Graduate Reference Letter - Berry College: Fill & Download for Free

***Opinion piece — personal experience only, no statistics implied***As an immigrant who came here as a teenager (late middle school) in the late 90s, here are a few “odd” customs that seem obvious to every “true born” American but plain odd to me as a naturalized one (note that odd does not equate to wrong, just something that didn’t seem very obvious to me; this is in no way intended to bash or offend, merely a reflection of my own culture shock when I first came and things I had to adjust to mentally as normal, regular or accepted):Eating popcorn is strongly associated with a movie going experience — must be a marketing propaganda working very effectively. Admittedly, I’ve too come to associate the taste of popcorn with the movies (or some performing art event even if it’s not the movies)People go to the “ball park” for recreation — i.e. to watch baseball games. It was an odd choice for me. I grew up going to the theater. I have found again and again going to the symphony, for example, that the median age is well above 60 — yet this is something that seemed very normal to do where I am from in Eastern Europe for families.Hot dogs and beer — this goes hand in hand with the ball park — this is apparently a nearly religious level, untouchable experience / tradition that cannot be broken or challengedSuperbowl — every February, everyone glues themselves to TV screens at the bars or at home (which must be a party occasion) to watch this very American version of football, a sport unknown elsewhere. People bet money on winning teams, and commercial brands everywhere shell out top dollar to attract highest level television audiences for a whole year for this most watched televised event of the year (exceeding audiences for the Olympics when they air)National days of just about anything — there is a national ice cream day and a national sibling day, for example. These aren’t official holidays but yet great opportunities for marketing (someone call Hallmark). And they seem to grow, with new ones added every year. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’ll soon have national days every single day, with multiple occasions, and you’ll have to pick whether to celebrate your sibling or, say, a cat day (perhaps get your sibling to hold your cat for a photo?)Christmas cards / photos and gift exchange frenzy. People go out of their way to mail you a photo of themselves and their pet / new child etc., even if you are completely unrelated to them (and probably don’t care all that much, let’s be very honest). People take decorating their house and yard (if any) for holiday occasion very seriously. Lights are taken down and trees removed immediately following the New Year, sometimes even before. Christmas music heard sometimes a month in advance of the holiday in many commercial dwelling spaces such as restaurants and shopping malls.Offices and cubicles decorated with a lot of personal paraphernalia such as photos of babiesPeople dressing their petsPeople name wild animals, e.g. someone has a pet fish / tarantula named Jack or there is a lion named John at the zooPink and blue. I had no idea before, - -I suppose, it’s another aftermath of a highly successful marketing phenomenon I refer to as “Disney culture” — but my own culture shock was the realization that there is a fairly acknowledged concept of gendered colors. I still prefer dark colors personally, e.g. dark green / brown, but find it tricky to shop for such colors at a minimum for girls (adult styles are much more neutral). It doesn’t end with clothes — bicycles, gear, everything MUST be pink, or somehow your child is no longer considered girly. Very odd.Bathing suits /bikinis on little girls — in the old world, all the little kids just ran around the beach bare, and there was no distinction in swimwear for girls vs. boys until adolescenceBoy-only and girl-only schools (vs. coed), there is even a YMCA and a different YWCA (and of course a JCC). ***nowadays, the gender / religious affiliation are not required to join***This one is strictly in comparison with the former USSR, but I found it odd that the schoolchildren would not stand up to greet their teachers upon entering - this was a sign of respect in the old country. Also, no uniforms and everyone wears something different daily, and it’s considered nearly unsanitary to appear wearing the same outfit 2 days in a rowReciting the pledge of allegiance to the Flag in public school dailySchool busesSpeaking in second person when discussing arbitrary situations, i.e., “You can’t just cross the street without a crosswalk, that would be jaywalking”. (More natural would have been a passive third person, i.e. “One oughtn’t…”Thanksgiving and Christmas are public holidays, but there is freedom of religion and separation of church and state (presumably). (Who or what are we giving thanks to?)JournalingIn middle school, I found it odd to have assignments on freeform writing on topics such as “What am I grateful for today”. I was used to much more either analytical writing pieces on literature or hard science.CheerleadingNerds, jocks, bulliesFraternities and sororities, initiation ritualsOnly having about 6 subjects a year in school, and classes would repeat daily. (In comparison, in Eastern Europe, even middle school curriculum would consist of about 22 courses, which would be offered about twice a week with the exception of mathematics, which was 6 hours a week in my class with intensive