IN INDIA WITH LOVE

*François de lamaestre resting on Ladakh hill*

François de Lamaestre whom I know by his nickname Franck is a twenty-six-year-old Frenchman, who came to India in 2004. Many foreign tourists visit India and return back to their own lands with impressions good or bad or simply neutral. To some India is queer and mystic. This is because India is a weave of undivided time-ancient and modern.

Nowhere else in the world will you find so many temples and so many pilgrimage spots for all faiths dotted throughout the length and breadth of this country-even after its partition in 1947. On the insistence of Md Ali Jinnah, Pakistan was formed as a separate Islamic state, as Jinnah believed in a “two nations" theory with Hindus and Muslims. But to show how unrealistic was Jinnah in his ‘two-nations’ concept, India shelters more Muslims than does Pakistan. India is a land where all cultures and faiths find a congenial one atmosphere under her sky where all can breathe, exist, play and grow. This uniqueness has attracted many foreigners from immemorial times. In India, it’s a different time. If you want to feel and understand India in your own sense of time, you will be disappointed. She exists in a time-zone not determined by the Sun. She has existed from unknown ancient times carrying and combining the breath of all the collectivities that have treaded on and through her receptive bosom.You can feel the presence of Lord Buddha, the great Shankaracharya, Guru Nanak and even you yourself are joined with a mysterious past when the great Upanishads and the Vedas were born. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are not mere epics in India. They are a vibrant and living reality deep within the Indian psyche. Islam arrived not so long ago in the past. The Muslim rulers have gone like the Christians. But hundreds of thousands of Muslim saints and Sufis as well as Christian saints are vibrantly felt in the air of India even in the anthills of Mumbai, Chennai and in the hundreds of cities and towns of India even today. India forgets none. She took all and made them her own.At the same time she appears shocking to the visitors of the West, with her poverty, the dwellers on the road-side pavements, the lepers, the beggars, the squalors and the unhygienic way of life of her people.

