South Asia Times - April 2021 by South Asia Times

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APRIL 2021

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Gaura Travel Flight after flight: 50 unstoppable charter flights to India .......Read on page 3

Victoria’s first Indian community centre in Rowville inaugurated by Alan Tudge & Michael Sukar .......Read on page 4

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APRIL 2021

The WHO report into the origin of the coronavirus is out. Here’s what happens next, says the Australian doctor who went to China By Dominic Dwyer*

he World Health Organization (WHO) overnight released its report into the origins of the coronavirus, a report I contributed to as a member of the recent mission to Wuhan, China. The report outlines our now well-publicised findings: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, most likely arose in bats, and then spread to humans via an as-yet unidentified intermediary animal. The evidence we have so far indicates the virus was possibly circulating in China in mid-to-late November 2019. We considered viral escape from a laboratory extremely unlikely. However, the release of the report prompted governments, including in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, to share their concerns over whether investigators had access to all the data. The joint statement also called for greater transparency when investigating pandemics, now and in the future.

So what happens next? Our report also recommended what research is needed for a more complete picture of the origins of the coronavirus. The key focus of this next stage of investigations is looking at what happened before people realised there

was a clinical problem in December 2019, not just in China but in other countries with early cases, such as Italy and Iran. This would give us a more complete picture of whether SARSCoV-2 was circulating earlier than December 2019. For instance, if we just focus on China for now, we know there were influenzalike respiratory illnesses in Wuhan in late 2019. In fact, we looked at data from more than 76,000 cases for the WHO report, to see whether these could have been what we now call COVID-19. But work is already under way to re-analyse those data using different techniques, to see if we’ve missed any earlier cases. Talks are also under way to see whether blood donations in China in 2019 can be analysed to see if they contain antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. This would tell us whether the people who donated those samples had been infected by the virus. These types of investigations take time. Then there’s what we can learn from molecular epidemiology (the genetic makeup of the virus and its spread). For instance, if we find a lot of variation in the genetic sequence of early samples of SARS-CoV-2, this tells us there had already been transmission for some time. That’s because the virus doesn’t mutate unless it infects and transmits. We can use modelling to say what might have happened

up to three or more weeks beforehand. We also need to link those molecular epidemiology data to actual clinical data. Until now those data have largely been separate, with the molecular data held in research or university laboratories and the patient data held elsewhere. We need to make those connections to tell us which infections were related, and how far back in time they go. There are also many biological samples sitting in laboratories around the world that we need to analyse, and not just in Wuhan. So we have to do a bit of detective work to locate them and analyse them to understand the pattern of disease and to help sort out the origin. There is no central database of samples and what antibodies or genetic material they might contain. For instance, there are SARS-CoV-2 positive blood donations in the US and France, and cases in Italy, and there’s sewage testing in Spain. These are places with early outbreaks of respiratory illnesses that may help us find out if SARSCoV-2 was circulating earlier than we first thought. We also need more studies into the role of frozen food products in transmitting the virus. Although we considered the “cold chain” a possible pathway to transmission, we still don’t know how big a factor this was, if at all.

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DISCLAIMER South Asia Times (SAT) is a monthly newspaper published in English (2 pages in Hindi) from Melbourne, Australia. Contributors supply material to SAT at their own risk and any errors will be corrected as quickly as possible. SAT does not accept responsibility for the authenticity of any advertisement, text content or a picture in the publication. No material, including text or advertisements designed by the SAT or pictures may be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the editor/publisher. Opinions/stories/ reports or any text content are those of the writers/contributors and not necessarily endorsed by the SAT.

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Finally, there’s ongoing sampling of animals and the environment for signs of SARS-CoV-2 or related viruses. Can we find the parent virus (the one that eventually mutated into SARS-CoV-2) in a bat in a cave somewhere? Where do we look? At bats across Southeast Asia, Central Asia, into Europe? We need to look at the range of these bats and where they live. These types of investigations can take ages. Can we find the virus in an intermediary animal, and if so, what type of animal and where? Again, these are difficult studies to set up. Cooperation needed The key here is to keep trying to work together and avoid the over-politicisation of the whole exercise. Rather than blaming governments, we need to foster cooperation and trust between investigators, between and within countries. This not only helps us during this pandemic; it’s the key to managing future pandemics. The more cooperative we are, the more likely we are to get the best results. We have to make sure politics doesn’t muck that up. * Director of Public Health Pathology, NSW Health Pathology, Westmead Hospital and University of Sydney, University of Sydney The Conversation, March 31, 2021 (under Creative Commons Licence).

community

APRIL 2021

South Asia Times

Gaura Travel Flight after flight: 50 unstoppable charter flights to India By SAT News Desk

ELBOURNE, 30 March 2021: Home is the best and that is where Gaura Travel makes you reach. On 19 March the mission of repatriating people back to India became stronger, Gaura Travel crossed another benchmark of operating 50 unstoppable charter flights. In collaboration with Singapore Airlines, the 50th charter flight took off on 19 March 2021 from Melbourne Airport carrying 200 people to New Delhi. At the onset of the pandemic, Australia shut its borders to the world to fight the deadly COVID-19 virus. No one saw 2020 coming. Panic clenched people as they suddenly found themselves stranded in Australia. Gaura Travels arranged the first flight to India on 22 July 2020 from Sydney. The Gaura Travel team provided incessant support to all those on that flight leading to a seamless journey. On 5th February 2021 after 8 months of sheer hard work and courage, Gaura Travel accomplished the milestone of reuniting 10,000 families. Statistically, 18,000 passengers flew out of Melbourne: 15,000 by chartered flights and 3,000 under Vande Bharat Mission with Air India

flying 17 sorties. From the 15,000, Gaura Travel accounted for 10,000. There was joy in the air, but the directors of Gaura Travel, Ashwini Sonthalia,

and Abhishek Sonthalia, knew that more had to be done. They resonated with the longing of those stuck in India, and now are back with a bang! On

