Music in general has the extraordinary power to shape a human being. Scientifically speaking, music exerts a great influence on the cognitive and psychological make-up of a person.
Change is the only constant and brings with itself new opportunities. Although the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in the lives of many, it has brought about a monumental change in the way we look at things and perhaps presented many with newer opportunities and space to grow.
By Nazarul Islam
Like so many movie buffs, I was devastated with the news of Christopher Plummer, popularly known as Captain von Trapp’s passing I felt the intense urge to write about the movie that impacted my life morally as well as musically. The Sound of Music was perhaps one of the first movies I saw as a teenager. A movie revolving around seven mischievous children, one determined governess and their father, the daunting Captain von Trapp.
Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music has and will forever remain a classic. Originally a stage musical composed by the incredible Rodgers and Hammerstein II the movie not only bagged five Academy Awards, but left an indelible impression on the minds and hearts of people all over the world.
A tale of music, romance and the importance of family, The Sound of Music has been one of my greatest value education teachers. Just recently as I re-watched the movie with one of my closest friends for the umpteenth time, I realized how it has contributed to the person I am today.
The title of the movie could not be more apt. The movie was my initiation to western music. Music in general has the extraordinary power to shape a human being. Scientifically speaking, music exerts a great influence on the cognitive and psychological make-up of a person. Multiple instances in the movie have reiterated this fact.
All the main characters of the film can be seen serenading the audience with melodious songs, exuding joy and hope. Every song from the title track of the same name as the film to the Reverend Mother’s ‘Climb Every Mountain’ showcases the heart and emotion of benevolence and humanity.
Various life lessons are interlaced throughout the movie. The movie greatly emphasizes the power of love. As Khalil Gibran once said, “When love beckons to you, follow him…” The movie restates just that in the form of Maria’s love for music, the children and ultimately the Captain.
It’s a perfect portrayal of love’s “hard and steep ways” and how it can produce wonders in the life of a human being. Love binds every character together and helps them rise above the brutal Nazi occupation of Austria. The songs, ‘I have Confidence’ and ‘My Favorite Things’ not only inspire but also remind us to not be afraid of challenges.
One song that is particularly emotionally stirring, ‘Climb Every Mountain’ teaches us to chase rainbows and follow our dreams. The unadorned optimism and encouragement of the song will resonate with almost anyone listening to it. Even Captain Von Trapp’s homage to his homeland, Austria, through the song ‘Edelweiss’ is simple yet radiates patriotism – What a home country can and should mean to one is wonderfully captured.
Initially slated to marry the Baroness Elsa, when the Captain realized his true feelings for Maria, he confessed with clarity his feelings which the Baroness not only understood but accepted with inordinate grace. Her acceptance of rejection with forbearance and understanding should serve as paragons of how to be a good human being.
Another line from the movie that resonates with me till date is, “When God closes a door somewhere he opens a window.” Eons ago Heraclitus rightly said, “Change is the only constant” and change brings with itself new opportunities. In the movie as Maria prepares herself to face the new challenge of governing seven children, she is bestowed with the opportunity of proving her capabilities on a new job.
Coming to the real world, although the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in the lives of many, it has brought about a monumental change in the way we look at things and perhaps presented many with newer opportunities and space to grow.
The movie The Sound of Music, the character of Captain von Trapp, so well brought to life by Christopher Plummer, is a sublime reminder of rudimentary lessons. In his own words: “Unless, you surround yourself with as many beautiful things as you can afford, I don`t think life has very much meaning”.
Christopher Plummer will live in our hearts, for a long time to come.
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About the Author
The Bengal-born writer is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier, and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America.
Speakers urge for devising coordination mechanism for success of system
Despite huge budgets, Child Protection Authority and Human Rights Cell have failed to deliver
By GR Junejo
Mithi: A capacity building workshop on strengthening the police investigation and stakeholders’ coordination mechanism was held here on Friday by the Tharparkar police in collaboration with Civil Society Support Program, a non-government organization.
DSP Rasheed Haroon Sirai, Kashif Bajer, Natho Khan Rahmoon, advocate Rai Singh Sodho and officers from all over district attended the workshop.
Addressing the participants, advocate Kashif Bajer lauded introducing the community policing and setting up of human rights cell and child protection authority but said that nobody knows about it. “The Child Protection Authority has annual budget of about Rs.200 million while the Safe House has annual budget of Rs.5 million, however these organizations need to improve their working, as owing to inactive role and non-utilization of funds on assigned tasks, the budgets have reportedly lapsed,” he said and added that it is because of absence of coordination mechanism.
“We need to devise the coordination mechanism for better results,” he urged.
Kashif Bajer viewed that these are very small things but one needs to understand. “We can work in a better way despite all these weakness in the system,” he said.
He also spoke about the conditions of prisons, and said that prisons are considered as Reform Houses in other civilized countries but here a person becomes a habitual criminal after being imprisoned even if he is convicted in a minor crime.
Advocate Rai Singh Sodho underlined the need of new legislation so that the investigation side could be strengthened. He also spoke about the powers of Station House Officer (SHO) and said that SHO has vast powers but he is not allowed to use it.
Psychologist Dr. Bhart in his speech called for changing the attitudes. “We must pay respect to others, as several issues can be resolved only through changed behaviors.”
Dr. Bhart also urged the parents to spare time for their children. “Pay special attention to the children, who indulge in consuming drugs that often cause mental disorders. Even the excessive use of social media is the result of mental disorder, which in turn develops other complications,” he said.
