gory massacre @ Jallianwala Bagh - some history behind .. ..

Often Indian freedom struggle gets described in one pithy statement  - Gandhi got us freedom without shedding blood !  ~ how much away from truth, and why the sacrifices and blood of martyrs was so deliberately buried under ? – how can the Nation forget the bloodshed on that day in Apr 1919 ??- People have died on battlefields, not on meeting platforms !

Amritsar historically  known as Rāmdāspur is in the Majha region of the Punjab.  The Bhagwan Valmiki Tirath Sthal situated at Amritsar is believed to be the Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. This was also the place of Ramtirth ashram where Lava & Kusha were born.  There is also a tree here that marks the place where the ritual horse from Ashvamedha Yagna of Lord Rama was captured by Lava Kusha. Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh guru is credited with founding the holy city of Amritsar in the Sikh tradition.  The town grew to become the city of Amritsar, and the pool area grew into a temple complex after his son built the gurdwara Harmandir Sahib, and installed the scripture of Sikhism inside the new temple in 1604.

Do you follow Politics and Indian Elections – the Amritsar East Assembly Constituency for Punjab Legislative Assembly was won by Cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu in 2017 representing Congress, the same seat was earlier held by Mrs   Navjot Kaur Sidhu,  representing Bharatiya Janata Party.  Amritsar North Assembly Constituency is now held by  Sunil Dutti, Indian National Congress.  In 1952 elections – Amritsar City North had an electorate of 50136 but polled votes were only 38.75% - Satya Pal of INC secured 11129 votes defeating Joginder Singh who got 4043 votes. Why are we reading this ?

Sadly, Amritsar is also the place when on 13^th April 1919 hundreds of innocents were massacred by the British – the  Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killings of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of Reginald Edward Harry Dyer.  No event within living memory, can ever make so deep and painful an impression on the Indian subjects than the history or the very thought of massacre of innocents at Amritsar.  The ruthless execution has no parallels and this Nation suffered economically more severely from the World war despite no direct participation.   It was the cruel General Dyer who had earlier written  a spirited account of his campaign against some nomad tribes on the frontier of South- East Persia and Baluchistan in 1916.

The gory massacre was to occur and make Baisakhi day April 13, 1919, a tragic day on that day, local residents in Amritsar decided to hold a meeting  to discuss and protest against the confinement of Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two leaders fighting for Independence (did we ever read about them in our school books ?). People were also protesting implementation of the Rowlatt Act, which armed the British government with powers to detain any person without trial. It was no violent crowd – it had a mix of men, women and children,  gathered in a park called the JallianwalaBagh, walled on all sides having  a few small gates.  It was to be a peaceful meeting of peasants and people and included pilgrims visiting the famous Golden temple.

For one man it was not a peaceful assembly - Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer entertained to self,  thoughts of  a major insurrection and thus he banned all meetings. On hearing that thousands had gathered in the park,  Dyer went with fifty riflemen to a raised bank and ordered them to shoot at the crowd. Dyer continued the firing for about ten minutes, till the ammunition supply was almost exhausted; Dyer stated that 1,650 rounds had been fired, a number which seems to have been derived by counting empty cartridge cases picked up by the troops. Dyer was removed from duty and forced to retire. He became a celebrated hero in Britain among people with connections to the British Raj. 

For those of us with little knowledge of history – the names are confusing -   there were two of them.  Michael O'Dwyer, the British Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab who approved the action and Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer who executed the mindless massacre.

As India remembers 1,500 people who laid down their lives 101 years ago at Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab on Baisakhi day, the pages of history have somehow missed an important chapter on why the gathering were organised in the first place.  They  gathering was to protest against the arrest of two tall political leaders of Punjab - Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal.  They had not only shaken the foundation of the British colonial rule in India but amplified the threat by strengthening the Hindu-Muslim bonhomie. It was in 1919 that India had emerged strongly in response to repeated attempts by the Britishers to divide and rule the country particularly on the basis of religion.

As we read about Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the latter writing letter to his daughter from prison and more – more freedom fighters were obliterated by the tricky historians who painted the version of their choice.