27 February 2021, Gaura Travel announced the great news of special charter flights from India to Australia! The skies have not yet

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opened and Gaura Travel is continuing to unite loved ones across the seas. New flights to India are in the offing with all the love from Gaura Travel.

community

South Asia Times

APRIL 2021

Victoria’s first Indian community centre in Rowville inaugurated by Alan Tudge & Michael Sukar By Neeraj Nanda

ELBOURNE, 26 March 2021: It was a proud moment for Indians in Victoria with the inauguration of the first ‘Australia India Community Centre’ in Rowville. The years of failed attempts and attempts finally bore fruit with Aston Alan Tudge MP Minister for Education and Youth & Federal Member for Aston and Michael Sukar MP, Federal Member for Deakin and Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing opened the place with great fanfare in the presence of hundreds of guests. A Bollywood dance item performed to celebrate the event enthralled the audience present. The Centre was partially funded by the Australian Government with $2.5 million funding in addition to funding by the seven Trustees of the Australian Indian Community Charitable Trust. Mr. Vasan Srinivasan, who heads the Centre told SAT, ” The State Government has promised another $ 95,000 which has yet to come. He disclosed the twostory Center has a builtup area of 1040 sq Meters and lots of parking. An application has also been made for permission to hold events at the Centre.” ” The backside of the Centre will soon have sports facilities and the first floor now has the ‘Dr. Dinesh Parekh Museum India’, shifted from Foster Street, Dandenong. The Museum is a highlight of the Centre with Dr. Dinesh Parekh’s collections of paintings, photographs, stamps, coins, and books. Dr. Parekh died last month and today his wife, son, and daughter-inlaw were present to grace the occasion. Among those who addressed the gathering were Minister Alan Tudge, Michael Sukar MP, Mr. Raj Kumar, India’s Consul General in Melbourne, Dr. Parekh’s son, Mathew Guy, and Vasan Srinivasan. Mementos were also given away. In his address, Alan Tudge said that once final council approval is complete the two-story building will be used as Victoria’s first Indian Community

Centre, and include multiple assembly halls, a commercial kitchen, meeting and storage rooms, a car park, an administration, and reception area, offices for three Indian community peak bodies as well as a secure area for Museum India which showcases India’s rich history and heritage. “This was an election commitment of the Morrison Government and I am so pleased to see it up and running,” Mr. Tudge said. He also read out the message of PM Scott Morrison. ” This Centre, I know, will give much – not only to this community, but to the wider community, and to everyone who passes through its doors. I foresee many gatherings, full of color, family, friendship, and of course food! My congratulations and very best wishes for the long life of the Australia India Community Centre,” he said. Chair of the Australia India Community Charitable Trust Vasan Srinivasan said he was truly excited for the community centre to officially opened. “I wish to thank the Morrison Government and our Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Michael McCormack for the funding and approval

of this project, along with Hon. Alan Tudge and Hon. Michael Sukkar for their support to see this project formalized and delivered,” Mr. Srinivasan said. “I am also excited to see the Community Centre become the new home of the Museum India, which will be named in memory of Dr. Dinesh Parekh – the collector and curator of the museum’s collection.” The community centre is situated at 16-18 Kingsley Close, Rowville, Victoria 3178.

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South Asia Times

APRIL 2021

AUSTRALIA’S COVID-19 VACCINATION PROGRAM HAS STARTED. COVID-19 vaccines will keep Australia safe and protect our way of life. The people most at risk of serious illness and those most likely to be exposed to the virus in our communities will be vaccinated first, including: • Quarantine and border workers • Frontline health care, disability and aged care workers • People living in aged and disability care accommodation

Vaccination offers the best protection from COVID-19, but it’s also important we all continue to remain COVIDSafe. To find out when it’s your turn, visit australia.gov.au or call the National coronavirus and COVID-19 vaccine helpline 1800 020 080. For translating and interpreting services call 131 450.

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COMMUNITY

South Asia Times

APRIL 2021

Alan Tudge launches consultations to get back overseas students By SAT News Desk

ELBOURNE,31 March 2021: The Australian government has launched consultations for the ‘Australian Strategy for International Education 2021-2030′, aimed at revitalizing the sector to recover in the post-Covid-19 recovery. Minister for Education and Youth Alan Tudge today launched consultations for the Australian Strategy for International Education 2021-2030, which will set the sector on a path to longterm success and guide its recovery from COVID-19.700 “International students are important for Australian universities, our diplomacy, our economy, and our community,” Minister Tudge said. “We want international

students back in Australia as soon as the COVID-19 situation allows, but the disruption of COVID provides an opportunity to look at the sector and ensure it is working for students and for Australia in the long-

term. “I want to see greater diversity in the sector, to improve the learning experience for local and international students and increase reslience to global changes in demand.

