It will not be inaccurate to state that almost all of the multiplicity of International Institutions, Organisations and multilateral fund-agencies created to put in place a more just and fair new economic order have merely grown fat on the rhetoric they generate. Perhaps, the kindest thing and the greatest service the governing boards of these international bodies could render to mankind even at this late stage, is to trim and transform their fatty verbiage into solid flesh and come out with sound proposals that unlike globalisation would benefit the whole of humanity, not just a microscopic fraction of it. What the world sorely requires today, as much as our own country does, is not just the smooth talk of their avaricious and power hungry political leaders, but a stern and uncompromising change of heart for which, a call is being sounded by many lonely voices over many parts of the globe.

To redeem this crisis stricken world or, what may be left of it by the time the 21st century dawns, there must be in place a basic, fundamental and radical re-ordering of our values that put human-beings ahead of the ruthless and untamed market forces and the monetaristic policies of Milton Friedmann. It must be supplanted with a ferocious commitment to social and economic justice, democratic and egalitarian or, more pointedly, socialist values.

The economic models and capitalistic strategies so long followed that were imposed on the third world countries must be critically re-examined in ways and with a commitment these countries have never been committed before. What must not be forgotten is that the first world nations and all their aid and financial institutions never intended and therefore never planned to assist third world nations in the integral development of their countries, simply because, their own economic system and financial market networks are calculated and fine tune to keep them poor and make them even poorer in the manner of the George Soros’. Thus widening the North-South divide. That this is little realised by the third world political leaders who recklessly preside over the destines of their country men exacerbates the tragedy of their fate. The North-South divide created by the Industrialised countries, the largest and most dangerous phenomenon of this decade, can be no better stated in concise terms than by the following quote from the report of the south commission.

“Were all humanity a single nation-state, the present North-South divide would make it an unviable, semi-feudal entity split by internal conflict. Its small part is advanced, prosperous, powerful; its much bigger part is under developed, poor and powerless. A nation so divided within itself would be recognised as unstable. A world so divided should like wise be recognised as inherently unstable.”

If the North continues to jealously retain their privileges and defend them by waging high-tech powered wars wouldn’t they be responsible to history for “provoking explosive revolutions of despair”.... Pope Paul VI, on development day.

Economic problems
The economic problems of third world nations and their societies in the process of development and the interaction of the political factors introduced or created by the colonial governments (divide and rule policy or, carving off Africa using straight lines off a foot-ruler disregarding tribal boundaries etc.) that hindred the process of total human development were never reckoned with nor, was the rich diversity which marks developing countries included in the development equation. They appear to have forgotten than western civilisation is the youngest by far of all present cultures on the face of this planet. Barring a few who have learned, the majority have forgotten that their civilisation owes virtually it entire beginnings to the intellectual genius of what has now come to be called the third world. Thus, the two most important facts confronting all these countries are the need for stability and the complexity which political and social realities introduced into an already complicated process of trying to ensure a rapid but organic growth.

Had there been even a speck of sincerity and a perception uninfluenced by the strings that were attached to all aid and assistance programs, the very realisation of the magnitude of the complexity alone would have been an antidote to the somewhat simplistic thinking, often found in types of liberal circles, which tend to isolate one cause of under-development and give the impression that if governments campaigned against that with moral fervor, the development problem would be solved a la, the IMF and world Bank’s changing policy rafts and, more recently the structural adjustment recipe.

The mountains of conference and seminar reports which the UN system has piled up spending billions during the past decades did not surface the plain, simple, truth that there is absolutely no reason to suppose that the economic policies considered appropriate for advanced countries would prove to be equally appropriate for the developing countries. And, this does not apply only to laissez faire policies but equally to the planning policies very often forces down the “throats” of local development planners and planning bureaucracies by donor agencies by twisting their arms with the full support of the former’s ignorant and brainless political bosses.

Given the wide differences that existing among the third world countries themselves with respect to the degree of population pressure, the over-all size of the economy, the natural resource base, the level of efficiency in the administration, the coherence of the institutional frameworks, the authenticity of the democracy proclaimed to be in practice, the honesty and transparency of the politicians in power or, the degree of their connivance with the microscopic elitist groups bent on amassing illegal wealth, it was highly unlikely for any single standard model of economic development to be appropriate to all.

