bajinder - some stories, some thoughts

For most of us, including your faithfully, writing a book is regarded as a long laborious exercise. Having been brought up in a family where academics was de rigeur, book writing was regarded as the pinnacle of all achievements. Watching my father write books on a rickety old portable typewriter, followed by manual editing on the margins of carefully typed sheets was a fascinating part of my growing up.
Things changed, and then came the electronic typewriter - something that my father always dreamed of purchasing but could never do so. Finally the computer made the electronic typewriter redundant. Surprisingly though, my father’s book writing days ended the same time when the computer replaced our potable typewriter in our study.
The process of book writing is delightfully described in an article in the NYT.

It’s not easy to write a book. First you have to pick a title. And then there is the table of contents. If you want the book to be categorized, either by a bookseller or a library, it has to be assigned a unique numerical code, like an ISBN, for International Standard Book Number. There have to be proper margins. Finally, there’s the back cover.
Oh, and there is all that stuff in the middle, too. The writing.

Considering the fact that computers make book writing so much easier. It is not just editing and typing where computers aid in book writing, as Philip Parker reveals in this article in the New York Times. Parker has generated 200,000 books, and interestingly the NYT uses the word “generated” rather than “written”. The most published writer on the planet uses computer algorithms from available sources to compile a book.

An editor picks the years to be covered, but the computer picks the optimum model for extrapolating sales in various countries, and in alphabetical order produces a chart for each country. “It will then open a Word document and export the information into Word just like a real author would out of their minds, so to speak, or spreadsheets,” he says.

Parker describes how it is created in this video on YouTube
And now Parker is delving into creating acrostic poems, with the difficult portion being to assess the quality of these poems.

This interview was conducted by the author with the then deputy prime minister L K Advani in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on March 25, 2004. It was published in the Chandigarh edition of The Indian Express on June 6, 2004. In light of the recent book by Advani, the interview assumes significance again.

TWENTY years after the event took place, former Deputy Prime Minister and senior BJP leader, L K Advani feels that Operation Bluestar was a mistake.

In an interview conducted with Advani prior to the elections, the then Deputy Prime Minister made these remarks in response to a specific question. When asked if “with the benefit of hindsight, he feels that Operation Bluestar was a mistake”, Advani paused for a minute before responding to the question.

“I would be replying off the cuff. I would think that I should avoid doing it, but broadly speaking my first reaction is to endorse what you have said”, Advani remarked. “Particularly after what I saw happen in the wake of Operation Bluestar, and the kind of attitude that was adopted towards the Sikh community”, he said.

He added that he belonged to Sindh, and in Sindh, “there was no such distinction between Sikhs and non Sikhs as developed in Punjab later on”. Advani added that his “entire family rituals from childhood have been Sikh rituals”.

”Mere ghar mein, sab ke ghar mein Granth Sahib he hota hai” (In my house, as well as that of all others, the Granth Sahib is present), Advani said.

The interview was conducted inside his rath while he was travelling to Amritsar, and he mentioned that he would be visiting the Golden Temple. Advani initially said the comments were off the cuff, and later stated that this portion of the interview could be published after the elections. I am on an election tour to Punjab and people will think that these remarks are being made with an eye on elections, Advani said. “The significance of the statement would be diluted if you use them now”, he added.

When asked about the kar sewa at the Golden Temple, Advani said whenever he visits Amritsar, he always visits Harmandir Sahib. This time since the kar sewa was on, I am not only happy but also proud. “Mujhe khushi hogi, garbv ki baat hai”, he said regarding participating in the kar sewa.