physics and mathematics focus)Lack of cursiveToilets — the facilities — are called bathrooms or restrooms; the actual basin is the toilet here.People sit on public toiletsNo permanent circus arts except in Las Vegas, “the entertainment capital”; traveling troupes are much more common, with visiting tours in big citiesNo global musical scene, with the exception of other English speaking countries. No one would know popular Italian, French or Russian artists unless they happen to be hobbyists or in the tradeDriving is allowed at 16 and even 15 with a parentGiant backyards, stairs inside houses, basements and attics, multiple bathrooms in a single family homeThe existence and appeal of suburbiaPeople caring about politicians’ personal lives, family etc. No one in the old country cared or often knew even the names of a politician’s spouse, much less care about someone’s lifestyle behind closed doors. That said, seeing / hearing a politician speak on the radio or TV was a daily occurrence where I was from, but here it’s only on a few select stations.Media / TV stations change from city to cityGun laws — another untouchable, near riot-worthy topicFreedom of speech taken to every level right or wrongHighway country and lack of central transitStates have nearly independent authority on everythingDriver licenses are much more ubiquitous than passportsLandscaping (ie the requirement to trim the bushes on your property)Political correctness (which nearly repeals the aforementioned freedom of speech)Obvious instructions existing solely for legal reasons, i.e. instructions on hair dryers stating “not for internal use”Existence of a return policy on most purchased items. Receipts given for everything (or offered)Lack of public telephones, especially since the widespread use of mobile phones, even at international hubs such as airports, where they still exist but sparinglyCollect calls and toll phone numbers. There is an 800- number for everything.State capitals may not coincide with a culturally or socially popular city. E.g., the capital city of the state of California is Sacramento, not San Francisco or Los Angeles, possibly its best known cities. New York City is not the capital of New York State.Tips for customary service, such as restaurants, on top of the listed menu priceBargaining at retail is typically unusual, unless you are at a place like a “flea market”. The label price tag is the final non-negotiable price. Sales prices are determined by the retailer / owner. The exception to this is things that are sold person to person, such as a car, where a lot of back and forth negotiating may happen; and real property where there is a whole complicated system of offering and counter-offering that’s fairly expected. Business negotiations of course are a whole other concept too.Grocery store baggers, shopping carts, spaces for shopping carts, escalators for shopping carts (the latter I've only seen in Seattle)Size and prevalence of (painted/designated) parking lotsThe sheer variety of flavors of everything; probably 17 different brands or names for the same (or similar) thing, yogurt that comes in colors and flavors, many different kinds of marinara sauce etc. Free markets, at its bestWeddings are planned for a year, sometimes years. People stay engaged for years.Baby showers (i.e. throwing a party in anticipation of a not-yet-born baby, largely to collect gifts / well wishes and celebrate with close friends and family)Planning one’s own funeral or discussing funeral plans with one’s relatives, buying a future burial plot of land for oneself or a loved oneHalloweenHallmark cards, birthday cakes for adults (complete with birthday cake candles), packaged gifts for adults (wrapping paper and all)Pension plans can be / frequently are invested in the volatile stock market. Government pension (social security) paid around age 80 if you were born after 1980, while the median life span is around 69–72Asking one’s age or income, or even a price paid on a house is considered taboo, but asking where someone is from is commonplace (at least in my experience as a person with a noticeable “foreign” accent)Strangers smile at you for no apparent reason other than to appear friendlyFormal invitations are sent to even closest family members for formal occasions (e.g. weddings, anniversaries, graduations)It is impolite to come to someone’s house without a formal invitation in advance, even for neighbors, close friends or family. At the same time, people often show up completely empty handed to a party or dinnerNo slippers / bathrobes worn in the house, usually full outfits and even shoes (this one I’m unsure about still). Pants / shorts worn as sleepwear. Pajamas / undergarments worn outside at school dorms in cafeterias, sometimes even out and about by teenagersSmoking bans in most indoor spacesPornography is legal (and highly lucrative)“Pot” (marijuana) is legal in numerous states(This gem might be unique to Seattle) People coming to the planetarium to get high, not to, say, learn about the planetsGraduating from high school is a very big deal and a pride factor for manyDisneyland as a must visit destinationThe concept of “projects” (low income housing buildings, sections, or whole neighborhoods — modern day “ghettoes”)Widespread homelessness and begging in the large cities, abandoned looking, urine infested subway stations in major central hubs of large cities (where they even exist)Traffic lights are different for pedestrians than for drivers, and the sequence is red back to