TIMES CITY

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD | JANUARY 18, 2015

IAS OFFICER NANDAS BOOK REVEALS DANG AS A

LAND OF HERBAL HEALERS AND NATURES MAGIC | 4

STATES STUNNING LOCATIONS AND SAFETY

RECORD DRAW BOLLYWOOD TO GUJARAT | 4

Adrenaline takes off at IAF show

Display Of Weaponry, Skills Enthrall
Amdavadis At GMDC Ground
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: They came, saw and

conquered aptly describes the awareness drive by the Indian Air Force
(IAF) at GMDC Ground on Saturday,
as the defenders of the skies enthralled spectators with their skills
and display of their weaponry. The
event, in two parts, was visited by
more than 10,000 people including
school children and aviation enthusiasts.
While the most applause was reserved for air warriors who displayed
impeccable timing during a synchronized weapons drill, the Garud Forces
who descended from an Mi-17 helicopter for a slithering operation also got

Guess the right Gandhi

and the result of lack of knowledge.
He further said that as Roys words carry weight with several good people, he
thought it necessary to point out the
flaws in her arguments against Gandhiji.

Pics: TOI

Big Brother plan

a resounding response. The static display had aircraft models, missiles and
other equipment used by the IAF, including ammunition.
Many visitors participated in activities such as parasailing and powered hang-gliding at the venue. Visitors also learned of the IAFs history
and roles it played in major wars
fought by Indian forces.
The primary aim was to make the
public aware about the multiple roles
IAF plays and provide information to
youth interested in donning the
wings. We are happy with the response and hope to engage in similar
activities in the future, an organizer
said. Many IAF personnel also visited
the event with their families.

Arun Gandhi

he central government plans to

T track the comings and goings of its

employees, so much so that it will

know when they have gone to pee, are
he statement, Lets be the change
we want to see, is widely attributed having an extended lunch or whiling
away time at a nearby tea stall when
to Mahatma Gandhi. Not only that, it is
commonly believed that this is the rea- they should be in office. After deciding
son why the statement was adopted as to make it compulsory for all central
government offices to have a biometric
the theme for the just-concluded Prasystem from January 26 for marking atvasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations. This
tendance, the Centre has decided to
years event marked 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's return from South Afri- keep track of the physical location of
ca. Now it turns out that the statement its employees. Sources said the government is planning to give mobile
was made not by the Mahatma but by
handsets embedded with a GPS syshis grandson, Arun Gandhi, who modtem to officials to keep tabs on
ified a Bapu quote for use in one
their movement. These
of his lectures. And this has
handsets will enable
been clarified by none else
the government to
but the grandson himself.
keep track of offiTwo days before the Pravacials and know
si Diwas celebrations in
whether they are
Gandhinagar, Arun
working or not.
Gandhi was in AhThe new mobile
medabad on a visit to
phones will be givSafai Vidyalaya at Saen to the employees after the biobarmati Ashram. He was surprised at
how the quote had become so popular. metric system for marking attendance
is implemented, said a source.
I had never imagined it would go this
viral, he said. The only reference that
one can find to the Be the change...
quote are in the interviews of Arun
Gandhi conducted by Carmella B'Hahn
hmedabad and Gandhinagar were
and Michel W Potts in early 2000. Arun
decked up for Pravasi Bharatiya DiGandhi had then modified a statement
vas celebrations and Vibrant Gujarat
by the Mahatma. Some city-based
Summit earlier this month. All roads
Gandhi scholars said that
the Ba- and highways leading to Mahatma
pu statement
Mandir in Gandhinagar were lit up with
that
colourful Chicomes
nese lights.
closest
Unfortuto the renately,
mark on
these lights
change and is
once again
also verifiable,
failed
is: If we could
to
change ourlive
selves,
up to
the
the
tendencies in the
world would also
claim
change. As a man
that
changes his own
they last
nature, so does the
longer. Half
Siddhartha
attitude of the world change towards
the Chinese lights installed on Ellishim.... We need not wait to see what
bridge, Subhash Bridge, Chimanbhai
others do. A Gandhian, who did not
Patel Bridge, Nehru Bridge and even
wanted to be quoted, said that what
Mahatma Mandir stopped working
Bapu wanted to say was that personal
much before the two high-profile
and social transformation go hand-inevents concluded. AMC workers had to
hand. But he did not suggest that that replace the lights thrice on Chimanbhai
personal transformation is enough.
Patel Bridge leading to Ramnagar. A
Complete change also involves a steamajority of them failed to last even 24
dy awareness that one person, alone,
hours! Soon, AMC had no option but to
cant change anything. Unjust authorreplace the Chinese lights by local
ity can be overthrown only by great
brands in most places.
numbers of people working together
with discipline and persistence, the
Gandhian said.

