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Endless war
The article “Inside a living Hell” by Aunohita Mojumdar (July 20) illustrates well how the war on terror has dragged the future generation of Afghans to the bomb-exploding streets. It only leads to the seeds of terrorism being inscribed again in those young minds sub-consciously. The US has destroyed the destiny of millions of Afghans.
Ponraja Singh
Email
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The article brought out well how the Afghan people and foreign nationals are living in fear and can not even move about as they can not predict when a terrorist strike or kidnapping would take place. It is the duty of the Afghan government and the foreign peace keeping forces to ensure the safety of Afghan nationals as well as the foreign employees who are engaged in the restructuring of Afghanistan. The Indian government should also ensure the protection of the life and property of our nationals there.
V.K. Kumar
Thiruvananthapuram
Problem of plenty
“Who is to decide what credentials are acceptable for media ownership?” is a pertinent question asked by Sevanti Ninan in “Cost of visibility” (July 20). But the question has already been settled in the Supreme Court Judgement on Air Waves. Justice Jeevan Reddy in his judgement in February 1994, has clearly spelt out that the Air Waves belong to the public and hence there cannot be any restriction in the ownership of the media. However, the judgement says that the Government has to set up a public authority to regulate the right to have an access to telecasting. This “Public Authority” has not been set up so far and hence the problem of plenty, clamouring for space in the Transponder platform! B.R. Kumar
Former Deputy Director-General, Akashvani & Doordarshan,
Prasar Bharati, South Zone
Chennai
Shocking
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Alex George’s “Hi-tech deluge” (July 20) came as a rude shock in its revelation of how regressive our education system can get, to do away with the entire Humanities stream at the plus two levels in Andhra. How could the State allow this to happen? How can you deny students the basic freedom to choose what they want to study?
It might not make a difference to the sheep mentality of the majority of the students who are undecided about their aptitude or interest and follow their parents’ dictates to flock to the sciences (Who goes for the sake of Pure Sciences anyway? It’s just a ticket to an engineering or other degree!). But there is a minority who choose to study the arts!
Proper guidance and counselling to students to help them choose subjects of their inclination would go a long way in curbing a one-sided trend. Parents should be blamed for compelling children to pursue the parents’ dreams and not chase their own. They need to have faith in their children’s abilities to carve their own niche if given the freedom to make their choices. Above all, students must wake up to their individual aptitudes and not get bullied into parental or peer pressure.
This way, we will have less of frustrated, bored or incompetent engineers who are square pegs in a round hole!
Usha Shetty,
Bangalore
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With reference to Alex George’s article, it is extremely disheartening to note that the policy makers and administrators in Andhra Pradesh have done away with the Humanities stream at the Plus Two level. It is a very unhealthy move. The fact that there are not many takers for humanities courses in AP is not a sufficient or reasonable justification for not offering the so called Arts. This trend is seen in many other States as well. As the author has rightly pointed out, the two main factors are parental pressure and students’ tendency to flow with the current. I strongly feel that there is a need for concerted efforts on the part of NGOs and civil society organisations to network and involve in advocacy and lobbying with the government to ensure the protection of child rights.
Dr. P. Ilango
Professor, Department of Social Work, School of Social Sciences,
Bharathidasan University,
Tiruchirappalli
Pure magic
With reference to Jerry Pinto’s “Helen magic” (July 20), being a big fan of Helen, I was excited to learn that a book has been written on her. Helen and her dances were pure magic. Helen’s jigs were totally devoid of vulgarity and appealed to any viewer with an aesthetic sense. She was one of the few stars who daringly assaulted our conventional morality and with remarkable panache. Jerry Pinto is right in saying that she actually transcended a lot of rubbish that was thrown at her. Sadly, the likes of Helen are not seen in modern cinema which bows with extreme devotion at the altars of mediocrity, obscenity and commercialism.
T.S. Pattabhi Raman,
Coimbatore
Vague and verbose?
Regarding Ramachandra Guha’s “Four views on Hindus and Muslims” (July 20), The first two views are clear, categorical and down to earth; the third amorphous and the last vague and verbose. Will the historian care to clarify why he simply toes the fourth view instead of an incisive comparative analysis of all the four?
D. Natesan
Chennai
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