Seven financial blunders you should avoid

Everybody makes mistakes. The repercussions of a mistake could be trivial or grave. A financial mistake is one such blunder that can create big problems if they are not resolved immediately.

Lack of goals:Most people don't plan to fail; they just fail to plan. A good percentage of people are still not aware of what is financial planning and how to go about it. In simple words, financial planning is taking a disciplined approach to achieving your pre-determined financial goals. A good financial plan is based on strong goals. Well-articulated goals with a detailed break-up into long-term, mid- term and short-term, specific steps on how to achieve them and checking the progress periodically are basic ingredients of financial planning. As you can see it all starts with a goal.

Lack of life cover:Living without life insurance is just like "flying without a net". A financial plan is incomplete without adequate life cover. One major goal of a financial plan is to maintain the life style of your family whether you are with them or not. A common mistake we make is buying life insurance policies such as endowment plans or money back to save tax, also hoping to reap returns. Remember, returns from such policies are much less compared to traditional investment products such as stocks, mutual funds, gold or real estate. So why not separate investment and insurance completely? Most salesmen will not give you this advice because the commission in plain vanilla term policies is the lowest. Protect yourself with an inexpensive term policy providing sufficient life cover. The thumb rule for your life cover is your annual income multiplied by 10. You can add family floater mediclaim or health insurance policies for self and family members. It's a way of making sure that your family will continue to enjoy the current life standard.

Lack of investments: Start saving as early as possible. Generally, a person should start saving and investing money from the day of getting first salary. By starting your financial plan at the earliest, you are allowing your money to grow by the sheer power of compounding. Don't be over-enthusiastic about it either. Develop a regular and disciplined investment approach. Select a few good equity funds and do a SIP (Systematic Investment Plan). Increase the investment amount as your income increases. Don't wait for a lump sum amount to be accumulated to invest and don't try to time the market.

Too much of loans and debt:Don't stretch yourself too much with a mortgage. Buy within your means. It's not worth the sleepless nights. It's always advisable to resist the temptation and control unnecessary expenses. It includes loans, mortgages and credit card expenditure. House loan and car loan may be necessary but do some analysis about how much you really need and what can you comfortably be able to pay back. Keep a tight leash on personal loans and credit card debt. They can be a drain on your finances as the interest rates are much higher. You must have a plan to reduce the loan and pay off the debt gradually.

Only debt/fixed income instruments:Putting your entire investment amount into the debt instrument is like settling for a bonsai instead of a huge teak wood tree which you could have. It's good to be safe but too much of safety will not make your money grow. There are many among us who keep their money in FDs (fixed deposits), PPF (public provident fund), insurance policies, National Saving Certificates (NSC) etc. It's good to have them but they should not have all your money. You must have a healthy mix of equity and debt in your portfolio. Equity gives you growth and debt gives safety with peace of mind.

Over-indulgence in stocks:By watching too much of business news channel and reading business journals we start believing that we know all about stocks and the way companies work. Listening to equity analysts gives us more encouragement. We think we can beat the market. But the truth is most people fail to make money at the stock market and end up wasting their precious time and wealth. Sit with a certified Financial Planner and chalk out a long term plan for yourself. Remember "slow and steady wins the race".

Owning too many products: "Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing." The unavoidable risk from over diversification clearly articulated in this powerful quote by Warren Buffett. The right portfolio should be built by optimum allocation into different asset classes. A good financial planner should be able to tell you the right proportion as per your profile. Within a particular asset class it's better to do thorough research and put your money in a few select products. For example if you are investing in mutual funds then buying too many of them is not advisable. Similarly if you are an investor in stock market it's advisable to pick the right stocks and stick with them. We keep adding more products to the portfolio because we fall for what the salesmen and advertisements tell us. Do your own research or consult a certified financial planner for such decisions. It's important to own the right ones and not too many.

Brains flush toxic waste in sleep, including Alzheimer’s-linked protein, study of mice finds

Lulu Xie - The difference of cerebrospinal fluid influx is seen in the brain of an awake and a sleeping mouse. Fluorescent dye has been injected into the animal to enable viewing of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics in a mouse that is still alive. The red represents the greater flow in a sleeping animal, while the green represents conversely restricted flow in the same awake animal.

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By Meeri Kim, Sunday, October 20, 2:01 AM

  

While we are asleep, our bodies may be resting, but our brains are busy taking out the trash.
A new study has found that the cleanup system in the brain, responsible for flushing out toxic waste products that cells produce with daily use, goes into overdrive in mice that are asleep. The cells even shrink in size to make for easier cleaning of the spaces around them.

Brady Dennis OCT 19

Activists are making headway in their effort to get retailers to boycott the product if the FDA approves it.