For nearly two decades and more the author and a few other leading scholars and practitioners in development (some are no more) criticised the dominant model and its application to third world countries both insides and outside parliament. For them, this economic model and all the other instruments and recipes pursued by governments since 1977 on the advaice of the IMF and World Bank would evade genuine development concerned with improving the living standards of the majoirity, not that of a microscopic minority. With a blinkered pre-occupation with merely increasing the GDP and treating one of the shibboleths of development, the neo-liberal model, as sacrosant, our country and many in the region have reached a sorry state, hardly extricable.

Thus, after more than 50 years of so-called development AID, Loans and grants, conditionalities etc. and a surfeit of western originated strategies, such as, trickle down, basic needs, bottom-up, poverty alleviation, poverty nets what is the net result? The net result is, that the industrialised world with 20% of the world’s population has a share of 78.3% (US$ 18 trillion) of the total global domestic product or wealth where as, the third world with 80% of the world’s population has only a share of 21.3% (US$ 5 trillion) of the total global domestic product. Further, South Asia is today by far the most deprived region of the world. With a population of 22% of humanity South Asia’s share of the global domestic product is a meagre 6%, and the regions’s share of the world’s total illiterate population is 46%, over twice as high as its share of the world’s population; and, last but not least is the fact that 50% of the world’s malnourished children live in South Asia where nearly 500 million people live in desperate deprivation.

Since the industrialised countries are mostly Christian by faith it is appropriate to quote some of the land mark social encyclicals of some of the modern Popes who vehementaly condemened “the scandal of glaring inequalities” and insisted that “the superfluous wealth of rich countries be placed at the service of poor nation”, as otherwise, “their continues greed will bring down the wrath of the poor”. In the Quadragesimo Anno, Pius XI had advanced two basic principles: “practical morality” must govern economic affairs, and the interests of an individual or a society must be subordinate to the common good. He explicitly rejected unregulated competition and the subjugation of any society to the interests of its wealthiest members.

Human dignity of workers
John XXIII went further, and declared unjust any society in which “the humman dignity of workers is compromised, or their sense of responsibility weakened, or their freedom of action is removed”. He also shared Pius XI’s conviction that wage earners should in someway share ownership, management, or profits. He also dealt with the exploitation of the Third World and in his Mater et Magistra, proclaimed the duty of wealthy industrialised nations to help less privileged countries, not only out of a sense of Christian charity or a desire to help the poor, but also because of a shared responsibility for the plight of their unfortunate neighbours. Paul VI, building upon the foundations laid by his predecessors — denounced those who make profit the key motive for economic progress and deplored the fact that “a type of capitalism has been the source of excessive suffering, injustices, and fractricidal conflicts”. And that “there are certainly situations where injustices cry to heaven”.

In ths scenario and the mind boggling predicament in which the third world people find themselves in, the winds of “promise” in the form of a hideous irony called globalisation blow like a whirlwind. Globalisation plainly is fraught with hitherto undreamt of consequences that will further polarise the rich from the poor within countries and between countries. It will undermine the less powerful in terms of loss of sovereignty, widen and concentrate arenas of marginalisation, increase poverty, catapult unemployment to unmanageable and dangerous levels, degrade the environment, destroy religions and cultures and expand violence and repression and give a new impetus to the growth of the military-industrial of western nations.

Understanding globalisation in the contemporary world and explaining the imminent dangers is the responsibility cast on all those concerned individuals and organisations that can perceive the core of this phenomenon. The fact is that globalisation is not only a complex process but is, more importantly, a paradigm and master plan for development with the developed or industrialised countries and their transnational corporations (TNCs) at its helm leading to the exclusion of people particularly, those who are economically, socially, and politically marginalised. It is spreading its tentacles rapidly, and seemingly successfully, without any under written guarantee from probable disaster with boomerang effects on the creator-countries.

Who will be the winners, the first world armed with world bodies in which they play the tune (UNO, World Bank, IMF, WTO etc.) or, the third world when the north already controls (1990 figures):

82.7% of the World Gross Product

81.2% of World Trade
94.6% of all commercial lending
80.6% of all domestic savings
80.5% of all domestic investment
94.0% of all Research and Development
The answer is obvious indeed.

“The plain fact is that we are a starving people, not deliberately in the sense that we want them to die, but wilfully in the sense that we prefer their death to our own inconvenience”.

