Uma - an Inspiration!

MUMBAI: Uma Phago has no memory of seeing a human stomach, not even her own. But she remembers very well what a stomach feels like.

After her sister gave birth by Cesarean section, Phago ran her curious fingers along the stitched-up abdominal ridge. The sensation never left her mind.

In the Indian outsourcing company where she works, her job is to transcribe what American doctors record on their Dictaphones. They send their files at sundown to India, and a team of 5,500 Indians works while the doctors sleep. Every so often, the dictation involves a Cesarean, and Phago’s ears perk up with fascination.

Phago, one of eight blind workers at CBay Systems, takes longer than most of her colleagues to type up the details. But because she is blind, she seems to get more of a thrill doing it, imagining the lives of the faraway patients and squeezing from each assignment a quantum of pleasure that is ever rarer in the tedious, soul-deadening world of Indian back offices.

In the dark, drab office where Phago works, her sighted colleagues stare all day long at their screens, conversing only rarely with one another and never with the doctors they assist. Working behind a virtual wall for foreigners you never meet is not for everyone. The grinding, repetitive, anonymous nature of much outsourcing work is one reason why even the best Indian back offices struggle to retain good employees longer than one year.

But Phago, who has been here for more than a year, has no plans to leave. She was hired as part of CBay’s corporate social-responsibility experiment, and although the program reflects only a tiny corner of a vast industry, it has turned up an unexpected truth: Blindness seems to infuse the outsourcing transaction with a warmth and a mystique that the sighted often fail to see, almost as though outsourcing were made for the blind.

“It’s our advantage, this imagination thing,” Phago said. “Our whole life, we are imagining.”

Phago, who lost her sight when she was 3, learned long ago to make Technicolor mental sketches from the most humdrum touches and sounds, and so when a Cesarean tape arrives, she thinks immediately of her sister’s ridged belly. As she transcribes, she wonders if the scar, on some unknown American woman, would feel like that one felt.

She speculates about how the cut was made, if it hurt, what instruments were used. Her imagination prances from one picture to the next. So vivid are these conjured portraits that, when the occasional dictation reports a patient’s death, Phago often buckles over her keyboard and cries.

Global Gorkhas must unite!

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Darjeeling!

As you must be aware that we have been experiencing quite a bit of an abuse of the numerous forum on Beacon Online. In fact, certain commentators have personally and vigorously pursued personal attacks and vendettas on our eminent contributors and respected patrons, including Ms. Jyoti Thapa Mani, Ms. Rashmi Dewan, Mr. Y. K. Shrestha, Mr. Bishal Rai. Beacon Online respects the freedom of expression and has thus far had not taken any steps towards weeding out nuisance creators and perhaps this has also been the cause behind relentless personal attacks. Ms. Jyoti Thapa Mani, Ms Rashim Dewan, Mr. Y. K. Shrestha, Mr. Bishal Rai among others are the most respected of individuals and of great value to our community and indeed humanity. We must accept and respect their knowledge, their desire to protect and fend for the society. By restricting them into narrow nomenclature we are discouraging them and diverting their focus. I request all our readers, contributors, and patrons to come together and work towards the notion of Global Gorkhas. If we do not unite together in ideas and commitments we are surely doomed. Through Beacon Online, let us respect our gems our budding intellectuals and Global Gorkha Heroes and Heroins. Let us be respectful of our elders, humane to our equals and inspirational to our youngsters.

I seek forgiveness on the part of the Beacon Online for the abuses that our eminent contributors and readers had to face.

I have decided henceforth to undertake serious measures to weed out nuisance creators. I promise you, by the end of this month, we will have uprooted them all.

Best Wishes and Regards

Barun

Sumeru Manch back to Gitange Dara courtesy GJM

The public speaking platform named Sumeru Manch by the Gorkha National Liberation Front has been reverted back to Gitange Dara as it was previously known as. The move was made by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha Dominated Darjeeling Municipality. Photo by Himalaya Darpan

Buddha Purnima Celebrations in Darjeeling Hills and Terai

A Young monk lights lamps on the occasion of Buddha Purnima at Salugara Monastery

Nor’westerly in Darjeeling Hills and the Terai

An uprooted tree stops traffic at Sevoke Road, Siliguri

Photo by Vikram Sashankar, Himalaya Darpan

Police foil drug peddlers

By Tandin Wangchuk

19 May, 2008 - Even as police step up their vigil to curb increasing drug abuse, three separate drug smuggling busts have been made this week.