Scientists say this nightly self-clean by the brain provides a compelling biological reason for the restorative power of sleep.
“Sleep puts the brain in another state where we clean out all the byproducts of activity during the daytime,” said study author and University of Rochester neurosurgeon Maiken Nedergaard. Those byproducts include beta-amyloid protein, clumps of which form plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
Staying up all night could prevent the brain from getting rid of these toxins as efficiently, and explain why sleep deprivation has such strong and immediate consequences. Too little sleep causes mental fog, crankiness, and increased risks of migraine and seizure. Rats deprived of all sleep die within weeks.
Although as essential and universal to the animal kingdom as air and water, sleep is a riddle that has baffled scientists and philosophers for centuries. Drifting off into a reduced consciousness seems evolutionarily foolish, particularly for those creatures in danger of getting eaten or attacked.
One line of thinking was that sleep helps animals to conserve energy by forcing a period of rest. But this theory seems unlikely since the sleeping brain uses up almost as much energy as the awake brain, Nedergaard said.
Another puzzle involves why different animals require different amounts of sleep per night. For instance, cats sleep more than 12 hours a day, while elephants need only about three hours. Based on this newfound purpose of sleep, neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel speculates in a commentary that the varying sleep needs across species might be related to brain size. Larger brains should have a relatively larger volume of space between cells, and may need less time to clean since they have more room for waste to accumulate throughout the day.
Sleep does play a key role in memory formation — mentally going through the events of the day and stamping certain memories into the brain. But sleeping for eight hours or more just to consolidate memories seems excessive, Nedergaard said, especially for an animal such as a mouse.
Last year, Nedergaard and her colleagues discovered a network that drains waste from the brain, which they dubbed the glymphatic system. It works by circulating cerebrospinal fluid throughout the brain tissue and flushing any resulting waste into the bloodstream, which then carries it to the liver for detoxification.
She then became curious about how the glymphatic system behaves during the sleep-wake cycle.
An imaging technique called two-photon microscopy enabled the scientists to watch the movement of cerebrospinal fluid through a live mouse brain in real time. After soothing the creature until it was sound asleep, study author Lulu Xie tagged the fluid with a special fluorescent dye.
“During sleep, the cerebrospinal fluid flushed through the brain very quickly and broadly,” said Rochester neuropharmacologist Xie. As another experiment revealed, sleep causes the space between cells to increase by 60 percent, allowing the flow to increase.
Xie then gently touched the mouse’s tail until it woke up from its nap, and she again injected it with dye. This time, with the mouse awake, flow in the brain was greatly constrained.
“Brain cells shrink when we sleep, allowing fluid to enter and flush out the brain,” Nedergaard said. “It’s like opening and closing a faucet.”
They also found that the harmful beta-amyloid protein clears out of the brain twice as fast in a sleeping rodent as in an up-and-about one. The study was published in the journal Science on Thursday.
New York University cell biologist and Alzheimer’s specialist Ralph A. Nixon, who was not involved in the study, said the findings could be of great interest to the Alzheimer’s research community. For instance, the overproduction of beta-amyloid could be linked to the development of the disease, but he said these new findings hint that the lack of clearing it out might be the bigger problem.
Other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, are also associated with a backup of too much cell waste in the brain. “Clearance mechanisms may be very relevant to keeping these proteins at a level that isn’t disease-causing,” Nixon said.
An MRI diagnostic test for glymphatic clearance is in the works by Nedergaard and her colleagues. She also believes that a drug could be developed to force a cleanup if necessary, perhaps by mimicking the sleep-wake cycle.


Meeri Kim is a freelance science journalist based in Philadelphia.

Courtesy: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/brains-flush-toxic-waste-in-sleep-including-alzheimers-linked-protein-study-of-mice-finds/2013/10/19/9af49e40-377a-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost
 