Chinese lights go phut

Carnival at which
neighbourhoods meet
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: Streets are where neighborhoods of cities meet since time immemorial. On Sundays at CG Road TOI-NGS
Happy streets is a movement to re-establish streets as a destination where civic life
flourishes. On Sunday, you too should witness this phenomenon.
Urban planners are taking note of this
experiment on CG Road, which clearly
hinges on the creative energy of the community to efficiently generate new uses
for placesthat are otherwise mundane
and lacklustre.
In the last three visits to Happy
Streets, I saw how finally the use of a street
was gaining more importance over street
design and capital-intensive construction.
This can be a big lesson for Ahmedabad act with people to know what they enviMunicipal Corporation (AMC) town de- sion for the city. A survey can be conducted
velopment officers. All that Happy Streets on one such Sunday.
Chirag Shah, a senior health official
shows is that planners should concentrate
with AMC says, The
on comfortable spaces for
other day, we had a
people to enjoy and with it
kiosk
at
Happy
a revenue model necesStreets where we had
sary for maintenance and
displayed,
various
management can also be
types of mosquitoes
suggested, says Dhiren
those that cause
Shah, an urban planner
malaria, dengue and
from Vadodara, who visJan 18 | 6am to 9.30am | CG Road:
chikunguniya. There
its Ahmedabad on weekStadium Crossroads to Panchvati
were many who did
ends.
SHARE YOUR BEST
not know which type
A senior AMC official
HAPPY STREET
of mosquitoes causes
of the town planning deSELFIES AT
which disease. Many
partment adds, Happy
The Times of India
9099091127
people also brought
Streets provides a creAhmedabad
along children to unative platform to build
derstand this. The onmomentum in a community. There is so much local talent that ly way we can fight malaria and dengue is
turns up at such events. Every Sunday through awareness, and Happy Streets
morning we get a surprise. We are plan- provided us a platform to interact with the
ning to capitalize on this event and inter- public.

Washingtons accountant and muse

Bharat Yagnik & Parth Shastri

TNN

Ahmedabad: Natwar Gandhi, 72, is one of

the most prominent Indian-Americans in
the public sphere. He was chief financial
officer (CFO) of the federal district, Washington, DC, for 14 years and is remembered
as the turnaround man who improved the
financial health and credit ratings of the
district. Last year, he followed his heart
and left the job to be with his love, Panna
Naik, a renowned Gujarati litterateur, and
start a new innings in literature and policymaking.
A Distinguished Policy Fellow at Georgetown University and consultant with
World Bank for sustainable cities, Gandhi
was one of the speakers on Smart Cities
at Vibrant Gujarat.
By building world-class infrastructure particularly roads and other means
of transport the Chinese pushed nearly
four-hundred million people out of villages and into urban areas, and then employed them primarily in the manufacturing
sector. It is now Indias turn to emphasize
urbanization through smart cities, says
Gandhi.
He says that today, information superhighways work as
modern
roads,
connecting lives.
We have to take
advantage of technology to design
and build new urban centres and retrofit old cities. We also have to take into consideration basic needs such as sanitation,
public education and social infrastructure, adds Gandhi.
Panna Naik, 80, says that apart from the
drab figures, Gandhi writes sonnets in
Gujarati with equal discipline. Naik is one
of the best known Gujarati litterateurs on
US soil. She has also taught Gujarati at a
US varsity over three decades. Her earlier
poetry is collected in her best known book
Videshini addressing the issues of the

