High Court lawyers rally behind Tahilramani
She resigned after being transferred
 
08/09/2019 , Legal Correspondent, CHENNAI 


 
Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani

Scores of lawyers practising in the principal seat of the Madras High Court in Chennai as well as its Madurai Bench have rallied behind Chief Justice Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani, who has tendered her resignation in protest against her transfer from the chartered High Court to the relatively new and smaller High Court of Meghalaya.

While one section of lawyers has decided to stage a demonstration outside the High Court campus on Monday to impress upon the Supreme Court collegium to withdraw its decision to transfer her, many others decided to convene the general body meeting of their associations to discuss the further the course of action to be taken.

The Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) in Chennai as well as the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Bar Association (MMBA), represented by its secretary N. Ilango, have individually convened extraordinary general body meetings of their respective associations on Monday afternoon to discuss the issue.

“An unprecedented situation has arisen in the country with the Chief Justice putting in her papers in protest against her transfer.

“A majority of our members want to express solidarity with her and impress upon the Supreme Court collegium to reconsider its decision on transfer. However, a final decision will be taken by the general body,” Mr. Ilango said.

‘Liver transplantation to begin at GRH in 6 months’
Work on to set up a wing to treat transgenders: Dean

08/09/2019 , Staff   Reporter, MADURAI

The Government Rajaji Hospital will begin liver transplants in the next six months, according to Dean K. Vanitha.

Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, she said several patients were coming to the hospital with liver-related problems.

Since the start of the new Surgical Gastroenterology department at the Super Speciality Ward in the GRH, S. Padmanabhan, Head of the department, said that they had dealt with over 400 cases.

“One such case was of a 60-year-old patient from Bodi, who came after consulting at several private hospitals in and around Madurai after complaining of abdominal pain, hunger and weight loss. After performing tests, we discovered that the patient had a tumour in his liver through preoperative diagnosis. The tumour was indeed large and successfully removed eight days ago,” Dr. Padmanabhan said.

He said the operation which lasted over six hours saw usage of expensive and technically advanced equipment.

“Through a 3-D laparoscopic surgery, we could detect and remove 60% of the liver and the gall bladder. The rest is healthy. The tumour weighed 6.5 kg,” he said. He said that such cancer was caused because of excessive drinking, obesity, the presence of fatty liver disease as well as Hepatitis B and C.

“Usually, chemotherapy and radiology are not effective. Only surgery works,” he added. Dr. Vanitha said the anaesthesiology department worked in tandem with the surgical gastroenterology department to ensure the operation was successful.

She added that works were under way to set up a wing to treat transgenders and a skill development unit near the trauma care centre.

Smiles vanished, tension took over

08/09/2019 , Praveen S., Bengaluru

The anticipation across the country to watch Chandrayaan-2’s lander Vikram set down on the moon was akin to the feverish wait of a sports fan prior to a big game.

By nightfall on Friday, #Chandrayaan2 was on top of the India Twitter trends with about 1,00,000 tweets every hour. National Geographic had roped in a former NASA astronaut for its live telecast of the event.

Celebrities across the world — including astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos — cheered for India in its second lunar exploration mission.

Some 400 journalists gathered at a makeshift media centre in an expansive lawn at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.

Television reporters and camera persons jostled to get the best shots. A few others were mining information from a few scientists and science writers present.

Defining moment

Four hundred metres away, at the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISRO scientists, headed by Chairman K. Sivan, were awaiting the defining moment of their years-long work. As the space vehicle approached its destination, the women and men who had toiled on it, were hoping and continuing to work for its successful soft-landing. Accompanying the scientists at the MOX were Prime Minister Narendra Modi, government officials and 60 students from classes 8 to 10, who had won an online quiz of the ISRO.

“The entire world awaits the data from Chandrayaan-2,” Dr. Sivan had said on the eve of the landing.

But the soft-landing itself, Dr. Sivan had hinted, was usually a suspense thriller. “[It] is extremely complex, and we will experience approximately 15 minutes of terror,” he had said after offering prayers at Tirumala on July 13.

Expectant silence

As Chandrayaan-2’s lander Vikram (named after Vikram Sarabhai) began its descent, an expectant silence prevailed on the ISTRAC campus, with a hush falling over the voluble media centre. Even the Prime Minister’s hitherto beaming face suddenly grew solemn.