Kalpakkam’s forgotten people

by C Shivakumar, 20 October 2008

Kalpakkam’s forgotten people have a tale to tell
FORTY-five-year-old Sundarammal is in immense pain. Sitting beside a pile of dry fish, she touches a large lump on her neck.
“I do not know how this came. I got it maybe six or seven years ago,” she says, and asks the doctor for some medicine to relieve the pain.
Sundarammal is, in fact, suffering from thyroid cancer. And crucially, she is a resident of Meiyoor Kuppam, some five km from the Madras Atomic Power Station and Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant.
“Her cancer is in an advanced stage. She can survive at the most for five years,” says Dr V Pugazhendi, an activist belonging to Doctors for Safer Environment (DOSE).
This is not the only case. Residents say scores of people in the fortress town of Sadras and villages near the campus have died, some of cancer and others of ‘mysterious illnesses’.
“The government,” says Dr Pugazhendi, “has so far conducted no health survey though the local area of MAPS, measuring about 4,000 sq km of landmass, which includes a portion of the Chennai metropolitan region. It has a population of 10 million.” More than one-third of women in the age group of 15-40 years have been affected by thyroid enlargement or autoimmune thyroid disorders in surrounding areas of the plant, says Dr Pugazhendi, who has done a study on thyroid incidence in the region along with Dr Conrad Mary, Dr R Ramesh and V T Padmanabhan.
They are all part of DOSE.
There are three confirmed cases of thyroid cancer in the study, he says. And there may be others. He says this is mostly due to routine release of radioactive gases, including Iodine 131, in the air and sea from the Kalpakkam nuclear plant. But this is not reflected in the government Environment Survey Laboratory (ESL) data.
“My study is the only one in India which has confirmed that radioactive Iodine is linked to thyroid cancer and autoimmune thyroiditis,” says Dr Pugazhendi.
The ESL Kalpakkam had found after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in April 1986 that the incidence of thyroid-related diseases in goats had registered an increase as a result of feeding on grass laced with Iodine-131.
A report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) says that the routine release of radionuclides from Kalpakkam has been high in comparison to the release from facilities in other countries.
Kalpakkam houses four nuclear reactors, two waste-reprocessing plants, a centralised waste management facility and a tritium plant. The seawater intake structure for the reactors is located 420 metres offshore. A 405-metre-long approach jetty that connects the intake system to the shore also supports a discharge pipeline for low-level radioactive effluents.
“Aquatic organisms display considerable ability to accumulate trace elements as well as radionuclides from water even in exceedingly small concentrations,” says M V Ramanna, a physicist, quoting a study done by M A R Iyengar of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), along with three other experts.
The low-level radioactive wastes released into the sea increase the risk of cancer, says Ramanna, who is also a senior fellow in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development in Bangalore. This is dangerous for people living near beaches and dependent on sea food for a large part of their diet.
Dr Pugazhendi says the Department of Atomic Energy stopped releasing data on the effluent emissions once the Kalpakkam Atomic Fuel Reprocessing Plant went on stream in 1998. IGCAR officials declined to comment immediately.
According to UNSCEAR, “Relatively large quantities of radioactive materials are involved at the fuel reprocessing stage. The radionuclides are freed from their contained state as the fuel is brought into solution, and the potential for release in waste discharges is greater than other stages of the fuel cycle. Routine releases have been largely in liquid effluents to the sea.” The radioactive effluents may have affected the livelihood of fishermen in the coastal areas surrounding plant. “This was an area which was rich in lobsters, crabs, shrimp and other varieties of fish. Now we rarely get any,” says Nagooran, a fisherman in Sadras.
But the fishermen have no choice. They still venture out to sea. The catch is their only source of livelihood. It keeps the wolf from the door, but then nobody knows whether and how toxic the fish are, and most end up in Chennai markets.
Some are dried and sold as chicken feed, says Dr Pugazhendi.
A fisherman says: “They are probably toxic but we can’t catch anything else. And there is hardly any money coming in at the moment.” Among the workers at the plant, Dr Pugazhendi says three persons died of multiple myeloma in 2002-2003, a rare bone cancer that is linked to nuclear radiation. This was denied by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay.
The death rate due to myeloma is 2.4 per one lakh population per annum in the Chennai area alone. The Kalpakkam area has a population of about 25,000. So three myeloma deaths within a span of 18 months is considered statistically significant by cancer specialists because it is four times the normal.
Dr Pugazhendi has another case. Some years ago, a 24-year-old temporary worker died of colon cancer. According to doctors, it is unusual for patients at contract this cancer at such an early age. For this and other reasons, he says “we need a thorough study of the radiation levels and their effects in the area”.
In another worrying indication, several cases have been reported of congenital defects and mental retardation. A DOSE study revealed 12 cases of polydactyly below the age of 15 in the coastal areas in a radius of 16 km.
Dr Pugazhendi rules out consanguinity and parental history in all the cases. “Polydactyly and other malformations are usually associated with the exposure of the foetus to radiation,” he says.
As the waves hit the shores, the black sand is visible. “The sand here is rich in monazite but we suspect it is also highly toxic,”says Dr Pugazhendi.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know the levels of toxicity and whether it has increased after the radiation levels. We don’t have the equipment for a proper series of tests. There is no safe radiation dosage, so we must have a full study.” M Hussain of Pudupatnam, whose daughter is suffering from autoimmune thyroiditis, is clear about the first step.
“The government should conduct a health survey in the region.
We have faith in the government and it should act. And I hope it will not be too late for my daughter.”
Too many fingers
Polydactyly, also known as hyperdactyly, is a congenital physical anomaly consisting of extra fingers or toes.
When each hand or foot has six digits, it is sometimes called sexdactyly, hexadactyly or hexadactylism.
The extra digit is usually a small piece of soft tissue; occasionally it may contain bone without joints; rarely it may be a complete, functioning digit. Polydactyly may be passed down (inherited) in families.
This trait involves only one gene that can cause several variations. It also happens due to radiation exposure during pregnancy.
Dangerous fallout
Iodine-131 is an artificially produced fission byproduct resulting from nuclear weapons, above-ground nuclear testing, and nuclear reactor operations.
It is found in the gaseous and liquid waste streams of nuclear power plants, but is not released into the environment during normal reactor operations.
Iodine in food is absorbed by the body and preferentially concentrated in the thyroid where it is needed for the functioning of that gland. When Iodine 131 is present in high levels in the environment from radioactive fallout, it can be absorbed through contaminated food, and will also accumulate in the thyroid. As it decays, it may cause damage to the thyroid gland. The primary risk from exposure to high levels of Iodine 131 is the chance occurrence of radiogenic thyroid cancer in later life. Other risks include the possibility of non-cancerous growths and thyroiditis.
Iodine-131 can also cause exposure by ingestion (consumption of green leafy vegetables, drinking water, fish and shellfish containing the substance), as well as exposure by inhalation and external exposure from ground deposition.
Deadly exposure
Ajith (name changed) was offered Rs 3,000 to work as rigger in the Kalpakkam nuclear plant. It was a lucrative bargain. His job was to clean up the reactor during shutdown.
“After two months my contract expired,” says Ajith, an employee of Tech-Sharp, a Chennai based company which has taken the contract, hardly unaware that he had exposed himself to radiation.
“I later worked in Rawabhata nuclear plant,” says Ajith.
This time the contract was sourced through Bangalorebased Avasarala Technologies. After five months of working in both the nuclear plants, Ajith, the lone breadwinner of the family, is suffering from cancer. He has been diagnosed with carcinoma rectum by Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital. “We have shelled out more than Rs one lakh on his treatment and are living in debt. We can’t afford his treatment anymore, the government should help us,” says his brother.
“Most of the contract workers are hardly provided with any compensation and many of them are illiterate,” says Dr V Pugazhendi of Doctors for Safer Environment.
“In the US after much protests from atomic workers, the government has passed a law covering a list of cancers for which atomic workers might seek compensation.
Why can’t we have the same law in India,” wonders Dr Pugazhendi. Meanwhile, the nuclear plant is recruiting migrant workers instead of locals for doing the cleaning job in the nuclear reactor. They are mostly from Orissa, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Assam and Andhra Pradesh.
“The recruitment is just to avoid the blame as locals can be tracked but migrants can’t,” he alleges.
— shivakumarshreya@gmail.com