“We should also better target international enrolments towards our nation’s future skills needs, to grow Australian businesses, create more local jobs, and add to our economic recovery. “We will also explore opportunities to expand the reach of our international education by developing new delivery models to grow new markets around the world. “I want to hear new ideas to help set a course for both the sector’s recovery and its longer-term trajectory.” Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association of Australia and Convener of the Expert Members of the Council for International Education, said the new strategy is a chance to set out a shared vision for Australian international education.

“More than three million students from around the world have studied in Australia over the past two decades, adding to the vibrancy of our communities and delivering important social, economic, and diplomatic benefits to our country,” Mr. Honeywood said. “I look forward to a national conversation on how we can work collectively to ensure Australian international education meets the challenges of the future.” Information about the new Australian Strategy for International Education 20212030 is available at https:// www.dese.gov.au/australianstrategy-internationaleducation-2021-2030. The consultation paper is available at https://www. dese.gov.au/internationaleducation.

Praveen Kumar bats for the education sector & regional migration at the ALP Special Platform Conference 2021 By SAT News Desk

ELBOURNE, 31 March 2021: Labor party activist Praveen Kumar moved amendments about the education sector & migration sector at the ALP Special Platform Conference 2021, held virtually on March 3031. Mr. Praveen Kumar’s amendments aimed at guiding the ALP to put together a national policy on the subject for the next federal election. The amendments were carried. EDUCATION SECTOR The Labor party recognises the importance of the international education sector to the broader economy which has been impacted during the Covid crises and has not received any significant support from the current Federal Government,

Labor will support the International Education Sector and advocate for the safe return of international students, support the return international students as soon as it’s safe, noting that top priority must be given to Australians trying to get home, to ensure that Australia remains an attractive destination for international students from around the world. MIGRATION PROGRAM Also currently the Regional Migration program for the Onshore International Graduates is flawed where students with Masters in IT, Accounting, Engineering etc. are forced to go to Regional areas and find work in their relevant field. This is another example of Liberal policy on the run, as they did not think through this

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when implementing ... How would thousands of IT, Accounts, Engineering graduates get a relevant in Regional areas. This is also encouraging shady organisations to set shop in the regional towns and running sham organisations charging International students tens of thousands of dollars to show that they are employed. But in spite of this there is no guarantee for these students that they will get their residency. So I proposed to include the following amendment. Labor will reform the regional migration program and encourage skilled migrants to take up jobs in rural and regional locations only where skill gaps exist. Full details about the conference can be accessed at – alp.org.au/ conference2021

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APRIL 2021

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holi feature

South Asia Times

APRIL 2021

Big Holi celebrations across Melbourne

By SAT News Desk

ELBOURNE: Holi-the festival of colours was celebrated across Melbourne at many places. This was the first post pandemic Holi and saw wide participation from families and others. The Holi function at the Blackburn Hindi school was attended by Hindi classes students and parents in massive

numbers. Holi songs were sung and students were facilitated for participation in Holi events. The Hindi school in Blackburn run by the Victorian School of Languages (VSL) held its Holi function guided by Mrs M. Tethi and backed by other teachers. The young and older kids enjoyed the festival with dry colours and festivity. The AIII Holi in the city

was held for two days (March 27-28, 2021) in which thousands participated. There were long queues because of some Covid restrictions. Dry colours, DJ music and dancing engulfed the event place. Shopping at stalls was hectic and the eating stalls were the busiest. The rides for kids also proved to be popular. The colour at the Birrarung Marr (near the Federation Square) with the city in

the background and the Yarra flowing on the other side made an interesting ambience. The Wyndham Holi2021 at the Presidents Park also saw thousands enjoying Holi. Indian and other people could be seen enjoying at the place on an exceptionally sunny day. The stalls with lots to sell were busy and food outlets did good business. Henna, jewellery, sandalwood

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candles, glowing pebbles and much more graced the Holi market. Dry colours were on sale and red and yellow seemed to be popular. The vastness of the Presidents Park was an added bonus. Kids rides looked popular. A wide variety of Indian/South Asian food made its presence felt. The Hare Krishna stall had all the faith fervour and music made all happy.

APRIL 2021

holi feature

Wyndham Holi 2021

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South Asia Times

PHOTO FEATURE

South Asia Times

APRIL 2021

Dr. Parekh Museum India

he museum consists of the lifelong collections of Dr. Dinesh Parekh, Psychiatrist (25 Feb 1939 – 12 Feb 2021) consisting of thousands of photographs, paintings, Indian artefacts, coins, stamps, rare books and much more. He grew up in Rajasthan, India and earned his medical degree from the SMS Medical College, Jaipur in 1962. He later obtained a diploma in psychological medicine in 1967 and a doctorate in psychiatry in 1970. He became a fellow of the

ANZ College of Psychiatry in 1976 and was a World Health Organisation

research psychiatrist for 3 years. He had private practices in Reservoir,

Sunshine and Thornbury (Victoria) until he retired in 2011. The Dr. Parekh Museum India was inaugurated on 26 March 2021 along with the Australia India Community Centre, 16-18 Kingsley Close, Rowville Victoria 3178 by Alan Tudge MP, Member for Aston, Minister for Education and Youth, and Michael Sukkar MP, Member for Deakin, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing, Homelessness, Social and Community Housing. (See report in community section).

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The museum is the first of its kind in Australia and had shorter stints earlier in Carrum Downs and Greater Dandenong. The pages here give some glimpses of the collectables on display at the museum which is on the first floor of the complex. Mr. Vasan Srinivasan is the Chairperson & Founding Trustee of the Australian Indian Community Charitable Trust (AICCT) which will run the community centre and the museum along with the trust.

