driven by lower lending rates.

EKLAVYA - The Royal Misrepresentation?

Eklavya - The Royal Guard is India’s entry for Oscars and people are stunned

The news is shocking moviegoers. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya - The Royal Guard is India’s official entry for the Oscars (courtesy Film Federation Of India) in the Best Foreign Film category. The film that missed all pre-release & post-release hype, the film that didn’t exactly garner much mass appeal and was blown up by the critics too, will be representing us internationally. So what makes Eklavya beat films like the critically-acclaimed Dharm, the popular Chak De India & Gandhi, My Father? The mystery is big enough to be scraped at.

First, a look at the reviews it won on release this February. Film journalist Rajeev Masand felt the film’s central debate was just "too weak", and the story, didn’t "hold". Another reviewer felt the fairy tale ending could have had some more substance. He, nevertheless, called the film worth spending on. But trade analyst Taran Adarsh differed: "in the future, if you discuss qualitative movies that accorded Hindi cinema a certain dignity, you’d surely include Eklavya - The Royal Guard in that magnificent list!"

In fact, Pahlaj Nihalani, president, Association of Motion Pictures and TV Programmes, which selects the entry, is peeved with the jury for selecting a film ‘rejected by the Indian masses’. He has gone on record saying, "It is disgraceful that the jury has selected that movie for the Oscars which has been rejected by our people… Eklavya does not deserve an Oscar entry. This is a clear case of partiality. The selection has been done under the influence of certain people, which is shameful. The way Indian films are becoming globally recognised, wrong decisions like this will only spoil our hard-earned goodwill. This is blatant misuse of power".

Mukesh Gautam, from Zee said, “it was okay, kind of films Vidhu Vinod Chopra makes, but we can’t consider that film for Oscars. That’s an international platform & there were better films to represent us".

The Los Angeles Times called Eklavya "a lost film of David Lean" while The New York Times called it a "classic"! Does that mean it has it in it to make it to the Academy Awards?

Well, can’t say, but that leaves us done in by mystery again.
Says Mumbai-based actor Mangal Dhillon, "It is difficult to understand how a film that fails to garner mass appeal and critical acclaim can be an entry to the Oscars. It shouldn’t have gone. But now that it’s there, I think it’s because of destiny of the film, the filmmaker, the cast & crew, the country," he says.
Does that offer any clue?

It’s been quite a while since the 11-member jury of the Film Federation of India (FFI) announced Eklavya -The Royal Guard as India’s official entry to the Oscars. A day later Talwar, whose debut film Dharm, was the closest rival, sent a legal notice questioning the authenticity of the selection process to FFI and Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

After the initial calm Chopra broke his silence "I am extremely sad. Who knew Bhavna Talwar or her film Dharm, before she actually created this brouhaha? Last year Lage Rahe Munna bhai did not go, I didn’t Object. The year before Paheli was chosen over Parineeta, again I kept mum. One has to honour the selection process."

Talwar has accused director Sudhir Mishra of the jury, of being biased. Accuses Talwar, "Sudhir Mishra who is a long lime associate of Vidhu Vinod Chopra was lobbying for him even before the screening of his film."

Chopra leaps to his own defence. "She is talking about my relationship with Sudhir because he voted for me. Nobody mentions Nadeem Khan’s name who is a jury member and a friend because he didn’t vote for me."

Stepping back, Chopra feels that the whole thing is a "tamasha" and it is ruining the reputation of India. "Korean papers have already started talking about it." But it is a legal matter now. Chopra has his answer ready; "If tomorrow the court announces that no film will go, I will be fine with that too."

The controversy surrounding India’s Oscar entry, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya:
The Royal Guard, intensified with the Bombay High Court saying the selection appeared to be "prima facie biased".

Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud asked the Film Federation of India to respond within 10 days to a petition filed by filmmaker Bhavna Talwar challenging the entry. Talwar’s Dharm was in the Oscar race, but lost out to Eklavya.
Talwar and producer-WSG Pictures had moved the court alleging that some members of the selection committee - director Sudhir Mishra, Jagdish Sharma and Ranjit Bahadur were "very close" to Chopra.

They said Bahadur was the editor of Making of Eklavya, a promo for the film.
The judges allowed Sharma and Bahadur to file affidavits in reply. The chairperson of the jury that selected Eklavya, Vinod Pande, and Chopra were made respondents.

Chopra later issued this statement: "The Honorable High Court has not issued any restraining order/stay or injunction in the matter…I will abide by the order." Bhavna termed it a "huge encouragement".

POPULATION OF INDIA

The earliest references of census taking in India can be traced back to the Mauryan period in Kautilaya’s "Arthshastra" (321-296 BC) and later during the Mughal period in ‘Aian-e-Akbari’. A systematic and modern Population census, in its present scientific from was conducted nonsynchronously between 1865 and 1872 in different parts of the country. This effort culminating in 1872 has been popularly labeled, as the first population census. However, the first synchronous census in India was held in 1881. Since then census have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every ten years. The census Of India 2001 is the fourteenth census in this continuous series as reckoned from 1872 and sixth since independence.

The estimated global population in 2000 was 6055 million. However in the past the growth of world population was not uniform. In 1830, the total population of the world was 1 billion which was doubled in 1930 with the time-gap of 100 years. By 1960, again the world population increased by 1 billion. The time span far increasing total population by 1 billion rapidly became shorter and shorter. The next addition of 1billion in total population was made within shorter period of time, i.e., 1960-71. In 1987 the world population crossed the mark of 5 billion and this time the addition of 1 billion was made only within 12 years.

The last child in the mob of 5 billion was born on 11th July 1987, in Yugoslavia. That is the reason why 11th July is known as World Population Day. In 2000 the world population touched the mark of 6 billion and It estimated that it will touch the levels or 7 billion and 8 billion by 2010 Ad and 2022 Ad respectively.

