Tata Motors, India's largest vehicle maker, is considering the creation of independent production hubs that will focus on making different vehicles at different locations.The company has a market share of 31.2% in the multi-utility vehicles segment and 6.4% in the luxury car segment. Worldwide it is ranked among the top ten in the manufacture of vehicles in the range of 5-15 tonnes. It manufactures heavy commercial vehicles (HCV), light commercial vehicles (LCV), passenger cars and multi-utility vehicles. After causing an unprecedented stir in the auto world last week with the Nano,Tata's cheapest car ever, the 75-year-old company is looking towards reorganising its manufacturing operation to facilitate expansion and to streamline  quality, reliability and ensure specialisation of skills and expertise of all businesses under one roof. Tata Motors plans to shift its Ace unit from Pune to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand to free up over 5 acres in Pune  to ramp up production of new generational vehicles and  SUVs like the Sumo, Safari and Indica. Also Nano, that had initally been planned to roll out from Singur,will come out of the new venue in Uttarakhand, Pantnagar. Tata Motors plans to shift its Ace unit from Pune to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand to free up over 5 acres in Pune  to ramp up production of new generational vehicles and  SUVs like the Sumo, Safari and Indica. New location of Rudrapur makes the sub-tonne light commercial vehicles like Ace and Magic.

 

This is a clear departure from the company's long established philosophy  of the  integrated facility where it had the commercial vehicle and passenger vehicle production lines in the same unit.    Although the company had been mulling over the creation of independent hubs for some time now, union issues due to  benching some employees at its Pune unit  forced them to temporarily shelve the plan. Mumbai-based Enam Securities forecasts a subdued growth in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment as a result of increase in lending rates and tight availability of finance. Analysts champion Tata's move to create independent hubs as it would result in scale benefits for common overheads and also help in expansion of product lines.

 

Mudra Lifestyle Ltd announced on Thursday that it plans to set up a
yarn unit that would cost 3 billion rupees in Uttarakhand, which would
be funded through an issue of debt and equity.

The company plans to raise up to 2 billion rupees through a foreign
currency convertible bond or overseas equity issue. It also plans to
issue warrants worth 360 million rupees to promoters it said in a
statement.

The balance amount will be met through bank loans, it said.

Minister for information and public relations and tourism Mr. Anam
Ramanarayana Reddy today announced about setting up of a office of
Uttarakhand state tourism department here in the city to facilitate
state tourists to visit above place (Uttarakhand).

According to a press release here, Uttarakhand Minister for tourism
and endowment Mr. Prakash Panth met Mr. Anam Ramanarayana Reddy at
secretariat here. They discussed about having tourism relations
between the two states. Mr. Reddy informed the visiting dignitary
about the problems faced by the state's tourists during their visit to
religious places like Manasa Sarowar, Haridwar etc.

He urged for setting up a tourist office of Uttarakhand in the city to
avert problems of the pilgrims of the state. .

Mr. Prakash Panth explained about the services offered by the
Uttarakhand Government to the tourists coming from within and outside
India.

by Neeta Lal

Every year some 600,000 pilgrims make their way through the Valley of Flowers in the Indian Himalayas, and until recently, left behind a trail of garbage. Now the Valley and the adjoining Nanda Devi National Park has been cleaned and restored, thanks to the efforts of a diminutive female Forest Reserve Officer, Jyotsna Sitling, recipient of this year's prestigious Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar, the country's highest environmental honour.


Jyotsna Sitling is the proud recipient of this year's prestigious Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar, the country's highest environmental honour. Photo © Women's Feature Service
The ecologically sensitive 19-kilometre buffer zone of the Valley of Flowers stretches along the trek route from Govindghat to Hemkund Sahib. But the annual pilgrim traffic had wrecked its beautiful surroundings,with an accumulated trail of plastic bags, bottles, raincoats and other non-degradable waste.


Jyotsna Sitling, 45, not only began a restoration project in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand but has helped win the Valley of Flowers World Heritage Site status. She has also set in motion a unique conservation movement that has helped save the ecologically fragile Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve.


Sitling's assignment involved ridding the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve buffer zone of the mountain-high piles of plastic and non-biodegradable waste, which had been dumped by pilgrims over the last three decades on their way to Hemkund Sahib. But this could not be possible without local support so she painstakingly evolved a community-based waste management programme. Read more

A benign fiscal policy has manufacturing investment pouring into hill
towns Baddi and Pantnagar. The industries look like they are there to
stay

RAVI KRISHNAN

Driving up to the verdant Nainital hill resort from a hot and muggy
capital Delhi, the first sight that greets a visitor on entering
Uttaranchal is swathes of green fields in the Terai region. Less than
25 km further, on both sides of the road, the greenery gives way to
steel and concrete. Dusts swirls in the air, stacks of bricks and
broken rock fight for space with mounds of sand to be used in
construction, and hastily-put-up tinsheds house cement sacks in
thousands. Trucks towing ready-to-use concrete jam roads coming apart
with overuse.
Welcome to Pantnagar, 29.03 degrees latitude and 79.47 degrees
longitude, the new Indian destination for manufacturing companies.
Leading corporate India's charge into Pantnagar is Tata Motors, which
has acquired 1,100 acres, a third of land under development in the
nascent industrial town. India's largest auto company is pumping in Rs
2,000 crore to set up an unit that will roll out 2.25 lakh units of
its popular minitruck Ace. Giving the Tata unit company will be 40
auto ancillary units including Sundaram Fasteners and TVS-Delphi.

The newfound energy in Pantnagar, until now known as home of Govind
Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, springs from a
generous decision by New Delhi granting hill states Himachal Pradesh,
Uttaranchal and Sikkim concessions starting 2002: 100% excise
exemption for 10 years, 100% income tax exemption for the five years
of operation and 30% for next five years, and concessional central
sales tax of 1% for five years. Investments have not stopped since.

The first mover, Baddi, a Himachal town 40 km away from Chandigarh,
has so far attracted Rs 18,000 crore in investments. In Uttaranchal,
companies are pumping in Rs 4,000 crore in Pantnagar and Rs 2,500
crore in Haridwar, according to Alok Kumar, managing director, State
Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal Ltd, or Sidcul, a
local public sector unit that works to encourage investment in the
state. (See table.)

So, do the concessions given to companies investing in the hill states
make up for increased inventory costs, additional transportation
charges, training expenses for labour and other sundry costs
associated with translocation of managers to the sleepy towns? For
companies operating out of Pantnagar and Haridwar, it has been a mixed
experience so far. Not only have the excise sops added to
profitability, the use of new technology and higher levels of
automation have led to high productivity levels. "Output per employee
is 30-50% higher in Pantnagar over other units," says Asim Bhaumik,
unit head of Dabur India's Pantnagar plant. Similarly, Britannia
Industries too claims 20% higher productivity in the Uttaranchal town.

But the companies are grappling with problems of small town India:
unreliable power, broken roads, inadequate housing and manpower. While
Uttaranchal boasts of surplus power—the state uses less than 60% of
the 1,400 megawatt installed capacity, which is billed at a
concessional Rs 2.4- Rs 2.5 a unit—there been connectivity problems.
"Till now, we've had to use power from our generators nearly 15% of
the time," says Manas Datta, head of Britannia Industries' Pantnagar
biscuit unit, adding the situation is improving and should be set
right with the installation of a new substation later this month.