The military claimed the election had been “stolen”. They tried to bully the electoral commission into reversing the result. When that failed they marched on parliament. Sound familiar so far? Backed up with tanks and guns, the generals arrested the NLD politicians and returned Aung San Suu Kyi to house arrest.
By Tom Arms
This week’s coup in Myanmar (aka Burma) is a warning of the dangers of Faustian pacts between politicians and the military.
To be fair, the political maneuverability of human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi was severely limited. Her country had been under a brutal military regime for nearly half a century when she started talks with the generals. And she was negotiating while under house arrest.
But the government which eventually resulted in multi-party general elections in 2015 and again last November was neither political fish nor fowl and thus inherently unstable. The Tatmadaw (the military’s name for itself) called the result a “discipline-flourishing democracy.”
The new constitution allowed multi-party elections, but 25 percent of the seats were reserved for the military’s political vehicle the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP); which had a blocking vote because major legislation required a three-quarters majority.
In addition, the cabinet portfolios of defence, border security and home affairs were held by serving military officers. The military also appointed two of the vice presidents. Ms. Suu Kyi was specifically barred from the presidency by constitutional clause which said no one married to a non-Burmese citizen or who had non-Burmese children could hold the top job. Aung San Suu Kyi was married to a British subject and had British children.
The generals were the real power in the land. The problem was that they craved political legitimacy; and Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) repeatedly thwarted them by winning landslide victories. The latest was in November when the NLD secured 86 percent of the elected seats in parliament. The USDP won a derisory seven percent.
The military claimed the election had been “stolen”. They tried to bully the electoral commission into reversing the result. When that failed they marched on parliament. Sound familiar so far? Backed up with tanks and guns, the generals arrested the NLD politicians and returned Aung San Suu Kyi to house arrest.
The generals had hoped that blocking Ms. Suu Kyi from the presidency and her lack of government experience would lead to her failure that would strengthen the USDP. She started by confounding them over the leadership issue. Barred from the presidency, Ms. Suu Kyi created the post of “state counsellor” which she said was above the presidency.
But the generals appeared to be right in Aung San Suu Kyi’s lack of government experience. She failed miserably to negotiate an end to the long-standing civil wars which has plagued the country since 1948, with several ethnic factions fighting the dominate Burmese-speakers for autonomy or outright independence.
The ethnic problem was highlighted by Ms. Suu Kyi’s failure to control the Tatmadaw from waging virtual genocide against the Rohingya Muslims. Her defence of the Burmese military before the International Court of Justice caused Ms. Suu Kyi to fall from the human rights pedestal on which Western liberals had placed her.
Suu Kyi’s handling of the economy was too little too late. Under her government the economy grew at about 6.5 percent a year, but it needed growth of well over 10 percent to make up for decades of mismanagement.
Before independence in 1948, Burma was one of the richest countries in Asia. The country was—and still is—awash in oil, natural gas, minerals and precious gemstones. But its long and repressive military dictatorship resulted in sanctions, lack of foreign investment and international isolation which destroyed the colonial economy. Myanmar’s per capita income is £1,298 per annum compared to $6,502 in neighboring Thailand.
All this led the military to believe that they had a chance of at the very least making a substantial dent in the NLD’s substantial majority in the elected parliamentary seats. But the November elections only increased the NLD’s position. Democracy had failed the generals, so they staged their coup, put Aung San Suu Kyi back under house arrest and returned to the tried and tested military dictatorship.
World Review
Move over Donald Trump. America’s conspiracy-driven ultra-right has a new darling. She is the photogenic 46-year-old freshman Congresswoman from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene. In less than a month in office, Ms. Greene has infuriated Democrats, embarrassed the Republican leadership, made Trump look like a wet liberal, shot to media prominence, sparked a movement to force her expulsion from the House of Representatives, and won the hearts of White supremacists. Ms. Greene hit the hallowed corridors of Congress running. The day after she was sworn in she filed articles for the impeachment of President Biden. But it is her record of conspiracy-laden Trumpism before officially taking office that has done Ms. Greene the most damage (or help). Obama is a secret Muslim. Mass shootings were false-flag exercises designed to undermine gun rights. Bill Clinton murdered John F. Kennedy Jr. Hillary Clinton is a pedophile. Nancy Pelosi should be executed for treason…. Leading Democrats have called for her expulsion from Congress. They won’t succeed and that, but they have blocked her appointment to committees. However, the Democratic ire seems to only encourage the Republican grassroots to rally around Ms. Greene, especially after Trump declared: “I love her.” One thing is certain: The fate of Marjorie Taylor Greene is now tied to the future direction of America’s Republican Party.
Britain did not, on 1 January, fall off the economic cliff as some anti-Brexiteers predicted. But neither has the country’s formal departure from the European Union been an economic walk in the park. Red tape at borders has meant bureaucratic headaches, especially for anyone supplying perishable products such as fish, meat, vegetables and some medicines. Particularly hard hit has been Northern Ireland which now has an open border with Eire and a hard border with the rest of the United Kingdom. The border, however, can be closed by either the UK or EU if either party has reason to believe that the agreement causes “economic, societal or environmental difficulties.” The commission briefly closed the border to stop the export of coronavirus vaccines. It was a stupid move which was immediately rescinded. Now the pro-Unionist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is calling for the border to be closed and the UK/Northern Ireland border to be thrown open to alleviate the trade in fresh food from the UK to Northern Ireland. But closing the border between North and South Ireland would breach the Good Friday Agreement which is the foundation of the fragile peace in Northern Ireland. A predicted Brexit conundrum.