Indian population at 0.00 hours of 01st March, 2001, stood at 1,027,015,247 comprising 531,277,078 males and 495,731l.1 females. Thus India became only the Second country in the world after China to cross the one billion mark. India accounts for a mearge 2.4 percent of world surfaces area of 135.79 million square kms yet it supports and sustains whopping 16.7 percent of the World population. It is now estimated that by 2050 India will most likely overtake China to become the most populous country on the earth with 17.2 percent grew at an annual rate of 1.4 percent during 1990-2000. China registered a much lower annual growth rate of population (1 percent) during 1990-2000as compared to India (1.9 percent during 1991-2000).

Census of India 2001 was presented by the Registrar General & Census commissioner of India, Jayant Kumar Banthia. The 2001 census made an attempt to data on disabled persons. Census was postponed in the district of Kutch, Rajkot and Jamnagar as consequences of the devasting Earthquake.

POPULATION GROWTH
India’s population growth during the 20th century can be chartered and classified into four distinct phases as follows:

1901-1921————————– Stagnant population
1921-1951—————————Steady growth
1951-1981—————————Rapid high growth
1981-2001—————————High growth with definite signs of slowing down.

The story of population growth in India is fairly in tune with the classical theory of demographic transition. During most of the 19th century, India witnessed a fluctuating but ultimately more or less a stagnant growth of population, which drifted into the 20th century until 1921.there after, the country passed through successively all the phases of demographic transition and is now widely believed to have entered the fifth phase, usually characterized by rapidly declining fertility.

In absolute terms, the population of India has increased by a whopping 180.6 million during the decade 1991-2001. The absolute addition to the population in the decade 1991-2001 is more than the estimated population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world. Although, the net addition in population during each decade has increased consistently, the change in net addition has shown a declining trend over the decades starting from 1961.

The percentage decadal growth during 1991-2001 has registered the sharpest decline since independence. It has declined from 23.86 percent for 1981-1991 to 21.34 percent for the period 1991-2001. The average exponential growth rate for the corresponding period declined from 2.14 percent per annum to 1.93 percent per annum. The annual exponential growth rate of food grain production during 1991-2000 was 1.9 per cent which was just about matched the population growth. It can be seen that Uttar Pradesh is by far the most populous State in the Country with more than 166 million people living here, which is more than the population of Pakistan, the sixth most populous country in the World. Nineteen states now have a population of over ten million. Almost half of the country’s population lives in five States, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. While Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have held on to the first two positions in terms of their ranking in 2001 as compared to 1991, Bihar has moved on to take the third position from its fifth position pushing West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh now to the fourth and fifth spots respectively.

TOP 10 DISTRICTS BY POPULATION: 2001 CENSUS

GANDHI JAYANTI:

To mark the occasion of the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the "Father of the Nation", Gandhi Jayanti is a celebrated in India It is a national holiday celebrated on October 2, every year. It is one of the three official declared National Holidays of India and is observed in all its states and union territories. The United Nations General Assembly announced on 15 June 2007 that it adopted a resolution which declared that October 2 will be celebrated as the International Day of Non-Violence.

At Raj Ghat, Gandhi’s memorial, where he was cremated, located in the national capital New Delhi, prayer service and tributes mark this day. Gandhi’s favourite devotional song, Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram is sung in memory of him. Commemorative ceremonies across the country are performed. Schools, colleges, local bodies and socio- political institutions conduct painting and essay writing competitions are conducted primarily on themes of glorifying peace, non- violence and Gandhi’s role in the freedom struggle of India.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly know as “BAPU”, born into the Hindu Modh family in Porbandar, in 1869, was the son of Karamchand Gandhi, the diwan (Prime Minister) of Porbandar, and Putlibai, Karamchand’s fourth wife, a Hindu of the Pranami Vaishnava order. Living with a devout mother and surrounded by the Jain influences of Gujarat, Gandhi learned from an early age the tenets of non-injury to living beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance between members of various creeds and sects. He was born into the vaishya, or business caste.

Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (1902)

Gandhi ji was married to Kasturba Makhanji (also spelled "Kasturbai" or known as "Ba") in May 1883 at the age of 13. They had four sons: Harilal Gandhi, born in 1888; Manilal Gandhi, born in 1892; Ramdas Gandhi, born in 1897; and Devdas Gandhi, born in 1900.

He studied law in U.K and practiced law in South Africa. But he left his profession and returned to India to join the Indian freedom struggle. Gandhi ji was a preacher of truth and ‘Ahimsa’(non-violence).He started the ‘Satyagraha’ movement for the Indian freedom struggle. He believed in living a simple life and in ‘Swadeshi’. He proved to the world that freedom can be achieved through the path of non-violence. Gandhiji is a symbol of peace and truth.

On this day, the President and Prime Minister, along with other eminent political leaders, pay homage at Raj Ghat - the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi. All the offices and schools, throughout the country, remain closed on this day.

Five months after independence, Gandhiji was assassinated by Nathuram Godse while on his way to his daily prayer meeting. The 78-year-old Father of the Nation had left a country that was just discovering its feet, orphaned. Gandhi was not just a political leader. In fact, he was never a keen politician. He was a leader of the masses and always identified himself with them. All his actions had the power to galvanise the people. When others walked out of the Assembly in protest, Gandhi walked 100 km to the sea at Dandi to make salt illegally.

In short, he would take a step that would involve the millions, a small step by itself, but which would magnify a million-fold. The British often wondered what it was about Gandhi that attracted so many to him. But the people had no such questions. They understood the way in which he identified with them. In fact, Gandhi took pains to learn to sign his name in all the major Indian languages.

Gandhi was also deeply spiritual, and believed that all religions showed the way to ultimate enlightenment. He also wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, a book that influenced him deeply. Gandhi is also revered for his absolute belief in truth and ahimsa. It is this man’s birthday that we celebrate as the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation. His tolerance for other religions and support for the downtrodden are recognised and honoured on this day.

Popularly know as AIRTEL, Bharti Airtel was also known as Bharti Tele- ventures Limited (BTVL). One of India’s largest mobile phone and fixed network operators, it has more than 50 million subscribers (as on 10/01/2007). Headed by Mr. Sunil Mittal, India’s sixth richest man (total worth US$27 billion), it is one of the world’s fastest growing telecom companies. It is the only GSM operator providing mobile services in all the 23 circles in India. It also provides telephone services and Internet access over DSL in 14 circles complementing its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international long distance calls.