Satyapal (885)  was a physician and political leader in Punjab, British India, who was arrested along with Saifuddin Kitchlew in Apr 1919 few days before the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.  Satyapal was educated at Cambridge when he was known to Nehru.  In 1915, during First WW he received a temporary King's Commission as a lieutenant in the Indian Medical Service, serving with distinction.  Sooner he was to exit in 1916 and spearheaded the  movement of non-cooperation against the British rule.  He was married and was having a successful practice in the old part of the city of Amritsar.

On the orders of  Governof of Punjab, Michael O’Dwyer the CID had kept close surveillance on Kitchlew and Satypal from mid-March 1919. Again, following the orders of O'Dwyer, they were summoned to Miles Irving, the Deputy Commissioner's house in the Civil Lines  and were ordered to leave Amritsar and were taken away under military escort.  As the news of the arrest spread, supporters began to gather near Irving's home and what initially appeared a peaceful attempt to make enquiries ended up in a violent clash.  On 13 April 1919, protesting over the arrest, a meeting was called to take place at Jallianwala Bagh.

Thus both of them were not at the scene of Jallianwala Bagh at the time of massacre of innocents – months later in June 1919, at the trial of the 'Amritsar conspiracy case at Lahore', Satyapal was convicted with 14 others and sentenced to two years imprisonment.

PS :  1) Sir Sidney Arthur Taylor Rowlatt, KCSI was an English lawyer and judge, best remembered for his controversial presidency of the Rowlatt Committee, a sedition committee appointed in 1918 by the British Indian Government to evaluate the links between political terrorism in India, especially Bengal and the Punjab, and the German government and the Bolsheviks in Russia. The committee gave rise to the Rowlatt Act, an extension of the Defence of India Act 1915

2) the mindless butcher of Amritsar, General Dyer was removed from command and exiled to Britain not with fine but  with a gift of 26,000 pounds,  a huge sum in those days. He died in 1927 after suffering a series of heart strokes.  The gift that he got - of £26,000 sterling, emerged from a fund set up on his behalf by the Morning Post, a conservative, pro-imperialist newspaper, which later merged with the Daily Telegraph.

3)  Sir Michael Francis O'Dwyer GCIE KCSI was Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab in India from 1912 until 1919. O'Dwyer endorsed General Reginald Dyer's action regarding the Amritsar massacre and termed it a "correct action". In 1940, aged 75, he was assassinated by Udham Singh.  At the entrance of Jallianwala massacre memorial is a statue of Udham Singh.

4)  the men whose arrest sparked that violence – Satyapal, rejoined Indian Medical Service following outbreak of Second World War.    After Indian independence,  he contested Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections in  1952  at Amritsar City North constituency and won comfortably.

5) the other person - Kitchlew belonged to a upper class Kashmiri business family that migrated to Punjab in the 19th century. He had opted to attain his post doctoral degree and was believed to be close to Jawaharlal Nehru. After being released from the prison, Kitchlew stayed attached to his roots in India had to shift to Delhi during partition and faded away.

On 15^th Aug 1947 India obtained freedom without shedding blood – Gandhi was hailed as Father of the Nation and the leader of Indian National Congress Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India – and we have read lot of history in our schools and colleges.

Jai Hind

With regards to all those martyrs whose sacrifices have given us this freedom.

-      S. Sampathkumar.

-      14^th Apr 2020.

what connects famous Cognac to home grown Veldt grapes ?

Cognac is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing regions.  Over the centuries,  Cognac has been almost universally recognised as the finest of all the spirits that are distilled from grapes. It has many incomparable qualities: fruitiness, subtlety of bouquet, intensity, warmth and, above all, the complexity of the many thousands of styles and flavours.  At least 90% of the brandy must be comprised of those grapes, while an additional 10% can be made of other kinds, such as Semillon, Folignan, & more..  Grapes ! ~ do you like them most?