Himachal Pradesh too has surplus power to the tune of 500 mw but Baddi
faces a power crunch too. The influx of units there, around 2,400 in
the greater Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area, has led to a strain on the
distribution network. "Generators were unheard of 10 years ago. With
more industries setting up shop, power is not as freely available as
it was some time ago," says Arun Rawat, managing director of Kanha
Biogenetics, a drug making unit in Baddi.

The remoteness of these industrial towns means that companies face
problems of transport and logistics. "While our inventory levels are
normal for most raw materials, in some products, like for instance,
coconut oil which comes from south India, we need higher inventory
levels," says Bhaumik at Dabur's Pantnagar facility. Datta says
Britannia does not face problems with flour and sugar but ends up
stocking up packaging materials. "But even that problem will no longer
be there because such ancillary units are coming up fast," he says.
Baddi too is susceptible to higher inventories. Kishore Pathak, plant
manager at Cipla's Baddi drug making unit, says, "On an average, we
stock up raw material inventory for up to three months in Baddi,
compared to one-and-half months in other places."

Transport can be a hurdle as well. While the roads inside these
industrial zones are good, the access roads to these places tell a
different story. From Delhi, the roads to Baddi pass through Punjab
and Haryana, which have well-asphalted roads. But, Uttaranchal is
landlocked by Uttar Pradesh, a state that has some of the worst roads
in India. Logistics in Baddi is hampered by an overzealous transport
union that operates in Himachal Pradesh. "For outbound goods, we have
to pay freight rates 15%-20% higher than that for inbound goods," says
an FMCG executive in Baddi.

But the big hurdle today and in the years ahead is going to be
manpower. While there is potential for employing over a lakh of people
directly and another 2.5 lakh in indirect employment at Pantnagar and
similarly in Baddi, there are not enough local employable people,
especially skilled manpower. Sidcul's Kumar says Industrial Training
Institutes are planned at Pantnagar, Haridwar and Sitarganj. The
problem is accentuated by a condition in the sops package which states
that 70% of employees in these units must be from the home state. "It
is very difficult to get skilled manpower here and we necessarily have
to bring people from outside," says P K Sharma, administrative manager
at Shapoorji Pallonji, which is building Tata Motors' Pantnagar
facility.

Companies in Baddi face 20% attrition levels and rising wages. "The
employee turnover rate is constantly going up and we are having to pay
more salaries sometimes more than what we pay at our Delhi facility,"
says R A Garg, factory head of Panacea Biotec's Baddi facility. An
entry level worker earns upward of Rs 5,000 in Baddi, up nearly 30%
from two years ago. At times, companies have to pay workers higher
given that there are no housing facilities near these industrial
zones.

The troubles, however, haven't slowed the investment flow. Hero Honda
last week announced its fourth plant in Haridwar with an investment of
Rs 2,000 crore. With an extension of tax sops to 2010, Sidcul is
working on a township in Sitarganj, 45 km away from Pantnagar towards
Nainital. Over 80% of the 1,200-acre township, being developed by a
New Delhi-private realtor Eldeco, has been booked by firms like Mico
and TVS-Delphi. A further 1,000-acre expansion at Sitarganj is also on
Sidcul's drawing board.

Indian industrial history tells a tale of fickle investments in
backward areas. Typically, small units are set up in such areas
attracted by fiscal sops for a few years. Upon expiry of the tax
holiday, the companies close the facility or just pack up the machines
and move on. However, unlike in the past, companies making a beeline
for Baddi and Pantnagar like Cipla and Britannia are setting up their
largest units in the country there. Also, the ancillary industries
coming up around such outfits could complete an industrial eco-system
in the townships.

The most telling instance of change sweeping these hill towns in the
last few years is heard at the local bus station. Lend an ear to
ticket conductors on buses headed to Pantnagar from Rudrapur, the
nearest big town. "Tata Pantnagar," is what they call it now.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=137684

DEHRADUN: For teachers in Uttaranchal, it is virtually back to
basics-ABC when it comes to learning the English language.

And they don't mind learning the language in a classroom at Dehra Dun
especially when teachers are from Ireland.

"We are learning how to improve our English especially at the basic
level," said Pushpa Bisht, a primary school teacher at Khasonsi, a
remote village in Jaunsar tribal area in the hill state.

Bisht admits she did not know much English though she teaches the
language to village children.

Like Bisht, there are hundreds of teachers who are still not very good
in English, officials said.

For improving the English skills of these teachers, a group of
teachers from the prestigious John Scottus School of Dublin, Ireland,
have volunteered to teach the modern English.

These school teachers are teaching the English language using
techniques like phonetics, visual aid, books and audio cassettes.

"The English is changing. It is more of an American English than the
queen's language," said Rutger Kortenborst, an English teacher, who
graduated from the prestigious Trinity College of Ireland.

DEHRADUN: For teachers in Uttaranchal, it is virtually back to
basics-ABC when it comes to learning the English language.

And they don't mind learning the language in a classroom at Dehra Dun
especially when teachers are from Ireland.

"We are learning how to improve our English especially at the basic
level," said Pushpa Bisht, a primary school teacher at Khasonsi, a
remote village in Jaunsar tribal area in the hill state.

Bisht admits she did not know much English though she teaches the
language to village children.

Like Bisht, there are hundreds of teachers who are still not very good
in English, officials said.

For improving the English skills of these teachers, a group of
teachers from the prestigious John Scottus School of Dublin, Ireland,
have volunteered to teach the modern English.

These school teachers are teaching the English language using
techniques like phonetics, visual aid, books and audio cassettes.

"The English is changing. It is more of an American English than the
queen's language," said Rutger Kortenborst, an English teacher, who
graduated from the prestigious Trinity College of Ireland.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1893040.cms

By Nayanima Basu,

New Tehri (Uttaranchal), Aug 13 (IANS) The construction of the Tehri
dam, one of the world's largest, may have spelt prosperity for many
and electricity for cities. But it has changed life forever for
43-year-old Jabrana.

The 2,400-MW hydropower project has increased the volume of water in
the Bhagirathi river so much that it has swallowed the entire old
Tehri town, once the lifeline for the people of Pratapnagar, a hilly
village.

What remains of the old town is an upper part of a tree, sprouting out
of the river. The tree once adorned the Tehri king's palace.

With no accessible bridge across the Bhagirathi, villagers in
Pratapnagar are today isolated and have to spend almost Rs.200 to
commute to the other side to the new Tehri town to get even basic
necessities.

"We have been totally secluded even from basic facilities. We spend
about Rs.208 to commute to secure items of daily use," Jabrana
complained to IANS.

While inaugurating the first unit of the power station last month,
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had promised: "We are building a
bridge across the river for the people of Pratapnagar. It will be
completed in 18 months."

The government has so far spent Rs.88 million to build a bridge,
called Dobra-Chanti Bridge, connecting the village with the town of
Tehri, claims an official of the Tehri Hydro Development Corp.

"The bridge can never be completed in 18 months as it is still at very
preliminary stage," said a visibly broken Jabrana.

Due to construction of the Tehri complex, a total area of 5,200
hectare has gone under water. This was home to 113 villages of the old
Tehri town.

Loss of livelihood and ancestral land are not the only visible scars
the displaced families are facing, but also the fabric of their
traditional way of life.