Airtel has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai connecting the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. The company provides reliable end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers by leveraging its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station. It is the largest mobile service provider, with BSNL, the state run mobile and wireline service provided as the market leader when compared on the basis of customer base.

Vodafone and SingTel hold partial stakes in Bharti Airtel. On February 12, 2007 Vodafone sold its 5.6% stake in AirTel back to Airtel for US $1.6 billion; and purchased a controlling stake in rival Hutchison Essar. Recently Sunil Bharti’s Airtel launched its calling card in America specially for the NRI (Non-resident Indians) and people calling from America to India at a cheaper rate as compared to the tariff offered by other providers. In its monthly press release, following statistics have been presented for end of April 2007.

• Bharti Airtel added the highest ever net addition of 53 lakh customers in a single quarter (Q4-FY0607) and also the highest ever net addition of 1.8 crore total subscribers in 2006-07
• The company will invest up to $3.5 billion this fiscal (07-08) in network expansion.
• It has an installed base of 40,000 cellsites and 59% population coverage
• After the proposed network expansion, an additional 30,000 towers will result in the company achieving 70% population coverage
• Bharti has over 39 million users as on March 31, 2007
• It has set a target of 125 million subscribers by 2010
• Prepaid customers account for 88.5% of Bharti’s total subscriber base, an increase from 82.7% a year ago
• ARPU has dropped to Rs 406
• Non-voice revenues, (SMS, voice mail, call management, hello tunes and Airtel Live) constituted 10% of total revenues during Q4, lower than 10.7% in the Q4 of the previous year
• Blended monthly minutes of usage per customer in Q4 was at 475 minutes
• Has completed 100% verification of its subscribers and in the process disconnected three lakh subscribers.

Mr. Sunil Mittal

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises. The Bharti Group has a diverse business portfolio and has created global brands in the telecommunication sector. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business as Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. under a MoU with Wal-Mart for the cash & carry business. It has successfully launched an international venture with EL Rothschild Group to export fresh agri products exclusively to markets in Europe and USA and has launched Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd under a joint venture with AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management.

Bharti Enterprises - Organization Structure

The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU’s) - mobile services, broadband & telephone services (B&T) & enterprise services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the B&T business offers broadband & telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand.

Awards and recognition

• The Forbes Global 2000 list for the year 2007 ranked Bharti at 1149. 

For the Year 2007 - 2008

• Airtel Bharti draws top honours at the NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2007
• Bharti Airtel Ranked 3rd on Shareholder Returns in Business Week IT 100 List

For the Year 2006 – 2007

• Airtel Bharti draws top honours at the NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2007
• Bharti Airtel awarded the prestigious QCI-DL Shah Award on Economics of Quality
• Sunil B. Mittal chosen for this year’s Padma Bhushan Awards
• Bharti Airtel is once again chosen for India’s most Customer Responsive Telecom Company Award
• Bharti Airtel is amongst India’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises in 2006
• Sunil Bharti Mittal receives ‘The Honorary Fellowship’ from IETE
• Bharti Airtel draws Top Honors at the MIS Asia IT Excellence Awards 2006
• Bharti Airtel among the top 10 best performing companies in the world according to Business Week IT 100 list
• Sunil Bharti Mittal is ‘CEO of the Year’ at the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2006 & Bharti Airtel bags ‘Wireless Service Provider of the Year’ and ‘Competitive Service Provider of the Year’

Shahjahan’s most celebrated building is the Taj Mahal on the left bank of the Jamuna in Agra. Built as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal (d. 1631), it marks the culmination of the evolving garden tombs. The three-storeyed gate of the Taj, opening to the south, has a massive archway. The upper lines in the ornamental inscriptions decorating the archway, which one would expect to appear smaller, seem just the same size as the lower ones.

The tomb itself, set in a lovely garden and clad in glistening white marble from Makran in Jodhpur, is reflected in a long narrow pool of water in front. On the other side it overlooks the flowing river Jamuna. To the west rises a contrasting red sandstone mosque, and opposite stands its duplicate, a hall known as jawab (answer). Framing the tomb are four graceful minarets crowned with eight-windowed cupolas, their white marble revetment picked out with black stone in imitation of mortar.

The dome, bulging gently before dipping towards its gilded bronze finial and rising from a plain broad band fringed with conventional petals, dominates the tomb. The square tomb has chamfered corners, framed by two broad arches.

The Taj’s magnificent recessed central arch leads into a smaller arch containing an entrance door and filled with marble screens. This opens into the dark octagonal tomb chamber, lit only by the light filtering through the screens and the high glazed windows. Another elegant marble screen encloses the finely cut marble cenotaphs of the Emperor and Empress. The chamber’s hemispherical ceiling is the low face of the second dome enclosed within the outer shell. The conventional foliage on the outer walls of the cenotaph and their surrounding screen is depicted in the finest pietra dura work and bas-relief. The impression of richness, surpassing that of I’timadu’d-Dawla’s tomb, derives from the increased use of semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli and cornelian, although the work is in fact not so ornate.

This is the most famous building in India and is known throughout the world, now one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Its glory springs from a perfection of balance and proportion such as few other buildings anywhere possess. On passing through the gateway the first sight of this great white tomb, reflected in the pool and surrounded by a beautiful garden, produces an intense aesthetic thrill that no other building can give. This is not the ordinary world; rather, it reflects the heaven of the Islamic mystic, a perfection and security beyond space and time. Most other tombs are earthbound by comparison.