India has her natural beauty with mountains, hills, forests, springs, seas and rivers. But India cannot boast of these assets as unique to her, as there are several lands in the world which are as beautiful as heaven. So for outsiders India appears in many different lights. Both the Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists think that they are separate collectivities with different cultures. But this is sheer ignorance. Even the most conservative Muslims are not aware that they breathe from the same cultural atmosphere which helps Hindus to retain their Hinduism. India is not sectarianly religious. She is deeply religious, but with a spiritual overtone. It is difficult to understand the essence of India. It is a seat of spiritual seeking. For thousands of years India devoted herself to this seeking. So the air and the soil of India still contains this essential spiritualism. A Muslim has a greater opportunity here in India to be a proper seeker of Islamic truth than the people of Turky and Syria. Pakistan contains this same spiritual atmosphere. So A Hindu fundamentalist -if he would like India to be a home to Hindus only-would be attempting to cut and divide the air with a Hindu sword. A Muslim in India is not simply a Muslim. Islam is reborn in India-in Indian Muslims. Hinduism is not a religion like the organised religions of the world. It's a way of life. It always tries, seeks and asserts to base life on a truth that is eternal. So both Hidus and Muslims in India are basically-if anything-Indians. The religions are personal ways of seeking. But collectively we are the same Indians. I relate all this as Franck's experiences in India were basically from the Hindu religion and festivals-including the pilgrimage spots. But Franck’s love-an overwhelming love and attraction for India-is unusual, though not unheard of. It is an intense and infatuating romance. It is interesting to hear his romantic tales. So I requested that he write them up for this blog notwithstanding my awareness that feelings in matters of love are always inexpressible. Here is what Franck says about his encounter and relationship with eternal India. My earlier statement that India forgets nothing and none and that she took all and made it her own finds resonance when Franck says, “I was amazed at how quickly I was accepted - such a contrast to the difficulties in relationships in my own country”. Nowhere in the world you’ll find so many temples and so many pilgrimage spots for all faiths dotted throughout the length and breadth of this country-even after its partition in 1947. On the insistence of Md Ali Jinnah Pakistan was formed as a separate Islamic state as Jinnah believed in “two nations”- theory with Hindus and Muslims. But to show how unrealistic was Jinnah in his ‘two-nations’ concept India shelters more Muslims than Pakistan does. India is a land where all cultures and faiths find a congenial one atmosphere over the sky of her land where all can breathe to exist, to play and grow. This uniqueness has attracted many foreigners from immemorial times. In India, it’s a different time. If you want to feel and understand india in your own sense of time- you will definitely be mistaken. She is within a different time- zone not determined by the Sun. She has been continuing from the unknown ancient time carrying and combining the breath of all the collectivities that have treaded on and through her receptive bosom. You can feel the presence of Lord Buddha, the great Shankaracharya, Guru Nanak and even you are joined with an immeasurable far when the great Upanishads and the Vedas were born. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are not mere epics in India. They are vibrant and living reality deep within the Indian psyche. The Islam came in not from so far a past. The Muslim rulers have gone like the Christian. But hundreds of thousands of Muslim saints and Sufis along with the Christian saints are vibrantly felt in the air of India even in the anthills of Mumbai, Chennai and hundreds of cities and towns of India even in 2007 AD. India left none. She took all and make all her own. At the same time she appears shocking to the visitors of the West-with her poverty, the dwellers on the road-side pavements, the lepers, the beggars, the squalors and the unhygienic way of life of her people. India has her natural beauty with mountains, hills, forests, springs, seas and rivers. But India can not boast of these as it is not unique with her and there are several lands in the world which are as beautiful as heaven. So for outsiders India appears in many different ways. Both the Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists think that they are separate collectivities with different cultures. But it is sheer ignorance. Even the most conservative Muslims are not aware that they breathe from the same cultural atmosphere which helps Hindus to retain their Hinduism. India is not sectarianly religious. She is deeply religious-but with a spiritual overtone. It's difficult to understand the essence of India. It's a seat of spiritual seeking. For thousands of years India devoted herself to this seeking. So the air and the soil of India still contains this essential spiritualism. A Muslim has a greater opportunity here in India to be a proper seeker of Islamic truth than the people of Turky and Syria. Pakistan contains this same spiritual air as we find in India. So A Hindu fundamentalist -if he likes India to be a home to Hindus only-his attempt to to do this is as if to cut and divide the air with a Hindu sword. A Muslim in India is not simply a Muslim. Islam is reborn in India-in Indian Muslims. The Hinduism is not a religion like the organised religions of the world. It's a way of life. It always tries, seeks and asserts to base life on a truth that is eternal. So both Hidus and Muslims in India are basically-if not anything, are Indians. The religions are personal way of seeking. But collectively we are the same Indians. I have to tell all this as Frank's experiences in India were basically from Hindu religious and festivals-including the pilgrimage spots. But Frank’s love-an overwhelming love and attraction for India is rare-though not a singular instance. It’s an intense and infatuating romance that is not usual. It’s interesting to go through his romantic tales. So I requested him to write it down for this blog notwithstanding my awareness that the feeling in matters of love is always inexpressible. Here is what Frank –says about his encounter and relation with eternal India. My earlier statement that India left nothing and none and she took all and made her own finds a resonance when Frank says “I was amazed at how quickly I was accepted - such a contrast to the difficulties in relationships in my own country”. [Introduction part written jointly by Kathleen Sutherland and me] Frank is an extraordinary photographer. With the delight of seeing one's lover from as many angles as one's never satiated heart wants, Frank, with his camera, seeks to hold innumerable sights of India in his camera. Some of these photos are published here with his kind permission. I am greatly indebted to him for this. INDIA-My love I've been to India twice. The first time was in 2004, when I stayed for two months, mainly visiting tourist places like in Rajasthan or Himachal. The second time was in 2006; when I told my relatives that I would go back again to India, they all asked me, "Why? You've already been. There are a lot of other countries you could visit, so why go back to a place you’ve already seen?" First of all, I don’t think that in two months I can presume to know a country that is such a multi-cultural mosaic, with such an ancient and complex culture, and moreover, a country which is seven times the size of mine (France). But this is the official explanation; my true motivation has nothing to do with any logical explanations, but during the two years separating my trips, I was craving going back; India was in my thoughts and dreams, as the image of a beloved face...I had fallen in love. How did that happened? 