Around 1.50 a.m. on Saturday, when Vikram began its vertical descent phase, Dr. Sivan conveyed a message to the Prime Minister.

Ten minutes later when Mr. Modi left his seat, the media guessed something was wrong.

But there was no official announcement. Suspense mounted. At 2.16 a.m., Dr. Sivan, with a slight shake in his voice, said, “Vikram lander descent was as planned and normal performance observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km. Subsequently, communications from lander to ground station was lost. The data is being analysed.”

Tamilisai to be sworn in as Governor today

08/09/2019 , CHENNAI

 

Tamilisai Soundararajan will be sworn in as Governor of Telangana on Sunday. Telangana High Court Chief Justice R.S. Chouhan will administer the oath of office to her. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and others will be present.

Metrowater driver gets 5 years’ jail for running over three girls
Four pedestrians were injured; truck cleaner let off
 
08/09/2019 , R. Sivaraman, CHENNAI 


 
The victims were at the Guindy bus stop and were heading to Chellammal College.File Photo

A Mahila court sentenced the driver of a water tanker that mowed down three students of the Chellammal College in 2016 on Anna Salai to five years of imprisonment.

R. Rajendran, 42, the driver of the tanker that was contracted to Metrowater, was found guilty and convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder punishable under Section 304 Part-II IPC and sentenced to undergo five years’ imprisonment.

According to the chargesheet filed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic Investigation Wing, Ashok Nagar, in the afternoon of October, 13, 2016, Rajendran of Virudhunagar got his tanker filled from the station in Thiru.Vi.Ka. Industrial Estate, Guindy, and started driving rashly on Anna Salai.

The tanker ran over L. Chitra, 20, and C. Asha Shruthi, 20, third year B.Com students, and M. Gayathiri, 19, a second year B.Com student. They were standing at the Guindy bus stand to go to their college.

Two students, Jayshree and Meena, and two others who were walking on the road, Savararaj, 65, and Omanakutttan, 40, were injured.

After knocking them down, the tanker crashed into an autorickshaw and two two-wheelers near the SPIC building.

“Earlier, the truck’s cleaner Mayakannan goaded Rajendran to drive faster so they could get two additional trips to make more money,” the chargesheet read. The cleaner was also charged.

Fine imposed

The trial was conducted before the Mahila court on the Madras High Court campus.

At the end of the trial, judge R.N. Manjula held the driver guilty for offences cited by the prosecution but held that the cleaner was not guilty.

A fine of ₹20,500 was imposed on the driver.

ISRO scientists work to decode Chandrayaan-2 lander failure
Increased horizontal velocity may have cast lander away, suggests scientist

08/09/2019 , Madhumathi D.S., BENGALURU 


 
Words of solace: PM Modi consoles ISRO Chairman K. Sivan in Bengaluru after the link with the lander was lost. PTIPTI

Hours after India’s dream of placing a lander spacecraft on the moon crashed on Saturday morning, Indian Space Research Organisation’s teams associated with the still orbiting Chandrayaan-2 mission were looking for clues in the last minutes of data from the lander Vikram.

The lander was to have set itself down on the moon's surface at 1.55 a.m. on Saturday. It had been descending for 12 minutes. However, three minutes before lunar touch down, it lost contact with the earth and went blank. It was 2.1 km above the moon’s surface then, ISRO said soon after it detected the setback around 2 a.m.

Possible causes

On what went wrong, a senior space scientist, who has worked on all three ISRO planetary missions, said an increased horizontal velocity might have cast the lander away from the planned site (shown with red lines on the consoles) causing ISRO to lose its link with the lander. “The search for it may be wider now. Only subsequent visits of the orbiter should tell us where it is,” he said.

He suspected that instead of losing velocity as it came down, the lander may have gained velocity at some point. It may also have lost its orientation or attitude (orientation/tilt) — which then increased its velocity. An attitude loss or tilt can also cause a loss of link or telemetry. Add to it the already working speed and moon's gravity — and it could have crashed to death from a height of 2 km, he said.