CHANDIGARH: It was fund-raising with a difference. The participants were the elite, the NRI Punjabis, who, having struck gold at El Dorado, were here for a homecoming. Amidst them was a seasoned politician — busy raising funds, though it wasn’t election time.
For once, the NRIs were cornered. And the Chief Minister of the cash-strapped Punjab government, Parkash Singh Badal, proved his expertise at fund-raising. He aggressively raised funds for a cause other than elections — children’s education in rural areas; and apparently did well for his “moderate” abilities. By the end of the NRI “mela”, he had solicited collections well over Rs 1 crore apart from his own commitment of another Rs 1 crore, unless legal wrangling come in the way.
The conference, organised by the International Punjabi Society (IPS) at the Guru Gobind Singh Bhawan, was like any other conference until Badal turned the tables today.
“Organising conferences, with dining and socialising, achieves nothing. It is not a club but a Society and next time, the International Punjabi Conference should be held in a village,” Badal said, as he pleaded with participants to do something “concrete”. He talked about the pathetic state of education in the rural areas of Punjab and took a snipe at the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and other religious organisations, saying that young children were going astray.
“Adopt poor children at the rate of a thousand a year or a hundred villages annually. I will provide the list of poor children whom you can support,” Badal suggested as he took his seat. A minute later, as if seized by an idea, he came back to the dais and asked the announcer to make way. “Let us make a beginning, my contribution is a lakh of rupees,” he said, and immediately asked others to follow. Within minutes, a Punjabi Foundation was created. Badal asked the president of the Los Angeles branch of IPS, A.S. Marwaha, to contribute Rs 1 crore. Marwaha did not refuse. “I cannot, since we went to school together,” he remarked, and announced his contribution of $51,000. “It is no big deal for you,” Badal said as he “summoned” other prominent NRIs.
The president of the New York branch, Sant Singh Chatwal, was next on Badal’s list and he, too, announced $51,000. G.S. Gujral, president of the London branch, followed. He was initially hesitant to commit himself and wished to consult his colleagues in the branch, but later promised 11,000 pounds.
As speakers announced their commitments, confusion followed. Some were hesitant to commit. A little persuasion and many agreed. “Koi zabardasti nahin,” Badal said, but the spectre of a Chief Minister asking an NRI for funds and calling him by name made a difference. Another gentleman was asked by Badal and he replied by saying that whatever Badal announced was fine. “I will make the announcement but will you contribute?” Badal quipped, as the hall resounded with laughter. He agreed, and Badal asked him to contribute a lakh.. Another NRI announced a lakh. Badal was at his best: “Dollars or rupees? Rupees? As you wish.”
The IPS president , Bhai Mohan Singh, announced that he would take the responsibility of educating five children. He said the IPS had 16 branches abroad and in case the Foundation did well, funds would not be an issue. Another NRI from Canada did not wish to contribute by way of cash and instead announced to set up five ITIs in the state.

pTuesday, January 5, 1999

Telephone lines are dead in Kanshi Ram’s Ropar village home, family waits for TV, press updates on his health

KHAUSPUR/ BUNGA SAHIB, ROPAR, SEPT 18: At age 24, Darbara Singh, a welder, went to attend a meeting of employees at Guru Ravi Das Gurdwara in Chandigarh. The meeting, he was told, was being addressed by Kanshi Ram, co-founder of All India Backward and Minority Employees Federation (BAMCEF) and a rising star of the Dalit movement.
After the meeting, Darbara Singh walked to up to Kanshi Ram, touched his feet and hesitatingly said, ‘‘Do you know me’’? Kanshi Ram’s face said he did not know who the young man was. ‘‘I am your youngest brother,’’ Darbara Singh told him.
As tears rolled down their eyes, Kanshi Ram said: ‘‘You are not only the youngest but also the smallest.’’ That was late ’70s — and the first time Darbara Singh met his eldest brother.
As the Bahujan Samaj Party leader lies in a Delhi hospital after a brain stroke, a family in distant Ropar is switching on the TV and looking at the morning’s papers for news about the man who disappeared from their life one day and returned after two decades. Telephone lines are dead in the village and brother Harbans Singh — who is now in Delhi — has no way of letting the family know about Kanshi Ram’s health.
In fact, almost each member of the Ravidasi Sikh family in Ropar has a similar story of a bizarre reunion. Sister Swaran Kaur, who lives in Bunga Sahib near Anandpur Sahib, says: ‘‘At the residence of a common friend in Chandigarh, we met veerji (elder brother). The host pointed towards me and asked, ‘Do you know her?’’’ Kanshi Ram did not recognise her.
Those were years of agony for his mother, 95-year-old Bishan Kaur. ‘‘For 18 years, I did not know where my son was. Our registered letters to his Poona office came back. We were told he had proceeded on five years leave. Later someone said he had quit,’’ she says. The family heard all sorts of stories — some said he had gone abroad, some said he had disappeared. Finally, 18 years after he left for Poona, to join Department of Defence Production after completing his BSc, the family came to know that he was organising employees’s conferences. ‘‘One such conference was at Nagpur, and I went to meet him,’’ the mother says.
Yet, he refused to come back to his village fearing that family and emotions would divert him from his cause. ‘‘He even refused to get married, though he was engaged to a girl from Balachaur,’’ says his mother. He returned after 23 years — to attend the bhog ceremony when his father Hari Singh died. By then he was a Dalit leader on the move — who would soon launch the Dalit Soshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS4) in 1981 and the Bahujan Samaj Party in 1984.
Darbara Singh and Harbans Singh, a peon at the local Industrial Training Institute, stay at Khuaspura in Ropar. Darbara is now a welding contractor at Ropar Thermal Plant and runs a furniture shop as well.
Kanshi Ram used to visit them once in a while. The last time he stayed with his mother was during the Himachal Pradesh elections early this year. And when the ancestral house was renovated three years ago, Mayawati had come to inaugurate it.
Though there have been offers and opportunities, the family kept away from political limelight. Darbara Singh says he was offered a Congress ticket by former Chief Minister Beant Singh. Villagers wanted him to be sarpanch. But Darbara refused.
‘‘I am committed to the cause and according to my brother’s instructions, will not accept any party post or contest elections’’.
Bishan Kaur has not been feeling well for the past three days and has been complaining of weakness. ‘‘It’s because of brother’s illness,’’ says daughter Swaran Kaur with whom she stays. But the mother waits, with a photograph of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati waving to supporters at a rally behind her.