green, skipping yellow on the change from redRoad signs are labeled with words, not assumed to be understoodThe mall is a favorite pastime (literally, way to pass time) for kids / families — besides the ball park, of coursePhotographing or videotaping live human birth, handing out ultrasound film to family members (or posting it to social media) ahead of a birth, and having the father heavily involved in the birthing process including cutting the umbilical cord (in the old country, men would have been strictly forbidden from the room, if nothing else, for sanitary reasons)Spelling words one letter at a time and spelling contests (called spelling bees), which reward correct writing. However, no dictation tests are givenTests are scored based on multiple choices. Open ended exams are highly uncommon (except in advanced placement courses in high school — considered college level and earned for college credit), and verbal exams or proofs are nearly nonexistentKids are taught to do “whatever makes them happy”, with little regard for consequence or poor choices. Learning from mistakes is considered a great merit.College students are considered and called colloquially college “kids”. They may remain on their parents’ health insurance up until age 26 as a dependent. Legal age / being of adult age is considered 21, but age to give consensus to a romantic relationship ranges from 16–18 by state. However, persons age 18 (considered to have reached adulthood in most places around the world) are able to leave the home to go to college, though most will continue to depend on the parents for support for many more years — but it’s customary to separate from the parents to go to college or as a sign of having gained independence. Alcohol consumption is restricted until age 21, even in the presence of parents, and parents can get in a lot of trouble for allowing it. In the meantime, college drinking / binge parties and overdosing are commonplace.Sports team jersey merchandiseTardiness at school gets you detention (requirement to stay after school, but not to make up class; simply as a punishment / lockdown for the infraction). Multiple such detentions can grant you suspension, which, ironically, keeps you out of schoolHomerooms — schoolchildren gather in a room 15–30 minutes before class starts. That’s it, they gather for order and roll call. There is no lecture, instruction, or class.At school, there are class times just to “study” called “study hall” with no instructionHigh school proms (formal dances), with all of the hoopla and the surrounding social pressures; sweet 16’s; graduating at the end of elementary school, middle school, etc., the tradition of throwing caps in the air at graduation.People loudly cheering in stadiums at performances, speech acceptances, etc., especially if it’s someone they know personallyA formal wedding ceremony is required to legalize a marriage license in many states, ie it’s not sufficient to have a marriage certificate issued by a city / state official. A ceremony may involve saying vows, witnesses, and it’s not just a formality but an actual requirement.In courts of law (including for example the naturalization ceremony, or a jury duty), you are required to take an oath to tell the truth that ends with “so help me god”Jury duty: anyone 18 and older who is a citizen is required to participate in the randomly selected civic jury duty, which is to say, to sit in on a trial if required. It is a great honor and a way to participate in the system.Politicians openly accept campaign donations; mud slinging to berate opponents running for office is widely acceptedMilitary draft is not mandatory, and people are paid to serve in the militarySitting on the floor / carpetPutting food plates on the floor (such as in an auditorium)Standing seats in concertsNo feral animals seen on the streetsPeople cannot understand the metric systemPeople set aside savings, buy investments, buy expensive vacations, but claim they have no disposable money (i.e. no cash) — this took a long time to comprehend in social situations. Cash in general, in large sums (let’s say above $100) is suspicious. You’ll be questioned (literally or figuratively) for either money laundering or simply assumed to be filthy rich because you have a $100 bill. At the same time, people sell vehicles for cash everyday. Something somewhere is still missing in that one.People will warn you about reporting you for things like speeding, and then go ahead and do it — right in front of youHonkingMany topics are considered taboo because of possibility of lawsuit for slander or offense (see “political correctness”) or worse. The legal system is full of precedents that set forth a new norm, erring on the side of caution and sometimes absurdity around the degree of the fear of risk. While Americans on average are considered a generous people, with many offering help to charity through monetary contributions, gestures of actual, physical help can be met with suspicion and as a threat. One bus driver refused to help an old lady, clearly struggling, come up some steep steps — something most Europeans would have done without thinking. When I directly asked him, why, he said, “Lady, I don’t want to be sued for improper touching.”Airline staff will not help with bags, likely due to liabilityEvery kind of insurance: car insurance, home insurance, disability insurance, even life insurance (for when you’re… dead)Mass produced food is the only known variant. There is no concept of truly fresh produce, dairy, meat or