A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten fresh as table grapes or they can be used for making wine, jam, grape juice, jelly, grape seed extract, raisins, vinegar, and grape seed oil.  Ever heard of ‘veldt-grapes’ ?

An old book on recipe for making appalams read : mix the cumin seeds with the flour, pour in the asafoetida water and the salted pirandai water ! ~ if you are wondering curious what ?  for – veldt-grape – it is pirandai !!

நமது இல்லங்களில் பத்திய சாப்பாட்டிலும், இதர சில சமயங்களிலும் 'பிரண்டை' துவையலை பயன்படுத்துவது உண்டு.   பிரண்டைத் தண்டுகளின் மேல் தோலை அகற்ற்றி, அதில் உள்ள நாரையும் அகற்றிவிட்டு சிறு துண்டுகளாக நறுக்கி நல்லெண்ணெய் அல்லது நெய்யில் வதக்க வேண்டும். அதனுடன் காய்ந்த மிளகாய், புளி, உப்பு சேர்த்து அரைக்க வேண்டும். சுவைக்காக தேங்காய், உளுந்து சேர்த்துக்கொள்ளலாம். பிறகு, கடுகு, உளுந்தம்பருப்பு தாளித்த துவையலை சாதத்துடன் பிசைந்து சாப்பிடலாம்.

பிரண்டை கொடி வகை தாவரம்.  இதற்கு பல மருத்துவ குணங்கள் உண்டு.  பிரண்டை - உடல் சுறுசுறுப்பை அதிகரிக்கச் செய்யும்; ஞாபகசக்தியை பெருக்கும்; மூளை நரம்புகளை பலப்படுத்தும்; எலும்புகளுக்கு சக்தி தரும். ஈறுகளில் ஏற்படும் ரத்தக்கசிவை நிறுத்துவதுடன் வாய்வுப் பிடிப்பைப் போக்கும்.   இதற்கு, `வஜ்ஜிரவல்லி’ என்ற பெயரும் உண்டு. `Cissus quadrangularis’ என்ற தாவரவியல் பெயர்கொண்ட இது, கொடி வகையைச் சேர்ந்தது.

Maharashtra’s grape growers are in a tight spot with the export of about 35,000 tons stuck due to the coronavirus spread.   The maximum number of grape consignments are exported to  Netherlands,  followed by the UK  and Germany.  Due to Covid related issues, it is reported that almost  30 per cent of the grapes are still in the fields. Lockdowns and depleting demand for grapes abroad is  a cause for concern for farmers. The demand in supermarkets in the UK and Germany has gone down drastically, according to exporters.

In France, Cognac makers are considering overturning longstanding tradition and turning to new grape varieties, as the main cultivar required to make the spirit struggles with the effects of global warming. Cognac’s star grape, Ugni blanc, which accounts for 98% of the vines in the Cognac region, is ripening quicker and losing acidity as summers become hotter and drier. The rules that govern the French brandy are among the strictest in the drinks world, and are subject to controlled appellation of origin (AOC) specifications. Each stage of the spirit’s production, including the types of grapes that can be used, is outlined in its AOC.

This is no post on    Brandy, Spirit, distillation, Cognac  or even grapes – it is on veldt-grape !

The Vitaceae are a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants including the grapevine and Virginia creeper. The family name is derived from the genus Vitis.  Though by looks it is totally unrelated cousin, ‘Cissus quadrangularis’ (பிரண்டை)  is a perennial plant of the grape family. It is commonly known as veldt grape, devil's backbone, adamant creeper, asthisamharaka, hadjod and pirandai.  The species is native to tropical Asia, Arabia and much of Africa.

Cissus quadrangularis has been used as a medicinal plant since antiquity.  Cissus has been used in various Ayurvedic classical medicines to heal broken bones and injured ligaments and tendons. In siddha medicine it is considered a tonic and analgesic. The Assamese people and the Garo tribe of Meghalaya and Bangladesh use them for bone fracture.

I never knew that Pirandai too blooms ~ and here are some photos of the pirandai plant in our terrace.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

27.3.2020

Pictures of pirandai plant – wife’s terrace garden !!