How to reach Agra?
AIR: Agra airport is 7 km from the city center and 3 km from Idgah bus stand. Indian airlines operate daily tourist shuttle flights to Agra, Khajuraho, Varanasi and back. It only takes 40 minutes from Delhi to Agra.
ROAD: Idgah bus stand is the main bus stand of Agra, from where one can catch buses for Delhi, Jaipur, Mathura, Fatehpur-Sikri, etc. Buses for Mathura also leave from Agra Fort bus stand.
RAIL: Agra is well connected by railroad. The main railway station is the Agra Cantonment station. Agra is well connected by rail to Delhi, Varanasi and cities of Rajasthan. Trains like Palace on Wheel, Shatabdi, Rajdhani, and Taj Express are the best choices if you want to reach Agra from Delhi.
Local Transport in Agra
You can travel to different parts of the city using different modes of transport like Taxi, tempo, auto-rickshaw and cycle rickshaw from Taj area. Prepaid taxis and autos from the railway station are available. Prepaid transport is also available for excursions in and around the city limits. Bicycles can be hired on hourly basis from different parts of the city. It is to be remembered that no diesel or petrol vehicle are allowed to ply in the Taj area. There are Battery-Operated buses, horse-driven Tongas, rickshaws, and other pollution- free vehicles are allowed to conserve the beauty of this great monument.

What would be more exciting and scintillating then planning your Taj Mahal tour in Agra during the mesmerizing Taj Festival? A ten-day event, the Taj festival - called Taj Mahotsav - at Agra is a cultural introduction of India. With the wondrous Taj Mahal serving as the backdrop for the annual festival, the Taj Mahotsav is usually held in the month of February.  Agra travel & Taj Mahal travel is feasible throughout the year, but one must avoid the extreme hot summers (April-June) and rainy season (July-Sept). The most suitable time to tour Agra is in winters.

The song Vande Mataram composed by Bankimchandra Chatterji has an equal status with jana-gana-mana. The first political occasion when it was sung was the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress. This song has been a source of inspiration to the people in their struggle for freedom.

It reads as:

Translation

Mother, I salute thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Green fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.
Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When swords flash out in seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Thou who saves, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foe drove
Back from plain and sea
And shook herself free.
Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nerves the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.
Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,

In thy soul, with jewelled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Loveliest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!
translated by Sri Aurobindo

Vande Mataram, Sujalam, suphalam, malayaja shitalam, Shasyashyamalam, Mataram!
Shubhrajyothsna pulakitayamini, Phullakusumita drumadala shobhinim, Suhasini sumadhura bhashini, Sukadam varadam, Mataram!

English translation of the stanza rendered by Sri Aurobindo (in Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library Popular Edition 1972, vol.

A mix of Bengali and Sanskrit, the song appears in Bankimchandra Chattopadyay’s book Anandmath published in 1882. Initially it was criticized on the grounds of difficulty in pronunciation of some words included in it, however, when Jadunath Bhattacharya set the tune for it, soon it became shouting slogan of every Indian striving for the freedom of the country.

Bankimchandra wrote Vande Mataram while he was an official of the then British government. During 1870s when the British declared the singing of God Save the Queen a mandate, Vande Mataram came as a national cry for freedom from British oppression. Many freedom fighters were imprisoned for utterance of the Vande Mataram in public forums as it was banned by the British fearing a potential danger of an incited Indian populace.

A number of lyrical and musical experiments have been done and many versions of the song have been created and released throughout the 20th century. Many of these versions have employed traditional South Asian classical ragas. Versions of the song have been visualized on celluloid in a number of films including Leader (film), Amar asha and Anandamath. It is widely believed that the tune set for All India Radio station version was composed by Ravi Shankar.

Vande Mataram was rejected to the national anthem of the nation on the grounds that Muslims felt offended by its depiction of the nation as “Mother Durga”—a Hindu goddess— thus equating the nation with the Hindu conception of shakti, divine feminine dynamic force; and by its origin as part of Anandamath, a novel they felt had an anti-Muslim message.

In 1937 the Indian National Congress discussed at length the status of the song. It was pointed out then that though the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are references where the motherland is likened to the Hindu goddess Durga. Therefore, the Congress decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song.

The Indian tiger, Panthera Tigris (Linnaeus), is the national animal of India.

The combination of grace, strength, agility and enormous power earned the tiger the title national animal of India. The Tiger - Lord of the Indian Jungles, is the National Animal of India. The tiger is the symbol of India’s wealth of wildlife. A wild animal from cat family with a thick yellow coat of fur with dark stripes. The combination of grace, strength, agility and enormous power has earned the tiger its pride of place as the national animal of India.

Out of eight races of the species known, the Indian race, the Royal Bengal Tiger, is found throughout the country except in the north-western region and also in the neighbouring countries, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Tigers are now getting extinct.

In April 1973, the Government of India launched ‘Project Tiger’ to check the decreasing population of Tigers. Under this project 23 tiger reserves have been established covering an area of 33,126 sq. km. The Government of India, under its Project Tiger programme, started a massive effort to preserve the tiger population in 1973. Today, the tiger advances as a symbol of India’s conservation of itself its wildlife heritage.

With the launch of Project tiger in 1973, the tiger population showed a gradual increase and the census of 1993 puts the tiger population of the country at 3,750. Under Project tiger 23 tiger reserves have been established throughout the country, covering an area of 33,406 sq. km. Unfortunately due to negligence of authorities and poaching the tiger population of India is decreasing at an alarming rate. In fact, some of the tiger reserves do not have any tigers at all. Many conservationists are of the opinion that unless the Project Tiger is critically reviewed and analyzed at this juncture to make it more ‘tiger friendly’.

Facts about Tigers:

1. A group of tigers is called a streak.
2. The roar of a tiger can be heard more than a mile away.
3. Tigers keep their claws sharp for hunting by pulling in their retractable claws into a protective sheath
4. Most tigers have more than 100 stripes, and no two tigers have identical stripes.
5. Tigers have been classified by scientists into eight subspecies: Indian (or Bengal), Indo-Chinese, Sumatran, Amur (or Siberian), South China, Caspian (extinct), Java (extinct), and Bali (extinct).

PAISLEY

Historically, travelers came to India for spices and traditional patterns. Indian fabric was exported to the rest of the world as it was the Indians who possessed the knowledge and skill set when it came to patterning unique and recherché prints and weaves on cloth. The paisley, adapted from the Iranian floral motif called the buta, which originated in Safavid dynasty of Persia (1501-1736), has been India’s one of biggest global exports.

