FESTIVAL

No Trick Or Treat? Get Creative To Celebrate

Halloween Safely

The tradition originated with the several safer, alternative ways to particiancient Celtic festival of Sampate in Halloween.” hain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to The CDC is urging people to avoid some ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, of the most beloved traditions of the Pope Gregory III designated November spooky season, including trick-or-treating 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All and indoor costume parties, due to the Saints Day incorporated some of the “high risk” they pose for spreading the traditions of Samhain. The evening before virus. was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved It’s also labelled haunted houses, hayinto a day of activities like trick-orrides with strangers, fall festivals outside treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive your community, drinking and “trunk or gatherings, donning costumes and eating treating” as higher-risk activities during treats. It is one the most awaited days of the pandemic. (Trunk-or-treating inthe year for kids who get to have loads of volves handing out candy from the trunk candy without any restrictions. of a car).The CDC recommended several

But, this year the scariest thing on Halholiday with people in your immediate loween night will not be people dressed household, including carving pumpkins, up in costumes to scare you off, but, it will watching movies and holding candy scavbe the invisible threat of COVID-19, and enger hunts. adults and children should change their plans to minimize that danger, according The agency also described some acto new guidance from the U.S. Centers for tivities that are moderately risky, such Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). as attending an outdoor costume party

The top U.S. health agency issued a new treating and visiting haunted forests while set of coronavirus safety recommendamaintaining more than two meters of tions on its website in what it described space from others.So, keeping all the risk as a “supplement” to existing safety factors in mind, it is only advisable to be measures in various states and cities. The careful, cautious and indulge in the fun guidelines are some of the first to emerge but also follow all the precautions ensuron a national level ahead of the Halloween ing maximum safety. season in the United States and Canada.

“Many traditional Halloween activities but, with love, care, and a lot of safety. can be high-risk for spreading viruses,” lower-risk activities for celebrating the in a mask, conducting one-way trick-orWe hope you enjoy all these festivals, the agency says on its website. “There are With inputs from www.globalnews.ca

India a Civilisational State re-architecting the Republic’

India is a Civilisational State engaged in a “grand undertaking to re-architect” the Republic. It should make a “clean break” from its “socialistic, feudal past” to maintain the momentum and should stake claim to be a world power, says a new book on the country’s journey as it approaches the 75th year of its Independence, even as it calls for course corrections in the areas of governance, bureaucracy, foreign policy and the judiciary.

“India is today attempting to achieve economic growth with individual freedom-expanding social change in a grand undertaking to rearchitect the republic. This India will be more secure, equal and prosperous, seeking a greater sway in world affairs,” Harish Madhusudan and Rajeev Mantri write in “A New Idea Of India” (Westland).

Noted economist Sanjeev Sanyal, in the Foreword, has described the book as “an important stop in India’s intellectual evolution”, a process that for six decades “has been dominated almost entirely by ideas and ideologies derived exclusively from various shades of the Left”.

The new way forward, the authors state, is a “clean break from the socialistic, feudal past” that is “just not the correct policy prescription for India but also makes for good politics”, something that “for reasons of dynastic politics and inertia”, most of India’s opposition parties have so far been slow to respond to the changed context”.

Depreciating that a “section of the Indian intelligentsia” have “gone so far” as to proclaim that “India should not become a superpower”, the authors assert: “At home to a sixth of all humanity, India can and should stake claim to be a world power. For India to succeed and all Indians to thrive and prosper, it falls upon our leaders to both recognize that there is an intense desire for a better tomorrow among India’s billion plus people , and to draw lessons from the mistakes made in the past.”

What then, are the course corrections required? book says, the size of the country’s diplomatic corps “is tiny” compared to its global ambitions - there are only 2,700 staff members and 912 Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers, with countries like China (4,500), Japan (5,700), France (6,000) and the US (20,000) way ahead.

Not only should India ramp up its diplomatic strength, the selection process needs to be revamped with a separate exam to select foreign (service) officers assessing them on “parameters such as international aptitude, curiosity about the world, knowledge or demonstrated interest in foreign affairs and communications skills”, as recommended by a parliamentary panel, the book says.

Then, the brief of the civil service is to execute the policy of the government of the day. “The argument that the bureaucracy acts as a check on the whims and fancies (even corrupt proclivities) of politicians isn’t sound. That’s not their job, but that of other institutions entrusted specifically with the task of maintaining trans

It also speaks of the need for bureaucrats to be given ample time to develop expertise based on their interest and governmental needs. For instance, after every bureaucratic reshuffle, it’s quite common, for example, that the urban development secretary has taken charge as the home secretary, the information and broadcasting secretary is shifted to personnel and training and the steel secretary has moved to the finance ministry.

“Such a system, based primarily on generalists, does not allow officers to build domain expertise and is highly detrimental to the administrative efficiency,” the authors write.

As for governance, the book states it rather pithily: “The truth is that almost India’s half of ministries could vanish tomorrow, and nobody would miss them”.

Why has it come to such a pass? “Ministries have to be literally invented to accommodate leaders and, when required, coalition partners. This situation also arises as India’s polity is also restricted when it comes

parency,” the book says.

to internal democracy.”

“Who Judges the Judges”, the book asks and points to the telling example of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), whose creation had been approved by both houses of Parliament, ratified by 16 state legislatures and finally assented to by the President of India. The Supreme Court, however, struck it down 4-1 on the ground that it violated the “basic structure” of the Constitution - but did not recommend or suggest a better framework.