2004 Was it during that first rickshaw ride, from Andheri to the railway station, when a group of boys and girls waved to us (this first time I was with my girlfriend)? Or was it when this kind family in the train to Ahmedabad took care of me when I was experiencing the first symptoms of hepatitis? Or when that rickshaw driver saw I was having troubles and stopped to make me drink some lemon tea? Was it during that moment shared with two students in the same train, watching the Gujarat landscape while discussing the world? Was it during the Aardh-kumbh mela in Hardwar? The truth is, there was no beginning, it was a diffuse experience that is hard to describe. Since 19 years of age, I’ve been fascinated by India, reading books and watching documentaries about it, but nothing prepared me for the actual experience. Marseille, 2006. After a struggle to find a teacher able to supervise my master’s degree about India and finding none, I decided to leave the university and to extend my plane ticket from two to six months. I had chosen to study anthropology in that country, and if I couldn’t do that through the university, then I would have to do it by myself. This was quite an impulsive decision, but I followed through, just me and my back pack. Nothing could have me prepared me for the experience. One week after arriving, Palitana, Gujarat. There was a procession. Around 300 pilgrims came from Ahmedabad by foot, going to Shuntraya, a main Jain pilgrimage place. There were musicians, charriots, horses and elephants, decorated cows, traditional costumes, and such a relaxed mood. I stayed around, I didn't want to get too close as it was a religious observance and I am not Jain. But soon, one of the men leading the procession approached me. We started talking, and he invited me to join them in the procession, in the dancing. They were all eager to explain things to me, and I was introduced to many of the pilgrims; the procession lasted two hours - two hours of smiles, dance, and joy. Arriving at the first temple, I thought I’d have to go; but then they invited me to the puja, offering flowers and breaking coconuts, all sitting on the ground of the temple, the smell of incense and the happiness of these people. Then came the time to eat; in guide books, they say dharamasala are forbidden to tourists; so I started to leave, but one of the pilgrims fetched me back, and wouldn’t let me go until I ate with them in that dharamsala. I was overwhelmed by that kindness, that true and direct acceptance; did I deserved that? I spent such a marvellous day. And the day after, I climbed the 6000 steps to Shuntraya with them, watched saw a huge ceremony up there, was fascinated by this huge 866 temple complex, and amazed by that easy sharing of smiles and friendship. From this very moment, India has never stop smiling at me. Talaja, Gujarat: while waiting for my bus to depart, a teenager approached me and made me visit his village; then he brought me to his house, where I met his grandma and sister; his grandma insisted that I take their own Shirdi Sai baba statue, to give me luck for the trip. She wouldn't let me go until I accepted it. Maheshwar, Madhya-Pradesh A very ancient fort, very ancient ghats on the banks of the Narmada river; in the fort, a cave; in the cave, a very old man, 90 years old, a sadhu; coming back for a three year Narmada-pilgrimage, his legs as thin as matches; everyday, people came to him, bringing milk, fruits or rice. I was invited to this cave, and at night, people would come, brahmins and sudras as well, and this old man would start singing bhajans; people would take instruments and start playing, and it could last for hours..there also I was amazed. Certainly I had heard about sadhus, but during my first trip, I only encountered a fake one, a "duplicate", as they say. Once again, , I was amazed at how quickly I was accepted - such a contrast to the difficulties in relationships in my own country. I also felt like a kid who is offered a very precious. I also felt like a kid who is offered a very precious gift: a glimpse of true India. I had a multitude of such moving experiences during my six month stay, not just involving human relationships but also viewing countrysides (the road from Manali to Leh, I am convinced, is the most beautiful, fantastic, amazing road in the world), discovering new tastes (dosas, multiples kinf of thalis, fresh fruits and vegetables, and my beloved snack, kachoories), new sounds... (well, excepted for this " Jhalak Dikha Ja", I think I heard it more than a thousand times; but Lata Mangeshkar songs, and plenty other are still part of my musical library). I made plenty of new friends, had plenty of feelings, sometimes difficult ones (as when I saw for the first time people with leprosy), but I had an overall impression of being alive again, all my senses awakened; the place of nature (we know about cows, monkeys, goats...but it is very different to see them for real), the rhythm of life, well, everything. As a confirmation of the my special link with India, the second time I went to that country in a total trust, no vaccinations, no precautions, drinking local water, even bathing in Varanasi ("are you serious? you're stupid to do this, this water is infected with cholera and many other diseases!" "So what? it's holy water..") I had this strong feeling from the very moment I got off the plane: nothing bad could happen to me…and nothing bad did happen to me. India showed me many marvellous things, taking care of me every time I needed it. Once I had an accident in a small village, and a sadhu came to me and put ghee on my wounds. And I can’t count all the times I was invited to eat with sweet families. I don't know why I feel like this, it sounds like nonsense to my relatives, so I can't explain this love, but who can explain love? I just know that in some way I am linked to that country, and you can be sure that when I travel again, my destination will once again be India. Manojit Bhattacharya From Calcutta comments: "Upon reading through INDIA-My Love by someone Frank (nicknamed, I believe)the very first comment came in my mind is : "Beauty is Truth, truth beauty / And that is all, all ye ought to know." In this prosaic form the author has poured his poetic juice of a particular flavor--love of beauty--in the recipe of India Mixure.... When mother is loved by my neighbor's child, prompt he becomes my friend, isn't not a fact? Same has fallen on me too. Thank you Frank.....may God of all Gods keep you always in such state of perception !!!"