AI helping predicting horse race and ... AI race - Aintree !

Less than a decade after breaking the Nazi encryption machine Enigma and helping the Allied Forces win World War II, mathematician Alan Turing changed history a second time with a simple question: "Can machines think?"

As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across the world, governments and hospitals are being overwhelmed with an influx of patients. Under such circumstances, one of the key challenges they must address is managing their resources and developing care and hospitalization strategies that can prioritize the riskiest patients. This is one area where artificial intelligence can help, experts at Jvion believe. The company, which specializes in clinical AI, is undertaking a data analysis project that will inform COVID-19 readiness strategies and help hospitals take a proactive approach to manage patient populations in the inpatient and outpatient settings.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is wide-ranging branch of computer science concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. But even in a recent oratorical competition on AI, most students related AI to Chitti, the robot in Enthiran and how things could go wrong, if machines were to think and act on their own !!

The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse, near Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap steeplechase over an official distance of about 4 miles and 2½ furlongs, with horses jumping 30 fences over two laps. It is the most valuable jump race in Europe, with a prize fund of £1 million in 2017. An event that is prominent in British culture, the race is popular amongst many people who do not normally watch or bet on horse racing at other times of the year. The most recent running of the race, in 2019, was won by Tiger Roll ridden by jockey Davy Russell for trainer Gordon Elliott.

The next Grand National meeting will take place in 2021 following its cancellation in 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic making it the first such cancellation since the end of the Second World War... .. will it be run in 2020 is the Q ! confused !! 

Have you ever ventured into a Race course – it is not simply madhouse, it is scientific dissection of predicting results.  Gamblers know that odds are heavily stacked.  It is not the best horse that wins always nor the best jockey – then how to spot the dark horse ?   There are too many variables and too many possible outcomes. Front-runners break a leg. Jockeys fall. Champion thoroughbreds decide, for no apparent reason, that they’re simply not in the mood. It could boil down to  “animated roulette.” Play for long enough, and failure isn’t just likely but inevitable—so the wisdom goes.  Yet it thrills !!

The US election result came as a surprise to many – the President-elect included – but not MogIA. The predictive artificial intelligence system out-figured most professional pollsters, calling Donald Trump’s electoral success. A rival system called UNU picked Hillary Clinton to win the popular vote, which she duly did, and it correctly predicted another notoriously difficult to call American race, the Kentucky Derby. Both systems  were scientific, systematic and analysed its results by listening to people. MogIA scans public social networks, while UNU surveys respondents, taking that human opinion and “amplifying” it into a system called “swarm intelligence”.  There similarly is AI Race Predictor which can give the probability of winning for every single horse in a race.  Which horse you choose to bet is your choice and could be influenced by odds offered by bookies.

So on a given day at the Indian Derby – it could % of probability of winning for Chaitanya Chakram @ 47%; Squanderer 37%; Vibrant Approach 13, Elusive Pimpernel 22%; Golden Glade 27% Budha Smile 41% - one need not place bet on Chaitanya Chakram which could have a decimal odd but Golden Glade offered 8-1 – one could be inclined to bet on the latter.

Horse racing is something like a religion in Hong Kong, whose citizens bet more than anyone else on Earth. Their cathedral is Happy Valley Racecourse, whose grassy oval track and floodlit stands are ringed at night by one of the sport’s grandest views: neon skyscrapers and neat stacks of high-rises, a constellation of illuminated windows, and beyond them, lush hills silhouetted in darkness. On the evening of Nov. 6, 2001, all of Hong Kong was talking about the biggest jackpot the city had ever seen: at least HK$100 million (then about $13 million) for the winner of a single bet called the Triple Trio. The wager is a little like a trifecta of trifectas; it requires players to predict the top three horses, in any order, in three different heats. More than 10 million combinations are possible. When no one picks correctly, the prize money rolls over to the next set of races. That balmy November night, the pot had gone unclaimed six times over. About a million people placed a bet—equivalent to 1 in 7 city residents.