The irreparable socio-economic damage caused by the construction of
the dam is seeing migration of the youth to cities since there is no
land left to till and grow food, leaving behind broken joint families.

Jayanti Bisht, 62, a displaced villager, told IANS, "I miss the social
gatherings we used to have on the fields with the entire family. My
sons have now all gone in search of a better livelihood. I understand
their compulsion but I miss them very much."

There are still many villagers who have not been given compensation
and have been waiting for a piece of land for 30 years. Many remain
without any proper livelihood.

The government claims that rural families have been settled in various
rehabilitation centres in district Dehradun and Haridwar of
Uttaranchal where basic facilities like drinking water, irrigation,
schools, roads, electricity, hospitals and community facilities have
been provided.

"That may be partially true," says 74-year-old Suraj Singh Chauhan,
whose village was submerged under the mighty Bhilangana in 2001.

Today, Chauhan stays in a three-storeyed house in Pashulok village,
built on a land provided by the government, near Rishikesh, with his
entire family.

Chauhan may have been able to rebuild his home with the compensation
money but today he is without the land to grow crops and support a
large family of three sons and several grandchildren -- as he had been
doing for ages.

With no means to continue farming, Chauhan's sons are now looking for
private sector jobs.

"The government has given us only the land and nothing else. We had to
set up our own electricity system when we shifted here. There are no
schools, no hospitals, no facilities here," Chauhan told IANS.

"Life for us has changed completely. We do not know how to cope up
with city atmosphere. Can the government give me back the dreams that
went under water?" says a tearful Chauhan, who pines for his long gone
happy days.

Alongside the stories of anguish and loss, there are some who have
amassed a lot of fortune by taking advantage of the government's
rehabilitation programme. But there are few in this category, admit
officials.

http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2006/august/13/features/tehri_rehabilitation_woes_as_first_unit_starts.html

Gopeshwar, Aug. 1 (PTI): Vehicluar traffic has been badly affected in
many parts of Uttaranchal as heavy rains lashed the State for the past
few days.

Vehicles are moving on a snail's pace on many roads including the
Rikesikesh-Badrinath National Highway, Rudraprayag, Gaurikund,
Kedarnath, Karnaprayag, Gwaldam, Thripak, Kandai, Gopeshwar and
Okhimath, officials said.

The Alakananda river, its tributaries Dhavli, Nandakini Virahee,
Panar, Mandakini, Ramganga Nayar rivers have submerged kharif crops
and continue to pose a serious danger to embankments and agricultural
land in the hill region, they said.

Supply of ration and other essential commodities were also hit due to
transportion difficulties and water and power supply were affected.
Communication facilites were also affected.

The weather conditions have also affected movement of pilgrims to holy
shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib and other tourists
resorts in the Uttaranchal.

Nearly 5,000 pilgrims and tourists were reported stranding on verious
routes due to land slides in many parts of the State.



--
http://sanjaytewari.blogspot.com
http://spaces.msn.com/members/sanjaytanya/
http://spaces.msn.com/members/uttaranchalnews/

The Original Ultralight Hikers: Seeking Wilderness Simplicity from
Modern Day Nomads

BY Douglas Durham

Indian Sadhus
Three years ago in late June of 1999, I found myself trekking in the
Himalayas with the Buddhist monk with whom I train. We began our trek
in Rishikesh, after a long night drive from New Delhi. Our initial
objective was to travel along the Ganges all the way up to its source,
a glacier near Gangotri; and then on to a remarkable 13,500 foot
plateau surrounded by several 20,000 plus foot peaks, Tapovan. This
route, followed for several millennia by Hindu sadhus on their
pilgrimages to visit sacred sites, is little known: that is to say,
little known to Westerners, for we saw only three other Westerners on
the trail --interestingly enough, all women.

The monk was carrying his traditional begging bowl, an L.L. Bean
daypack, and his umbrella, the kind used by ascetic Thai forest monks.
I, on the other hand, was carrying the conventional pack with 35
pounds of stuff, including a tent, a stove and cooking gear. Before
this trek, my previous experience in the outdoors was 3 1/2 years as a
paratroop officer in the U.S. Army in the mid-1960s. The intervening
30 years had been spent as a rootless cosmopolite. I assumed that I
was in good shape for such a trek, because I was a trail runner and
could easily do a 20 mile run in the mountains of Virginia.

Throughout the morning, Hindu sadhus (Indian holy men) in their 60s or
older routinely passed us. Wearing lightweight robes, carrying only
small blankets and little water buckets, and wearing sandals, they
would slow down awhile to chat and then take off at a pace I could not
begin to maintain. Some were barefoot, carrying only small water pots,
without even a blanket. However, like us, they were going to be
traveling through several climactic zones and moving up to high
altitudes, where it was quite cold at night.

About noontime, suffering from heat, hiking, and jet lag, I needed to
stop at a secluded Hindu ashram nestled between two rivers. The young
woman in her early 30s who ran the place allowed us to rest in a cool
room during the heat of the day. As we were leaving and I was
struggling to put on my overloaded pack, she looked at me and said,
"You're too old and you have too much stuff."

I started shedding the stove and various other items the next day, as
men much older than I, carrying almost nothing, kept blowing past us.
As we moved higher and higher, climbing toward the glacier where the
Ganges River begins, I began to appreciate, while watching the sadhus
hike in lightweight robes and sleep with just one blanket, that there
was another approach to hiking.

Because this is a traditional pilgrimage route, there were shelters
and small villages where one could obtain food and water every few
kilometers. Thus, carrying a tent or stove was not necessary for the
sadhus. However, they did not use rain gear, simply accepting the fact
that they would get wet and then dry off when the sun came out.

I, of course, had rain gear. Thus, the first difference that I noticed
between the sadhus and me was that I had brought my home with me on my
back, whereas the sadhus had entered into homelessness. Entering into
homelessness is a long tradition in Hindu religious practice, used to
train the mind.

The other difference between the Indian sadhus and me was their lack
of fear. The path that we were walking on was, in parts, not well
maintained. It would occasionally narrow to less than the width of a
hand, with a steep drop of several hundred feet. Other times we would
suddenly be walking on shale, quite slippery: a misplaced step caused
by a lapse in focus and over the edge you would go. My fear of falling
was identical to the other fears I had, which had caused me to carry
so much stuff. Essentially I was afraid of change; I sought security.

As we walked for several days, we spent a considerable amount of time
talking to the sadhus. (Many of them spoke English; the Buddhist monk
spoke some Hindi, so he could talk to those who did not speak
English.) What I came to see was that these pilgrims were from a wide
variety of backgrounds. Many of them had led what we in the West would
see as normal lives: teachers or army officers or bankers. Upon
retiring, they had abandoned, at least temporarily, their ties to that
life and had taken up the life of a sadhu.

This change is part of their culture. While it would be incorrect to
say that large numbers followed this path, it is regarded as something
admirable. Thus, some, if not most, of the old men who were zipping
past us had not been doing this their entire lives but had come to it
recently.