Victor Gollancz, War on Want

It started in the same way: Jarmail Singh Bhindranwale and his cult of terrorism acquiring the dharma (moral edge). Religion was mixed with politics. The result was the killing of the innocent in thousands. Both the religious zealots and government troops even violated the sanctity of the Golden Temple.

Apparently, the lesson if learnt, has been lost on the people who are the exponents of Sikh faith. True, the challenge to the state is not yet there. But the Akal is once again embroiled in controversies that arouse passion and prejudice. They have little to do with the Sikh religion as such. Akal Takht chief Ranjit Singh, is going beyond the precincts that his office has delineated to him.

That the Akal Takht is the highest spiritual seat of Sikhs goes without saying. But what is pronounced from there has the authority demands a high sense of responsibility. The question that has to be raised is whether Ranjit Singh has felt the burden on his shoulders. Then he alone does not represent the seat. There are four others, including Thakt Keshgarh chief, Bhai Manjith Singh, and Thakt Damdama Sahib chief Bhai Kewal Singh. Together they constitute the Akal Takht and guide the Sikhs in religious matters and enforce moral discipline in the community.

Misuse
Ranjit Singh has stretched his authority to a point where he acts as if he is the sole spokesman. This may amount to misusing power. For example, his order to Sikhs all over the world to sit on the floor to eat langar (food) at gurdwaras. People in the West have been using tables and chairs for decades. Could he have not consulted them or built an opinion, which would have helped him implement his order?

Some people can still justify the order in the name of religious tradition. It is a moot point. But when Ranjit Singh indulges in obiter dicta that verges on politics, he goes beyond the calls of religion. His pronouncements may not have set the Beas on fire. Still one thing can lead to another. Bhindranwale carried arms even to the Akal Takht, something contrary to the maryadha (tradition). There are limits. The Akal Takht cannot be used to cross them. The rise and fall of militancy in Punjab testifies it.

Strange, Ranjit Singh was not irked by any danger posed to the Sikh religion but by the criticism against him in the Ajith, a Punjabi newspaper, which has a large following among the Sikhs. Its editor, Barjinder Singh, has earned his wrath because he ticked him off for poking his nose in the affairs that have nothing to do with Sikhism. Ranjit Singh has hit back repeatedly in public, although Barjinder Singh is the one who put all the pressure on the central government to remit Ranjit Singh’s sentence for murder. (Ranjit Singh has undergone a life sentence for having killed Nirankaris near Amritsar). Instead of being indebted to him, Ranjit Singh has chosen the editor as the target for his anger.

Credentials
This is bad enough but the Akal Takht chief has gone to the extent of doubting the credentials of Barjinder Singh as a Sikh. Calling someone comrade is not an abuse. But when it is done with the intent to run him down, it becomes one. The communists are generally referred to as comrades. What Ranjit Singh has tried to convey to the Sikh masses is that Barjinder Singh, being a comrade, does not believe in religion as the communists do. But he has been careful not to join issue with the communists.

Ranjit Singh goes still further. He arraigns Barjinder Singh on the charge that as a Sikh he has violated the sanctity of the Akal Takht by writing against its chief. The fact that he is a Sikh does not make him a lesser or subservient editor. In a country like India where the freedom of expression is enshrined in the constitution, Ranjit Singh’s threats are an assault on the press, on the right to say. In fact, if his reasoning is accepted, the maulvis will be censors for Muslim editors and the pandits for Hindu editors.

There is nothing novel about religious leaders wanting to lay down norms on how the people of their faith should behave. It is being done all the time from different pulpits. The reason why Ranjit Singh’s pronouncements are a cause for concern in Punjab is the long history of its sufferings at the hands of fundamentalists. When the Akal Takht chief challenges political leaders, journalists and others, he vitiates the atmosphere. Then some interested elements get into the act to introduce the virus of communalism. This has happened before. Most Akali agitations have ended up in creating bad blood between Hindus and Sikhs.

Tohra
Even the best of Ranjit Singh’s statements are not altruistic. There is a purpose behind them. He is an employee of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), which is headed by Gurcharan Singh Thora. He has appointed him. Thora is known for his opposition to Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal in and outside Akali politics. Even if it is not a shadow boxing between Tohra and Badal, it reflects an uneasy relationship between the two. Are the observations by Ranjit Singh without Tohra’s blessings?