On May 13 at around 1:00 am, a 22-year old Indian from Darjeeling was arrested at the Chhuzom checkpost for trying to smuggle in banned substances.

Police recovered 43 packets of marijuana, three strips of relepin tablets and three of proxyvon from the man.

“We got the information about his misdoings but couldn’t catch him with evidence till now,” said Major Dorji Khandu of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance enforcement unit.

He said that the marijuana packets were concealed in a rice sack along with the rice. He was travelling from Phuentsholing to Thimphu in a taxi.

PETA warns of deadly link between factory-farm filth and bird flu

Darjeeling – In the midst of avian flu outbreak in Darjeeling, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA) released graphic undercover video footage of crowded and filthy conditions on chicken and egg factory farms, which leading health experts – including those at the United Nations – blame for the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. The report documents the scalding, starvation and mutilation of birds as well as the potential for the spread of disease from chickens to humans. The disturbing findings were sent to the West Bengal government last year, and the government was warned about how unsanitary conditions on factory farms could lead to an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus.

PETA’s report reveals how unhygienic conditions are responsible for the repeated outbreak of bird flu in India.

In 2005, approximately 2 billion chickens were slaughtered in India. Chickens are crammed by the tens of thousands into dark, filthy sheds, where the ammonia from the birds’ accumulated waste actually burns their eyes. According to Dr. Vandana Shiva, chickens used for meat are pushed to reach their slaughter weights in just 40-42 days. Typically, the birds’ legs, hearts and lungs fail to keep pace with their rapidly growing bodies, which lead to serious problems, such as congestive heart failure and ascites – a pooling of body fluids in the abdomen. The birds’ legs are so severely crippled that the birds are unable to reach food and water. During transportation to slaughter – which involves long, gruelling rides in all weather extremes – the birds’ bones are frequently broken. After the long trip, the chickens are rapidly shackled and hung by their legs on conveyors in mechanised slaughterhouses. Many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks while still conscious. At small butcher shops, chickens’ throats are cut on floors or butchers’ blocks in unhygienic conditions while other birds watch.

Life for hens used for egg production is equally miserable. Millions of hens spend their entire lives confined to tiny battery cages in huge factory warehouses, which contain as many as 1,500 to 2,000 cages. Each cage holds six to seven birds, who are packed together so tightly that they cannot even, stretch a wing. Nine-day-old chicks’ sensitive beaks are cut off with a searing blade in a process called “debeaking”. Stress and constant rubbing against the wire cages cause hens to lose their feathers, and their bodies become covered with bruises, abrasions and boils.

Because of the filthy and cramped conditions that chickens raised for meat and eggs are forced to endure, disease is rampant. On its website, the Environmental Defense Fund explains that “[a]ntibiotics are routinely fed to healthy livestock and poultry to make them gain weight faster and to compensate for unsanitary living conditions”. According to researcher Malati Puranik, who conducted a study of chickens sold in Mumbai, “[W]e realised that poultry sold under such unhygienic conditions is a serious health hazard. Pathogens such as campylobacter and salmonella proliferate, causing severe bacterial contamination”. During the evisceration process, chicken carcasses easily become contaminated with faecal material when the intestines are cut or torn and the contents leak out during extraction.

Buddha will talk to Gorkha outfit

KOLKATA, MAY 19: The West Bengal Government has accepted the olive branch put across by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee agreeing to sit for talks with the outfit clamouring for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

This was revealed on Monday by Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya. “The Morcha leaders wrote to the Chief Minister requesting him to spare time for talks and he has agreed. We will have to keep in mind the interests of all sections concerned while talking about it. And we hope this problem will solved amicably very fast,” Bhattacharya said.

Earlier, the Chief Minister had said that he was ready for talks with the Morcha, but they did not come forward with any request for talks. “I have only heard about their demands. They were talking to the media, they were mentioning them in public rallies, but a Government can not go by that,” the Chief Minister had said last month. Soon after, the Morcha wrote to the CM seeking time for talks.

Arrogant Delhi

Finally, the prime minister discovers the subcontinent.

If something seems unusual in seeing Dr Manmohan Singh in Bhutan, it is because there is. It is his first visit to any of India’s neighbours after being Prime Minister of India for almost four years.