The current Collegium system of appointments, the book says, “has given rise to nepotistic tendencies in the judiciary which the Constitution makers would never have fathomed - the rot is so deep that it competes with the scourge of dynastic politics, but while the latter has been widely critiqued and has to pass frequent electoral tests, the lack of public knowledge about the extent of dynastic sway in the legal world has saved the judicial establishment from scrutiny”.

There have been rare instance, though. Of the 28 incumbent Supreme Court judges, Outlook magazine reported in 2016, 11 “had either judges or legal luminaries as relatives”.

Read this book- it provides you much to ponder over. By: Vishnu Makhijani

Celebrating the healthcare

aides around us

Health Care professionals have tremendous difference in our lives and been tremendously workthis annual event has been recognized ing over the last few months by unions, educators, and employers. majorly due to the ongoing pandemic. They deserve all the love, Health Care Assistants may have care, and respect for everything that many different job titles including they have been doing on the frontline Community Health Worker, Residenand saving millions of lives around the tial Care Aide, Home Support Worker, world without caring for their own. Long-Term Care Aide, Home Health

In October 2012, the legislatures in Personal Care Aide.Please take the time Manitoba and British Columbia had on Health Care Assistant Day (October declared October 18 as Health Care Aide 18, 2020) to recognize and thank Health (Assistant) Day recognizing the work Care Assistants across Canada and of the women and men who provide around yourself. front-line care for our most vulnerable citizens. Health Care Assistants make a With inputs from: www.officeholidays.com

Thanksgiving: Lets be thankful for everything we have achieved in 2020.

Thanksgiving Day is observed in the month of October in Canada, in the US however, it is celebrated in the month of November. Even though the purpose of the festival remains the same almost everywhere, it is important that we celebrate the day by being grateful for a successful year and harvest.

The Thanksgiving holiday tradition in Canada dates back to when the English explorer, Martin Frobisher, came upon the land we now know as Canada while searching for a Northern passage to the Orient.

When Frobisher arrived in Canada on his third voyage in 1578, he held a formal ceremony where he gave thanks for surviving the long journey - one of his ships had been lost on the way. Frobisher celebrated with salt beef and peas. South of the border, it would be another 43 years before the Pilgrims sat down to celebrate their first Thanksgiving meal.

Thanksgiving became a nationally recognized holiday in Canada in 1879. The date of the holiday has moved around a few times since then, and settled on the current date in 1957.

Today, it is celebrated by gathering with loved ones and preparing the Thanksgiving Day meal, which usually includes turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and many other dishes. There are often regional variations on the meal. For instance, Newfoundlanders might hark back to Frobisher’s original feast and serve Jiggs’ dinner, a boiled meat dish often paired with a splitpea pudding. Instead of pumpkin pie, Ontarians often serve butter tarts, bite-sized pastry shells stuffed with a syrupy filling. Aide, Continuing Care Assistant, and

government offices are to be closed and so are many local amenities. Public transport is likely to run on a holiday or Sunday schedule. Banks are also closed along with the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, where the day isn’t a holiday, employers aren’t required to pay their employees for the day off so families often celebrate their thanksgiving on the Sunday before instead.

A Girl in a Whirl

Continued issue (Part 42)

Sunny set our luggage. All were feeling hungry.

I first had a shower and I felt a bit fresh. We all had brunch. I was feeling very sleepy. Baljit left for Jalandhar to attend his office saying that he would come back in the evening.

“Mom, please take care of Nancy now. I’m going to sleep for a while.”, I said and went to sleep.

Baljit’s visa

Baljit and I went to Delhi for our interview. They interviewed us one by one separately. The lady officer asked me such questions that I was shocked. She asked me what had happened between Baljit and me the first night. What should I have said that there was no relationship between us? My heart was beating very fast. I concocted a story and told her. They asked both of us to wait in the lobby after our interview. He was also asked almost similar questions in the interview. He also had concocted a story and told him. I felt everything had gone wrong. Baljit also got worried that they would consider us a fake couple and refuse immigration visa to Baljit. We planned to narrate a mixed story out of the two, in case we were called for an interview and asked again.

And they called Baljit in about two hours for a second interview. We had planned to narrate a similar mixed story in case they ask us again. Then, I was also called in half an hour. They repeated the same questions besides a few more. I answered our new story very carefully. After an one-hour interview, the officer asked me to wait in the lobby again. Baljit was already waiting there. They had asked Baljit the same questions again. We were hoping that Baljit would get a visa.

They called Baljit to wicket number four around 4:45 P.M. They handed over refusal papers to him saying that they felt our marriage was a fake one. We were very upset. We came out of the embassy. Baljit called Canada to tell about the refusal. Both, Baljit’s mom and dad were upset. They asked us not to worry. They also asked me and Meenu to return to Canada soon. They said that they would appeal against the decision and I had to explain everything to the lawyer in Canada. Both Meenu and I booked our tickets for Canada. We did some desired shopping. Amrit had asked Meenu to bring her driving licence along with a letter from the insurance company that she had never taken any accident claim in India. He had also bought Meenu three-month medical insurance plan because Canada didn’t cover medical insurance of a new immigrant for the first three months. The day of our departure came and all came to see us off at the Amritsar airport.

Continued in next edition

myrw rog Aqy iemiqhwn

Continued issue (Part 42)

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Continude in next issue

PROF AVTAR SINGH VIRDI