APRIL 2021

PHOTO FEATURE

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South Asia Times

SOUTH ASIA / COUNTERVIEW

APRIL 2021

Law in my kitchen: Notion of privacy in the context of gender, body, desire, sexuality By Simi Mehta, Anshula Mehta

he law in India never uses the word ‘desire’. There is no law of desire or vocabulary present in the State that talks about desire. However, this “term can refer to a gamut of things including gender, politics, culture, history, sociology and all the subjects that go into making law what it is.” Desire acts as the bridge between the mind and the body. The idea of desire builds a bridge between, what we like to distinguish as, the mind on one hand and the body on the other. Desire is a term that allows us to expand a conversation that might otherwise be more restricted if we were to only use the terms ‘gender’ or ‘sexuality’. An important issue to discuss would be whether the questions of desire are private or public. To throw light upon the intersection of law with gender and sexuality, IMPRI (Impact and Policy Research Institute) organized a special lecture on "Law in my Kitchen: Questions about Gender, Agency, and the State" by Dr Madhavi Menon, a professor of

English and Director of the Centre for Gender Studies at Ashoka University who works in the domains of queer theory, sexuality, desire, gender politics and identity. Introducing the theme Dr Rukmini Nair, chair of the session pointed to the intersectionality built in the theme of how the link

between state and law was bridged towards gender and the kitchen via an agency. This points to the need for interdisciplinary conversation around gender and patriarchy in the Modern State. It becomes the goal of the academician to empirically locate concepts and links for a greater audience.

Descartian vocabulary has given the academicians today to make the claim the porosity of body and mind, best represented as “the mind has no sex”. Desire: from the private to public Privacy has captured the popular imagination. From WhatsApp’s privacy settings to the privacy judgement in the Retired Justice Puttaswamy case in the Supreme Court, there has been a lot of discussion around privacy. The critical question that we need to grapple with is, is desire private? We are encouraged to believe that gender, sexuality, and desire is all private matters. They personal issues because they belong to us individually and because they define us fundamentally. Dr Madhavi Menon said, “What’s interesting to me is that when we bring in law to adjudicate a matter that is allegedly so private, what happens then to that notion of privacy? What happens then to that notion of something being so personal and individualistic and so fundamentally belonging to the domain of self? What happens to that domain once it is publicly pronounced upon?” This contrast of private

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and public is spurious because we are constantly told what our gender and sexuality are or what they must be. Even if we think we choose our sexual orientation, that choice has to fit specific parameters that are publicly decided before we are allowed to be of a particular sexual orientation. Thus, this idea of gender, sexuality, or desire being private is untrue. It is an idea that has been impressed upon us to induce shame and not talk about these things publicly. It hinders us from talking about these ideas of sexuality or gender to take up public space and own the public sphere. When surfaced in the public sphere, these conversations would lend recognition to sexual identities that would be empowering and liberating at the same time. The very notion of privacy is something to be skeptical about and most so about gender, body, desire, and sexuality because not only have these realms never been private, but they have always been publicly sanctioned and dictated. Asking us to keep them confidential is also asking us to keep them apolitical when they are arguably the most politicized versions of ourselves. CONTD. ON PG 13

APRIL 2021

SOUTH ASIA / COUNTERVIEW

South Asia Times

Law in my kitchen: Notion of privacy in the context of gender... CONTD. FROM PG 12 The law seems absolute, while gender and sexuality seem to be much more fluid. However, Dr Menon believes that law is more porous than complete and gender is more absolute than porous. Her explanation for the same is that the most common word associated with the law is ‘interpretation.’ The same absolute law can be interpreted in different ways by different benches of judges, which isn’t always a positive thing. Unlike in the USA where the Supreme Court sits as an entire bench for all cases that come to it, the Indian Judiciary assigns different benches to each case. The assignment of judges can be backed by political activity. This proves the porousness of the law. The relationship between law and desire is another question that demands discourse. If they have been relegated to different spheres of life i.e, the public for the law and private for desire, then it’s important to look at the interaction between the two. Dr Menon poses the question, “Is the relationship between the two only and always antagonistic, which is to say is law always trying to control desire? Or is the law also enabling when it comes to questions of gender, sexuality and desire?” The Great Indian Kitchen The movie “The Great Indian Kitchen”, portrays

mundane characters, every day and present. Their portrayal is kind, polite and wholehearted. It attempts to portray a universal story of a heterosexual couple, by not attaching any name to the characters. The universal portrayal shows the everydayness of patriarchy. The movie shows the hideousness and violence due to patriarchy, that is present in the life of every individual. The movie makes the audience uncomfortable because it drives home the embeddedness of patriarchy through seemingly nice and polite characters. The movie was rejected by major streaming websites like Netflix and Amazon. Produced in Malayalam, the movie is available to be seen on Neestream. The movie portrays two kinds of laws and their intersection law, that is the social law and Law which is the embodiment of the judicial power of the state. Family is considered to be a fundamental unit of society and it is anchored by a certain idea of marriage. This idea of marriage is heterosexual and tends to have its roots in a patriarchal structure. Though it is governed through laws constructed by the state, it is also given in the social that marriage is a necessary ritual. Misogyny and patriarchy have been internalized so much that women, in a way, forget their self-respect This patriarchy is noticed not just in rituals around marriage or traditions