The Akalis have suffered in the past because Tohra has not allowed them to keep religion separate from politics. It was he who allowed Bhindranwale to carry arms into the Akal Takht. At that time, Badal was a mute spectator and allowed the militants to reign supreme. And everyone knows how Punjab was hauled over the coals and crime for nearly a decade. True, Badal is liberal. He has tried in the past to drown religious appeals in the sea of Punjabi ethos. He has even talked in terms of a Punjabi political party. But when it comes to picking up the gauntlet, he is found wanting.

Badal
Badal does he not realise that it is his popular support that gives strength to the Akalis. They are in power in Punjab because of him, not Tohra. But it is a tragedy at even after so many years, Badal has not seen through the machinations of his opponents in the party. They are able to have their way. Instead of fighting religious forces and giving clean, purposeful administration, Badal gets involved in non-issues like Udhamsinghpur, in order to be on the right side of those who try to bring in religion in every matter. At least he should separate religion from politics. He has the people behind him to confront religious overlords. But he, because of his temperament or diffidence, has preferred to stand distant when the crunch has come. On this, in fact, hangs the story of Punjab.

The Sikh intelligentsia should have rallied behind Badal to give him confidence. They should have pressured him to tether the Sikh clergy and not allow it to meddle in the affairs that lie beyond the domain of religion. Apparently, they do not want to soil their hands. The drawing room politics comes natural to them. They dare not challenge the gurdwara politics. Come to think of it, the Muslim intelligentsia is no better. It is also at the mercy of mullahs. It too does not dare to raise its voice, lest it is denounced in the name of Islam. In fact, those who speak in the name of religion are getting stronger by the day. The intelligentsia avoids fighting them because of their fear that if they enter the muddy water, some splash is bound to spoil their clothes.

About the author E.C.T. Candappa was one of Sri Lanka's been feature writers in the mid-fifties till the seventies. He was an outstanding journalist at Lake House and distinguished himself as a reporter and feature writer. He is now domiciled in Australia but still very much interested in his country of origin. He visited Sri Lanka last year and interviewed many of the personalities featured in this book.

Continued from yesterday

The night had drawn a curtain over the evening’s capitulation and waking on the following morning found Ajantha perked up into his customary self in his pampered home: the customary ten-year old, bright-eyed, brassy self.

He complained about everything in sight and out of sight. The staff were tardy, the ward was too noisy, the linen was too dirty, the tea was too weak, his folk were too late.

But when they did arrive they made up in numbers for the loss in time. There were certainly more visitors for the brat than there were patients and staff inside the ward.

How they could all enter outside the normal visiting hour was an easily-explained mystery. While some visitors were permitted on the morning of a surgical operation, the extra numbers were accountable on the palm of one hand, that of the gatekeeper and the currency that had crossed it.

However, in a short while the matron cleared the place of all but his parents on the ground that if the surgeon saw them he would "see red."

Raj was amused punwards. Surgeons would see red anyway. This one would see red when he beheld the brat’s mother, resplendent in a garish saree with red being the dominant colour, the same colour turning her wide mouth into a ruddy gash. His father, however, was his aloof and dignified self, placid behind his rimless glasses, but this morning he looked tense.

He spoke barely a word or two with his son leaving all the talking to his wife.

Ajantha was unnaturally buoyant and even bloated with an anticipatory delight. Either this was a facade to cover his nervousness or more likely his perception that the experience would give him an edge over his peers at school. Raj winced at the choice of the word "edge."

At eight the ominous trolley moved in. In its train, Jinasena, the fiery union leader now exuding tranquillity with his placid presence trundling it, and on the flanks the matron, and the tall, dark nurse, aglow with zest on the slow fire of her warm, brown eyes.

From then, the brisk well-worn routine took over.

The nurse gave the lad an injection of pethidine but evidently so expertly that he did not seem to notice it.

Raj hoped she would be there when his turn came.

Ajantha was then transferred from the bed in two economic moves on to the trolley and left there until a call came from the theatre that he would be taken. Far from entering that pleasant pre-surgery languor and somnolently sliding silence Ajantha seemed to ascend a spiral of garrulousness. He was still talking when they bore him out.

Remarkably, his absence cast a gloom over the ward for, after all, he was only ten.