Courtesy: http://www.sacw.net/article134.html

Afghanistan: Most invaded, yet unconquerable

ADITYA MENON, Feb 6, 2010, 01.07pm IST

Since the 8th Century B.C., the area today called Afghanistan has incessantly been roiled by external invasion or internal strife. Geography had placed it such that it became a natural theatre of the Great Games between imperial powers fighting to control trade routes and expand influence as well as the object of a political Buzkashi between local feuding elites. Great emperors like Darius I, Alexander, Kanishka, Genghis Khan, Timur, Babur and Nadir Shah all fought their way through Afghanistan. Yet it has never been completely conquered or colonised. This is the paradox of Afghanistan - most invaded and yet unconquerable. Because of this, regimes were always weak and susceptible to foreign pressure. Yet its society has been resilient and uncompromising towards alien rule. How does one then explain the Afghan paradox? There are a number of contextual factors such as its rugged topographical features, existence of deep and multifaceted cleavages among the population, the centrality of tribal social groupings, and the negative role played by neighbours and external powers. However, central to this paradox is the inhibited development of political institutions in Afghanistan.

The foundations of the modern Afghan state are said to have been laid by Ahmad Shah Durrani in the 18th Century . A central role was played by Amir Abdur Rahman Khan who was called 'Iron Amir' for his brutality and ruthless expansionism. Over the years, Afghan rulers have utilised the discourses of Islam, tribe, kinship, Durrani supremacy and Pashtun nationalism to legitimise their rule. However, the dominant feature of Afghan polity has been internal colonialism by a Pashtun (especially Durrani Pashtun) dominated political culture. The Taliban in many ways represented a culmination of this trend. This lies at the root of the deep ethnic fissures that are central to Afghanistan.
A weak Afghanistan has served the interests of all, right from the Mughal-Safavid rivalry, the power politics between Czarist Russia and Great Britain and the Pakistani search for 'strategic depth' . It was the theatre where the Cold War was played out by the Americans and the Soviet Union. This lack of a centre and weak political institutions is crucial in the context of the various external invasions that have taken place; external powers have mostly been successful in capturing major cities like Kabul, Kandahar and Herat. But external occupation has always failed when faced with guerrilla opposition in the countryside. Historically , the Afghan concept of authority has based on tribal lines. Central leadership has been more like a 'first among equals' rather than a more hierarchal structure as has been the case in India or Iran. Moreover, being an arid and agriculturally poor region, there has never been sufficient resources for the creation of centralized state institutions. Therefore, there has been limited political institutionalisation and penetration of the society by the state. As a result, regimes such as that of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan and the Taliban showed their 'strength' by public displays of power such as brutal punitive punishments and moral policing.
Factors such as topography and the tribe-centered nature of society cannot be changed. Therefore, the focus of any efforts at securing a stable future for Afghanistan should be on creating stable political institutions. Free and fair elections are an important step in this direction. But as recent attempts at negotiating with the Taliban indicate, the way to political power in Afghanistan is still through the barrel of a Kalashnikov. There is a long way to go before Afghanistan moves beyond the Great Game and the political buzkashi.

THE GREAT GAME
Coined by Arthur Conolly, an intelligence officer of the British East India Company, the term "The Great Game" acquired widespread popularity thanks to Rudyard Kipling's novel, Kim (first published in 1901). It referred to the strategic rivalry between Britain and Russia for supremacy in Central Asia, which began around 1813. Worried about the prospect of a Russian invasion of India, the British were determined to maintain Afghanistan as a buffer state. Constant efforts were made by the British and Russians to influence the politics of Afghanistan , through diplomacy, espionage and occasionally, force. The British twice attacked Afghanistan. The first war (1839-42 ) ended in disaster with just one Briton, Dr William Brydon, surviving a retreat begun by a 16,000-strong contingent. The second Anglo-Afghan war (1878-80 ) was more successful, ensuring British control of Afghanistan's foreign policy. The classic Great Game ended with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, under which Russia accepted Britain's control over Afghanistan, as long as the British did not attempt any regime change.