An oriental pattern motif, shaped like a teardrop, it is rounded at one end with a curving point at the other. Born in the looms of Kashmir, the curling vine motif was far from realistic as it was intrinsically stylized in design and seemed as if it had burst out of an almond seed.  Woven onto jamawars in an extremely sophisticated manner, it became very expensive. There was no comparable pattern elsewhere that could come even close to its grandeur.

BUTA	JAMAWARS

In Europe, it was always about velvets and wool, which was why paisley was so sought after. Traditionally used on cashmere shawls taken to Europe by soldiers returning from the colonies, it was an important decorative motif in imitation cashmere shawls. During the 18th and the 19th centuries, the British and the French governments imposed a ban against importing paisley patterns from India fearing that their patterns would get killed. Almost immediately, they replicated looms in Lyon in France and Paisley in Scotland.

SAFAVIDS

Soon, thousands of replicas were woven and printed. This curbed India’s exports and the industry suffered a setback. Today looms do not exist in Kashmir. The paisley is an aesthetic global export which is why some of us have worked relentlessly to ensure that it gets its due share under the sun. We are now using it relevantly on cravats, shirts and silk dressing gowns. We have to make the world realise that the paisley has its home in India and not anywhere else.

Spirituality

Exports need eager buyers, and in case of India’s spirituality, one hopes they will be in millions. They have to be. With global warming, war and terrorism, economic disparities and radical poverty in many parts of the world, we are at a turning point. This isn’t news, and yet everyone waits expectantly, in a kind of semi - paralysis. There are only three possible scenarios that will revolve around our current situation:

• It is already too late, and the human species is heading for decline and extinction.
• We will survive but only after a major crisis in which ecological disasters will take a huge toll in human suffering, with whole populations being wiped out.
• A critical mass of consciousness will emerge instead, and the tide of destruction will be reversed.

It is the third alternative that everyone is praying for, and yet a change in consciousness is the rarest of human events, particularly on a mass scale. In the past, when we looked at imminent catastrophe, whether on a micro scale (extinction of the natives on Easter Island) or a macro scale (devastation of Europe by Black Death), the human species failed.

The last remaining Easter Islanders waged a war over the few remaining trees and animals left to them; Europe engaged in a spate of witch-hunting and ligious persecution. Will we do any better? The key lies in only one factor: Self-awareness. Humans will have to rise to a higher vision of themselves. They will quickly have shed the trappings of nationalism, tribal hatred, and religious conflict. If such a rare-one might say unprecedented-change is to take place, India’s greatest legacy will play a key part. We have moved from economic imperialism to the information age.

Forward thinkers already look beyond nationalism toward a global community. The Upanishads provide a map for gaining wisdom when they declare, "Know that one thing by knowing which every-thing else is known." This is India’s spirituality in its true essence. It comes from a deep experiential knowledge the nature of consciousness as the one reality. India is poised to become a world leader if it follows its own wisdom tradition and embraces the world as its family.

INDO - PAK CULTURE & THE NUCLEAR TRIGGER

Following the Bangladesh conflict of December 1971, President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto convened a meeting of Pakistan’s nuclear scientists in Multan in January 1972. Bhutto declared that never again should Pakistan allow India’s superiority in conventional forces to give it an opportunity to repeat what it had done in December 1971. The scientists were instructed to devise plans to develop nuclear weapons, which would act as an "equalizer" to match Indian conventional superiority.

 In his memoirs, written in jail, Bhutto remarked that the "Hindu, Jewish and Christian" civilizations had nuclear weapons capability and that he was determined that the "Islamic civilization" should set the balance right by developing nuclear weapons.

Pakistan’s quest for nuclear weapons thus had nothing to do with whether or not India had nuclear weapons. This quest commenced before India’s first nuclear explosion of July,1974.

China agreed to assist Pakistan in developing nuclear weapons in 1976. Since then, China has provided Pakistan with nuclear weapon designs and equipment for uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing. This assistance still continues. American nuclear analyst Gary Milhollin has aptly remarked: "If you subtract China’s help from Pakistan’ nuclear programme, there is no Pakistani nuclear (weapons) programme." During the Indian Army Operation Brasstacks in January 1987, Pakistan sent a "warning" through an Indian journalist (who did not inform the Indian Government immediately) that India should know Pakistan possessed nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had, however, initiated action to de-escalate tensions through dialogue even before A.Q. Khan conveyed this "warning". Shortly thereafter, in 1988, Rajiv Gandhi instructed P.K. Iyengar and Y.S. Arunachalam to go ahead with developing a nuclear arsenal.

With tensions over Jammu and Kashmir rising in 1990, the then Bush Administration sent its deputy national security adviser Robert Gates on a visit to the two countries in May 1990. The Americans then leaked to their press the news that Gates had visited the subcontinent after it received intelligence information that Pakistan was readying its F -16 strike aircraft for a nuclear strike on India. Gates, however, made no reference to such Pakistani moves in his meeting in Delhi with the then prime minister V.P. Singh. The then army chiefs of Pakistan and India, General Aslam Beg and General V.N. Sharma, categorically rejected the American claim that Pakistan was readying its nuclear weapons for use against India in 1990. A similar claim by President Bill Clinton’s aide Bruce Reidel that, unknown to Nawaz Sharif, General Musharraf was readying Pakistan’s nuclear weapons during the Kargil conflict, found few takers.

Though Pakistan has not enunciated a formal nuclear doctrine, the head of the strategic planning division of its nuclear command authority, Lt-General Khalid Kidwai, said that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are "aimed solely at India". Kidwai added that Pakistan would use nuclear weapons if India conquers a large part of Pakistani territory, or destroys a large part of its land and air forces. Kidwai also held out the possibility of using nuclear weapons if India tries to "economically strangulate" Pakistan, or pushes it to political destabilisation.

India has declared that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons and will use nuclear weapons only if its territory or armed forces face an attack in which nuclear, chemical or biological weapons are used. Since India has no desire to conquer large parts of Pakistani territories or destroy its armed forces, there is no possibility of India provoking a nuclear conflict. Pakistan, in turn, knows that even though its Chinese supplied missiles outclass the missiles India presently possesses, its entire Punjabi heartland will be reduced to rubble if India retaliates with its highly accurate Prithvi missiles and its formidable air power. The possibility of any nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan can, therefore, be ruled out.