freshly baked bread unless you are lucky enough to be close to a farmFoods I hadn’t seen or heard of previously: peanut butter, donuts, salsa. Pairings of bread with everything but butter: i.e. jam, and said peanut butter. Peanut butter and jelly is a staple. Salads are “dressed” with a variety of mixtures. (We only had the concept of sour cream, mayonnaise or oil as a dressing.)Obsessions with diets: low-fat, low-carb, Atkins, lactose free, gluten free, etc. At the same time, everything or nearly everything is overstuffed with preservatives, chemicals, and hormones for longevityAllergies to everything: food allergies, drug allergies. People knowing what allergies they have. Runny nose usually indicates allergy, not necessarily a cold (apparently)The idea of raw milk scares most people. How _did_ all those other humans survive this whole time?Mushrooms have a funny connotation, not the marinated kind your grandma made. Nobody goes berry picking unless you’re on a special farm and it’s a tourist activity.Soups taste like gravy and aren’t purely liquidSauce or condiments are paired with everything, and meats and cheeses are sandwiched in buns. Hot dogs must be on buns, or else you’re having a frank / sausage (which apparently are different, somehow)People frown on eating organs of poultry etc. That stuff is fed to the pigs.Tea is considered a British or oriental tradition. There are tea places but many cafes will only offer generic tea bag options or none at all, but high selections of coffeeChain restaurants, malls, department stores, specialty stores that look identical. Every suburban town has the same or nearly identical setup inside a mallPlastic and paper packaging is literally on everything. Nutrition labels are required on most packaged foods.The size of grocery storesAvailability of out of season fresh fruit year round (imported)Ice cream is a very underwhelning grocery store item available year-round in all sizes and flavors (but tasting overly sweet for European taste)Companies are religious about customer service. Companies go out of business for claims of poor customer service.A Chinatown in every large cityPeople recycle, and compost organic garbage / yard wasteThese expressions have specific connotations / associations: “going for a coffee” — usually a formal meeting such as with a business acquaintance, to get to know them or gather information, whether or not coffee is involved; “going out” = either dating someone (romantically) or going to a party or social gathering, depending on context in the way it is used; “going up”/ inviting someone up: an invitation for romantic contact at the end of a datePrevalence of cursing as accepted lexicon on TV (censored or not) as well as in comedy, while nudity is tabooHumor aimed at one’s family and parents in standup comedy, humor about farting. Acceptance of public farting in general, when you're an adult, particularly in gatherings of males in watching football or similar activitiesLaughter and choppy diction in local news anchor delivery (would be grounds to be fired in the old country)People smile on their state issued IDGangsta rap culture / subculturePrevalence of Spanish language TV and options (to accommodate huge and rapidly growing Hispanic immigrant and descendant population)Salesmen that come to your house, the whole home shopping business, and telemarketingMeasuring cities by blocksBuilt-in closetsJoint bath and toilet roomThere are probably many, many more that merely can’t come to the mind at the moment.

1.BLACK TIGER--AN INDIAN SPY, RAVINDER KAUSHIK, ALIAS NABI AHMAD SHAKIR, SERVED AS MAJOR IN PAK ARMYSarabjit Singh, an alleged Indian RAW agent, on death row in Paklistan, who was killed on April 26,2013 by some other inmates of the Pakistani Jail at KOT LAKHPAT in Lahore, was accorded MARTYR status by Government of India and a large number of political top brass of the country , attended his funeral at his village ,Bhikhi pind in Indian Punjab. A lot of monetary benefits were announced by state and central governments in return of his services rendered to the nation by late Sarabjit Singh.While Sarabjit got recognised, there are many such unknown heros of India who remain unheard and unsung. In fact some of them had carried out acts, which one only reads in SPY BOOKS or MOVIES. One such Indian HERO was RAVINDER KAUSHIK, alias NABI AHMAD SHAKIR. Bollywood movie, "EK THAA TIGER " was inspired by his life story. This man infiltrated Pakistan army; served as a Major for 10 years till his cover got blown off by overambitious goofy act of RAW, and he died unheard, uncared and unsung in a Pakistani jail. His is a very fascinating story.INDIAN SPY, RAVINDER KAUSHIK@ NABI AHMAD SHAKIR, SERVED AS A MAJOR IN THE PAKISTAN ARMY BETWEEN 1975 to 1985, WHO DIED IN A PAKISTANI JAIL in 2001, UNHEARD AND UNSUNG! DOES INDIA CARE FOR SUCH HEROS? DO INDIANS KNOW ABOUT HIM?Story is quite fascinating------ Read this:-The world of spy consists of oblivion, betrayal and torture. De...spite the threat of certain death, spies have never shied away from responsibility of putting their life in danger for the sake of their motherland. India intelligence agency is full of stories of such brave young men. Kashmir Singh, Sarabjit Singh and countless other unknown names who have laid their lives for their nation. However, not many are aware of the name Ravinder Kaushik.Ravinder Kaushik was born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan on April 11, 1952. He was a famous theater artist . He was 'spotted' by