I asked those who had come to such arduous trekking late in life how
they were able to lead such simple lives with so little gear. The
answer seemed to be a version of the chicken and egg question. The
trek for them is a holy pilgrimage, part of their training to achieve
release from the eternal wheel of life. A step on that path to freedom
is learning to do with less. By accepting the requirements to lead a
simple life, rigorous as they are, one is forced to deal with the
issues of reducing one's wants. (It is craving for and the attachment
to physical sensations and mental concepts that, in their view, keep
one bound to the endless cycle of birth and death.)

By reducing one's possessions and comforts -- leaving home and going
into homelessness -- one begins the process of observing the mind
responding to external situations and wishing that things were other
than they are. Thus if one is wet, one may wish to be dry. In their
case they simply accept being wet. By setting out on such a journey
with so little, either one learns to control the mental responses or
one returns to home.

On this trip I myself returned early to home because I had not yet
learned to control my mental responses. I had made a call to my wife a
few days into the trip. The gist of what I learned in the call was
that her father had had a heart attack, possibly had cancer; our
soon-to-be two-year-old daughter had a fever of 103 degrees; and "You
are in India, you so and so." I used this as an excuse to return
early. The real reason was that I was frequently afraid and extremely
uncomfortable and wanted to go home.

Thai Forest Monks

I had mentioned earlier that the monk with whom I was traveling was
carrying a Thai forest-monk umbrella. These monks, following the
Buddha's instructions to lead a simple life, call what they do "going
into homelessness."

Their concept of going into homelessness is once again the idea of
accepting a rigorous requirement for simplicity. By deciding to go as
simply as possible, they set up the situation where they will see how
the mind creates its own needs. If this sounds similar to what the
sadhus do, it is, because the Buddha just took over that practice when
he saw how successful it had been to help free the mind of its many
attachments.

These monks wander the forests and jungles of Thailand, wearing one
set of robes, carrying a begging bowl, an extra set of robes, and
maybe a toothbrush and a sewing kit, along with an umbrella with bug
netting: definitely under the 10 to 12 pounds of gear which some
people use as a definition of ultralight hiking.

They sleep out of doors using the umbrella, trees, or rocks as a
shelter. They expose themselves to hardships and dangers, such as wild
tigers, for one purpose: to train what we would call their minds, but
what they call their heart/mind. They will go to areas where there are
tigers to meditate at night in order to observe their fear arise as
they hear tigers growling in the jungle. This is similar to seeking an
area in the American West where there are grizzly bears in order to
see how one responds to their presence.

Like the Hindu sadhus, these monks come from many backgrounds. They do
not start as exceptional people. Again, we can see normal people
training their minds/bodies to accept challenges as opposed to fleeing
from them.

Grandma Gatewood

Then we have Grandma Gatewood, at first glance someone of our own
culture, or at least closer to our own culture. Mrs. Gatewood, born in
the 1880s, walked the AT twice in the 1950s wearing US Keds and
carrying a blanket (not a sleeping bag), like the Hindu sadhus. Her
gear weighed between 14 and 17 pounds. She used a shower curtain for
shelter.

How is it that an old woman with minimal gear can walk the AT twice
while of the over 2000 or so people who might start an AT thru-hike
each year roughly 200 finish?

My guess is that we might learn part of the answer by looking at the
culture in which she was raised.

While she seems, at first glance, someone of our own culture, she is
not. Her culture, the American frontier, with its subsistence-farming
world, has now vanished. While it was in existence, it bred, of
necessity, hearty, self-reliant people who accepted reality as it was
and endured.

While frontier self-reliance, created by necessity, differs from that
of the sadhus and the monks who choose radical simplicity, the results
are the same: steadiness in the face of reality, otherwise known as
adversity. The sadhus, the monks, and Grandma Gatewood have all
learned to control their responses to what they could not control.

Ourselves

While the culture that bred Grandma Gatewood has passed, there are
still many normal people who can acquire the same toughness and
resiliency.

As an American example of controlling mental responses, below is a
part of an interesting and revealing post from one of the Backpacking
Light discussion-group e-mails. The author is discussing the use of a
SilPoncho as a ground cloth:

"I couldn't figure out a way to make it work to my satisfaction and
didn't think anyone else would be able to, either. Then...I met a
genuine ultra- ultra liter on a rain soaked trail who was using a
pocket space blanket as his poncho. We camped together at 11,000 feet
in a cold rain in some krumholtz that night and I couldn't help but
notice that his only space blanket was also his tarp AND his ground
cloth! He seemed dry and was happy as a clam the next morning..."

This is a clear example of the mental attitude of largely accepting
things the way they are, allowing one to take a minimal amount of
stuff. It is also an example of how we can learn from the examples of
others what we are capable of doing.

There is a similar anecdote from one of the trekking guidebooks that
deals with the Everest area. The author is the owner of a major
trekking outfit in Nepal. He tells the story of going up a pass toward
Tibet at about 18,000 feet. He has on full gear for cold conditions
and is carrying a heavy pack that extends over his head. Coming from
the other side is a Tibetan wearing substantially less and carrying
essentially a daypack. The Tibetan has an extra pair of Chinese shoes
(prone to falling apart) and a blanket or two and a few snacks to eat.
The Westerner has all of the things that he has been trained to
believe he needs to satisfy his cravings and attachments.

Ray Jardine, in his book on going light, discusses the phenomenon of
craving and attachment, although he does not use those terms, and he
provides a very simple way to deal with it. His suggestion, if I
recall correctly, was to take the traditional piece of gear, for
example a tent, and the new piece of gear, for example a tarp, at the
same time. One would try to use the tarp, having the tent for security
as a backup in case one needed to return to more accustomed patterns
of behavior. The idea here is elegantly simple: you gradually see that
you can let go of things or concepts that you have become attached to.

To the extent that I understand what I have done as I moved towards
lightweight backpacking, it is as uncomplicated as that. You clearly
look at each piece of gear that you use and ask, "Why am I attached to
that?" The answer always has to do with a previous pattern of craving.
One craves the seeming security of the tent because it reminds one of
home, with walls and the floor. And so forth. Jardine even has an
especially apt phrase: leave home at home. (Thai monks used umbrellas
before Jardine was born and the sadhus practiced going into
homelessness for millennia. There is nothing new under the sun.)

Henry David Thoreau, who wrote Walden, about living simply and close
to nature, is typical of someone starting on this path. Those who read
Walden get the impression of a man who spent the bulk of his time
trying to simplify his life, little realizing that he would walk into
town, give the females of his mother's household his laundry, and then
go off and eat lunch with friends. It has been well said that we
should not look too closely at Thoreau: possibly we might recognize
ourselves.

I tell the story to raise one issue: observe the range of ways you can
react to reality. One way, different from Thoreau's, is that of a song
by Mary Chapin Carpenter with the lyrics:

"I'll take my chances; I don't mind working without a net."

In another song her lyrics describe the challenge for any song or
article such as this is:

"Tell me something I don't know, instead of everything I do."

Up to this point, this article, in one sense, is about what you
already know, if only from reading previous issues of
BackpackingLight.com. That is to say, it is possible to hike with very
simple gear. Monks, sadhus, Grandma Gatewood, and plenty of others
have done it. They can do it for one simple reason: they have the
self-reliance to accept that life away from home is different.

To learn something you don't know – to learn better how to leave home
at home and accept change -- try working without a net.

A Technique to Help you Adapt to Change

How is it that some people can get by with a blanket where others need
a 20-degree F sleeping bag?