TOI

Natwar Gandhi, former CFO of Washington DC,

with wife Panna Nayak

diaspora.
Literature should be reflective of the
environs. What is the point of writing the
same stuff that one could write sitting in
say a town in Gujarat? she asks. Apart
from the feelings of an immigrant, she has
reflected on the feelings of a woman.
I have found that womens issues are
universal. For an Indian woman on foreign
soil, the issues they face back home are
multiplied. On one hand they experience
freedom outside home and at work, whereas back home they are expected to play the
same
role.
Even
American women, at
the core, share similar experiences as
Indian women, she
says.
She says technology has helped reach
the diaspora in a way not possible earlier.
Her blog has attracted visitors from across
the globe, wherever Gujaratis live. She is
not very hopeful about the future of Gujarati as a language among Gujarati kids
abroad. Assimilation is one of the painful
parts of a melting pot society like America. The first and second generation kept
the language, and by extension the culture,
alive. But our kids are more mainstream
and only share an emotional connect with
their forefathers homeland, she says.

Attacks on Bapu
powered by ignorance
uring a talk with students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, Rajmohan Gandhi (also a Mahatma Gandhi grandson) described
Arundhati Roys book, The Doctor and
the Saint, as full of serious omissions
and flaws. (The book is on Gandhiji
and Babasaheb Ambedkar.) Rajmohan
Gandhi, a former governor of West
Bengal, said Roys attacks on the Mahatma in her book were unreasonable

Guerrilla tactics at
Vibrant Summit

fter the poster blitz and guerilla

A marketing tactics for the UP Ris-

ing campaign during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, senior Uttar Pradesh IAS
officers and two politicians of the
northern state were seen asking Gujarat officials for a place in the Vibrant
Gujarat Summit. After failing to make it
to the summit, the UP politicians were
seen calling up journalists and asking
them to interview them about the summit and how Prime Minister Narendra
Modi was being unjust to Uttar Pradesh!

1936 movie ticket sold

Karodpati dream
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: January 18 is
legendary singer and actor K
LSaigals 68th death anniversary. City-based cartoonist
Tushar Tapodhan has a relic
attached to the superstar.
My father, Narayan Tapodhan was a movie buff
and collected a film paraphernalia. In his collection
is a ticket for Saigals movie Tushar Tapodhan with a ticket to
Karodpati which released the K L Saigal movie
in 1936, the same year in
which his first super-hit and nomination with a caption
most famous film Devdas If you want to become kawas released. The New Thea- rodpati, come to Krishna
ters Company had printed Cinema to meet Saigal. The
special tickets for the occa- movie, also starring Sanyal
sion, in the form of a fake and Rajkumari, was a hit,
currency note a Rs 1 crore de- he says.

Make a will early, say experts

Ahmedabad: One is never
too young to make his or her
own will. Everybody who
has property or assets should
make will at the earliest,
opined experts at a seminar
on How to make a will held
in the city on Saturday.
K H Kaji, a senior lawyer
and an expert on the subject
said that there was considerable confusion even among
educated persons on why to
make a will. Every person
who has assets and property
and a family should make a
will whether young or old. It
is incorrect to believe that

one should make a will only

when he or she is old , Kaji
told the gathering. The seminar was organized by Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO), Ahmedabad
chapter. Make will as early
as possible. It is a simple document that does not require
knowledge or use of any kind
of legal language. By making
awill one can avoid all kind of
issues related to inheritance
of properties, assets and unwanted dispute between the
family members, said Dhiresh Shah a tax advocated
and expert on wills. TNN