the Indian intelligence agency, RAW. He was offered a job of an undercover agent of India in Pakistan. Ravinder Kaushik was recruited by RAW and was given extensive training for two years He was taught Urdu language, circumcision was performed. He was made familiar with the topography of Pakistan and was given religious education. Being from Punjab-speaking Sri Ganganager, he was well versed in the language which is spoken in major part of Pakistan.His father, JM Kaushik had served in Indian Air force and after his retirement, was employed with a local textile mill. The family use to live in the old city, close to the mill. After studying in a Government school, Ravinder went to a private college. He was a good actor and was known for his mono-acting and mimicry. “He was one of the most popular students during his school and college days,” says Sukhdev Singh, who had studied with him in the local SD college.“Some time in 1971, he told my nana (Ravinder’s father) that he had got a job in Delhi and had to join immediately” Vashisth says.But in reality, Ravinder was handpicked by intelligence agencies and was asked to come to Delhi for training. He was given extensive training in Delhi for two years. Sunnat was performed on him to show him as a Muslim. He was taught Urdu, given religious education and acquainted with the topography and other details about Pakistan. Being from Punjab-speaking Sri Ganganager, he was well versed in the language which is spoken in major part of Pakistan.According to Vashisth, Kaushik was sent to Pakistan in around 1974. He was given the alias Nabi Ahmed Shakir and was shown a resident of Islamabad. He successfully got admission in Karachi University and completed his LLB. Later, he was able to become a commissioned officer in Pakistan Army. He rose to become a Major.Soon after, he got married to one Amanat, who belong to a well off family. He also became father of a girl.He visited India three to four times. His recruiters would ask him to come to Dubai and from there, he would reach Delhi on his Indian passport.“In 1979, he carried out a major operation that won him accolades from his bosses. His code name was changed to “Black Tiger,” in recognition of his services” Vashisth says. But some time in 1983, the luck of this master spy ran out. Indian intelligence agencies had sent an agent to get in touch with Black Tiger. But the agent was caught by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.During interrogation, he broke down and revealed his purpose. He identified Black Tiger and Kaushik was arrested immediately. He was awarded death sentence, which he contested in the Supreme Court there. It was converted into a life term. That was in 1990. He was kept in various jails, including Sialkot and Kot Lakhpat.During his imprisonment, he was able to secretly send out half a dozen letters to his father. “From these letters, we came to know the real life of Ravinder Kaushik. According to a letter received from Kot Lakhpat Superintendent, Kaushik died of TB some time in 2001. The family, during these years, had never received any communication from his handlers.“I want the producer of the film Ek Tha Tiger to acknowledge that the movie is based on the life of my mama. His story reaching the common man of the country is what would satisfy our family,”He was given the title of 'Black Tiger' by India's then home minister S.B. Chavan. Some testify that the title was conferred by then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. He spent 26 years of his life away from his home and family in Pakistan in very unfavourable conditions. India thwarted many Pakistan attempts based on the information received from Kaushik. On many occasions Pakistan prepared to wage war across the borders of Rajasthan in India, but they were foiled due to the timely advance warning given by Ravinder Kaushik, as he was a senior military officer in Pakistan by now and had access to top secret information. Ravinder Kaushik defied the Pakistan Army and its top class intelligence service for 26-long-years. They say, if you live by the sword, you die by one.His cover was blown after Indian intelligence sent another agent Inyat Masiha, to get in touch with Black Tiger. But the agent was caught by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and revealed Ravinder Kaushik's true identity. Kaushik was then captured, tortured for two years at an interrogation centre in Sialkot. Ravinder was awarded death sentence in the year 1985. His sentence was later commuted to a life term by the Pakistan Supreme court. Kaushik was kept in various jails, including Sialkot, Kot Lakhpat and in Mianwali jail for 16 years, where he contracted Asthma and TB.The brave spy managed to secretly send letters to his family in India, from inside the Pakistan jail, which revealed his poor health condition and the trauma faced by him in Pakistani jails. In one of his letters he wrote, "Kya Bharat jaise bade desh ke liye kurbani dene waalon ko yahi milta hai?" (Is this the reward a person gets for sacrificing his life for India?) On 21 November 2001, he succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis and heart disease in New Central Jail Multan. He was buried behind that jail.Both Kaushik’s brother and ailing 72-year-old mother Amladevi --- his father died of shock and heart failure --- have a grouse against the government: all their pleas since 1987 to secure Kaushik’s release from Pakistan custody fell on deaf ears. They wrote several letters, but got no