To start to answer that question, let us look at an example of
adapting to cold in a traditional Zen monastery in Japan, with a
winter climate similar to that of Northern Virginia: the average highs
might be around 40-45 degrees F; lows, 25-30 degrees F, with the
occasional spike 10 or so degrees lower. An acquaintance of mine, who
finished his Ph.D. in 1972 at Berkeley, went to Japan to do further
study. As things worked out, he then spent more than a decade in a Zen
monastery that was unheated throughout the year. He, and the other
monks, would meditate and sleep in a room where the temperatures were
routinely at night around 30 degrees F during the winter. The monks
wore only robes and slept in them. My understanding is that they had
straw mats and simple blankets for sleeping and that the temperature
on occasion dropped as low as 15 degrees F.

I tell the story solely to make the point that it is possible for some
people to get used to colder temperatures.

What are the techniques used to adapt to such challenges? The primary
one is called mindfulness meditation. It involves training yourself to
observe the sensations you feel without moving on to your typical
response. Normally, for example, as the nighttime temperatures drop
and one becomes cold, one notes -- I am cold -- and then does
something about it. In this customary way one fails to observe first
just the sensation that the body is cooling. One moves directly to
perceiving that one's self is affected and must be protected from the
change.

In mindfulness meditation one simply notes -- the body is cooling.
After awhile, one notes resistance to that change. One will see the
concept arising -- I am getting cold. The arising of the self-concept
(the "I" who is getting cold) is the first part of the resistance to
the change in body temperature. The "I am getting cold" thought has in
it the seed for the next thought -- I am uncomfortable and must do
something about it. Try to let those thoughts go and simply observe
the body getting cold.

From time to time, to take the mind off the cooling of the body, you
can simply follow your breath as it goes in and out of the nostrils.
As you follow your breath, you will not be thinking about the cooling
of the body. (The mind can focus on only one thought at a time.) One
technique for beginners is simply to count each exhalation from 1 to
10 and then start again at 1. Quite some time can elapse before you
might again notice that you sense the cooling.

Experienced meditators will recognize this approach as just a variant
on the instructions for observing and dealing with the pain you have
in your knees when you first start seated meditation. Others will note
that this is a technique used in cognitive therapy. That cognitive
therapy technique is to put a gap between the stimulus and the
response and then alter the habitual response.

The last point in applying the technique of putting a gap between
stimulus and response is to compare yourself only with yourself. Do
not concern yourself with the fact that you cannot achieve some
extreme feat. All that matters after applying the technique for a
while is whether you are capable of extending the temperature range in
which you are comfortable. As in any learning of a new technique,
expect to make incremental changes over time. (In some cases, like
mine, it might take years.)

As a personal note, I hate cold weather. I am strictly a 3-season
backpacker. For me snow, hot chocolate, and a fireplace near a window
where I can look out at the lovely snow are synonymous. However, I
have been able over many years to lower the temperature at which I can
sit comfortably in meditation to around 45 degrees F from about 65. I
know from my own experience and from that of others whom I have
observed, you can, through such a technique, widen the temperature
range in which you are comfortable. (My son did start playing hockey
five years ago and I have spent many hours in cold hockey rinks, which
might account for some or all of that increased tolerance to cold.) As
Woody Allen says: 90 percent of success in life comes from just
showing up. Simply being in a colder than usual environment and just
relaxing and accepting it will go a long way towards success.

Those seeking more information on aspects of this approach might read
Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness, by Bhante Gunaratana, Wisdom
Publications, 2001. (In the interests of full disclosure, I helped
with that book and receive a portion of the royalties.)

However, no book is going to teach you the technique of mindfulness
meditation. You need to work with an experienced instructor for some
time to get it. For those seriously interested in learning this
technique, the monastery where Bhante Gunaratana teaches has this web
page:


http://www.bhavanasociety.org/

Also on that page is a brief description of the book about the full
journey in the Indian Himalaya taken by the monk with whom I train,
Bhante Rahula. Two of the routes taken are spectacularly beautiful and
very little followed by Westerners. You can trek on these routes for
weeks, without having to carry food and fuel, and spend only $3-5 a
day.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this article should be considered an
endorsement of any technique, trip, or person. Trying anything new
involves risk (and maybe reward). Such loss or gain is solely the
responsibility of those readers who want to take the risks.


Citation:

"The Original Ultralight Hikers: Seeking Wilderness Simplicity from
Modern Day Nomads," by Douglas Durham. BackpackingLight.com (ISSN
1537-0364). http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/00032.html,
07/04/2002.



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By Indo Asian News Service

New Tehri (Uttaranchal), July 30 (IANS) The first 250 MW unit of the 1,000 MW Tehri power station was inaugurated by Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde here Sunday. Shinde pressed a button to officially start power generation at the Tehri power station, which has been executed by the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation. (THDC), a joint venture between the centre and Uttar Pradesh.With this, the Tehri power station has started supply of power to the northern grid.
'The project will generate 3,500 mega unit of electric energy annually providing 1,000 MW of power to the northern grid,' said Shinde at the function.
He also laid the foundation stone for a 1,000 MW Tehri Pump Storage unit, which he said would provide 'additional irrigation in the area in around 270,000 hectares'.
Uttaranchal will get 12 percent free power benefit from the Tehri power plant and earn a revenue of about Rs.1.2 billion per annum. The revenue would help the hilly state in carrying out developmental work.
The Tehri power project was constructed with technical assistance from Russia.
The 1,000 MW Tehri power station will provide power, drinking water, water for irrigation and provide flood control benefits, said officials.

Copyright Indo-Asian News Service

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Source: IRIS NEWS DIGEST (29 July 2006)

Uttaranchal is fast emerging as an auto hub, thanks to the Government\'s tax holiday scheme, reports Business Standard.

Leading companies have decided to set up units in the state to make use of the benefits of the tax holiday scheme. Leading the pack is Tata Motors, followed by with Bajaj Auto and Mahindra and Mahindra, which are together investing about Rs 32 billion in the Pant Nagar and Haridwar industrial estates. Some of the ancillaries of these companies like Neel Metal are also establishing their units.  
 
Tata Motors is expected to invest Rs 25 billion in its manufacturing facility at Pant Nagar industrial estate, where over 370 companies are setting up their new units with a combined investment of Rs 45 billion.  
 
Tata Motors would be producing Ace trucks at the Pant Nagar facility for which it has already bought 1,000 acres of land from the State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal (SIDCUL) which is building both Pant Nagar and Haridwar industrial estates.
 
The Pant Nagar industrial estate has so far attracted an investment of Rs 5 to Rs 6 billion from Bajaj Auto which would establish a manufacturing unit for producing motorbikes. Bajaj Auto is expected to produce 3,000 bikes per day.  
   
Mahindra and Mahindra (M & M) early this year set up its automotive plant for producing three wheelers at the Integrated Industrial Estate (IIE) in Haridwar and also indicated that it would expand its unit further.  
 
The plant is the company`s fifth full-scale automotive plant which has been constructed with a total investment of Rs 700 million that also includes its ancillary Neel Metal Product, exclusively set up for M & M to supply cabs, cargo bodies and other sub-assemblies and aggregates.  
 
The plant is primarily set up for manufacturing of three wheelers of different load capacities and ranges. It will initially produce 30,000 three-wheelers per year, which will soon be ramped up to 50,000.  