Courtesy: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-06/south-asia/28149222_1_power-politics-afghanistan-paradox 

Jan 26, 1992: When Joshi hoisted flag in Lal Chowk

Witnesses Narrate Events As BJP Makes Similar Attempt 2 Decades After

WASIM KHALID

Srinagar, Jan 22: The flag hoisting controversy might have evoked mild response in 2011, but it has surely rekindled the memories of January 26, 1992 when the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) announced raising the tri-colour at Clock Tower in Lal Chowk during the height of militancy.
On January 26, 1992, Kashmir was different. In  government quarters, it was regarded as almost a ‘liberated zone’ with the armed militants ruling the streets in Srinagar and villages, while in a show of defiance the Border Security Forces (BSF) and army personnel fortifying the city centre- Lal Chowk- turning it almost into a war zone.
The announcement to hoist the flag came in the midst of this situation, when the then BJP President, Murli Manohar Joshi announced it during a rally attended by thousands of party supporters in Jammu. Other than the president, the rally was attended by the two senior party leaders- former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani.
“Murli announced he would come to Kashmir by road with his 10,000 supporters to hoist the flag,” Fayaz Ahmad Zargar, 38, a resident of Amira Kadal, said.
BJP President had undertook “Ekta Yatra” that year from Kaniyakumari to Srinagar to hoist the tri-colour at Lal Chowk on January 26.
On the other hand, the militants who called the shots in Kashmir those days were furious over the BJP announcement. All the militant outfits chalked out a joint strategy to stop BJP from raising the flag on clock tower.
The militants intensified their attacks from Jan 24, 1992, onwards. In one of the intrepid acts, they orchestrated an attack in PHQ Srinagar where DGP along with the other command sustained critical injuries after a bomb, concealed in a drawer, exploded.
It was the same incident in which Ahad Jan- the police cop who shot to fame after hurling a shoe on chief minister Omar Abdullah on August 15, 2010- was promoted after he saved the life of DGP Saxena and rushed him to hospital.
“Apart from attacks, the Mujahideen outfits also divided themselves with each party getting its share of task,” a former Student Liberation Front militant said. “The foremost thing for us that time was to guard Srinagar- Jammu highway. The BJP leaders along with their supporters had planned to come on their vehicles taking that route.”
In the wake of militant threats, the authorities imposed indefinite curfew and issued shoot at sight orders. However, the militants managed to control the highway forcing government to go for alternative means of transport. The BJP president was thus airlifted to Srinagar.
With the arrival of BJP president Joshi, the city was turned into a battle zone.
“I vividly remember the day of Jan 26, 1992,” Javed Ahmad, a resident of Lal Chowk said. “A radio announcement was aired that Lal Chowk has been handed over to army.”
Ahmad said BSF along with army erected sandbag bunkers, temporary check-posts and enforced strict curfew.
“They were armed to teeth,” he said. “Even security personnel were deployed at each door. They took roof tops, buildings and each structure that could have aided militants to mount any attack.”
The army was a new guest in the city those days, so was the heavy weaponry they carried. As a result, the fear- stricken residents, who lived around Lal Chowk, fled, except one or two male members who guarded their respective houses.
“On Jan 26, 1992, we heard only firing. There were explosions also we could make out from all directions of the city neighborhood,” Ahmad said. “It was like a war going on.”
Unlike Ahmad, Abdul Rashid, a resident of Koker Bazaar was unfortunate. He sat on the window sill of the second floor of his house to smoke and get relaxed in the scary situation.
However, he had taken only two drags, before the prying eyes of alert Border Security Force personnel occupying a temporary check post, spotted him.
“They broke open the door and pulled me by collar down on the rain soaked street,” Rashid said. “I was kept hanging body upside down. They did it for 15 minutes in that bone chilling cold. Then they made me stand on the road. It was a punishment since I had breached curfew.”
Ahmad said Army and BSF had enforced a strict curfew and nobody was allowed to venture outside home, especially in Lal Chowk area.
On the chilly afternoon, BJP president, surrounded by alert soldiers and BSF personnel appeared in Lal Chowk.
During the same time, at least four rockets were fired towards the flag hoisting venue. But none of them reached there.
As Murli raised the flag on the pedestal of clock tower, the rod broke down and one half along with flag fell on his forehead. He got injured.
Till the evening of Jan 26, 1992, scores of people got killed and some injured. It was reported in Srinagar that 10 people, most of them militants, were killed at different locations on the Srinagar-Jammu highway.
The militancy has died down to its lowest ebb in 2010. Kashmir recently witnessed the six month long pro-freedom protests which claimed lives of 115 people while hundreds were injured. There are no guns in the valley but stones and protests. And once again in the midst of political turmoil, the BJP has announced its flag hoisting programme.

Courtesy: http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2011/Jan/23/jan-26-1992-when-joshi-hoisted-flag-in-lal-chowk-41.asp

421 years of foreign rule in Kashmir

The history of rebellion in Kashmir is not new and dates back to sixteenth century when the last indigenous ruler was overthrown in Kashmir. Haroon Mirani traces the unmentioned and forgotten chapters of Kashmir history through 421 years of foreign rule.
 