Delhi and Islamabad have promoted mutual confidence on nuclear related issues through agreements on non-attack of each other’s nuclear installations, prior notification of missile tests and the recently concluded agreement on reducing the risk from accidents relating to nuclear weapons. We should now move towards greater transparency on nuclear related issues.

In 1999, the then Indian Army chief General V.P. Malik stated that despite Pakistan’s claims that Kashmir was the "nuclear flashpoint", and that there was "strategic space" for India to respond robustly to continuing Pakistani provocations. Pakistan’s military establishment believes that by threatening India on the grounds that its nuclear threshold is very low, it can constantly "bleed India" through low-intensity conflict without fear of Indian retaliation. The option to call this bluff at an appropriate time should, therefore, never be closed. One, however, hopes that good sense will prevail, ISI-sponsored terrorism will end and that problems will be resolved peacefully.

Nuclear weapons in Asia are an irreversible reality for the foreseeable future, except in the unlikely event of the world moving towards universal and complete disarmament. Given the Islamic dimensions of Pakistan’s policies and the rise of Shia-dominated Iran, proliferation from Pakistan to its western Islamic neighbours and to radical organisations like the Al-Qaeda cannot be ruled out. In that event, or in the event of Western fears that a future Islamist government in Pakistan may provide nuclear weapons potential to non-state actors, Pakistan could well face threats from those with whom it is allied today in the "war on terrorism". The fallout of such an eventuality is difficult to predict today.

WILL DEMOCRACY SURVIVE IN INDIA?

For a country with a very long past, many in India now seem to be resolutely focused, when they are not consumed by the demands of daily living, on the future.
Indeed, one of the many reasons why the BJP and its allies may have lost the last general election is that the advocates of Hindutva, in particular, have been obsessed with ideas about the gloriousness of the Indian and specifically Hindu past, though the obsessions of the young are doubtless very different. With a campaign revolving around the idea of "India Shining", one might have thought that the BJP was poised to win. Certainly, if the persistent invocations of the "new India", the roaring economy, and the entrepreneurial and aggressively capitalist spirit in the country are any indication, at least the Indian middle classes have signified their assent to the idea that an economic rather than a political conception of democracy will drive the Indian future.

Democracies everywhere present a complex scenario of tensions between constraints and liberty, bondage and freedom, and the imperatives of the modern national security State and the aspirations of a free citizenry. The very fact that India has repeatedly been able to mount gigantic general elections is adduced as evidence of the strength of Indian democracy-an accomplishment that seems all the more remarkable given the precarious state of democracy in most countries of the world.

Not all institutions of civil society are equally robust, but it is an indisputable fact that there are strong people’s-and grassroots movements. The Supreme Court that sentenced Mohammed Afzal to death for the Parliament attack, notwithstanding the failure of the State to produce decisive evidence against the condemned man, also acquitted other men for want of evidence. Similarly, if the press has often been a bulwark of support to the elite, the vigilance of the English language press during the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002 cannot be denied.

There have been important legislative gains for ordinary people, including the passage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Forest People’s Land Rights Bill, the Right to Information Act, and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, but it is also widely conceded that progressive laws, for example the legislation outlawing dowry, can coexist alongside a resolute determination to prevent their implementation.
In thinking about Indian democracy and its future prospects, commentators have lavished far too much attention on "politics" in the narrowest conception of the term.

There is much speculation, for example, on whether India might move towards a two-party system or some variation of it, with the Congress and the Left parties constituting one bloc and the other bloc being constituted by the BJP and its allies. But this kind of scenario has little room for entities such as the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party, which together dominate politics in Uttar Pradesh, where efforts by the Congress to reinvent itself do not hold much promise of success. While so far the Indian Left has shown little inclination to revolt, and West Bengal is rapidly re-tooling itself to become attractive to the corporate world and foreign investors, the possibility of genuine and irreconcilable differences developing between the Congress and the Left Front should never be minimized.

Consequently, in addressing the question of the future of Indian democracy, one is asked to think well beyond political parties, regionalism, the two-party system, and other like considerations. If there is still considerable hope for Indian democracy, it is because it still has several distinct sources of renewal. First, and foremost, there is the people’s wisdom. Time and again, the illiterate electorates of India have shown better judgments than the educated, though whether the likes of Chandrababu Naidu ever learn a lesson is another matter.

I am reminded of a conversation that transpired in 1927 between Mahatma Gandhi and a visiting clergyman, Reverend Mott. When Mott asked Gandhi what gave him cause for the greatest hope, Gandhi unhesitatingly referred to the people’s capacity for nonviolent resistance despite the gravest provocation. And when Mott queried Gandhi on what tilled him with the greatest despair, Gandhiji said: "The hardheartedness of the educated is a matter of constant concern and sorrow to me." The wisdom and resilience of ordinary people have been exemplified not only at the ballot box, but in grassroots movements and cultural practices of syncretism. Secondly, the Constitution of India remains, despite attempts to subvert its emancipatory provisions, a document and a vision that holds the promise of equality, justice, and opportunity. It has survived the wreckage of an authoritarian executive and will outlive the Supreme Court’s present disposition to allow massive land-grabs in the name of progress and development.

Third, though Gandhi’s assassins never seem to rest, the spectre of Gandhi remains to haunt, guide and inspire Indians who are resistant to everything that passes for "normal politics", and have not entirely succumbed to the oppressions of modernity. As I have elsewhere written, Gandhi took great risks and was not in the least cowed down by history, the sanctity of traditions, or scriptural authority. Six decades ago, Indians entered into a tryst with destiny. The unique experiment that constitutes Indian democracy can only be sustained if we have the courage to gamble everything on it.

NEW AGE FAMILIES IN INDIA

When late in life, in 1995 he became a father; he was totally unprepared for the constant hysteria that surrounds every aspect of parenting. Naively he had imagined that as a parent, he would more or less imitate his father and adopt his (his father’s) child- rearing practices. Little did he realize that children are now regarded as, by definition, at risk? They are treated as vulnerable fragile beings that lack the capacity to cope with any serious challenges.