Out of the 364 companies which propose to set up their units in Pant Nagar, nearly 227 of them have already got possession of their industrial plots. Almost 107 industries are under construction, while 20 companies including Dabur and Nestle have started production.  
 
Motorbike giant Hero Honda is also believed to be planning to set up its unit in the state.


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New Delhi, July 17: River Ganga, believed to cleanse people of their sins, is much cleaner than it was 20 years ago in spite of significant increase in the pollutant discharge levels at major towns and cities along its banks.

A review of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) by independent monitoring agencies has shown improvement in the water quality since 1985, when it was launched.

The Ganga River water quality has shown improvement over the pre-gap period water quality due to the schemes completed under Gap-I, the Ministry of Environment and Forests said citing reports of monitoring agencies.

The summer average values for dissolved oxygen and biochemical oxygen demand for 1986 and 2005 have shown significant improvement, it said.

BOD value is a test used to measure the concentration of biodegradable organic matter present in a sample of water.

The water quality of the river is being monitored at 27 locations from Rishikesh in Uttaranchal to Uluberia in West Bengal by institutions including Indian Toxicological Research Centre (Lucknow), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur), Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited.

In terms of BOD, the river water has shown significant improvement along urban centres in Rishikesh, Hardwar, and Varanasi.

However, though river water quality has improved to a great extent between Kannauj and Allahabad, the BOD level at these stations is higher than permissible limits.

Bureau Report  


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Tania Saili

Sunday, July 16, 2006 (Dehradun):

An increasing number of women in Uttaranchal are procuring licences to sell liquor in the region.

The number of such women liquor licensees is the highest in the hill districts of Chamoli, Almora and Pauri where anti-liquor campaigns have so far been spearheaded by women.

Official figures put the number of women liquor vendors in Uttaranchal at 116 while the number of male liquor vendors is at 330.

"There is no separate consideration as anyone can apply. It is based on the amount and the highest bid against the minimum fixed amount of a particular shop," said M Ramachandran, Chief Secretary, Uttaranchal.

In the capital Dehradun, of the 60 retail liquor outlets, 17 have been allotted to women.

For the women's organizations waging a battle against the consumption of liquor, this new reality has been terribly difficult to accept.

"Women who apply for liquor licenses should die of shame. They are a blotch on the society," said Sushila Baloni, President, Shailja Mahila Kalyan Ayevam Vikas Sangathan.

Uttaranchal may have not been able to elect enough women for the Vidhan Sabha or the Panchayats, but in this public service at least, women cannot complain of inadequate representation.

    http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?category=National&slug=Women+turn+liquor+barons+in+Uttaranchal&id=90235
      

Dehradun, July 9: Heavy rains lashed the city and several other parts
of Uttaranchal today inundating several low-lying areas and paralysing
normal life.

The rains, the heaviest this season, continued throughout the day in
the State capital recording 60 mm, Met director Anand Sharma said
adding several low-lying areas were inundated due to the non-stop
showers.

Rainwater gushed into several houses in some areas as all drains and
rivulets in the city started overflowing causing huge inconvenience to
residents, he said.

Power supply was also disrupted as several trees uprooted bringing
down electric poles due to heavy winds accompanying the rains.

Heavy rains lashed Uttarkashi, Chamoli and several other parts of
Garhwal region also bringing a sudden dip in temperatures with the
holy city of Hardwar recording 70 mm of rainfall.

Heavy rains were also reported in Nainital, Pithorargh, Pantnagar and
Mukteshwar area of Kumaon region.


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By HATTIE BROWN GARROW, The Virginian-Pilot


PORTSMOUTH - Ann Beck stood at the front of a brightly painted room
Saturday giving her yoga students their first instructions of the day.

"Let's start out with a mountain pose this morning," Beck said. "Let's
roll our shoulders back and down. Let's focus our breathing, inhaling
and exhaling."

click here
An hour later, the group of 12 had performed the "downward-facing
dog," "tree" and "warrior II," among a variety of other yoga poses. No
small feat considering that more than half the class was younger than
10, with the youngest being 4.

The Saturday morning yoga class for mothers and daughters is one of
several programs at Healthy Girls, a business based in the Churchland
section of Portsmouth that encourage girls to become physically
active.

Co-owners Beck, Erin Glace and Kathy Young, all of Chesapeake, have
developed programs with three purposes: to teach fitness, nutrition
and self-esteem. Their audience is all-female and mainly in elementary
and middle schools. Teen aerobics classes start in March.
Across the United States, businesses, nonprofit organizations and
schools are working to decrease the number of children who are
overweight.

More than 9 million, or about 16 percent, of all American children and
adolescents ages 6 to 19 are considered overweight, according to the
1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. That
percentage has tripled since 1980.

Overweight people have a higher risk of developing certain health
problems, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes and stroke.

Glace, a physical therapist, said she decided to start Healthy Girls
because she saw so many women experiencing preventable health
conditions. She figured that if girls learn how to exercise and watch
what they eat early on - gaining self confidence along the way - they
might make better decisions in the future.

The exercise programs incorporate elements of dance, Pilates , step
aerobics, yoga and other activities.

Exercise balls and Hula-Hoops are routinely used in the classes.

Usually about 12 girls participate in each of the classes, which are
held throughout the week. Afterward , participants gather in a circle
to learn about various nutrition topics, such as how to read food
labels.

Katelyn Squicciarini, 12, said she enjoys the club atmosphere of
Healthy Girls. Besides the exercise classes, Katelyn also has attended

Fun Fridays, a monthly gathering that includes games, movies and other
recreational activities.

She said she has made new friends and realized the importance of self-esteem.

"I learned that I felt better about myself than I thought," Katelyn said.

Participating in Healthy Girls activities has improved Kelsey
Keverline's posture, helped her develop a sense of pride and made her
savvy at deciphering nutritional information, said her mother Dr.
Sharon Keverline, an obstetrician/gynecologist.

The Keverlines are regulars at the mother/daughter yoga classes.

"Now I get to spend an hour with my daughter," Keverline said. "We
both get to do something that's physically challenging."

Reach Hattie Brown Garrow at (757) 222-5116 or hattie.brown@pilot online.com.
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Bad karma was over Fab Four's drug use, not moves on Mia Farrow
The Beatles join Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, centre, as they arrive by
train at Bangor, Wales, to participate in a weekend of meditation in
1967. From left to right are John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr
and George Harrison.

The spat between the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968 became
an instant pop legend as perhaps the most bitter bust-up in the era of
Free Love.

Now, after almost four decades of rumour and counter-rumour, a
confidant of both sides has gone public with revelations that could
upset many of the band's fans.

The spiritualist and author Deepak Chopra, a former maharishi disciple
and a friend of the late George Harrison, has said that contrary to
popular myth, the row was nothing to do with claims that the maharishi
made sexual advances on Mia Farrow, the actress and friend of the
band.

Instead, he said, the maharishi, known as the founder of
transcendental meditation, had objected to the group taking drugs at
his home in Rishikesh, northern India.

Chopra told the Telegraph: "What isn't generally known is that the
maharishi had got fed up with the Beatles taking drugs while they were
at his ashram (spiritual home). They were smoking ganja (cannabis) and
taking LSD. He hadn't come across anything like that before and he
took a strong view."