On the night of November 19, 1586, Yaqub Shah Chek, the last independent king of Kashmir after being defeated by the Mughals, mounted the first guerrilla attack on Mughal army. It was highly successful raid in which dozens of Mughal army men were chopped to death, entire treasury was looted and magnificent palace of Yusuf Shah, wherefrom Mughals ruled Kashmir, was burnt. After returning to his hideout along with his elated army, Yaqub Shah Chek told his official army turned ragtag guerrillas, “Independence is just a day away, as we will soon finish off the Mughals from Kashmir.”
Unfortunately that tomorrow never came and 421 years have passed since that fateful attack, which started the culmination of armed struggle against foreign rule in Kashmir and is still continuing. Mughals were succeeded by Afghans, Sikhs, Dogras and the current situation, but the fight never ceased. In one form or the other Kashmir has been on the warfront for the last 421 years.
Kashmir fate was sealed on October 16, 1586, exactly 421 years from today, when Mughal army invaded the independent country of Kashmir. Kashmir's last independent ruler Yaqub Shah Chak couldn't hold back the onslaught of Mughals under the command of Qasim Khan. However, it was not because of Kashmiris being cowards, as they had thwarted many attempts of warriors like Mahmud of Ghaznavi, but due to the cunning internal conflicts, which still makes this battle go on indecisively.
Those who couldn't bear their motherland under foreign rule took up arms as at that there was no scope of political solution. Mughals came down heavily against these insurgents. Yaqub Shah Chek was arrested and finished off in exile, just like his father Yusuf Shah Chek.
Not to be cowed down by the arrests, the insurgency moved on to the next line of leadership, which included Malik Hassan, Mohammed Naji, Yusuf Khan and Abdul Khan. These were eliminated too but this armed struggle still continues and has evolved into the world’s longest freedom struggle.
To quell the rebellion of this nation and diminish their fighting spirit, Mughals denied the entry of any Kashmiri into the army and encouraged the use of long Cloak and Kangri (firepot). They further divided the Kashmiris into seven groups, to propagate their divide and rule policy.
The same policy was later continued by Afghans and Sikhs. Afghans banned wearing of arms by Kashmiris. Dogra ruler Ghulab Singh stopped a game like mimic warfare played with the help of slings and stones as he thought it encouraged fighting spirit in the Kashmiris.
Mughals ruled Kashmir for 167 long years, with the help of 35 governors under rulers ranging from Akbar through Aurangzeb up to Ahmad Shah. These governors used to come, loot, plunder and go. There was no end to tyranny and any whimper of rebellion was crushed mercilessly. Numerous souls laid their life in the process for the sake of independence. Guru Teg Bahadur, the 9th Sikh guru was so moved upon hearing the plight of these people that he too jumped into the arena. His protest unnerved the then ruler Aurangzeb who got the holy man beheaded on November 27, 1675 AD. Thus one of the greatest luminaries of its time entered the long list of martyrs of Kashmir.
Mughals used to call Kashmir as Baag I Khasa, (Garden of Elites), where they used to come for recreation and enjoyment. They built 700 gardens for this purpose, alongside continuous repression of Kashmiris.
Nevertheless, this monstrous Mughal rule came to an end in 1753 AD. People would have never wished the end of this rule if they had foreseen what was in store for them. Their simultaneous capture by Afghans proved to be a worst nightmare-coming-true. It was like jumping from frying pan into fire. Afghans crossed all boundaries of civilisation - killing, rape, plunder, loot, eyes gouging out, ears, noses been cut off, whipping was the order of the day. As goes the saying not even a damsel was safe in her house during this brutal Aghan rule. Amir Khan, one of the governors, even plundered 700 Mughal Gardens. During this era too, the rebellion raised its head. One Sukh Jiwan tried to give respite to their brethren but he was defeated by Afghan governor Nur-u-Din Khan.
Nothing not even a simple stare in their eyes was tolerated by these Afghans. If Mughals invented Phiran (long cloak), then these Afghans made it mandatory for having two pockets on either side. It was for Afghan soldiers to mount on their shoulders and keep their feet in these pockets for ease particularly during crossing rivers.
Afghan governor Khorram Khan (1770-1777) during his second term quelled a rebellion raised by Kashmiris. Haji Karim Dad Khan (1776-1783) destroyed whole Kant family for intriguing against him with Raja Ranjit Dev, the ruler of Jammu. If Mughals indulged in suppression, Afghans employed violent suppression. Kashmiris were so much crushed and subjugated that Afghans needed only 3000 soldiers to control these meek souls, instead of minimum requirement of 20,000.
Mass migration of people particularly Kashmiri Pandits also took place in this era. The Afghan behavior was beautifully summarised in a Persian couplet which read as "Sar buridan pesh in sangin dilan qul chidan ast" (These stone hearted people thought no more of cutting of heads than of plucking a flower).
The Afghans were defeated by the forces of the Ranjit Singh in 1819, thus came to an end 67 darkest years of Kashmir's history, which left Kashmiris with only skin on their bones. But the Sikh didn't prove any better. Jamia Masjid was closed down, congregations were banned, severe restrictions were hurled on religious movement. At that time if a Sikh killed a non-sikh a compensation of Rupees four was given, but if the victim was a Muslim then Rupees two was enough. Killing as usual was rampant.
It is believed that crows were brought during this period in the valley by Deewan Kirpa Ram (1827-1831), who thought them to be necessary for the performance of funeral rights of Kashmiris. He was fed up of seeing funerals all around without any crow hovering above.
In this era too the flame of independence was not diminished. In 1843 Sikhs had to suffer causality to the tune of hundreds in their fight with daring Bomha leader Sher Ahmad at Shilbal.
On February 10, 1846 the English defeated the Sikhs at Sobroan. As a reward for being neutral a treaty was signed between them and a Dogra leader Gulab Singh, and the present day J&K was sold to him for 75 lac Nanak Shahi rupees. During this period 1845-1846 Sheikh Imamudin was the governor of Kashmir. Seeing this entire topsy-turvy situation, he –assisted by his foresighted wife – started to dream independence and raised the banner of rebellion. He twice defeated the forces sent to capture Kashmir by Gulab Singh, under Mathra Das and Lakhpat Rai. Gulab Singh panicked and begged for help to Sir Henry Lawrence, who sent the required assistance and helped snatch Kashmir from Imamudin.