Throughout the world, middle class children are constantly supervised by adults and virtually every childhood experience comes with a health warning.  They are not allowed outdoors because the streets are too dirty, the traffic is too dangerous and the strangers are too menacing. We force then indoors and then worry about the perils of the internet and a variety of other sedentary threats. We are also alarmed by what children are up to when they interact with one another. Bullying and peer to peer abuse are some of the new terms we have invented to describe the inevitable tension and conflict that accompanies growing up.

Caught unawares by the rising tide of alarmism towards children, I decide to write a book to challenge the panic. Parents have always been anxious   about their children. But until recently, that anxiety was focused on a specific problem. In India, the older generation worried about their children’s health and nutrition, or they fixated on their youngster’s education and marriage prospects.

Today, parents in the West, and also increasingly in the East, worry about everything. This is not surprising, since we are frequently told that childhood is an intensely dangerous experience. Panic about sex crimes, allergies, obesity, bullying and mental illness occur regularly in the world of childhood.

In the contemporary era, parenting is frequently represented as a very difficult project Parents are constantly advised that childrearing is a science that requires professional help and support. In the UK and Europe, governments are busy lecturing parents about how to bring up their children. The parenting industry is busy publishing books that "teach" parents how to smile at their children and how to hold and stroke them.
Parents are also bombarded with conflicting advice. One day, they are informed that their child should sleep on his stomach and the next they are advised that he should lie on his back.

The cumulative effect of this ‘helpful advice’ is to undermine the confidence of parents. To make matters worse, we also suffer from the dogma of parental determinism. According to this dogma, the quality of parenting determines everything from the strength to the intelligence of a child. So you are made to feel that unless you get your parenting right, your child is in trouble.
The influence of parental determinism means mothers and fathers no longer simply raise children. They are under pressure to become their children’s teachers, therapists, personal trainers and chauffeurs.

Homework is no longer what children do after school-it is often a collaborative effort between a child and parent. The cumulative impact of this pressure is to further consolidate parents’ sense of anxiety and unease about the job they perform.

What of the future? There is every indication that parental paranoia will go from bad to worse. When we describe children as being at risk, what we really mean is that they are at risk of everything. As long as we imagine children as pathetic vulnerable beings, we will always tend to overreact. Parenting will also become more intensive- literally a full-time occupation requiring professional support. If present trends continue, parenting will become increasingly professionalized. Those who can afford it will look to experts to help them raise their children. Some children are already under the supervision of a ‘supernanny‘, personal trainer or a psychologist. Their numbers are likely to grow. Childhood will be portrayed as even more dangerous than it is being thought today.

The number of children’s medical conditions and syndromes will continue to rise.
Children who deviate from the norm, who are unusually active or shy or sensitive or naughty, will be medicalised and rewarded with a newly invented syndrome. A growing number of children will be diagnosed as having learning difficulties. One consequence of this trend is that teenagers and young adults will also be treated as children and the meaning of childhood will expand. Children will take longer to grow up. As parenting will be seen as being even more difficult, post-natal depression will also increase. And inevitably, parents will want to have less children.

At present, parents in India do not suffer from paranoia as intensely as their counterparts in the West. But there are powerful global influences that conspire to undermine parental confidence in South Asia. Hopefully, Indian parents will choose to ignore the advice of western parenting experts and opt to rely on their instincts and intuition. In the future, as in the past, children will thrive when given an opportunity to experiment and explore the unknown. Let’s hope that some of us will retain a bit of common sense and allow our children the freedom that we cherished when we were young.

SIXY SUPERMAN: YUVRAJ

YUVRAJ SINGH was the demon batsman for England, smashing Stuart Broad long, wide, high and handsome for six sixers to help India defeat England by 18 runs in their Group E game. Earlier, when Yuvraj fell on the penultimate delivery of the innings, he had made 58 runs off 16 balls, reaching 50 off just 12 — a new record for the quickest international half-century in any form of the game.

Times change fast — Yuvraj was booed when he was hit for five successive sixes by England’s Dimitri Mascarenhas at the Oval exactly two weeks ago. The boot was on the other foot on Wednesday as Yuvraj clobbered Broad for six sixes, only the second such instance in international cricket after Herschelle Gibbs’ onslaught against Dan van Bunge of the Netherlands in the World Cup.

Yuvraj is the only batsman to record this feat against a fast bowler in any form of the game. SUPERMAN - that’s what Yograj Singh wants his son to become. In two crucial matches of the Twenty20 World Cup, the born-again Yuvraj Singh did play like one.
He was simply unstoppable against England and Australia, hitting sixes almost at will.
It’s true that the entire team contributed towards India’s historic triumph, but it was Yuvraj’s brilliant performances which shone more brightly than those of the others.

Being a senior member of the squad, he made his experience count in crunch situations.
What’s most remarkable about his feat of hitting six sixes in an over is that he did it against a pace bowler (Stuart Broad). Garfield Sobers, Ravi Shastri and Herschelle Gibbs had achieved it agcrinst spinners (Malcolm Nash, Tilak Raj and Daan van Bunge, respectively). Being a pacer" Broad could have tried out various things to break Yuvraj’s rhythm - a bouncer, a Yorker or a widish delivery. The fact that he failed to do any of these shows he was just too stunned by the batsman’s onslaught.

Broad might be a rookie, but Australian speedsters Brett Lee and Stuart Clark are not. However, even the latter were not spared the "sixy" treatment. Taking to Twenty20 like a duck to water, Yuvraj also smashed the two fastest fifties of the new format.
The Chandigarhian seems to have been around for so long that it’s hard to believe he’s just 25 (he will turn 26 on December 12).

The southpaw burst on to the international scene during the ICC Champions Trophy in Nairobi, 2000. After not getting a chance to bat in his debut match against Kenya, he took on the Aussies in the next game. The then 18-year-old fearlessly blasted the mighty bowling attack to score a masterly 84, thereby ousting the world champions from the tournament. India went on to finish runners-up, losing to New Zealand in the final.
Less than two years later, he helped India pull off a miraculous win at Lord’s in the NatWest Trophy final against England.