The group had gone to the ashram in search of spiritual enlightenment,
meditating during the day and writing songs in the evening.

According to reports, they consumed no alcohol or drugs when they
first arrived and kept to a strict vegetarian diet.

A few weeks into their much-publicized sojourn, however, relations
soured between the guru and the band's entourage.

In a subsequent television interview, John Lennon and Paul McCartney
said they had lost interest in the maharishi's teachings.

Chopra said of the rumour that the guru had misbehaved with Farrow,
who was part of the entourage: "There was never any truth to stories
about the maharishi's womanizing. When he was sick in the UK, he
wouldn't even allow any female nurses near him.

"As for the stuff about Mia Farrow, that was complete nonsense. I met
her years later and she asked me to tell the maharishi that she still
loved him," he said.

Chopra said Harrison later apologized to the maharishi during a visit
to his meditation centre at Vlodrop in Holland, where he now lives as
a recluse.

Nobody at the centre was available for comment.
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=797aa7fb-91d1-421a-af1f-465414034838&k=41435
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By David Orr in New Delhi
The spat between the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968 became an instant pop legend as perhaps the most bitter bust-up in the era of Free Love.

Now, after almost four decades of rumour and counter-rumour, a confidant of both sides has gone public with revelations that could upset many of the band's fans.

The spiritualist and author Deepak Chopra, a former maharishi disciple and a friend of the late George Harrison, has said that contrary to popular myth, the row was nothing to do with claims that the maharishi made sexual advances on Mia Farrow, the actress and friend of the band.

Instead, he said, the maharishi had objected to the group taking drugs at his home in Rishikesh, northern India. Dr Chopra told the Sunday Telegraph: "What isn't generally known is that the maharishi had got fed up with the Beatles taking drugs while they were at his ashram [spiritual home].

They were smoking ganja [cannabis] and taking LSD. He hadn't come across anything like that before and he took a strong view."

The group had gone to the ashram in search of spiritual enlightenment, meditating during the day and writing songs in the evening. According to reports, they consumed no alcohol or drugs when they first arrived and kept to a strict vegetarian diet.

A few weeks into their much-publicised sojourn, however, relations soured between the guru and the band's entourage. In a subsequent television interview, John Lennon and Paul McCartney said they had lost interest in the maharishi's teachings.

Dr Chopra said of the rumour that the guru had misbehaved with Farrow, who was part of the entourage: "There was never any truth to stories about the maharishi's womanising. When he was sick in the UK, he wouldn't even allow any female nurses near him.

"As for the stuff about Mia Farrow, that was complete nonsense. I met her years later and she asked me to tell the maharishi that she still loved him," he said.

Dr Chopra said Harrison later apologised to the maharishi during a visit to his meditation centre at Vlodrop in Holland where he now lives as a recluse. Nobody at the centre was available for comment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/19/wyogi19.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/19/ixworld.html
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"Terrorism and extremist mind-set can be cured by effective practice of yoga. I am aware of the fact that several terrorists come to the camps I organise across the country from time to time, in disguise and benefitted by my yoga lessons, they have returned to normal life."
These were the initial comments of yoga guru Baba Ramdev who landed in Ranchi this evening along with Jharkhand chief minister Mr Arjun Munda, who escorted him personally and has accepted him as a state guest. Baba Ramdev was interacting with media persons on his maiden visit to the state. He is scheduled to hold a week long camp in Ranchi from tomorrow. The Baba however, chose to remain silent on the controversy surounding him and his Patanjali Yogpith and the comments of CPI-M politburo member Mrs Brinda Karat. "A person who is a yogi and has truly learnt the art of yoga by heart, cannot just become a terrorist or an extremist. Anti-national feelings can be deleted from an individual's life by regularly practicing yoga", Baba Ramdev said. The Baba also had a note of advice for politicans. Reacting to a question on whether yoga can be effectively used in checking the rate of corruption in the political system, Baba Ramdev said: "I feel that before the daily session of Parliament in both Houses and during the session of state Assembly Houses, politicians should practice yoga for at least an hour. If that is introduced as a mandatory practice, I believe that the level of corruption would definitely scale down and the political process in country would be more transparent and less corrupt."
He also opined that all political as well as social forces in the country should unite in moving the country ahead.
Reacting sharply against multinational companies manufacturing soft drinks and fast food, Baba Ramdev termed junk food as poison and claimed that his campaign against junk food has virtually reduced the sale of soft drinks by 60 to 70 per cent. "I will never stop campaigning against these foreign agents selling poision to the people of our country," Baba Ramdev said.
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After launching new luxury bus service between New Delhi and Dehra
Dun, the Uttaranchal transport department today kicked off new
semi-delux bus service, connecting all the 13 district headquarters
with the state capital.

The new bus service was launched by Transport Minister Hira Singh Bist
from ISBT.

Last year, the "Volvo Devbhumi" service was launched between New Delhi
and Dehra Dun – one in the morning and another at night. "We believe
the new service would surely boost state tourism," Bisht said.

If the new service remained successful, the transport department would
launch similar bus services to other cities in the country. For this
purpose, the state transport department recently bought two Volvo
buses, with a cost of Rs 56 lakh each, Bisht added.

Another high-tech bus services was launched by the transport
department last year. The transport department is running nearly 40
high-tech buses in both Garhwal and Kumaon regions of the state to
different destinations like New Delhi and other major cities. The
total cost of each Ashok Leyland bus was around Rs 12 lakh, Bisht
said.

Meanwhile, efforts are to launch Volvo bus service from Nainital,
Hardwar and Rishikesh areas, which are major tourist and pilgrim
centers of the state.

"Through this experiment, we want to provide maximum comfort to
tourists visiting the state," Bisht added.

Already, the transport department has spent Rs 50 crore for
strengthening its bus fleet. The department has also opened two new
depots – one in Sringar (Garhwal) and one at Kashipur (Kumaon).

In addition, Chief Minister N D Tiwari has also provided Rs 23 crore
to the state transport department for modernisation programme.

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Tales of the Open Road by Ruskin Bond
Paperback
Penguin Books India
Price: Rs 200.00
Pages: 202
ISBN: 0-14-400072-5
 
'I have come to believe that the best kind of walk, or journey, is the one in which you have no particular destination when you set out.'

Ruskin Bond's travel writing is unlike what is found in most travelogues, because he will take you to the smaller, lesser-known corners of the country, acquaint you with the least-famous locals there, and describe the flora and fauna that others would have missed. And if the place is well known, Ruskin leaves the common tourist spots to find a small alley or shop where he finds colourful characters to engage in conversation.

Tales of the Open Road is a collection of Ruskin Bond's travel writing over fifty years. Here, you will encounter a tonga ride through the Shivaliks, a hidden waterfall near Rishikesh, walks along the myriad streets of Delhi (one of which used to be the richest in Asia), trips down the Grand Trunk Road, stopovers in little tea stalls in the hills around Mussoorie, and an excursion to the icy source of the Ganga at over ten thousand feet above sea level.

Enriched by rare photographs that Ruskin took during his travels, Tales of the Open Road is a celebration of small-town and rural India by its most engaging chronicler.
 