Gulab Singh entered Srinagar on November 9, 1846 to start a puppet rule of Dogras with their threads attached to British. He was later succeeded by Ranbir Singh (1857-85), Pratap Singh (1885-1925) and Hari Singh (1926-47).
As there was no accountability, people continued living under miserable conditions. The rulers got new punishments invented, the most dreaded one being Begar (transport of materials to distant areas through precarious mountainous roads, without pay). The taxes were always skyrocketing with each passing regime. Robert Thorp wrote numerous articles on the plight of Kashmiris under Gulab Singh but he too was finished off in sync with rest of similar counterparts.
In 1857 for the first time Kashmiris didn’t celebrate Eid ul Azha, as it was the year when Gulab Singh had died and there was a total ban on killing of any animal. Another dreaded punishment used in Dogra era to thwart any possible uprising was that of fleecing a Kashmiri thought to be against administration. Prostitution was also legalised during this time.
But the rebellion never ceased to exist. In one way or other it raised its head. The prominent among this was Shawl Bauf Agitation, in which 28 Shawl weavers were martyred at Zaldagar on April 29, 1865. Another 21 persons were brutally killed during Central Jail uprising on July 13, 1931. Thereafter a civil disobedience movement started which culminated in open armed rebellion, about the end of January 1932 in Mirpur, Rajouri and Bhimber of Jammu Province.
Agitations, demonstrations followed. Ahrar party in Punjab started sending Jathas (groups of people on a mission) to relieve the oppressed Kashmiris. Thousands came forward for arrests. Inquilab - Lahore based paper carried stories of oppression. Gauhar Rehman led the agitation in Mirpur Tehsil. Other areas like Kotli, Bhimber, Rajouri and Poonch also started giving shock waves. Bakerwals were denounced as criminal tribes for their rebellious acts. Disturbance, police firing and deaths started a periodic cycle.
The situation continued until the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. When Maharaja was left to himself for the first time he couldn't decide what to do and the result was the first Indo-Pak war, which ended in the disintegration of the state into Indian administered Kashmir and Pakistan administered Kashmir. The Indian Prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru promised a plebiscite to decide the future of Jammu and Kashmir which people are still awaiting for being fulfilled.
In the contemporary history when non-violent measures gained ground, Kashmiris too dreamt of resolution with their active political participation right from 1947. But here also they were politically tortured, maimed and killed.
Such has been the fate of Kashmir that Mahatama Gandhi, who is considered to be the doyen of non violence, is said to have justified war on Kashmir. "Beautiful Kashmir was worth fighting for" said Mahatma Gandhi on December 25, 1947. (Religion in four dimensions by Walker Kaufmann, 1976, p. 248).
As the success eluded Kashmiris on all political fronts, and failure started to mount on them beyond imagination, there was a regeneration of armed struggle in 1989.
The people had hoped that the Indian rule might be a better one, as their Numero Uno leader Sheikh Abdullah had said so. But all went wrong. In addition of the all wrongdoings, India couldn't even protect the integrity of Kashmir and got them deprived of its 38,000 square km Aksai Chin area in 1961 during Sino-Indian war, in which India was thrashed beyond humiliation.
The cycle of tyranny, rebellion and bloodshed continues and the current phase is simply the continuation of four centuries of black past. Some of the worst war crimes were committed here. Kashmir as is known became one beautiful prison where nobody ever comes out of the range of Army sniper.
Of course there has been a difference in the size of death, which has come down from three feet sword to three inch bullet. During the last 18 years the death has visited Kashmir in every form and every shape. Some people were killed en masse in processions, some liquidated singly.
Children were killed in schools, some shot playing cricket. Others were exterminated trying to puff a cigarette for having some fun outside marriage parties.
Who could ever forget women the ever sacrificing, the ever suppressed lot. The more you write about the victims of Kunan Poshpora and Dardpora and many more unreported ones, the more pained one is.
During the last 19 years, people of Kashmir have gone through the situation that can be easily said to be a cruel summary of all the methods of suppression of last 421 years under different occupiers.
In all these five different kingships people suffered, resulting in rebellions and mass migrations.
This is also one of the most important factors why India has unofficially banned teaching Kashmir history in schools.
When people call it 18 or a 60-year-old problem or say just 80,000 persons had laid their life for it, they are making a gross injustice to millions of those who sacrificed their life for the just cause during the more than four centuries of foreign rule.
It seems that India has not learnt lesson from Kashmir’s history. Kashmir has remained independent for thousands of years and the Kashmiris will continue to yearn for the day when they can breathe an air of freedom even if it means fighting for another thousand years. The recent poll by CNN-IBN is an eye opener, which showed 87 per cent Kashmiris still want independence.
The Jews (who claim Jerusalem in full) had to wait and fight for two thousand years before they got hold of the holy land. Some historians with concrete evidence say that Kashmiris are the lost twelve tribes of Jews, so fighting for two thousand years is no big deal for them. In fact the current period of 421 years struggle is just the beginning.
These defiant people still hope for that tomorrow of Yaqub Shah Chek as for them time, life, money and other such essentials are no constraint in its pursuit.
No doubt world has moved on and almost half of world population actively opposes their independence and the rest, tacitly supports that opposition. It is very rarely that one can find a nation still surviving and longing for freedom for 421 years.
(The writer can be mailed haroon@kashmirnewz.com) 