A walk in the autumn forest

A walk through the dense forest, originally uploaded by Alf B

The place is Noerreskov near Farum, Denmark - it's only 9 miles from the center of Copenhagen and borders Lake Fure (Furesøen), the deepest lake in Denmark (over 100 feet). The photographer is 59 years old semi-amateur photographer with interests in music, nature and aviation . . . He is a bachelor from Farum, Denmark THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE PHOTOS. THE PATH THROUGH THE FOREST LEADING TO...I DON'T KNOW. IT LEADS ME TO AN UNKNOWN AND VIRGIN PLACE. Thank you Max.

Hubble Space Telescope photos

Astronomers Select Top Ten Most Amazing Pictures Taken by Hubble Space Telescope in Last 16 Years

'..they illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.'

Michael Hanlon/AH (Nov 25th , 2006)

After correcting an initial problem with the lens, when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched in 1990, the floating astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth, incredible snapshots of the 'final frontier' it was perusing.

Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble, in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos 'illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.'

I'll say "mind-blowing".

Hubble telescope's top ten greatest space photographs

THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE CAPTIONED SERIALLY.

1. The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken

by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104,

are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns

and is 50,000 light years across.

2. The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3,

resembles

an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our

galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.

3. In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called Eskimo because it looks like a face

surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped

objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.

4. At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula

5. The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look

because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.

6. The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away,

described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts

of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.

7. Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers

of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.

8. The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of

two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163

in the distant Canis Major constellation.

9. The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here,

it is where new stars are being born.

Shadows of sun

Shadows of sun, originally uploaded by Devabrata.

I love forests more than anything else in this world. But there is no forest even a semblance of it within one hundred kilometres of my house. So I create forests and also moon-lit earth. I collage different photos and images to suit my liking.
I visit these places through my mind.

The whole history of the nations of the world is filled with battles and wars, all attempts by one to gain supremacy over another. The world never retained a fixed template of territorial division of countries for more than a century. The geographical contours of the countries have been constantly changing.