response apart from foreign ministry despatches that “his case has been taken up with Pakistan”.One such letter from Amladevi to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee read: “Had he not been exposed, Kaushik would have been a senior army officer of the Pakistan government by now and (continued in) the coming years (serving India secretly).”2.Some excerpts from Man who saw the truth by Claude Arpi (emphasis added):Sydney Wignall is dead. He died on April 4 in the UK. But who is Sydney Wignall? Very few have ever heard of him in India.His obituary in The Telegraph (London) says: “Sydney Wignall, who has died aged 89, was an adventurer who, in 1955, led the first Welsh Himalayan Expedition with the intention of climbing Gurla Mandhata, at 25,355ft the highest peak in Chinese-occupied Tibet; in his book Spy on the Roof of the World, he recounted how he was captured by the Red Army and held in jail accused of being a CIA spy.”He was not a CIA agent; he worked for the Indian Military Intelligence, though...Though he died unknown in India, Wignall has done something great for India...Already during the mid-fifties, the Indian Army strongly suspected the Chinese of wanting to construct a road linking their new acquired provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang. Was the road crossing Indian territory?It is in London that Wignall was first contacted by Lt Col HW Tobin, the vice-president of the Himalayan Club and editor of the Himalayan Journal. Tobin asked Wignall if he would “do some friends a favour”. He was later introduced to an Intelligence officer, code-named ‘Singh’ from the Indian High Commission in London.Wignall was briefed by ‘Singh’ about the Chinese presence in Western Tibet and the possibility of the existence of a military road.Different incidents occurred in the early 50s which should have woken the Government of India out of its soporific Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai dream world.First, the harassment of the Indian trade agent in Gartok, which was without doubt linked with the work which had started on the Tibet-Xinjiang highway; in 1953, the Chinese even forced Jawaharlal Nehru to close the Indian agency as the presence of an Indian official was embarrassing for the PLA.Brigadier SS Mallik, then Indian Military Attaché in Beijing, made some references to the Chinese road-building activities in a report to the Government around that time; a year later, the Military Attaché would confirm the construction of the strategic highway through Indian territory in Aksai Chin.The mission given to Wignall by the soon to-be Indian Army Chief, General KS Thimayya, was to check the information. It was thought that the Chinese would not suspect an innocuous group of foreign mountaineers...Unfortunately, Wignall and his companions were captured soon after they crossed the border town of Taglakot (known as Purang in Tibetan).They, however, had the opportunity to witness the Chinese road-building activities.Although the Official Report of the 1962 War prepared by the Union Ministry of Defence mentions the famous road, it does not give any detail about Nehru’s biggest blunder: Ignoring for several years that a road being built on Indian territory. The Official Report states: “China started constructing motorable road in summer 1955. …On October 6, 1957, the Sinkiang-Tibet road was formally opened with a ceremony in Gartok and 12 trucks on a trial run from Yarkand reached Gartok.”It was Wignall who had informed the Government of India about the Chinese scheme. Wignall was eventually caught by the Chinese Army, interrogated and kept prisoner for several weeks.He was later released in the midst of winter in a high altitude pass. The Chinese had thought that he would never survive the blizzard or find his way back to India. But, after an incredible journey, he managed to reach India and was able to report to Lt Col ‘Baij’ Mehta, his contact in the Military Intelligence. The Army in turn informed the Prime Minister and VK Krishna Menon, the India’s arrogant Union Defence Minister.Wignall was later told by his Army contact: “Our illustrious Prime Minister Nehru, who is so busy on the world stage telling the rest of mankind how to live, has too little time to attend to the security of his own country. Your material was shown to Nehru by one of our senior officers, who plugged hard. He was criticised by Krishna Menon in Nehru’s presence for ‘lapping up American CIA agent-provocateur propaganda.’ Menon has completely suppressed your information.”“So it was all for nothing?” I [Wignall] asked. “Perhaps not”, Singh, Wignall’s contact, responded. “We will keep working away at Nehru. Some day he must see the light, and realise the threat communist Chinese occupation of Tibet poses for India.”Nehru saw the Light on October 20, 1962. Unfortunately, it was way too late.General Thimayya, who became Army Chief in 1957, was forced to retire in 1961. He said in his valedictory address to the Indian Army Officer Corps: “I hope that I am not leaving you as cannon fodder for the Chinese communists.”The Government of India did not acknowledge that already in 1955, it had information about the Aksai Chin road. The issue was discussed for the first time in the Lok Sabha in August 1959 only.Also read: Excerpts from “Art of War” and "My Dear Jawaharlal" - Sardar Patel's stark warning to Nehru on China - written in 1950..and the incredibly heroic story of the Param Virs of 1962..and finally, here is Sydney Wignall's Obituary from The