like a woman taking her husband’s name, but, also in the roles that a husband and a wife are expected to play after marriage. Marriage is a deeply patriarchal institution and it is essential that we, as a society, rethink the law of marriage. The institution of marriage stands at the intersection of the public and the private which is portrayed by the movie successfully. It is meant to be a private affair between two people, at most between two families, but it is the most highly adjudicated institution in the country, which can be proved by the number of laws devoted to marriage. Dr Menon believed, “I’m interested in the question that how can we ask law to take ideas of desire, gender and sexuality much more seriously than they currently do?” Dr Menon throws an interesting question of what would happen if we were to get rid of marriage completely. She questioned if people would still be invested in the idea of marriage in a situation where the legal rights tied to it are done away with. In 2018, with a 4:1 majority, the Supreme Court of India ruled in the Indian Young Lawyers’ Association v State of Kerela that women in the age group of 10 to 50 years will no longer be prohibited from entering Ayyappan Temple at Sabrimala. This is the law of the second nature that contains the power to discipline and

demand obedience. This judgment is portrayed in the movie as a breadth of fresh air where women can break from cycles of violence and horror that accompanies her menstruating body. Armed with her awareness of the Sabrimala judgment, the lead female protagonist turns to question the mundane and everydayness of patriarchy in her own life. The second bookend of the kind of law becomes a safety valve for the wife to make decisions that could be seen as rebellious to the milieu of familial patriarchy and marriage. The Sabarimala verdict ruled that women of menstruating age can no longer be prohibited from entering Lord Ayyappan’s temple. However, the most baffling thing was that women worshippers of Lord Ayyappan sided with the argument that the Lord would not like it if menstruating women were given entry to the temple. Though the key intervention remains that women can no longer wait. Gender roles in households This goes on to show that misogyny and patriarchy have been internalized so much that women, in a way, forget their selfrespect. They are unable to think for themselves and cannot perceive their value outside of gender roles. Dr Usha Mudiganti, Assistant Professor, School of Letters, Ambedkar University points out that one automatically

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connects cookbooks to women. Society inevitably thinks that all women can and do cook. Women also tend to feel the need to prove that they can cook. The coupling of one’s gender with one’s ability to do work and the fact that one must perform the kind of work ‘suitable’ to their gender are deeply problematic ideas. If a woman doesn’t know how to cook, she feels the need to justify the same. But if a doesn’t know how to cook, he wouldn’t be questioned even once. The two laws can also be located in the conflict between the social laws and laws of the state. Dr Usha Mudiganti while recounting her work on Beerngana gives the example of Rani Lakshmibai. Herein lies a woman who performs the gendered male role to fight the Law of the State, the Law of accession to fight for the property rights for her adopted son. She is a woman who has failed in her social role of providing a male heir to the throne and she fights for the right to be the mother of the next king. The unique performance of this act remains that she fights in the battleground wearing feminine garb, which becomes the location of blurring gender boundaries. Acknowledgment: Chhavi Kapoor is a research intern at IMPRI and is pursuing bachelors in Political Science, Literature, and Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai Source- Counterview, March 28, 2021

South Asia Times

MIND-BEHAVIOR

APRIL 2021

How solitude and isolation can affect your social skills By Zaria Gorvett

scans taken before and afterwards, they found that on average, the “dentate gyrus” – a C-shaped region which is mostly involved in the formation of new memories – was diminished by about 7% over the course of the expedition.

eil Ansell became a hermit entirely by accident. Back in the 1980s, he was living in a squat in London with 20 other people. Then someone made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: a cottage in the Welsh mountains, with rent of just £100 ($130) per year. This was a place so wild, the night sky was a continuous carpet of stars – and the neighbours were a pair of ravens, who had lived in the same cedar tree for 20 years.

Along with the reductions in brain volume, the explorers also performed worse on two tests of intelligence – one for spatial processing, which is the ability to tell where objects are in space, and one for selective attention, which is broadly how well you can focus on a particular object for a period of time.

The catch was that the scenic views came with extreme isolation – by standards achievable in the UK, anyway. He lived on a hill farm inhabited by a single elderly tenant, miles from the nearest village. He didn’t have a phone, and in the five years he lived there, not a single person walked by the house.

The scientists speculated that the prolonged social isolation could be to blame, as well as the general monotony of life when you’re confined to a metal box all winter. In this study, they didn’t look at the expeditioners’ social skills before, during and after their isolation, but other research has found that those overwintering in Antarctica experienced a spike in social dysfunction during midwinter, despite the fact that they were rigorously screened beforehand for their ability to cope.

“I became so used to being on my own that I recall going to the village shop one day and my voice cracking, as I asked for something at the counter,” he says. “I realised I hadn't spoken in two weeks, not a single word. And that became quite normal for me.” When you’re alone, you start to lose your sense of who you are By the time he returned to civilisation, Ansell had fully adapted to being on his own – and the social world was a bit of a shock. “What I found difficult was the amount of talking. I’m not an antisocial person, but I did struggle with that.” Another thing Ansell noticed was that his identity had gradually started to slip away. “When you’re alone, you start to lose your sense of who you are, because you don't have an image of yourself reflected in the way that other people react to you. So I think to some extent, when I returned I had to rediscover who I could be in a social setting,” he says. Fast-forward to 2020 and Ansell’s experiences might resonate more widely than they once would have. With lockdowns, shielding and self-isolating, many of us have spent much more time in our own company. How

Loneliness vs solitude The question of whether social distancing could be affecting our social skills is more tricky to answer, but there are some clues.

does long-term isolation affect the brain? Do we need social practice? And will we even remember how to socialise when things return to normal?

and it turns out that it crops up rather a lot, from the optimal upper limit for a church congregation to the average size of social networks on Twitter.