The patients who could make it to the dining room, the strip of screened-off verandah just outside – trooped out for breakfast. An overnight shower of rain had drawn the scent of the rich, damp earth and blossoms in the tended gardens outside.

The Indian bank clerk was among them, as was Mr Jayawardene, the hospital executive, the village headman and the schoolmaster. Mr Jayawardene beaming as usual with rumbustious well-being took the head of the table this time while the Indian sat on his left, the village headman wearing, among other things, his bemused smile on his right. Raj sat to the left of the Indian and was thus quite close to the comedy that shortly afterwards unfolded.

As was the custom patients smothered with gifts of food by fond relations brought some of it to the table, primarily for their own use, and, when they pleased, to offer it to the others. Some had jam, some butter (which was never served by the hospital at this level), or a pickle, or seeni sambol, an uniquely Sri Lankan accompaniment with red onions, tamarind, coconut milk and seasoning.

Marmite was a rare production although it was regarded as invalid food because few took it; and then it was an acquired taste.

Mr Jayasinghe had a large bottle of it which he placed before him while the others produced jam, and the village headman had a tall jar of the most exquisite treacle, rich, brown and viscous. The fare provided was bread with a beef curry and coconut sambol. The Indian, now washed and heavily powdered, his black straight hair sleeked down with oil, began to serve himself first.

The expression on his face was a library of feelings. His black eyes shone with an hidden amusement while a feeble smile turned the corners of his mouth. Yet there was an unmistakable distaste blended with puzzlement and patience on his countenance as well.

First, he reached out and took Mr Jayawardene’s marmite, and with a tea spoon scooped out a large dollop and spread it thick on the slice of bread.

Here’s sport, thought Raj, he won’t be able to take one bite for the bitterness.

Then he sprinkled some sugar over it before the mildly surprised Mr Jayawardene. Shock and horror were added when the Indian daubed jam over it.

"What about some treacle?" asked Mr Jayawardene with a straight face.

"No, no," said the Indian, "this is enough."

Then he took a bite and grimaced, but gamely swallowed the exotic morsel.

"This is terrible," he said, "but what’s to be done. They give all this for our own good."

"Not on your life," said Mr Jayawardene, looking rather severe, grabbing his marmite and moving it well away from the Indian. "This is mine. And if you don’t like it, don’t eat it."

"Why didn’t you tell me then?" he asked with disgust and some indignation.

"You didn’t ask," said Mr Jayawardene, sounding hurt.

The skies grew dark again with a hint of thunder in the air. A little after noon, Ajantha was wheeled in. He was covered up to his neck in a white sheet, with only his head visible, all animation drained from his face. The tousled hair was limp with sweat, and lifeless.

Raj sensed a surge of sympathy sweep across the ward. His flock of kin gathered round him but there was little that they nor all their wealth and influence could do for him at that time. The lad was still under the influence of the anaesthetic. He would have to come out of it in his own time. So having hovered over him gravely they left to return during the evening visiting hour.

When they did they brought with them a special attendant. Such a functionary is symbolic of the ineptitude of the hospital system, private or public.

The State hospitals employed a vast army of nurses and attendants. They were paid standard rates but these were comparatively low. The nurses had basic secondary education, underwent formal training in a nurses’ training school, and were an overwhelmingly disciplined lot. The smear of graft hardly if ever touched them. They were esteemed by patients and respected in the community.

The attendants were barely literate and mostly fit only for menial tasks; and in a large hospital they could be uncommonly menial.

They had to clear and wash bed pans, urinals (but not lavatories for which the lowest on the social scale, the scavenger was reserved), wash crockery (but not laundry for which the menial just over the scavenger, the dhoby, was reserved), fetch and carry for the nurses. These attendants were a predatory lot. They knew they were low, that they had no opportunity to rise because of their lack of education and tried to make as much extra money as possible through bribes and stolen hospital linen, equipment and drugs, and do the least amount of work.

They gambled regularly on the horses and spent a lot of public time in this private pursuit; beggars playing the sport of kings. They never hoped to make a fortune. They simply needed to exist merely as human beings.