Although it was Mohammad Kaif who finished off the match with an unbeaten 83, Yuvraj’s 69 off 63 balls steadied the innings after early setbacks. He and Kaif delivered even as heavyweights Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid came a cropper.
He was also an important member of the team that shared the Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka in 2002 and reached the final of the 2003 World Cup under Sourav Ganguly’s leadership.

Yuvraj’s confidence has always been high, but inconsistency has proved to be his undoing many a time. Great knocks have alternated with pedestrian efforts. His fielding has been superb all the way, but his bowling has remained part-time at best.

Above all, his temperamental nature has sometimes overshadowed his prodigious talent.
Nevertheless, his success has been substantial enough to make his father swell with pride.
Yograj, a famous Punjabi film actor, was himself a pace bowler who got to play just one Test (against New Zealand at Wellington in 1981, the year Yuvraj was born) and six ODIs in his career. His sole Test victim was none other than John Wright, the Kiwi who played a part in honing Yuvraj’s skills over two decades later as India’s coach.

After his heroic feats in the shortest version of the game, it’s time for him to stamp his class on the longest one. It’s a pity that Yuvraj has been in and out of the Test squad. He has so far played only 19 Tests, compared to 183 one-dayers. His two Test hundreds have been scored against Pakistan under adverse circumstances, at Lahore in 2004 and Karachi in 2006. Yuvi stood tall amid the ruins, even though he couldn’t save India from defeat in both games.

Despite these knocks, he has struggled to shed the tag of a "one day specialist". Playing in the shadow of the "Big Three" Sachin, Sourav and Rahul- hasn’t helped matters. If all goes well, he will get an opportunity to prove his mettle in the Test series against Pakistan later this year.

A great player ought to excel in all forms of the game. That’s what makes guys like Matthew Hayden and Mahendra Singh Dhoni stand apart. If Yuvraj is able to perform this juggling act, he will certainly become a real cricketing Superman.

INDIA: TWENTY20 WORLD CHAMPION.
6 runs, 4 balls, 1 wicket. A catch ends match.

There was enchantment at work at the Wanderers here. Everything that could go wrong for India did, but somehow, despite scoring what should not have been enough (157); despite the trailblazing Yuvraj Singh failing after getting them so far in the tournament; despite Imran Nazir hammering quick runs in quick time, India beat Pakistan by five runs to win the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup.

There was magic in the air. And you could feel it right through the day. It began early, when hordes of jostling Indians and Indian-origin fans, many of who had purchased tickets in black, for up to five times the original price, made it into the Wanderers, enthusiastically waving the tricolour.

This was a dream match-up; it was the first final of a World Cup that might rewrite the way cricket will be looked at by future generations. And it was India vs. Pakistan.
Everyone here knew history was being made and that emotional, pulsating crowd wanted to be an active part of it. They cheered the teams as they walked on to the ground, sang Jana Gana Mana with full-throated excitement and made sure India’s Boys in Blue never felt they were away from home. And as for Dhoni’s devils, the men they were rooting for, well, they just do not cease to amaze us.

When this day is done, when the parties are over, when the music has died down and the crowds have finally disappeared from the team hotel and all of us here head for home, each one of us who has been on this enchanted African safari, will have to wonder what comes next.

Logic says that being young and restless, confident and talented, will only take the Indians so far. After all, this is only T20. Luck plays a huge role; the margin for error is too little, so great teams have been felled because of one bad session and no time to make up. Could they repeat this in the longer formats?

But seeing this young India on the ground and off it, their enjoyment of the moment, the joie-de-vivre they bring to everything they do, their affection for each other and; their gelling together as a unit has got to make you a believer. There is something about this band of boys that makes you want to laugh and cry with them, embrace them, if only for giving you hope for the future.

When Pakistan needed 54 runs off the last four overs with six batsmen back in the pavilion, India would have thought they had the match. However, such is the fascinating game that when S. Sreesanth accepted Misbah- Ul- Haq’s catch in the last over, Pakistan was just a shot away from winning the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship.

Misbah and Sohail Tanvir’s five sixes in a space of 10 balls brought Pakistan right back into the match and at one stage they needed 20 off 12 with two wickets in hand. However, R. P. Singh, the pick of the Indian bowlers, brought India back as he conceded only seven runs in his over while picking up the wicket of Umar Gul. When Joginder Sharma was handed the ball for the last over for the second time in as many matches, Pakistan needed 13 of six. “Harbhajan was not sure of getting his Yorkers right. So I decided to give the last over to Joginder. He wanted to make a name for himself in International Cricket”, said Mahendra Singh Dhoni when asked why Joginder again.

The first ball was a super- wide, a result of nervous. Joginder bounced back with a dot ball. Then Misbah hoicked him over long-off for a six.
With six off four needed, Pakistan were almost there. Misbah, who had failed to score the winning run after tying the game against India in the group stage, then exposed his stumps and tried to scoop Joginder over short fine leg. To India’s relief, the ball looped in the air and Sreesanth took the catch. After the run fest in the opening match of the tournament at the Wanderers, 157 might not have seemed as a sufficient total at the end of India’s innings.

However, India, watched by Shah Rukh Khan, among others, still had an upper hand because of three reasons. One, Pakistan was under pressure since they were chasing. Two, India finished first innings on a high. And three, the wicket was not as flat as the one for the South Africa- West Indies opener. Early wickets were the key and R.P. Singh did just that. He first forced Mohammad Hafeez to open the face and find Robin Uthappa in the slips in the first over and in his next cleaned up Kamran Akmal, who was promoted to No. 3.

Then Irfan Pathan, playing for the first time with his sibling Yousuf in an international match, broke the back of the Pakistan middle- order with an exceptional spell of 4-0-16-3. After loosing Hafeez and Akmal, Imran Nazir cut loose and smashed 33 off 14. However, Uthappa’s direct hit from mid-off to the striker’s end saw the back of Nazir and it was time for Irfan to take over. He did it superbly. Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik were mainly on the lookout for singles. But Pathan sent Malik and danger man Shahid Afridi back in one over to snatch the control away from Pakistan.