Human beings are deeply social creatures. This is abundantly obvious from the way we live, but a key line of evidence is hidden inside our skulls.

One explanation is that socialising is a mental workout. To successfully navigate an interaction with another human being, you need to keep in mind a surprisingly large amount of information – in addition to basic details like where they live and work, it’s helpful to recall the more nuanced features of their existence, such as their friends, rivalries, past indiscretions, social standing, and what motivates them. Many faux pas are down to slip-ups with these basic assumptions, like asking a recently-fired friend about

It turns out there’s a link between the size of a primate’s brain, and size of the communities it is able to form: the bigger the brain, the greater the extent of its social world. With our generously proportioned organs, humans form the largest groups of any primate, containing an average of 150 individuals. This is “Dunbar’s number”

their job, or complaining about children to a soon-tobe-parent. In the end, the number of relationships we can maintain is limited by the amount of processing power we have available – and over millions of years, species with more social contacts tend to evolve larger their brains. It turns out this link works the other way around, too. In the short term, a lack of socialising can make them shrink. Last year, German scientists discovered that the brains of nine polar explorers, who lived in Antarctica for 14 months at a research station, were smaller by the end of the trip. By looking at MRI

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First up, psychologists aren’t actually concerned with exactly how many people you have access to. Instead, most research focuses on how you view your situation. “Solitude” involves being alone without being lonely – it’s a contented state, similar to the one Ansell achieved in the Welsh wilderness. “Loneliness” is a very different beast, in which a person feels isolated and craves more social contact. Research has shown that even when lonely people do have the opportunity to socialise, the feeling warps their perception of what’s going on. Ironically, this means that while it increases their yearning for social contact, it also impairs their ability to interact with others normally. CONTD. ON PG 15

MIND-BEHAVIOR

APRIL 2021

South Asia Times

How solitude and isolation can... CONTD. FROM PG 14 For example, people who feel isolated tend to have a heightened awareness of social threats – such as saying the wrong thing. They can easily fall into the trap of “confirmation bias”, in which they actively interpret the actions or words of others in a way that supports their negative outlook of their own status or social ability. By having low expectations of others and viewing themselves unfairly, they effectively invite people to treat them badly. Lonely people must also run the gauntlet of an impaired ability to regulate their own thoughts, feelings and behaviour. This skill is critical to the ability to comply with social norms, and involves constantly analysing and modifying your behaviour in relation to other people’s expectations. Alarmingly, this process is usually automatic – and your capacity for self-regulation can be affected without you even noticing. In this way, isolation can become a self-fulfilling prophecy known as “the loneliness loop”. It can lead to a toxic combination of low self-esteem, hostility, stress, pessimism and social anxiety – ultimately culminating in the isolated person distancing themselves from others even further. In a worst case scenario, loneliness can make people depressed, and a common symptom of depression is social withdrawal – again, not helpful. Intriguingly, even rats that live on their own also make less appealing social companions for other rats, to the extent that – rather tragically – they’re actively avoided by rats with more contacts. This suggests that there’s something “off” about them, and that shared social experiences are important for bonding in other animals too. For decades, solitude by choice was seen as more benign. Its benefits have been extolled for far longer by philosophers, religious leaders, indigenous peoples and artists. But there’s mounting evidence that withdrawing from society might have some unintended consequences, even if it’s done on purpose. Teenagers with a

preference for spending time alone tend to be less socially competent, and research has shown that, while some people might think that they prefer solitude, in reality, they enjoy connecting with others, even total strangers. These negative expectations are problematic, because they keep people from learning what actually happens when you interact with people.

But while there are welldocumented drawbacks to social isolation, the good news is that it’s not all bad. Positive solitude For one thing, Tashiro thinks it’s important to embrace a bit of social awkwardness – anecdotally, he’s heard from the partners of people who are shy or socially anxious that they make excellent companions, because they have to think more carefully about why someone might be feeling a certain way, or the best way to respond in different situations. “That thoughtfulness actually becomes really endearing,” he says.

So it seems that we do need social practice – but not for the reasons you might think. Regularly interacting with others teaches us to feel valued and helps us to accurately interpret the intentions of others, which helps us to have more positive social experiences. According to Ty Tashiro, a psychologist and the author of Awkward: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome, it seems plausible that we are becoming collectively more awkward at the moment. But he’s keen to stress that for most people, any resulting slip-ups are likely to be extremely minor. “These tiny deviations from what’s socially expected in these situations can create a tremendous amount of embarrassment – and that just shows you how fine-tuned the human mind is to pick up on social expectations, and then assess whether we're meeting them,” says Tashiro. Socially awkward children As for those who are still developing their skills, the more exposure you have, the better you’ll get. “Kids and teenagers do need to have face-to-face interactions,” says Tashiro. “Because they have to learn about the abundance of social cues and expectations that happen when you're in a real-life situation.” He explains that this is even more important for people who are naturally predisposed to be awkward, including himself. “When I was in middle school, going into high school, I felt kind of bad about my social skills. And one of the realisations I had was that we're just a little slower to pick up these things. I wasn't very intuitive, but that was okay.” To compensate, Tashiro made more of a conscious