Telegraph3. The Incredible Story of an Uncontacted Tribe MemberKarapiru escaped death when miners invaded his Brazilian forest home. But the harrowing experience wasn't his last.Survival InternationalHis name means "Hawk" in his language. Yet even with the acuity of vision the moniker suggests, Karapiru could not have foreseen the tragedy that befell his people, the Awá tribe of northeastern Brazil. He could never have imagined the day that he would have to flee for his life far into the rainforest, a shotgun pellet burning in his back, his family mown down by gunmen. Nor could he have known that this brutal day would be the first in a decade of solitude and silence.Karapiru's ancestral homeland lies in Maranhão state, between the equatorial forests of Amazonia to the west and the eastern savannahs. To the indigenous Awá, however, the land has only one name: Harakwá, or, "the place that we know."For centuries, their way of life has been one of peaceful symbiosis with the rainforest. But over the course of four decades, the Awá have witnessed the destruction of their homeland, and are now the most threatened tribe on earth.The 460 members of the Awá tribe live by hunting for wild pigs, tapirs and monkeys, traveling through the rainforest with 6-foot bows and by gathering forest produce: babaçu nuts, açaí berries, and honey. Some foods are considered to have special properties; others, such as vultures, bats, and the three-toed sloth, are forbidden. The Awá also travel by night, lighting the way with torches made from tree resin.The tribe nurtures orphaned animals as pets; they share their hammocks with raccoon-like coatis and split mangoes with green parakeets. Awá women even breastfeed capuchin and howler monkeys and have also been known to suckle small pigs.The Awá year is divided into "sun" and "rain"; the rains are controlled by celestial beings called mai ra who oversee vast reservoirs in the sky. When the moon is full, the men, their dark hair speckled white with king vulture feathers, commune with the spirits through a chant-induced trance, during a sacred ritual that lasts until dawn.For centuries, their way of life has been one of peaceful symbiosis with the rainforest. But over the course of four decades, they have witnessed the destruction of their homeland -- more than 30 percent of one of their territories has now been razed to make way for cattle ranches -- and the murder of their people at the hands of karaí, or non-Indians. Today they are one of the last nomadic tribes in Brazil. As they are so few in number (there are fewer than 100 uncontacted Awá, some of whom live outside any protected area), they are surrounded on all sides by hostile frontier forces such as ranchers, loggers and settlers who invade and kill with impunity; as a result, much of their forest has been destroyed. They are now also the most threatened tribe on Earth.Karapiru's harrowing story really begins with a chance discovery in 1967 when American geologists were carrying out an aerial survey of the region's mineral resources. When the helicopter needed to refuel, the pilot decided to land on a treeless summit high in the Carajás Mountains. One geologist reputedly noticed a scattering of black-grey rocks on the ground. In fact, the soil beneath him contained what a geological magazine would later refer to as, "a thick layer of Jaspilites and lenses of hard hematite." In layman's terms, the prospectors had just touched down on the planet's richest iron ore deposit.Their discovery swiftly gave rise to the development of the Great Carajas Project, an agro-industrial scheme financed by the U.S., Japan, the World Bank, and what was then known as the European Economic Community (now the European Union). It consisted of a dam, aluminium smelters, charcoal camps and cattle ranches. Tarmacked roads and a long-distance railway cut through the Awá tribe's territory in order to transport workers in and minerals out.The project's industrial showpiece was a chasm gouged from the forest floor -- one so vast that it could be seen from space -- and one which would, in time, become the world's largest opencast mine.The Great Carajás Project was devastating for the region's environment and its tribal peoples, despite the fact that in return for the billion-dollar loan, the financiers had asked the Brazilian government to guarantee that its indigenous territories would be mapped and protected.But there was a fortune to be made from the forest, so a flood of ranchers, settlers and loggers soon began to pour into the region. Huge bulldozers gouged the land, tearing through layers of soil and rock to reach ore, bauxite and manganese. Ancient trees were chopped and burned; the black of charcoal ash replaced the deep green of the forest's foliage: Harakwá became a polluted, scarred, muddy vision of hell.To the invaders the Awá tribe was nothing more than an obstacle to their territory's natural treasure trove; a primitive nuisance that they needed to fell together with the trees.So they started killing them.Some were inventive in their killings: several Awá died after eating flour laced with ant poison; a "gift" from a local farmer. Others, like Karapiru, were shot where they stood -- at home, in front of their families.Karapiru believed that he was the only member of his family to survive one such massacre. The killers murdered his wife, son, daughter, mother, brothers and sisters. Another son was wounded and captured.Severely traumatized, Karapiru escaped into the forest, lead shot embedded