There is no doubt that Alexei Navalny is a brave man and a hero to thousands of Russians demonstrating for his release from prison. Navalny also receives a favorable press outside of Russia. But beware he is not the cuddly politician one might think. He is an anti-immigration, xenophobic ethnic Russian nationalist. In 2013 he defended anti-immigration riots in Moscow. He supported Putin’s annexation of the Crimea and has campaigned for the political integration of Russia with Ukraine and Belarus. Navalny has also supported Russian secessionists in Georgia and Moldova and attacked the building of Moscow’s first mosque in 2015. The major difference between Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Putin is the former’s campaign against the oligarchical-controlled corruption that is dragging down the Russian state.
The good news is that this week the US and Russia signed a new five-year Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which cuts the nuclear arsenals of the two countries. The bad news is that Russia withdrew from the 1992 Open Skies Treaty which allowed the US, Europe and Russia to conduct aerial surveillance of each other’s military installations. The US withdrew in November. The treaty is dead. That is a concern. The Russians say they withdrew because of Donald Trump’s withdrawal. But it is not that simple. Trump withdrew because the Russians were blocking surveillance flights, especially over the heavily-armed Russian enclave of Kaliningrad which is sandwiched between the Baltic States and Poland. In making the announcement, President Vladimir Putin said the door was ajar for a renegotiated Open Skies Treaty. But this seems unlikely in the immediate future because President Trump scrapped the specially-equipped planes needed to enforce the treaty. The end of Open Skies is particularly worrying when considered in the context of the end of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which regulated the nuclear weapons regime based in Europe. START lessens the danger of an intercontinental nuclear exchange. But the demise of the INF Treaty and the Open Skies Agreement increases the possibility of hostilities in Europe.
Britain plans to join the Trans Pacific Partnership (full name Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, AKA CPTPP). This is a bit surprising because the agreement is a trading bloc of countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. Britain now has only one possession in the Pacific—Pitcairn, population 50. It does, however, have historic and cultural links throughout the region. The main reason for the British application for membership of the TPP is to curry favor with Washington. One of the main reasons Obama devised the TPP was to block against Chinese economic expansion. For the first 18 years of the 21st century successive British governments have curried favor with the Chinese, in the hope that economic liberalization would lead to Chinese democratization. Whitehall have reluctantly admitted this is a lost cause and are now falling in behind the Trump/Biden tougher stance on Beijing. The TPP also offers a back door trade agreement with the US–a key target of UK foreign policy since the Brexit referendum. It would not be as good as a bilateral deal, but it could be something on which a bilateral arrangement could be constructed.
Apologies to Russia’s scientists and President Vladimir Putin. I was skeptical of their coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. This was understandable given that the vaccine was tested on only 76 volunteers before being approved and rushed into production. However, the Russian gamble appears to have paid off. A peer-reviewed article in The Lancet shows that Sputnik V is 91 percent effective in combatting the virus. On top of that, the Russians are about to launch two more vaccines—Epivac and Covivac. This is great news because the world desperately needs as many countries as possible manufacturing as many vaccines as possible to jab as many arms as possible as quickly as possible. So far 15 countries have ordered a billion doses of Sputnik V. The Russian vaccine is even being considered by the European Union to make up for the shortfall in BioNtech and Astra Zeneca doses. Unfortunately, the Russians are a bit slow on distribution. They are hoping to counter this with partnership agreements to produce their vaccines in different countries.
There is more good news on the vaccine front. British health officials reported that the vaccines are having an effect on reducing transmission rates as well as providing immunity. Officials have also said that spacing the two necessary jabs 12 weeks apart actually improves the efficacy of the vaccines. Taking this route was a British government gamble as researchers originally wanted the jabs to be two weeks apart and refused to vouch for the effectiveness of the vaccine if it was administered at 12-week intervals. Also, scientists report that tweaking the vaccine to deal with mutant strains will be a fairly simple operation. And finally, the Astra Zeneca vaccine can be mixed and matched with the Russian offering to increase doses. Russian and British research scientists are in talks about details.
Underneath Warsaw’s Vistula River is a bank of computers hooked up to…clams. The mollusks are the latest in anti-pollution devices. And these particular clams are monitoring the safety of Warsaw’s drinking water. A coil runs between a computer and a magnet inside the clams. Water is then run past the clams who have a strong aversion to pesticides, heavy metals and other pollutants. When exposed to these nasties they literally “clam up”. The movement is picked up by the magnet which in turn is connected to a computer which tells the engineers to start cleaning.
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About the Author
Tom Arms is the London-based American foreign affairs journalist. He has nearly half a century’s experience of world affairs, and has written and broadcast for American, British and Commonwealth outlets. Positions he held included foreign correspondent, diplomatic correspondent, foreign editor, editor and founding CEO of an international diary news service. He is the author of “The Encyclopedia of the Cold War,” “The Falklands Crisis” and “World Elections on File.” His new book “America: Made in Britain” is expected this year.
{The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sindh Courier}
The South African government has aptly warned of a coming global ‘vaccine apartheid’ as wealthy countries have bought up vast vaccine supplies, leaving poorer ones to cope with extreme scarcity.
By Nazarul Islam
Our world is pretty much on the brink of failing a critical test: the one measuring whether the international community is willing, or able to end a global pandemic without leaving anyone behind. Wealthy countries have bought up vast vaccine supplies, leaving poorer ones to cope with extreme scarcity.