effort to be socially aware, and spent time practising. This is backed up by an abundance of research, including studies into the effects of extreme isolation in other animals, which suggests that social experience is particularly important when the brain is still developing. Kids and teenagers do need to have face-to-face interactions – Ty Tashiro When rats are raised alone, their brains develop to be smaller and their behaviour is so altered that they’re often used as an animal model for schizophrenia, in which one of the key symptoms is impaired social functioning. Meanwhile ants which are isolated from birth have smaller brains and behave differently to their peers, while social fish are less cooperative when they are reared in isolation. When scientists compared the behaviour of ex-laboratory chimpanzees who had been deprived of social contact either early or late in life, they found that those who had been alone from a younger age were less tolerant of invasions of their personal space, less likely to groom other members of the group (an important method of bonding), had less social initiative, and tended to form smaller networks of contacts. In human children, studies have found a direct link between the amount of social practice they get

and their social skills. In one group of Portuguese pre-schoolers, those who increased their social engagement experienced a corresponding boost to their social abilities, while participating in afterschool activities has been repeatedly shown to help – even sport. Meanwhile, children who have more siblings tend to be more adept at navigating the social world, and as with adults, children who spend more time alone are more susceptible to interpreting social situations in selfdefeating ways. And where better for children to find companions to practise on than at school. Even before the pandemic, a surprisingly large number of children around the world were not educated this way; as of 2012, there were 1.8 million home-schooled children in the US. But now some experts have predicted that we’re on the cusp of a revolution, with remote learning poised to replace more and more face-to-face interactions with teachers. There has been concern about the risks of a homebased education for years, and it’s been banned in Germany since 1919, on the grounds that school provides a training ground for social tolerance. However, this view is controversial – and while there’s some evidence that home-schooled children are less socially competent, as adults they tend to be more civically engaged than those who were not.

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Ansell, on the hand, is keen to stress how positive he found his experiences with solitude, and the importance of adopting the right attitude. “I think that people struggle, very often, because they don't do it for long enough,” he says. He saw the opportunity to live alone in the Welsh mountains as a challenge, to see how self-sufficient he could be. The test wasn’t just about being alone. Ansell had no running water, no electricity, no vehicle, no phone, and he grew most of his own food or foraged for it. “But what soon happened was that it no longer felt like a challenge,” he says. “It just felt like me living my life, it began to feel like my normal state of being.” Crucially, Ansell had no idea how long his solitude would last. “I think when people go off on retreats and things like that, they've always got their eye on the end – the time that they'll be going back to ‘normal’,” he says. “But because what I was doing was unplanned, and I had no fixed ending to what I was doing. I just immersed myself in it as fully as I could.” Even today, having written three books – the most recent, The Circling Sky: On Nature and Belonging in an Ancient Forest is out in 2021 – Ansell says he continues to benefit from his five years of solitude. In the end, he knows that if everything goes wrong and he ends up alone, in a crumbling cottage in the middle of nowhere – well, things could be worse. Source- bbc.com/news, 23 Oct 2020

book review

South Asia Times

APRIL 2021

Buddha in Gandhara

By Mehru Jaffer*

n her search for connecting civilisations, Sunita Dwivedi has been on the road for decades. Buddha in Gandhara (by Sunita Dwivedi is published by Rupa, 2020) is her fourth book. It recreates a journey in the footsteps of Buddhism, along the Lahore-Peshawar and Kabul-Samangan routes to the once thriving cities of Gandhara. The seed of her travels in Gandhara was sown nearly two decades ago in the verdant Ferghana Valley of Uzbekistan. Ever since she has been following the trail of travellers and traders of ancient India who came to Ferghana for the best wine, heavenly horses and silk. In return they left many of their gods and goddesses in the valley. On one of her trips, the author was lucky to be on the excavation site. In the valley an array of Indian deities were found. About 30 km from Ferghana at the local museum of Kuva she discovered that goddesses Sridevi, Manjushri and Kubera were once worshipped by the inhabitants. This is much before Islam became the dominant religion in the region. Centuries of trade along the Wakhan Corridor drectly into the Pamirs throught the Khunjerab Pass via Kashgar closely connected Gandhara and Ferghana. As proof of the links between the two regions, there are carvings of horses- the famous flying Ferghanian breed that was sent to Ancient India in thousands –and inscriptions of pilgrims who travelled to the Gandharan Buddhist sites. Thus, it should come as no surprise to learn that while building the great stucco Buddha colossi of Kuva, moulds were produced in the ateliers of Gandhara, a region famous for its stucco artists. Gandhara includes the Northwest Frontier regions of Pakistan and eastern and north-eastern Afghanistan. This area has been a part of the colossal Buddhist corridor that connected the Bay of Bengal with Balkh through the ancient Uttarapath, the northern highroad. The road was known as the Sher Shah Suri Marg in medieval times and the Grand Trunk Road in present times. The 300 pages of the book are filled with colourful tales brought back by the author from her extensive travels. Like this one. Most think that the Buddha

moved around only within the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. However there are records that point out that the Buddha may have even visited Gandhara. There is evidence that the Buddha had accurate knowledge of the relatively egalitarian Greek society living in the frontier regions of India. In a debate with a Brahmin the Buddha had wondered if a person’s worth as a person is determined by birth or by behaviour. The glorious Gandhara area is synonymous with Buddha’s dhamma doctrine and spellbinding Gandharan art. The author walks the reader from monastery to monastery shedding bright light on remnants of millions of monastic centres, pointing out the artistic genius of

anonymous craftsmen who embellished the countless places of Buddhist worship. The Gandhara region is considered the atelier from where that rare imagery of the Buddha and bodhisattvas arose. The Buddha may have fasted in Bodhgaya but the first sculpture of the fasting Buddha is said to have been carved and etched in stone at Sikri a small village of Gandhara near Mardan. While the first stupa for the Buddha relics was erected in Balkh by merchants from Bactra. The Buddha had performed the great miracle at Sravasti in Bahraich, a remote little district in eastern India but depiction of the miracle became a favourite theme for stone cutter’s art in the villages of Kabul and Kapisa.