It was the mighty nations, the imperialists, who, in their interest to increase their territorial areas, invaded or annexed areas that belonged to other countries. These political aggressions were mainly for business and economical interests, although there was also a good dose of nationalistic chauvinism behind the imperialistic fervour. There were also some purely political reasons to secure vantage points to thwart probable aggressions. There were many such battles in the Middle Ages between the Muslims and Christians to assert hegemony over the trade routes to India. This ultimately led to Portugal's occupation of Goa in India. The Mughal aggression towards India was for her riches, and afterwards they established the Mughal Empire in India. The Russian aggression towards Eastern Europe to increase the area of the Soviet empire was nothing but communist imperialism-the word most abhorred by the communists themselves worldwide. It was for the purpose of spreading communism to the world and thus posed a threat to the US and Western influence on other countries. But the days of imperialism are gone. The Communists, till the other day, criticized the US as neo-imperialist, but only because the US multinational companies had powerful existence in the third world. But pure geographical imperialism has lost its spirit and is on the wane until, one may hope, it vanishes from the world for good by the end of this century. So we may expect that the world will slowly develop a fixed pattern with clearly bounded territories of the country-states without any further possibilities of one nation grabbing another’s land. But what is it truly about, this One World, the dream of many great thinkers and visionaries? Before looking into the matter we should view some historical lessons from another angle. We must first ask if there is a truth, a principle that is imbedded in what we call the historical process. Is there really any guiding truth hidden in the course of history at all? I am not qualified to discuss such matters like scholars but at the same time I believe, given the knowledge left by the world’s greatest historians, that is hardly necessary. Karl Marx had his own way of conceptualizing a Utopia where there would be no state. But Marx built his philosophy upon the exploitation of the working class by the capitalists who sustained imperialism. So by demolishing the capitalists, Marx reasoned, a society would evolve where the working class would be at the helm of the production system – with the help of their united organization, the Communist Party. Naturally in the absence of ‘surplus capital’ the capitalists would wither along with their parent, the imperialists. Marx was an economist and a philosopher, but he did not ponder the intricacies of human nature. Human beings are not simply machines to be slotted into an economic model. The working class is comprised of human beings and they themselves are not a cohesive class. So it is unlikely that they, in the absence of their capitalist masters, would not have any of the same human instinct to connive means to exploit their fellow workers. The love of power and wealth is inherent in man and would spontaneously find a sustainable system. Ideals when they have the power of truth may create a reality. But Marx’s dreams were not based on the science of life and the forces that control it. The Anarchists, too, fared no better in their attempts to offer a solution. So we do not find any practical and feasible principle that governs the course of history. But this does not mean that history does not have its own organic direction. Man has a predilection to see himself as the creator of his own destiny. He is comfortable viewing himself as independent from the nature from which he evolved. In his search for truth, he positions himself as a separate bystander. By discovering certain physical laws of nature and by manipulating these forces and laws he has gained some control over apparently spontaneous natural functions, and has been able to use them splendidly to his convenience. So quite understandably he sometimes ignorantly confronts nature as an obstacle to his cherished plan of living. There is no wrong in organizing natural forces to his convenience. But in doing so, sometime man forgets that he is also guided by natural truths. The laws that govern matter also govern him. He applies his mind to know the whole truth. But that ‘mind’ is an evolutionary phenomenon of Nature within him. If I seem uncharitable towards man it is because he separates himself and his nature from Nature in general. When a meteorologist says that the atmospheric pressure and the movement of air currents are the cause of a depression leading to sudden heavy downpour, we understand him. But we are yet to believe, let alone know precisely that collective human movements have behind them similar forces. Collective human action is more complicated than weather systems and therefore unpredictable. And for that matter, even the weather is often not all that predictable.

Once a much learned man told me, ‘Life is a great teacher’. But I always felt that life never teaches-it prepares. All have been molded and prepared to their present forms and status through billions of years, if we want to define a process of preparation by a time period. Some may consider this the work of a creator or preparer, others prefer to conceive it as self-preparation, according to one’s mindset. Scientists themselves have discovered this truth. But they fail at their own doorstep called "mind" which they have used to find the truth. Man has the capability of being aware of an inner guiding consciousness. There are many events in history that never would have happened had man’s sense of right or wrong been in control. There were horrible catastrophes, upheavals, either natural or man made, that shook the world and caused unimaginable suffering to the common man. Some civilizations at their height of sophistication were destroyed by barbarians. And at the hands of those barbarians, these civilizations again rose to great heights though differently. An example of this is the rise of Hellenic civilization and its subsequent fall at the hands of inferior Romans. But that part of the world did not sink into obscurity permanently. Roman vitality pushed the society to new horizons. After any upheaval or destruction history rebuilds something new. India’s subjugation to British rule helped her to become a united and modern nation. The very concept of ‘nation’ was absent in the Indian psyche. This humiliating sense of subjugation awakened a sense of nationality in her as she discovered how the independent British could fetter her, and energized her freedom struggle. On the other hand, if the Sepoy Mutiny against the British had succeeded, India would have been pushed into anarchy under an effete and effeminate Second Bahadur Shah-the last Mughal. Many Indian historians love to glorify the Mutiny simply because it was against the foreign British. But the general people never supported the Mutiny because of fear of anarchy and medieval administration. So they preferred the British to the Shah. But when India rose to her sense of nationalism under a modern atmosphere, she fought against the same British, who had become an obstacle to her self-determined progress. Man is a mere tool of the forces of history. This blog is not the proper forum to make a scholastic argument that history pushes human beings to become ever more organized around a nucleus of human unity. But an unbiased overview of history suggests a distinct direction through contradictions and complexities.