Courtsey:http://www.kashmirnewz.com/a0008.html

Treasures of the Soviet Union's space industry

Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth at more than 17,000 mph (27,000 km/h)

By Richard Hollingham Moscow

Nearly 50 years ago, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space when he orbited the Earth for 108 minutes before landing.
As historical artefacts go, it is not much to look at - a charred cannonball, 2m (6ft 6in) across, its centre hollowed out to - just about - allow a man to fit inside.
In 1961 this Vostok capsule carried Yuri Gagarin around the Earth. Considering the importance of the spacecraft - and today's nostalgia in Russia for the achievements of the Soviet Union - few people ever get to see it.

FIND OUT MORE

The capsule is displayed in a private museum run by the state-owned space company Energia and it can take months to arrange a visit.
I have been obsessed with space exploration from an early age, so once inside the museum, I could barely contain my excitement.
Alongside Gagarin's spacecraft, there is the capsule that took the first woman into orbit, Valentina Tereshkova. There is the first space capsule to carry three people and the spacecraft flown by Alexei Leonov - the first man to walk in space.
And with the Soviet space programme once shrouded in secrecy, only now are the more colourful details of these missions emerging.
Take the three man capsule for instance - Voskhod-1 - it was so cramped that the cosmonauts could not wear spacesuits.
The story goes that one of the engineers warned the chief designer, Sergei Korolev, that the slightest leak of air would kill those on board.

'Smallish elephant'
Korolev's solution was to appoint the engineer as one of the cosmonauts, figuring that this would help motivate him to make the capsule as safe as possible. All three cosmonauts survived the mission - although others were not so lucky.

MIR TRAINING MODULE Guide to the MIR space station

Today's Soyuz spacecraft does not look much different from those pioneering designs. It is even launched on a rocket that would not be out of place in a 1950s sci-fi annual.
So what is it like to be stuck in one of those canon balls being blasted into orbit?
"Like having a smallish elephant sit on your chest," according to retired Colonel Belyayev, who has taught countless cosmonauts how to survive the extreme gravitational forces involved.
The colonel was responsible for the enormous centrifuge machine, which cosmonauts use in training. It is the largest in the world - a giant rotating arm that spins around within a drum-shaped building to simulate launch and landing.
As a tutor, the colonel was the first to try it out so he could teach people how to stay conscious at up to 12Gs.

Like most things spacey in Russia, the Soyuz training facility is gloriously retro, if not a little kitsch

And not only conscious but capable of pressing the right buttons in a confined space, in a spacesuit, on top of a noisy, bumpy rocket. I may like space but that is why I have never wanted to be a spaceman.
The centrifuge is at Star City, which sounds much grander than it is.
A complex of crumbling concrete blocks on the outskirts of Moscow, Star City was once the secret training centre for Soviet cosmonauts.
These days you are as likely to bump into an American, Canadian or European astronaut in the canteen. Narrowly avoiding a couple of Japanese astronauts cycling past through the snow, we head into the building where all these space men and women learn their craft.

Periscope
Like most things spacey in Russia, the Soyuz training facility is gloriously retro, if not a little kitsch.

Soyuz simulators at Star City help the astronauts prepare for space flight

The three simulator capsules spread out along an aircraft hangar of a room are raised on platforms reached by carpeted stairs lined with pot-plants.
The capsules are surrounded by instruments with giant levers and dials - the sort of hardware sadly lacking from today's touch-screen world.
To be fair, the rest of the controls are in an adjacent room full of shiny new computers.
But even today's Soyuz capsule is a curious mixture of the old and new - in order to dock to the space station the commander uses an optical periscope which sticks out of the side.
"Why not a camera," I ask?
"Why make it complicated?" replies the colonel.
And that is the great thing about Russian space technology - it may look a bit dated, but it works. I have seen Soyuz launched in a blizzard - the slightest gust of wind delays the Shuttle.
When I first reported on the Russian space industry in the mid-1990s, it was at its lowest ebb.
Space was considered a luxury the country could ill afford - the Buran space plane had been cancelled, space station Mir was a liability, and the official state space museum was being used as a car showroom.
Colonel Belyayev told me that he hoped the Russian space programme was now being "re-energised", and Russia appears to be reasserting itself in space.
The International Space Station is based on Russian expertise, supplied by Russian rockets, and soon to be commanded by a Russian. There is even talk of nuclear powered spacecraft and missions to Mars.
In comparison, with the Shuttle about to be retired and funding cut, the American space programme seems lacking in ambition.
Fifty years after Yuri Gagarin first orbited the Earth could the real winner of the space race be Russia?

Courtesy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9420752.stm