Gandhara is the land that gave birth to the idea of Buddha as a magnificent divine deity. And inspired by that idea Buddha images were placed in the tall niches of monasteries along the river valleys of Gandhara. This route brought flourishing pilgrim traffic along the Asian trade routes from as far as Central Asia and China. Emperor Asoka was instrumental in reducing the teachings of Buddhism to stories. It is Asoka who encouraged an artistic presentation of the Buddha in sculptures and paintings along with the use of symbols such as the lotus tree, wheel and pagoda to represent the life of the Buddha. Asoka put pillar and rock inscriptions with dhamma instructions written also in Greek.

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Asoka was viceroy of Taxila during his early days when he planted shady banyan trees and provided all kinds of amenities for travellers in public places. Over the centuries seeds from those very trees have sprouted, grown, died and regrown over several centuries. Groves of old banyan trees can still be seen lining the Grand Trunk Road are reminders of the benevolence of the great Maurayan emperor. They continue to provide shelter and shade to travellers who take the same road perhaps for the same purpose of trade. Travelling through the Buddhist corridor of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the author came across the remains of a vast number of monastic sites and excavated mounds brimming over with stupas, shrines, assembly halls, stupa courts and bath houses, images of the Buddha and bodhisattvas. Treasures found on these sites can be seen in the museums of Pakistan in Lahore, Taxila and Peshwar. Museums in Delhi, Patna and Kolkata and far beyond in St Petersburg, Rome, Milan, Paris and London also display art found in Gandhara. Art historians describe the unique style of this art as hybrid as it combines influences from India, Greece, Rome and Persia. The mixed art style is famously called Greco-Buddhist, GrecoRoman Buddhist and IndoHellenistic art. The author finds majesty in the remains of the many monasteries that have braved the fury of Nature and of time, and survived human greed. The antiquity of the monasteries stands as an undying symbol of peace and scholarship in the midst of strife and ignorance. The Buddhist monasteries are a reminder of Asia’s splendid heritage from times when South Asia was one continous home before the region was carved into several nation states that imprison citizens with closed borders. The author concludes that this 2,000 km long Buddhist corridor has immense potential for heritage tourism in countries located along the Uttarapath in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Hopefully this splendid book will inspire authorities to revive their respective pride in the glorious Gandhara region and make the historic area it a little more accessible to all citizens as well. *Mehru Jaffer is a Lucknow based author & journalist. Source- thecitizen.in, 1 February 2021.

SCIENCE

APRIL 2021

South Asia Times

Measurement and Units

By Dr Cameron Ahmad

rampton, Canada, 26 March 2021: What do we mean by units and why is measurement important? Are they connected? If yes, How? And why is it important to measure at all? A very fundamental set of questions, get raised in our minds as we grow. As a toddler when one asks for more candies or ice cream from parents, they realize it is time to start teaching the counting, using such an opportunity to their child. For a child numbers and every human being, they form the root of mathematics, which leads to units and measurements viz., from an abstract thing to a physical entity. One can never find a child being taught numbers without the aid of pictures of fruits, flowers, animals, etc. The reason, concept of numbers is abstract and the mind of a toddler is not yet grown enough to convert an abstract thing into a physical entity. A child does not know of “One, Two, Three, etc.”! It is

only by seducing the child with candies or by pictures of fruits, flowers, pets, etc., that the abstractness of the numbers is replaced by making the child connect the dots physically. It is only after this a child enters into the world of physical measurements; with which he/she then deals all its life. But units are still a far-off concept. Once the child starts recognizing numbers, he/ she is then taught to say measure the length of their

room by using their steps. So, in the end, if their room length say takes their 10 steps to get traversed, now they can be told the concept of unit. Meaning the length of their room is “10 steps” of their own. So, the unit here is “STEP”, otherwise saying just 10 will make no sense unless 10 steps are stated together! In other words, separating the unit from measurements carried out will not make any logical sense. But still how and why measurement and units

should be linked remains a puzzle for a growing child. This puzzle gets solved once the child recognizes the consumption of milk or fruit juice which he/she is asked to consume in breakfast before going to his/her school. The amount (measurement like in the case of the length of their room) of milk or juice they consume can at the start be described as One Glass. So, the quantity of milk/ juice gets the unit of One Glass or more if the child consumes that many. But

unlike the length which did not weigh but the glass of milk/juice does have weight. Hence, measurement of weight should have a unit itself, which here is “GLASS”! Is that a correct way to describe the quantity of liquid consumed, which is milk or juice in this case? So, between fruits, candies, milk, and juice as physical entities, we found there is a primary difference viz., of one being solids and the other liquids. There is one more, which is the air we breathe and it is a form of gas as a physical entity. We will talk about all these and their ways to measure and units in days to come. Interestingly, in Physics, the primary set of dimensions that we are concerned with are Mass (M), Length (L), and Time (T). And all measurements can be converted into these dimensionless quantities as MLT, which we will see while progressing to simplify the complexity of Physics as we go. For further details, read Halliday & Resnick’s Fundamentals of Physics.

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