During this time he has made numerous foreign visits all over the globe, being willing, for example to be a quiet second-class guest at G-8 summits of the major powers but there have been no visits to India’s neighbours in the subcontinent. An American president when newly elected quickly has meetings with the US’s North and South American, European and East Asian friends, and also gets to meet the Russian and Chinese heads of state. British prime ministers, newly elected, quickly meet their Irish and their European counterparts as a matter of course.

Our PM might have set a good precedent if he had quickly and briefly journeyed to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh on simple working visits early in his term. He did not. The Bhutan visit is his first within the subcontinent– though he did travel to Havana and New York to meet Pakistan’s president in much-ballyhooed ’summits’. Our ministers love to travel to meaningless conferences in Davos or give meaningless speeches to Washington lobbyists like the US-India Business Council; but they are loathe to travel within the subcontinent. For that matter, President Patil returned after almost two weeks in Brazil, Mexico and Chile–what was palpably gained that might not have been if she hadn’t gone? Probably nothing. Would not her time and that of her PM and Council of Ministers be better spent in the national interest within the country or the subcontinent? Does she have plans to spend days–and nights–in parts of the Indian Union that need the presence of the head of state, like Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland?

Delhi’s officialdom has had a misplaced arrogance about it since the days of the Durbar and the habit of moving the summer capital to Shimla. It is high time a modern practical diplomacy came to be evolved. Bhutan as it happens needs no lessons in democracy from us–to the contrary, the ongoing violence in, for example, the Bengal panchayat elections or the Darjeeling hills suggest India might learn from them. [The Asian News Net]

Buddha Jayanti observed in Siliguri

SILIGURI, May 19: Buddha Jayanti was celebrated amidst fanfare in Siliguri today. The day was a special one for the devout Buddists residing all over Darjeeling district and the celebrations were observed at the number of stupas in the district. A large number of people, including children and youth principally marched through the city lanes carrying the holy Buddhist scriptures on their head. The devotees thronged the decorated stupas from early morning.

“With the Western world having turned to materialism, India the hoary custodian of perennial spiritual knowledge remains the only refuge for the developed souls. Those from the Occident dissatisfied with the materialistic world turn to this country in quest of solace. And, Buddhism still fascinates the West,” was how Mr Carr, a professor from Canada described his presence at a Buddhist temple at Salugara today.

Mr Karma Wangchuk, an eminent Buddhist from the Darjeeling hills, who looks after the administration of a stupa in Siliguri, said that there were around 10, 000 Buddhists in the hills and the number was steadily increasing. “It is pathetic to notice the traditionally spiritualistic hill populace getting swept by materialism under the impact of the Western culture. Yet, this is a passing phase. The people have begun returning to their ancient roots and interest in Buddhism is being revived,” Mr Wangchuk said.

Asok U-turn on hill tourism

Calcutta, May 19: Bengal minister Asok Bhattacharya today asked tourists to visit the Darjeeling hills, making a U-turn from his earlier stance. He also expressed satisfaction at the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s willingness to participate in talks with the government. [Inset: Aso Bhattacharya]

“It seems, the hills are a safe haven for tourists once again. I request tourists not to give Darjeeling a miss,” Bhattacharya told reporters. “I never did like the idea of tourism suffering because of the unfortunate turmoil in the region.”

On April 30, the minister had sung a different tune.

“I earnestly request tourists not to head for Darjeeling this summer. The situation in the hills is too complicated,” Bhattacharya had said. The advice to tourists had come in the wake of the revival of the statehood demand in the hills, which had been spearheaded by the Morcha.

Today, the minister acknowledged that there has not been any violence in the hills since the Morcha’s public meeting in Siliguri on May 7. Before that, the hill party had been protesting against the government’s decision not to give it permission to hold political activities in the trade hub.

“Things have been peaceful since then, contrary to our apprehensions. The Morcha hasn’t resorted to its usual desperate measures over the last couple of weeks. We are certainly glad with the turn of events,” Bhattacharya said.

The minister insisted that the solution to the problem in the hills could only come through discussion.

“I have always said the only way out of the mess is through discussion and negotiation, which the Morcha seems to have realised. They have sought the chief minister’s audience. Their leaders will meet the chief minister in the near future,” he added.

BSF arrests man with fake notes

Siliguri, May 19: Acting on a tip-off, BSF personnel arrested a person carrying fake currency with face value of Rs 85,000 at Islampur on Saturday evening. [Inset: Some of the fake notes seized by the BSF and the police on Saturday. Picture by Biplab Basak]

“We have arrested Md Nassim, a resident of Islampur, with the help of police and recovered fake Indian currency from his possession,” said R.S. Gill, the deputy commandant of BSF, north Bengal frontier.