An international initiative known as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) aims to distribute vaccines widely and equitably, but it is short of funds. At best, COVAX will reach only a small portion of the populations of low-income countries this year. The South African government has aptly warned of a coming global ‘vaccine apartheid’.
Perhaps there is still time to manage this in an alternate way. Wealthy countries have a moral duty to help distribute vaccines. This is also in their economic interest. Instead of hoarding supplies, these countries should reallocate doses to low- and middle-income countries and provide funding to ensure that the most vulnerable populations—including minorities and stateless people—and, ultimately, entire populations are immunized, regardless of income.
Political leaders have faced strong pressures to prioritize vaccination of their own populations. The impulse to care first for one’s own people can be morally justified but only within limits. All people enjoy an equal worth, with similar aspirations for health and productivity.
The equitable distribution of vaccines—as well as tests and therapies—is an ethical and humanitarian imperative. It is also the most efficient way to address or reverse the crises that the coronavirus pandemic has set in motion, many of which will soon enough affect all nations, whether they have vaccine supplies or not.
While the ongoing pandemic has persisted, progress in other areas of global health, such as immunization of children and eradication of polio, has sharply reversed. Pakistan is yet to come out clean, in its success of the allocated program for eradication of polio.
Because of COVID-19, nearly 1.5 million more people were projected to die from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in 2020. And this number is near that of the world’s COVID-19 deaths in the same period. The number of people experiencing or at risk of acute hunger has doubled in the last year, and the World Bank estimates that the pandemic has thrust 100 million people into extreme poverty—a fate that another 50 million are expected to suffer by the end of this year.
Women and minor girls confront a greater risk of gender-based violence, including rape, child marriage, and sex slavery, during the pandemic. And school closings and inaccessible remote learning have left 463 million children around the world, without formal education.
Only by vaccinating the world’s populations can these destabilizing and immiserating trends be reversed or brought to heel. Large clusters of disease in low-income countries risk reseeding the pandemic in high-income countries—and such unchecked spread will hinder the global economic recovery and undermine the security of governments worldwide.
To distribute enough vaccines, drugs, and tests to developing countries will cost an estimated $24 billion in 2021. And, that is a significant sum at a time when even high-income economies have been battered. But the investment will bring benefits that far outstrip the cost.
The International Monetary Fund has projected that worldwide vaccination would add nearly $9.0 trillion to the global economy by 2025—conversely, the RAND Corporation has projected that for each year that low-income countries cannot access vaccines, the combined GDP of high-income countries would fall by $100 billion.
Leaders of wealthy democracies must look beyond today, or their decisions will haunt them tomorrow.
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About the Author
The Bengal-born writer is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier, and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America.
150 houses would be demolished in first phase and 600 more houses in the next – Executive Engineer Irrigation
Anti-encroachment drive launched on Thursday on court orders was suspended for two days after death of a man and protest of residents
By Allah Bux Khushik
Dadu: The district administration of Dadu plans to bulldoze 750 homes built at the irrigation department’s land and at the embankments of canals and channels. The action is being taken to remove encroachments from the lands as per directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Executive Engineer irrigation Lutufullah said that in first phase 150 homes would be demolished built at the embankments of Phakka and Jagir channels from Shahjahan Park to Panj More and in second phase more 600 hundred homes would be demolished on Dadu canal’s both sides from Panj More to Siyal More.
Following the court directives, the district administration of Dadu started anti-encroachment drive on Thursday to vacate the irrigation land and clear the embankment of Dadu Canal and its channels however it was suspended for two days by the Deputy Commissioner due to protest of residents and death of an aged man.
The anti-encroachment team was led by Assistant Commissioner Dadu Muhammad Ali Lund. Executive Engineer of Irrigation Department Lutufulallah, Mukthiarkar Dadu Abdul Hameed Khokar, DSP City, Anti-Encroachment SHO and lady police were also part of operation.
The authorities used heavy machinery to demolish homes of people who had illegally constructed homes on both sides of Phaka and Jagir channels.
Using bulldozers the team demolished the home of Ameer Jamali who had already vacated it.
During the operation a large number of men and women of the area staged sit-in and laid in front of bulldozers and demanded to stop demolishing their homes.
Laborer Muhammad Ali Mallah, one of the protesters, said that two years ago same operation was lunched by district administration and 180 homes were demolished but former Deputy Commissioner Shahzaman Khuhro and MNA Rafique Ahmed Jamali had assured on behalf of Chief Minister that victims, whose homes were demolished, would get free plots in Benazir Basti but neither DC nor MNA fulfilled their promise and plots were allotted to their own men.
He said that now they had constructed their three homes after getting loan but once again the government wants to demolish their homes, which is injustice with poor families. He warned that if their homes are demolished they would be compelled to commit suicide.
Ms. Pathani, another protester, said that the court had directed officials that they should first provide shelter before removing encroachments but even then poor people are being targeted.
During the protest, an aged man Muhammad Umar Joyo died at his home due to heart attack. Deceased’s heir and neighbors alleged that man had died due to shock of his home being demolished.
One Ghulam Ali Mallah told that two years ago during operation two aged women Shabana Mallah, Gulshan Mallah and 12-year girl Sorath had died but no one helped them except making tall claims by elected MNA.
Later, DC Dadu Samiulallah Shaikh gave two-day time to the residents to leave their homes and warned that in case of violation FIRs would be lodged against them and they would be held responsible if any untoward incident took place.