Here is an excerpt:

"Of  course, the best walks are to be enjoyed in the hills, preferably in the company of a quiet friend. Sometimes I would escape from Delhi and trek to the Pindari Glacier in Kumaon, or the hills beyond Landsdowne, or Deoban above Cakrata. I wasn't interested in climbing mountains - I preferred going around them: you saw more that way. At ever bend of the road in the mountains there is a fresh vista, a different landscape, interesting people, new birds, trees, flowers.

Some of these excursions could be quite comical. On one occasion, many years ago, a Bengali friend and I decided to walk from Mussoorie to Chamba (near Tehri), some thirty miles distant. This was before the road became motorable.

I knew we wouldn't find anything to eat along the way, so I slipped two tins of sardines into my haversack and we set off on our day-long walk. By noon we were both quite hungry, so we sat down in the shade of a whispering pine, and quenched our thirst from our water bottles. Then, with a flourish, I produced the sardine tins.

To my horror, I discovered I'd left the tin-opener behind. We did our best to open the tins with stones and even a horseshoe nail, but to no avail.

'Why couldn't you remind me to bring a tin-opener along?' I snapped at my companion. 'You're a Bengali, you're supposed to like fish.'

'Only fresh-water Hilsa,' he replied disdainfully. 'We don't go in for tinned stuff.'

In my frustration I flung both tins into a deep ravine, and for all I know they are still there, unless aliens from outer space have succeeded in opening them.

At Chamba we found a tea shop that sold some ancient, rock-hard buns, probably left behind by the roving Pandavas. We softened them up by soaking them in mugs of hot tea, and so satisfied our hunger to some extent.

Two days later, on our return to Dehra, the first thing I saw was the tin-opener on my desk."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1619497,00110004.htm
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Hubs for utilising EDUSAT in WB, Uttaranchal to function soon New Delhi: With bandwidth for networks allotted, hubs for taking advantage of the education satellite EDUSAT are set to start functioning in Haryana, Uttaranchal and West Bengal shortly.

Department of Educational Communication Unit (DECU) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said that the bandwidth for these networks would be operational by March 2006. The network for Orissa is under implementation, a statement issued by DECU Director B S Bhatia said.

Extended C-Band networks are also being established in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. While the Rajasthan hub is already installed, the Madhya Pradesh and Maharasthra hubs are ready for dispatch and decisions regarding location is awaited form the state governments.

"Some of the states are slow in responding and their implementation is delayed. The target of setting up hubs in all states has been substantially met and the delays, if any, are at the state levels,", the statement said reacting to the reports that the EDUSAT programme was a non-starter.

Already more than 2000 receive terminals and about one thousand interactive terminals are in the network and many more are added.

UDUSAT has one National beam and five regional beams. The national beam is utilised on a daily basis by CEC/UGC, IGNOU, CIET/NCERT and AICTE. One channel has been allocated to Vigyan Prasar. A school broadcast network for the Hindi regional with uplink at Jabalpur has also become operational.

A blind people's network is operational in Gujarat. With these users, the capacity of the National beam is fully utilised, the statement added.

http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=3639
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by Stephen Kreutze
When you practice yoga, it is, of course, not necessary to have a full understanding of yoga history in order to fully benefit from your practice. A brief understanding of the history behind yoga, however, may increase your spiritual practice and inspire you to find out more about the tradition behind the discipline.

The first writings about yoga were written in Sanskrit in early religious manuscripts in India called the Vedas. The word 'yoga' has many meanings. The root of the word is 'yug' which means 'to hitch up', referring to fastening horse bridles to a carriage. But yoga also means 'to actively put to use' or 'yoke' or 'join'. Today, it is agreed upon that yoga is a method of joining or a discipline. Men who practice yoga are called yogi or yogin and women who practice yoga are called yogini.

Yoga was first passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. It wasn't until about 2000 years ago when an Indian named Patanjali wrote 'The Yoga Sutra' that the philosophy of yoga was committed to paper. Yoga is not just about stretching and breathing and holding poses. Yoga is a philosophy on how to live life and deal with the challenges that human beings face daily. The Yoga Sutra defined this philosophy in 195 statements.

Sutra can be defined as 'thread' or 'aphorism', which means 'a short declaration of truth'. It also means 'the concentration of a large quantity of information into a simple definition'. It is a way of looking at truths that apply to everyone despite culture in the clearest way possible.

Hatha yoga, or the yoga that you do when you take a yoga class or perform yogic poses, was begun as a physical form of meditation. The physical act of yoga calms your body and allows your mind to become calm. It also gives you the physical strength to sustain long periods of meditation.

When you perform the physical practice of yoga, you are only engaging in half of the discipline as it has been practiced for thousands of years. Yoga is an incredible form of exercise and calming for the body, but it can also be used as a spiritual practice and a way to calm the mind and will as well.

Stephen Kreutzer is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides yoga tips on http://www.more-about-yoga.com .

This article represents the views and opinions of the author and not of www.dailyindia.com.

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/1237.php

Yoga and Pranayam for CRPF jawans      

Itanagar, Feb 05: To help CRPF jawans posted in Arunachal Pradesh get rid of their mental stress, the Paramilitary Force is holding a week-long Yoga course, a senior official said.

Some 300 CRPF jawans of the 170 battalion here are currently participating in a week-long Yoga course on stress managment, Sanjeeva Roy, Battalion Commandant said in a press release.

The training in Pranayam and Yoga has been organised with the help of an NGO 'Art of Living', Roy said.

Though Arunachal Pradesh is a peaceful state, three battalions of the CRPF have been inducted in the state recently for sensitive duties like guarding residences of VVIPs and civil secretariat, banks and other important establishments and maintenance of general law and order.

CRPF sources said that as there is no group centre for housing, the jawans are living away from their families. While performing their arduous duties, the jawans get bored and come under severe mental stress, they added.

Recently two jawans were shot dead by one of their colleagues at their mess here for serving cold food. The sources said officers had already taken up with the Arunachal Pradesh government the issue of land allotment for construction of group centres as available in other states.

Bureau Report

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=273511&ssid=204&sid=LIF

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LIU Xiang turns to yoga, targets world mark
China Daily - China
Chinese Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang is working hard to break the 110-meter
men's hurdle world record and thinks yoga can help. ...
< http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-01/27/content_516163.htm>

11 day Ahmedabad Utsav begins with Yoga camp
Gujarat Global.com - Ahmedabad,Gujarat,India
Swami Adhyatmanand started his yoga camp at the sprawling Sardar Patel
stadium in the morning. The yoga camp will be till February 2. ...
<http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.asp?id=675&cattype=NEWS >

FREE yoga classes Feb. 4
Village News Network - Fallbrook,CA,USA
Fallbrook Yoga Center is offering free yoga classes on February 4 at 1:30
and 3:30 pm The center is located at 121, 123 & 125 East Hawthorne St.
...
<http://www.thevillagenews.com/story.asp?story_ID=9013>

FINDING balance through yoga
Culpeper Star Exponent - Culpeper,VA,USA
... To the untrained eye, yoga - an Indian philosophy established some
5,000 years ago - seems like a series of stretches intended to foster
physical wellbeing. ...
< http://www.starexponent.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CSE/MGArticle/CSE_MGArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137833663827>

YOGA, Narang's new-found booster
Delhi Newsline - Delhi,India
Apart from his usual workouts, he has included a session of yoga each day,
with his meditation, to help him go through the strain of preparing for
the Three ...
<http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=167246 >

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