Although the terrain between two craters was mapped well, obstruction by hills or sand high rises could not be ruled out, according to him.

CONVERSATIONS

‘God is not for sale’  08.09.2019

President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission and advocate of Heartfulness Meditation DAAJI KAMLESH PATEL tells PRITI AGRAWAL that we need to approach God with love and not greed

How can a seeker differentiate between a genuine spiritual master and someone who is faking it?

God is not for sale. People try to sell the name of God in various ways. There are people who ask money for God-realisation and that’s really funny.There is no ‘paid’ spirituality, it is only greed.There is no need to renounce anything for spirituality.Renouncing must happen naturally. Renunciation is basically non-attachment with your belongings.

One should approach God with love, not with greed to fulfil desires. It does not mean that we should not have any desire to do our duties, which is our dharma towards our family and work.You should perform all your duties in Divine consciousness and submit the result of karma to God.What we do and think repetitively, if we do not offer to God, then it forms an impression.Slowly it hardens and permeates our subconscious and settles down in our causal body, Atman.The same seed we carry with our atman, called samskara, we carry it forward life after life. Every day, we should offer a prayer to God, asking for forgiveness for our wrong deeds and thoughts.

We always talk about our actions and their results, but forget about our inactions. If you are not fully prepared for your exams, then your inaction will haunt you even in your dreams. So the inaction towards your studies troubles you.The consequences of inaction are more painful than performing action.These impressions form by inaction,because you deliberately did not do something.When we deliberately do or don’t do anything then we have different levels of samskara.When I do something casually, I can erase it through yogic practices, but when knowingly or deliberately I do something, it is not easily erased.

You focus a great deal on Heartfulness Meditation.

How does this help strengthen the mind?

Today’s young generation needs wise direction, and in order to inculcate any action, the heart has to be purified first to give correct signals to the mind. Sometimes you feel that this is the right thing to do, but you don’t have the courage to do it. Through Heartfulness Meditation, you receive wisdom to do the right thing,and also inner courage to follow your heart’s feelings.Your brain follows only heart signals. Once we correct the heart, everything gets corrected automatically.

Patanjali describes the fundamental requirements for a spiritual seeker — viveka,power to discriminate between right or wrong, between cause and effect.This viveka comes from the heart only. Sahaj Samadhi has four levels of consciousness — waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep and turiya state.The beauty of the turiya state is that you are in a sleep-like state but yet fully awake.You are relaxed,poised, at peace and you are fully aware of what is happening around you. In this state, the mind has merged with its source, the heart, although some thoughts and senses are still somewhat active.

Most spiritual masters talk about living in the moment — how can this be achieved?

When you always follow your heart, you will be in the now. If you practise the heartful way of meditation, you can be here in your heart and at the same moment, you can do so many things. For instance, a child learning to ride a bicycle, starts with a four-wheel cycle, and slowly tries to master the art of riding.Then, after sufficient practice, he will ride it with two wheels. Initially, you have to support him, but after some days of practise, he becomes perfect and starts taking the bicycle to school and market without any support and guidance.Although riding is not his main activity as he may sing and also observe things around while cycling. Now he is not conscious of his bicycle, now it has become his second nature. If a child can be trained, why not an adult be trained to paddle heart-consciousness, and do things with heartful feelings all the time? You can be busy with what you are doing and at the same time, connect with the inner Self.

Can you describe the state of enlightenment?

The state of being enlightened is when you become one with the Divine.When there is some discrimination between devotee and deity, between a water drop and the ocean, then there is a sense of separateness. When a raindrop falls into the ocean, is there a water drop left to speak about its nature and how it feels to become the ocean? Similarly, when a devotee merges in a deity, there is no devotee left to talk about it, but he is retained at some level to teach others.You feel the nectar or bliss in yourself all the time.

Follow Kamlesh Patel at

speakingtree.in

WHEN A RAINDROP FALLS INTO THE OCEAN, IS THERE A WATER DROP LEFT TO SPEAK ABOUT ITS NATURE AND HOW IT FEELS TO BECOME THE OCEAN? LIKEWISE, WHEN A DEVOTEE MERGES IN A DEITY, THERE IS NO DEVOTEE LEFT TO TALK ABOUT IT