Contemporary World Literature: Poetry from Palestine
Poems by Nizar Sartawi
Nizar Sartawi is a Palestinian poet and translator committed to building bridges between nations of the globe through poetry and translation. He believes that poetry, like other arts, has the power of bringing people together.
Sartawi is a member of various international literary and cultural organizations. He has participated in many Arab and international literary conferences and poetry and festivals in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt, Dubai, Sharjah, Kosovo, and India.
Sartawi has published about 30 books. His poetry and translations have been anthologized and published in numerous international literary journals, magazines, newspapers. His poetry has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Sartawi was awarded the first prize in translation by Al-Nour Literary Organization (1913), Naji Naaman Award for Creativity (2018), and Jerusalem Intellectuals Forum Honorary Award (2019).
Kalpana Chawla, remembered as the ‘Citizen of Galaxies’, was an astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist of Columbia, born in Karnal, Haryana, India on July 1, 1961 to a Sindhi family.
“When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.” -Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla, remembered as the ‘Citizen of Galaxies’, was an astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist of Columbia, born in Karnal, Haryana, India on July 1, 1961 to a Sindhi family – Banarasi Lal Chawla and Sanjyothi. Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-American astronaut with NASA. She was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
Kalpana Chawla’s father was originally from Sindh but was settled in Multan from where he migrated to Haryana, India due to partition. Having no source of livelihood, Banarasi Lal worked as street vender but due to hard work he at last succeeded to rise by introducing tyre technology.
Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March 1962, in Karnal of present-day Haryana, India, but her official date of birth was altered to 1 July 1961, to allow her to become eligible for the matriculation exam. Her parents called her with nickname ‘Monto’ at home. As a child, she was fascinated by aeroplanes and flying. She went to local flying clubs and watched planes with her father. After getting a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, India, she moved to the United States in 1982 and obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. Chawla went on to earn a second Masters in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Career
In 1988, she began working at NASA Ames Research Center, where she did computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research on vertical and/or short take-off and landing concepts. Much of Chawla’s research is included in technical journals and conference papers. In 1993, she joined Overset Methods, Inc. as Vice President and Research Scientist specializing in simulation of moving multiple body problems. Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multi-engine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. After becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 1991, Chawla applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps. She joined the corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1996.
First space mission
Her first space mission began on 19 November 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian woman to fly in space. She spoke the following words while traveling in the weightlessness of space, “You are just your intelligence.” On her first mission, Chawla traveled over 10.4 million miles (16737177.6 km) in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 372 hours (15 days and 12 hours) in space.
Second space mission
In 2001, Chawla was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners. On 16 January 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission. The crew performed nearly 80 experiments studying Earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety. During the launch of STS-107, Columbia’s 28th mission, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the Space Shuttle external tank and struck the left-wing of the orbiter. Previous shuttle launches had seen minor damage from foam shedding, but some engineers suspected that the damage to Columbia was more serious. NASA managers limited the investigation, reasoning that the crew could not have fixed the problem if it had been confirmed. When Columbia re-entered the atmosphere of Earth, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart. After the disaster, Space Shuttle flight operations were suspended for more than two years, similar to the aftermath of the Challenger disaster. Construction of the International Space Station (ISS) was put on hold; the station relied entirely on the Russian Roscosmos State Corporation for resupply for 29 months until Shuttle flights resumed with STS-114 and 41 months for crew rotation.
Chawla died on 1 February 2003, in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, along with the other six crew members, when the Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107. Her remains were identified along with those of the rest of the crew members and were cremated and scattered at Zion National Park in Utah in accordance with her wishes.
Kalpana Chawla died a hero and a role-model for many young women, particularly those in her hometown of Karnal where she periodically returned to encourage young girls to follow in her footsteps.
Personal Life
She got married to Jean-Pierre Harrison in 1983, who was a flying instructor and an aviation author. For that reason it cam be termed as ‘Love in the Air’. Kalpana liked poetry, dancing, cycling and running. She also used to take part at sports events and was invariably first in all the races. She often played badminton and dodge ball with boys.
Kalpana Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, and several streets, universities, and institutions have been named in her honor. She is regarded as a national hero in India. Former US President Trump also called Kalpana as ‘American Hero’ in 2018.
The fourteenth contracted Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft mission delivering supplies to the ISS was named the “S.S. Kalpana Chawla” after her.
Asteroid 51826 Kalpana Chawla, one of seven named after the Columbia’s crew.
On 5 February 2003, the Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced that the meteorological series of satellites, MetSat, was to be renamed “Kalpana”. The first satellite of the series, “MetSat-1”, launched by India on 12 September 2002 was renamed “Kalpana-1”.
74th Street in the “Little India” of Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, New York, United States has been renamed “Kalpana Chawla Way” in her honor.
The Kalpana Chawla Award was instituted by the Government of Karnataka in 2004 to recognize young women scientists.
NASA has dedicated a supercomputer to Chawla.
One of Florida Institute of Technology’s student apartment complexes, Columbia Village Suites, has halls named after each of the astronauts, including Chawla.
The NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission has named seven peaks in a chain of hills, named the Columbia Hills, after each of the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia shuttle disaster. One of them is Chawla Hill, named after Chawla.
Steve Morse from the band Deep Purple created the song “Contact Lost” in memory of the Columbia tragedy along with her interest in the band. The song can be found on the album Bananas.
Novelist Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after the astronaut in his 2007 Star Trek novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.
The Kalpana Chawla ISU Scholarship fund was founded by alumni of the International Space University (ISU) in 2010 to support Indian women’s participation in international space education programs.
The Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship program was instituted by the Indian Students Association (ISA) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2005 for meritorious graduate students.
The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award at the University of Colorado, given since 1983, was renamed after Chawla.
The University of Texas at Arlington, where Chawla obtained a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering in 1984, opened a dormitory named Kalpana Chawla Hall in 2004.
In addition, the university dedicated the Kalpana Chawla Memorial on 3 May 2010, in Nedderman Hall, one of the primary buildings in the College of Engineering.
The girls’ hostel at Punjab Engineering College is named after Chawla. In addition, an award of INR twenty-five thousand, a medal, and a certificate is instituted for the best student in the Aeronautical Engineering department.
The Government of Haryana established the Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Jyotisar, Kurukshetra.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, named the Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell in her honor.
Delhi Technological University named a girls’ hostel block after Chawla.
A military housing development at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, has been named Columbia Colony and includes a street named Chawla Way.
A hostel block in Pondicherry University has been named after Chawla.
Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) is a Medical College located in Karnal, Haryana, India named after Chawla.
The National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra named a girls’ hostel after Chawla.
The National Institute of Technology Bhopal named girl’s hostel named KALPANA CHAWLA BHAWAN.
US Spacecraft was named after Kalpana Chawla
“The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it” Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman to visit space, had once said.
It’s time, to wake up, my friends! I think the time has arrived for a serious reckoning in US. It’s time for all of us to look inward. And … It’s time to analyze how things went so wrong over the past several decades.
BY Nazarul Islam
I think the time has arrived for a serious reckoning in US—the country we love. It’s time for all of us to look inward. And … It’s time to analyze how things went so wrong over the past several decades, that extremists in America felt motivated to barge into the Capitol, injure law enforcement officers, deface historic property and vandalize government offices.
How did we sink so low in our political discourse and interactions with each other that thousands were willing to act like they did this recently?
Certainly, many will point the finger at the former president and say it’s entirely his fault for constantly fomenting chaos and division over the past four years. Others will look at some of us in the media and say we’re to blame for despising him, since the day he was elected.
But the truth is – whether we’re willing to admit it or not – almost all of us bear some responsibility. Because if we hadn’t allowed ourselves to be pulled in one direction or another, into one of the most extreme states of political polarization our nation has ever seen, this never would have happened.
If only we had chosen, years ago, to fight to maintain the Fairness Doctrine, we might not have given rise to Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, OANN, Newsmax, etc. And those “news sources” – complete with their 24/7 cycle that led to blurring, then completely erasing, the line between news and commentary – might not have fueled that polarization.
But then came social media, which just locked us deeper in our echo chambers, unwilling to hear anything that challenged our beliefs or offered facts we didn’t want to face. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and others constantly alert us to more posts that do nothing but confirm and validate the thoughts and feelings created by the ones that came before them.
They also lead us down an internet rabbit hole to more and more dangerous sites that feed paranoia and fuel extremism on both sides of the political spectrum.
So what do we do now? First, we have to commit to break this cycle of addiction. If we truly want to avoid another scene like we witnessed recently, we have to cut the cords that keep us tied to information sources that feed us only what we want to hear. We have to once again use Facebook for spreading joy, love and positive experiences, and stop blasting our family and “friends” for their political ideology. We have to start talking – and, more importantly, listening – to each other again.
At the same time, we have to insist the people we elect to represent us work across the aisle to achieve results that benefit ALL Americans, not just members of their own party or those who fund their campaigns. Political disagreement is a healthy part of governing. But we do expect them to treat one another with respect; stop the constant grandstanding and fundraising and negotiate and compromise and act decisively in ways that leave no one behind.
Rather than making laws that widen the gaps between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” we must elect leaders who will work to close that breach. Rather than sowing the seeds of division that lead to chaos, we must insist they search for common ground. Rather than letting them spew hatred, we must insist they return to diplomacy; if they refuse, we must elect people who will.
Because the alternative is too frightening to consider – it’s time, to wake up, my friends!
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About the Author
The Bengal-born writer is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America.
Mama Aleta Baun with indigenous people from her community in West Timor Indonesia on January 26, 2013
Globally, indigenous women-led resistance movements are effectively stopping or slowing local environmental destruction that threatens our whole planet. This is happening in spite of gross underrepresentation of women in decision-making roles at international and environmental organizations
By Kavita Ramdas and Laura Garcia
For Indigenous Mollo people on Indonesia’s Timor Island, the forests, mountains, and water are not just their surroundings; they are as essential to their lives as food and air. These same forests and mountains are also rich in oil, gas, gold, and marble.
But for those who call the island home, these natural resources are more a curse than a blessing. Rather than benefiting from the richness of their own land, the Mollo must watch as 15 different mining operations remove the resources from their ancestral lands, mostly without their consent or financial remuneration.
In 1996, for example, the construction of two new marble mines threatened 16,000 hectares (more than 40,000 acres) of forest, where local women foraged for food, dyes, and medicine essential to their livelihood. In response, Aleta Baun, affectionately known as “Mama” Aleta, began to organize protests against the mining.
Led by Mama Aleta, more than 150 women blocked the entrance of the mine for an entire year. They formed an organization, Pokja OAT—funded by Global Greengrants Fund, an Open Society partner and grant-maker focused on supporting grassroots environmental and social justice organizations around the globe—to fight back against the companies’ destruction of the ecosystem.
Mama Aleta’s work leading Pokja OAT exemplifies the leadership of women in grassroots environmental movements who operate in defiance of persistent discrimination and obstacles. By 2007, Mama Aleta and anti-mining activists had mobilized the local Amanuban and Amanatun tribes, and eventually forced all mining companies to leave the area.