Now read this interesting article in MailOnline – with the 2020 Grand National at Aintree understandably cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Virtual Grand National takes its place. Usually an appetiser before the main event, the virtual version of the world-famous steeplechase takes centre stage on Saturday.

Running for three years now the Virtual Grand National uses special technology to create a virtual form of the Aintree showpiece. As Aintree lies deserted, millions are set to tune in for the Virtual Grand National on Saturday.  The Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) revealed on Wednesday that betting companies will donate their profits from the Virtual Grand National to the NHS Charities Group to help in the fight against Covid-19.

Like other virtual racing, which happens all the time, the Virtual Grand National, deploys computer generated imagery (CGI) technology and algorithms to create a simulated version of the race. The technology takes on board form of the runners as well as their going preferences to produce a result.  The Virtual Grand National features 40 runners and the 30 fences, including The Chair and Becher's Brook, that make Aintree's race so special. Cause of Causes won the Virtual Grand National before finishing second in the real thing in 2017, Tiger Roll was victorious in both a year later and Rathvinden was first past the post in the Virtual Grand National and finished third at Aintree in 2019. 

The Virtual Grand National is pre-recorded and will be shown on ITV on Saturday at 5pm.  The TV special will feature the 40 horses and riders who were most likely to run in the Aintree spectacular on Saturday evening and will try to answer the key question in racing. The Gordon-Elliott trained Tiger Roll heads the field with other runners we witnessed at the Cheltenham Festival just a few weeks ago also in the line-up. Alongside Tiger Roll is Bristol De Mai, Elegant Escape, Top Ville Ben, Beware the bear, Peregrine Run, Total Recall, Story teller, Magic of light, Any second Now among others.

For this virtual race, bookies are taking placements but all profits made by major betting outlets will be given to NHS Charities Together, which covers more than 140 NHS charities. Bets on the Virtual Grand National could raise £1million to support the battle against coronavirus, according to research by GrandNational.org.uk.

Interesting !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

2^nd Apr 2020.

Aussie sledging ! . ....... Clarke says players wary of IPL contracts !!!

In Tamil comedy film ‘Kalakalappu’, directed by Sundar C ~ Santhanam will show a portrait of a man attacking a cheetah with sickle. Vimal would remark having seen it elsewhere… Santhanam retorts saying that it was his grandfather attacking the tiger – the photo which they later gave to matchbox manufacturer….. to Vimal’s remark that it does not sound believable – Santhanam would say that his grandfather told him that food would be provided only if he believes and would ask Vimal whether he would like to dine !!! 

England could field two different teams on the same day at separate venues if the COVID-19 pandemic leads to a compressed home season, wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler says. England have suspended all professional cricket until at least May 28 due to the global health crisis, which also looms over their home series against West Indies, Pakistan, Australia and Ireland later in the year. In an effort to squeeze as much cricket as possible into a shortened season, the prospect of England playing a Test match and a T20 on the same day at different venues has been floated as a possibility worth exploring.

This is no post on Covid-19 .. ..but on Cricket and Aussie’s way of playing the game – ‘sledging’ ! .. ..bullying is not uncommon in other sports, yet !

Merv Hughes was all over Gooch in one test and proceeded to say: "Would you like me to bowl a piano and see if you can play that".  In another instance, he asked Robin Smith whether he would read the back of the bat for instructions to hit the ball ! .. .. … For years, Australia made winning a habit. Annihilating the opposition with savage blows and leaving it to pick up the pieces. Most teams would be beaten between the ears much ahead of the completion of a series. Having delivered body blows at will at the hapless rival, the Aussies would then enjoy a day away from the cricket field.

They will claim that they play the game hardway ! ~ would claim that they will do all that is required for winning !! ~ the cuss word is ‘Sledging’ .. those olden days, when Aussies were all powerful – when Thommo, Lillee, Walker, Hughes and somebody ran in hard, hurled at pace, batsman were continuously harassed by comments from the close-in cordon ! verbal harangue aimed at distracting, diverting and demonising opponents .. ..  Aussies specialised in that, England too were not far behind .. ..