“One hundred and seventy counterfeit notes in Rs 500 denomination were recovered from him,” Gill said.

After receiving a tip-off from their intelligence wing that Nassim would reach Putia More with fake notes, the BSF officials informed Islampur police and a joint team was formed, the officer said.

“When the suspect was waiting at Putia More, possibly to hand over the fake notes to someone, we surrounded him and caught him. Nassim had with him a small handbag. We found the fake currencies inside the bag. We immediately took Nassim into custody,” said Gill.

Tibetans eager, Indians wait - Day 1 at Nathu-la

Gangtok, May 19: Traders from the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have reacted far more enthusiastically than their counterparts in Sikkim to the annual reopening of Nathu-la. More than 80 of them today crossed the mountain pass at 14,000ft and arrived at the Sherathang trade mart on the Indian side.

The Indian participation was conspicuous by its absence with not a single trader going over to Donquinggang in China. Chongda Bhutia saved the Sikkimese from embarrassment when she managed to open her shop at Sherathang. Her shop selling provisions and small handicrafts was the only one at the trade mart that was open.

Officials said the traders from this side stayed away because of the uncertainty over the date of reopening. The third year of cross-border trade was supposed to start on May 1 but the date was postponed to today after landslides hit road network in Yadong county in TAR.

Bank’s tryst with heritage

Darjeeling, May 19: When the DHR wanted to extend its tracks from a place “near Siliguri to Kissengunge” in 1913, a separate enterprise — Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Extension Company Limited — had been set up and it had floated 43,750 shares, each priced at Rs 100, to raise the targeted amount of Rs 50 lakh. [Inset: The heritage corner inside the bank. (Suman Tamang)]

Such interesting anecdotes on Darjeeling, which had so long remained out of the public domain, have now found a place at Heritage Corner in the Darjeeling branch of the State Bank of India. The branch had been set up in 1922.

The DHR had worked closely with the Bank of Bengal, which became the Imperial Bank in 1921 before being called the State Bank of India in 1955.

Tourists off to virgin hills - Far from the madding crowd

Siliguri, May 19: The tiny hamlet of Kolakham near Lava has no electric supply, nor a pukka road, but is still managing to attract droves of tourists wishing to go off the beaten track.

“Less than a year ago, we set up our Neora Valley Jungle Camp project at Kolakham, located 9km from Lava and around 40km from Kalimpong town,” said Raj Basu, the managing director of Help Tourism, a Siliguri-based tourism company.

“The lack of basic amenities notwithstanding, our resort has gained instant popularity. During the ongoing holiday season, we are afraid that we will have to turn away many tourists,” Basu added.

Neora Valley Jungle Camp charges Rs 4,400 a night for a double-bedded room, food and guided tours inclusive. A local family has also opened its doors to home-stay tourism, where accommodation for one night costs around Rs 400 for two people.

“It is quite a revolution,” Indu Rai, a resident of Kolakham, said. “The whole community has come together to promote tourism, which is the only way to bring about development in this backward village. Tourism services are offered by local people and every evening our children put up cultural shows for the visitors.”

Not having electricity often comes as an advantage to those wanting to escape the urban world.

“We were happy to glimpse the beauty of the splendid, still unexplored and densely forested area in the light of kerosene lamps and campfire. We had sought out the place exactly for this reason — to be away from crowds, noise, smog and pollution,” one of the visitors Partha DeSarkar wrote in his travelogue.

Besides the authentic rural feel, the nearby pine forests, the Neora Valley National Park, and other attractions like Lava and Loleygaon make Kolakham a sought-after destination.

Rain lashes Darjeeling and Siliguri - Power of storm: uprooted trees, snapped electric lines

Darjeeling/Siliguri, May 19: Storms with high velocity winds struck Darjeeling and Siliguri almost simultaneously this morning, uprooting trees that cut off power supply in the hill station and damaged houses and blocked roads in the plains.

The thunderstorm struck Darjeeling around 11am, while the Siliguri region faced the onslaught 45 minutes later. [Inset: An uprooted tree blocks NH31 at Salugara near Siliguri on Monday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo]

Although separated by a height of approximately 6,000ft, the characteristics of the thunderstorms and their origins were almost the same, weather experts at North Bengal University (NBU) said. “The occurrence of Nor’westers in Darjeeling is uncommon but it happens sometimes,” Subir Sarkar, in-charge of NBU’s weather station, said.