The extraction of natural resources and global dependence on fossil fuels is a huge contributor to climate change. In the case of Timor Island, the construction of large-scale mines has the potential to devastate the forests, which serve as not only important carbon sinks, but also as means of survival for the local Indigenous communities who have lived in harmony with the environment for centuries.
Over the past four decades, climate activists have spent significant time trying to convince decision makers—who were largely focused on the science and technological solutions—that climate change disproportionately affects women and Indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, the focus could also have been about how people like Mama Aleta are making the most significant contributions to climate activism, and not just about the disproportionate effects that climate has on marginalized populations.
Globally, women-led resistance movements are effectively stopping or slowing local environmental destruction that threatens our whole planet. This is happening in spite of gross underrepresentation of women in decision-making roles at international and environmental organizations, and the huge obstacles that leaders like Mama Aleta must overcome to have their voices heard.
For example, only 13.8 percent of landowners globally are women, which is a huge barrier for any decisions made about the sustainable use and management of resources; women make up less than 25 percent of roles in parliaments around the world, and hold only 12 percent of the highest government positions in environment-related sectors worldwide. Moreover, less than 0.2 percent of all foundation funding goes to support women-led environmental organizations.
Without the full participation of women and girls in climate decision-making we are losing crucial brainpower that we need to solve the world’s most complex problems. We need to reimagine what systemic and transformative change is needed to meet the scale of the climate crisis and to address historical oppressions that are also excluding people from participating in the solutions.
Just one year after the victory in Timor Island, new mining companies had already encroached on parts of the forest, and the conflict continued. Indigenous leaders were arrested, beaten, and threatened—including Mama Aleta.
The pressure on Indigenous people and the forests of West Timor remains today. Pokja OAT is now mapping 130 villages in the territory and pursuing legal and parliamentary avenues to assert a stronger legal claim to tribal forests. For her sustained efforts in defending the forest, Mama Aleta won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2013.
As the fight to save our planet continues, it is clear that stronger climate justice movements will require us to focus our support on people, like Mama Aleta, who are challenging the hegemonic agendas, creating alternative solutions in their own lives and communities, and helping us think differently. We need a just transition, and solutions that benefit humanity as a whole—not just a select few. Until we are ready to fully embrace the fact that we are all in this together, solutions will not be attainable because we need to gather all human wisdom to tackle the most challenging problem we face today.
Why Indian Sindhis hold Karachi especially dear? The name of the Karachi chain of sweets and bakeries has frequently come under attack for its seeming association with Pakistan. Yet, for the Sindhi owners of the chain, the name is a reminder of a lost homeland and a Partition unlike any other.
By Adrija Roychowdhury
Rajesh Ramnani does not take even a second to respond when asked why Karachi is important to him. “It is a reminder of all the emotions, sacrifices and hard work that our elders went through in order to create this brand, far away in a distant land,” says the 43-year-old, one of the directors of the much-loved Karachi Bakery that was started by his grandfather, Khanchand Ramnani after he migrated to Hyderabad (India) from his home in Sindh (now in Pakistan) in the wake of the Partition.
At that time Karachi was a city bustling with enterprise and opportunities, much like what Mumbai is today, explains Ramnani. His grandfather had opened a business in sweets and bakery products there and had named it after his beloved city. With the Partition, the bakery was uprooted, and so was the life and dreams of the senior Ramnani who fled in the midst of bloodshed and violence to build a new home first in Ajmer and then in Hyderabad, where he once again established the bakery with the same name.
Ramnani recollects the many conversations he had had with his grandfather about the days when he migrated to India. “He saw people cutting each other with swords, tearing them apart,” he says. Ironically, he says despite the bloodshed and hatred of the time, nobody objected to the name ‘Karachi Bakery’.
A video of the exchange between the two was caught on camera in which Nandgaokar is heard asking the owner to change the word ‘Karachi’ to “something in Marathi”. (Express photo: Ganesh Shirsekar)
“Why then is it being attacked today?” he asks, about a recurring controversy over the name of the bakery. The issue came up again last week (In November 2020) when a sweet shop owner in Mumbai’s Bandra West was forced to cover his shop sign with newspaper pages after Shiv Sena leader Nitin Nandgaokar wanted Karachi dropped from its name.
The name of the Karachi chain of sweets and bakeries has frequently come under attack for its seeming association with Pakistan. Yet for the Sindhi owners of the chain, the name is a reminder of a lost homeland and a Partition unlike any other.
Sindh, unlike Punjab and Bengal, was not divided. The entire territory went to Pakistan. At the same time, unlike the other communities, who found a state to their name in free India- Punjab for the Punjabis, Gujarat for the Gujaratis and Bengal for the Bengalis, the Sindhi migrants found themselves with no such land to call their own.
“They were role-model refugees, not asking for anything, not complaining, simply asking themselves the question, “Ok, what next?” and getting on with it,” says writer Saaz Aggarwal who has carried out extensive documentation of the Sindhi community in India. She adds, “In the process they contributed tremendously to the communities they settled in, a contribution that is often glossed over as having been done for mercenary reasons.”
Isolated from the rest of India
Situated right at the borders of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the territory of Sindh was closely impacted by the division of the country. Yet, the experience of Partition in Sindh was very different.