England allrounder Moeen Ali has hit out at the sledging and abuse by Australia’s cricketers, saying he was called “Osama” by one player in the 2015 Ashes series. Moeen has made the claim in his autobiography, Moeen, saying he was racially vilified during the first Test at Cardiff in 2015, where he made 77 in the first innings and took five wickets for the match in England’s 169-run win.

When he was sledging players, Aussie media hailed that Merv Hughes’ sense of humour and on-pitch persona were a large part of his success as a fast bowler. He was extremely aggressive, making use of a fearsome stare to unnerve batsmen, as well as regular chat, threats and jokes. His sledges (as also of his teammates) ranged from the crude to the genuinely witty—from blunt swearing to advising.  Australians are known for sledging ….and  David Warner was another pushy advocate. Once he went far on an on-field spar with Rohit Sharma, instructing him to speak English !  New Zealand cricket great Martin Crowe  slammed 'childish' David Warner for his 'thuggish behaviour' after the Australian opener got engaged in a slanging match with Rohit Sharma.

There are friendly banters too – in  1999 World Cup Australia needed to beat South Africa to keep their tournament hopes alive. Steve Waugh was on 56* gifted Gibbs a simple catch. Gibbs took the catch, went to celebrate the catch, ended up dropping,  leaving Waugh to retort: "You've just dropped the World Cup- mate". During a One-dayer between Australia and Sri Lanka Ranatunga decided he needed a runner. The stump microphone then picked up  sledge from Healy: "You don't get a runner for being an overweight, fat ____ ".  During the Big Bash - Shane Warne was  suspended for a match and fined $4,500 after being found guilty of three of the four misconduct charges arising from his Twenty20 Big Bash clash with West Indies allrounder Marlon Samuels. Shanee was found guilty of making “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact” but was cleared of deliberately throwing the ball at Samuels in an inappropriate or dangerous manner.

Michael Clarke's verbal barrage at England's last man standing James Anderson was in usual bad taste. Clarke was heard through the stump microphone on the field telling Anderson that he should "get ready for a broken f----ing arm."

There were times when Asian teams were ridiculed on the field for their colour too – Arjuna Ranatunga perhaps was one who took the gauntlet and defended his players and tried giving something in retort too. The way he defended Muthaiah Muralitharan who was no-balled is admirable.  Now read this interesting newsitem in TOI of date.   In a sensational revelation, former Australia captain Michael Clarke has said his country’s top cricketers were at one point loath to sledge Indian captain Virat Kohli and other top Team India players for fear for losing their lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts.

“Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL,” Clarke told Big Sports Breakfast. “Australian cricket, and probably every other team over a little period, went the opposite and actually sucked up to India. They were too scared to sledge Kohli or the other Indian players because they had to play with them in April,” Clarke said. Clarke said the situation arose because a number of Indian superstars like Kohli and Rohit Sharma were also captains of IPL franchises and therefore part of the bidding process.

“Name a list of 10 (Indian) players and they are bidding for these Australian players to get into their IPL teams,” Clarke said. “The players were like: ‘I’m not going to sledge Kohli, I want him to pick me for Bangalore so I can make my US $1 million for six weeks.” Clarke’s disclosure has stirred debate and raised issues of propriety and conflict of interest in Australian cricket, which in some ways is still trying to recover from the ‘SandpaperGate’ ball-tampering scandal which led to bans on then-captain Steve Smith and opener David Warner.

Clarke also went a step further, blaming the IPL situation for a general weakening of Australia’s usual hard-as-nails approach on the field. “That’s where Australia went through a phase where our cricket became a little softer and not as hard as we’re accustomed to seeing,” he said. This was around the time Australian cricket was going through a huge crisis of confidence regarding their manner of play. Post-SanderpaperGate, the administrators even moved to ensure the cricketers played more fair and within the rules and displayed more sportsman spirit.

Interesting view point that cannot be overlooked !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

8^th Apr 2020.