In India when economic reforms and the globalization of markets started under the then Prime Minister P.V. Narshima Rao, all the left parties (mainly the communists) made a furore throughout the country. The fulmination was against the government’s economic policy by which India would lose her economic independence to the US and other European multinationals. They campaigned that there would be large scale unemployment and increase of general poverty level. But this global economic reform suggests something to me; it is not for the present but for a future. The political ambition of increasing the geographical area of a state has now been rendered almost pointless. Some countries like the US and the erstwhile USSR realized the tremendous hazards of deploying armies in other states. This cost them dearly. The nations are now separated securely by clear geographical boundaries. The nature of history and for that matter Nature herself is never moved under any ethical, moral and human consideration in finding its ways. An individual may have to some extent a power to shape his/her future. But for the most part collectivity is the predominant factor influencing the choice of the individual at any given time. So the historical forces or impulses are not governed according to mental or theoretical conceptions of good or bad. Movements in history depend on certain conditions, which are related to the predominant collective vitality as a matrix, to develop into something new. Our current era is the first time in the history of mankind where business is the single predominant impulse moving every country to be stable internationally. Isolated independence has no place in this world now. It is a world sustained only through interdependence. To the multinational business and industrial organizations, the geographical barriers are not relevant. Continuous amalgamation and tie-ups within the international companies are building a new world situation where people of different countries are getting closer to one another and thus making a common international ground. So naturally an overriding political ambition is anathema to this international culture. This is not to say that we are near to an ideal situation. But it is definitely a beginning towards something new.

It is only after the Wars that devastated the world that common people of any country became aware of and also reacted to the happenings in other countries. Now we have even established international institutions, groups and organizations like HRCW, UNO, WTO etc to look into the problems of people and governments. Now people are not individuals –they are the sole concerns of their respective governments. Earlier a country existed on a place on the Earth. Now wherever on the Earth a country exists –it spiritually belongs to an international community. This sense of togetherness is greatly augmented by the boom in cell-phones and the internet. The path is strewn with incomprehensible human miseries from the clash of conflicting interests amongst countries. Some political analysts believe that the reason for the US invasion of Iraq was to pre-empt Chinese access to the oil resources in the Middle East. But it would not have been so if the resources had been free from any governmental control. The iPod is a great example and symbol of globalization and consequent interdependence. While the machine was designed by that quintessential American company, Apple, "the micro drive that was the heart of the machine was made by Hitachi in Japan, the controller chip was made in South Korea, the Sony battery was assembled in China, the stereo digital-to analog converter was made by a company in Edinburgh, Scotland, the flash memory chip came from Japan and the software on a chip that allows one to search for and play ten thousand songs was designed by programmers at PortalPlayer in India.” And if an Asian company takes over the majority shares of Apple after five years, we will be landed on a jigsaw-puzzle world.

In what I have written above -I have never attempted to make it a point that in a One World There would be no human sufferring. It will be there as it is now. Mere withering of geographical boundaries is not enough for human sufferings to vanish for good. But the world must necessarily be ONE first to move towards a progress.And even after one-world man will have to go miles for some centuries before he finally overcomes the problem.

THE ABOVE ARTICLE HAS BEEN EDITED BY KATHLEEN SUTHERLAND OF WASHINGTON DC