“The difference stemmed primarily from the fact that the social dynamics in Sindh was very different from the rest of the country,” says author Rita Kothari who has written several books on the impact of Partition on Sindhi identity. She explains that unlike other Partition affected parts of the country, Sindh on the eve of the Partition did not experience any Hindu-Muslim riots. “As a frontier region Sindh had a Hindu minority of 25 percent. That minority did not live in textualized forms of Hinduism that you would find in mainstream India. They were very influenced by Sikhism and Sufi practices,” she says.
Politically too Sindh was far removed from large parts of the Indian subcontinent. Long before Islamic rule came about in most regions in India, Sindh came under the rule of Muhammad Bin Qasim in 712 CE. Moreover, Sindh had barely drawn colonial attention till about the mid-19th century. It was only in 1843 that Sindh was annexed by the British from the Talpur Mirs and made part of the Bombay presidency. “Sindh was one of the last provinces to be annexed and it seemed that once the Bombay government’s interests were served, it cared little for Sindh’s development,” writes Kothari in her book “The burden of refuge: Partition experience of the Sindhis of Gujarat.”
In her paper, Kothari explains how the colonial annexation of the territory shattered Sindh’s cultural and political isolation from the rest of India, and also broke down the religious fluidity that was an intrinsic part of its landscape. Thereafter, socio-political developments happening in the rest of the country was bound to affect Sindh. “The merger with the Bombay presidency proved to be psychologically reassuring for the Hindus who were then no more a religious minority in an isolated province. It also gave them the confidence to use their capitalistic power,” writes Kothari.
Meanwhile, the Muslims of Sindh did not derive any direct benefits from the new dispensation. Consequently, an economic unrest among the Muslims emerged, manifesting itself in the formation of Muslim political organizations.
A bloodless Partition
On the eve of the Partition though, unlike its neighboring regions, Sindh remained relatively quiet. Though the territory went entirely to Pakistan, it was assumed that Hindus would not leave given that they had lived in peace as a minority for centuries. For that matter, even till August 15 no giant exodus of Hindus took place.
However, a sort of ‘nervous peace’ prevailed. “But the absence of communal violence did not mean that Hindu-Muslim relations were completely amicable in Sindh. With reports of riots and massacres from other parts of India flowing in daily, Sindhi Hindus were deeply fearful of similar violence from Sindhi Muslims,” writes author Nandita Bhavnani in her book, ‘The making of exile: Sindhi Hindus and the Partition of India.’
Finally, there was also the issue of an increasing number of Muslim refugees from India coming into Sindh. “The real mass exodus started after the Karachi riots of 6 January 1948, when Muslim refugees from Eastern Punjab started a looting spree of Hindu property in the capital of Sindh. This produced a wave of panic, which spread to all urban centers of the province,” writes historian Claude Markovits in his book “The global world of Indian merchants: 1750-1947 traders of Sindh”.
Though the violence in Sindh was nothing compared to what was happening in Punjab, Markovits explains that by mid-1948 a total of 1,200,000 non-Muslim refugees had entered India, stretching the resources of the provincial government in Bombay to the limit.
Preserving Karachi in India
Perhaps it is safe to say that Sindhis got the rawest deal in the Partition. With no corresponding space to call their own on this side of the border, they settled down wherever they could and managed to prosper and contribute as well. “I find the period after Partition much more significant in the shaping of Sindhi identity in India. They were unwanted migrants everywhere,” says Kothari. “It is at the time of rehabilitation and being refugees at that early period, when they dealt with a lot of suspicion and rejection, both by the state and the civil society. Consequently, they shed away everything that made them distinct. They assimilated more than any other community,” she adds.
This easy assimilation of the community cost them their language and culture. Aggarwal recalls that as a child she hardly knew anything about Sindh. “No one at home ever spoke about Sindh. Then there was the sense of embarrassment stemming from stereotypes created by Hindi cinema of Sindhis being cunning characters,” she recalls. So isolated was the post-Partition Sindhi from their culture, that well up till 1967 their language was not even accepted as an official language of the country.
Principal Kushiram Kundnani who founded the R D National College in Mumbai in 1949 (personal collection of RS Savur)
Despite the cultural loss, the Sindhis made noteworthy contributions to the country. In Mumbai, for instance, within seven years of Partition, at least three prominent colleges were started by Sindhis which were open to all. In an attempt to build houses for themselves, many got into the construction sector. “There’s a big chunk of neglected history of Sindhi contribution to the Indian freedom movement,” says Aggarwal. Sindhi names like Hemu Kalani and Bhai Pratap are almost never remembered in text book references to the nationalist movement.
As language, culture and history slipped away, the community held firmly onto the memories of the streets of Karachi, Hyderabad (Sindh), Shikarpur, Sukkur and Larkana. It was but natural for them to name their businesses after the lost homeland. “Hindu Sindhis have no attachment to the province of Sindh in Pakistan. Their allegiance is to the ancestral homeland of Sindh, which they lost at Partition and to their essential Sindhiness. The names are a link to an emotional connection that was snatched away and never even mourned,” says Aggarwal. “What else have they got apart from some memories, some names of the land they left behind and a few food items?” asks Kothari.
If the name Karachi symbolized memory of homeland for the Sindhis, then the demand to change it is seen as an insult to the years and efforts they have given to the development of India. “We have been serving this country since the time of Independence. Then why do we have to prove ourselves today?” asks Ramnani. “A lot of blood and sweat has gone into creating Karachi Bakery as a brand. People have grown up with fond memories of our biscuits. All of this cannot be changed overnight.”
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Courtesy: Indian Express (Article was published on November 27, 2020)