Memorabilia from Chandigarh will be shuttled into space on November 19 as the first Indian woman, Kalpana Chawla, carries her college insignia on her maiden flight on board the Space Shuttle Mission STS-87. Two copies of the insignia of her alma mater, Punjab Engineering College, (PEC), Chandigarh will be on board the Space Shuttle which is due to be launched from the Kennedy space centre in Florida on November 19.
Kalpana had earlier requested the college authorities in Chandigarh to send her memorabilia which could be carried on her space mission. The college, which is celebrating its golden jubilee this year, has sent Kalpana two copies of the college insignia requesting her to return one copy back to the college.
Kalpana has, meanwhile, invited her former teacher and head of department, Professor V. S. Malhotra to witness the launch and the landing of the space shuttle. The landing is due on December 5.
Her present mission includes a SPARTAN satellite deployment and retrieval and a spacewalk by Capt Winston Scott and Dr Takao Doi. This is also the first flight to include a Ukrainian payload specialist.
College teachers recall her fondness for aviation, when she decided to pursue studies in aeronautical engineering wayback in 1978 when fuel students went in for studying the subject. Despite having secured a good grade to get admission to more sought after trades like mechanical and electrical engineering, she preferred aeronautical engineering.
Kalpana was allso one of the first girls to opt for the subject. A former secretary of the Aeronautical Society of the College, she also served on the faculty of the college for some time.
Earlier in 1995, 2962 applications had applied to NASA for participation in the space programme. 122 persons were shortlisted and only six of them were civilians. Armed with a commercial pilots licence for single and multi-engine land airplanes and single engine seaplanes, Kalpana also has a certified flight instructors licence. She has nearly 650 hours of flying experience.
Kalpana joined the MCAT Institute, San Jose, California as a research scientist in 1988 and was responsible for simulation and analysis of flow physics pertaining to operation of powered lift aircraft like the Harrier. In 1993 Kalpana joined OVerset Methods IC., California as Vice President and specialised in simulation of moving multiple body problems Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994, she reported to Johnson Space Centre in March 1995 to begin a year of training and evaluation.
Born in 1961 in Karnal, her parents Sangita and Banarsi Lal Chawla reside in New Delhi. Kalpana was a student of Tagore school, Karnal in 1976 and did her Bachelor of Engineering (BE) from Punjab Engineering College in 1982.
Professor Malhotra recalls her frantically working with basal and spruce cuttings while preparing a model of an aeroplane. He proudly displays a mounted poster of the Space Shuttle sent to him by his former student, which is also signed by the entire NASA batch.
When Kalpana paid her debt to the college, her former teacher, Prof Malhotra wrote to her — “Sky is the limit”. Well, Kalpana seems destined to cross that very limit. As she wrote in her peom on the Atlantis recently,

We don’t see your till your engines fire,
And then -
Veil lifted — the sky around you is lit
a magnificent jewel hanging in the air
etched in my memory forever.