A slightly better type of individual was employed by the private nursing homes. They were better paid, looked better, were treated better both by the private nursing home staff, and their patients who were mostly upper middle class, English-educated, more affluent. Some of these attendants were qualified nurses who could not find employment as nurses and took these jobs until better ones came along. The private hospital services in Colombo enjoyed a splendid reputation while the Roman Catholic nursing nuns staffed the administrative and nursing posts. They were renowned for their efficiency which grew from their utter dedication to service based on the Christian motivation. "Whatsoever you do unto the least of these my brethren, that you do unto me."

In a predominantly Buddhist country they were uniformly praised. Under the British, which gave the Catholics religious freedom given only to Protestants under the previous imperialists, the Dutch, the nuns were more than welcome.

But with the granting of Independence in 1949 and the consequent resurgence of nationalism, or more accurately bigotry, there was a move against everything Western, and specifically Christian; and after the accession of Bandaranaike to power, by pandering to the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists, there was a move to expel western missionaries. This cry was taken up by the female Buddhist Health Minister, Mrs Vimala Wijewardene, with more than a religious adherence to Buddhism. Her supposed abhorrence to Catholicism was so profound that she found even the formation of a cross by the closing of hospital gates objectionable and had them redesigned. She caused the nuns to get out of the hospitals, even the leprosaria where even the most devout Buddhist, religious or laity, demurred from serving. There was an immediate falling of standards, and for years many even devout Buddhists lamented the passing of the Catholic nuns. With the departure of the nuns, and the ascendancy of the Marxist-led and irresponsible trade union movement, discipline dwindled, authority was eroded, wild cat strikes and work stoppages were called whenever lawful discipline was enforced.

Attendants wanted nurses to be equated with them, to do their own work, and the "battle of the bed-pans" was a notorious and inglorious episode in the saga of Ceylon hospitals.

Every single day hundreds of special attendants were required to do the work that regular attendants did not do in a satisfactory manner. These special attendants were either retired ones or off- duty ones, which meant they did extra duty turns for extra, often very high, pay. Those who worked say, from seven in the morning to four in the evening, took on a special duty turn from seven in the evening until seven the following morning. Such attendants were never efficient because either they were too fatigued or too sleepy. Government employees could not work as special attendants within the government service.

While some contacted special attendants direct, and thus were able to get them a little cheaper, the fastest way of getting them was by asking the regular attendants. They got on the grapevine and swiftly obtained the services of one of their colleagues. This cost more as it included a commission which the special attendant paid to the contact. These special attendants did not come under the administration of the hospitals where they worked, and thus, no complaint could be lodged against them as they were "outsiders". They were as human as their brothers and sisters, but at least they did the basic thing they were required to do. They sat by the beds of the patients they were expected to serve.

Which did not mean they did not sleep.

Ajantha’s attendant was a dignified man in his fifties, spotlessly clad in white cloth shirt and coat. There was a grandfatherly comfort about him. He exuded gentleness and a rustic strength. But the man was tired before he came "on duty", and after he had inspired confidence in Ajantha’s family and friends while they remained during and lingered after the visiting hour; and after he had satisfied himself that his charge had everything he needed on hand, he placed a chair beside the bed and began to nod in great earnest. Of course, where there was a special attendant no regular attendant appeared.

When the lights had been switched off in the ward after nine, Raj walked over to the lad’s bed to see how he was getting on. He was restless. He kept turning from one side to the other, groaned and muttered, kept smacking his lips. Ah, the great thirst, thought Raj, who by now had observed this in the earlier operatees. He also wondered vaguely whether he would have difficulty passing urine.

He returned to his bed and sensed deep sleep take possession of the room. A symphony of snoring was being played. Raj was amazed by the variety of notes and rhythms contained in this literally timeless music.

When he saw Ajantha turn violently with the risk of unsettling his saline drip, he went over, and standing by his bed, caressed his head and steadied the saline tube.

Soon he heard the ponderous notes of midnight wheezing across the yard from the Medical College.

Sleep had quite deserted him while it lay heavily on the special attendant.

His presence meant that the institution was inefficient, that it could not provide the minimal service people expected when they were hospitalised, especially for surgery.

It was conceded that post-operative care could be a vital factor, that many patients had died owing to neglect in this area by nurses and attendants. Patients tore off the saline drip in delirium, the right medication was not given at the right time, some slipped into a coma unnoticed. Where vigilance was vital, slumber was substituted.

(c) E. C. T. Candappa

(Contd. tomorrow)