in his lower back. "There was no way of healing the wound. I couldn't put any medicine on my back, and I suffered a great deal," he told Fiona Watson, director of field and research at tribal rights organization Survival International. "The lead was hot in my back, bleeding. I don't know how it didn't become full of insects. But I managed to escape from the whites ."For the next 10 years, Karapiru was on the run. He walked for nearly 400 miles across the forested hills and plains of Maranhão state, crossing the sand dunes of the restingas and the broad rivers that flow into the Atlantic.He was terrified, hungry and alone. "It was very hard," he told Survival International. "I had no family to help me, and no one to talk to."He survived by eating honey and small Amazonian birds: parakeet, dove and the red-bellied thrush. At night, when howler monkeys called from the canopy, he slept high in the boughs of vast copaiba trees, among the orchids and rattan vines. When the grief and loneliness became too much, he would talk quietly to himself or hum as he walked.The land the Awá call Harakwá, "our place," is beginning to take on the appearance of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.More than a decade after he had witnessed the murder of his family, Karapiru was spotted by a farmer on the outskirts of a town in the neighboring state of Bahia. He was walking through a burned section of forest, carrying a machete, a few arrows, some water containers, and a chunk of smoked wild pig.They greeted each other. The farmer gave him shelter in exchange for chores, and provided him with food he had never eaten before -- manioc, rice, flour and coffee -- for which Karapiru developed a taste. He discovered a little about the ways of the karai, the white man, learning that his hosts kept cattle and slept in a bed, which he found extremely uncomfortable.He was a man who had spent ten years "fleeing from everything.""It was very sad," he says. But just as Hawk could not have envisaged his long years of suffering, neither could he have predicted the joy that was soon to come.Once news spread that a solitary, unknown Indian had emerged from the forest, an anthropologist visited him. Karapiru tried to recount his story, telling the anthropologist that he had seen his family brutally cut down; that he had spent a decade in silence and that he was now the only one left.But there was a problem: the anthropologist couldn't understand the language he spoke. Believing it to be part of the Tupi language group, he thought Karapiru might be a member of the Avá Canoeiro tribe, so officials from FUNAI, the government Indian affairs department, sent Karapiru to Brasilia. There he was introduced to Avá Canoeiro speakers, in the hope they would be able to understand each other. They couldn't. So in a final attempt to communicate with Karapiru, FUNAI sent a young Awá man called Xiramukû to talk with him.The meeting with Xiramuku was one Karapiru could never have imagined. Not only could Xiramuku understand Karapiru's language, but he used one specific Awá word that instantly transformed Karapiru's life: he called him "father." The man standing in front of Karapiru, talking to him in his mother tongue, was his son.Xiramuku persuaded his father to leave the farmer's house and live with him in the Awá village of Tiracambu. After years of isolation, Karapiru once more led an Awá way of life: eating game hunted in the rainforest, sleeping in a hammock, and keeping monkeys as pets.Since then, Survival International has discovered that Karapiru has remarried, has several children and lives near his son in an Awá village. "I feel good here with the other Awá"' he says, "I found my son after many years, which made me very happy."Survival InternationalAlthough Karapiru has found some measure of peace, his tribe's problems aren't over. Armed ranchers and criminal logging gangs, together with the grisly help of hired guns called pistoleiros are once again shooting the Awá on sight. "The invasions of white people in Awá territory is not good," says Karapiru. "We don't like it. After what happened to me, I try and hide from white people." Death is the usual price of indigenous resistance to invaders.Their forests are disappearing faster than in any other indigenous area in the Brazilian Amazon. "Satellite images reveal that over 30 percent of one Awá territory has already been destroyed, despite the land having been legally recognized," says Watson of Survival International. The land they call Harakwá, "our place," is beginning to take on the appearance of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Their forest is chopped down by loggers and colonists who work day and night to sell wood and clear land for cattle pasture.The forest game on which the Awá survive is becoming increasingly hard to find, as the animals die and bird life scatters. "The loggers are destroying our land," Pire'i Ma'a, an Awá man, told Watson recently. "Monkeys, peccaries and tapir are all running away. Everything is dying. We are all going to go hungry. We are not finding any game, because the white people use guns and kill all the game."The Carajás train, whose long cargo wagons rattle along the boiling tracks, carrying thousands of tons of iron ore, passes just yards from the forest where uncontacted Awá, who are some of the last uncontacted people on the planet, live. If forced into contact with outsiders, however, many could die. Survival International research has shown that up to 50 percent of uncontacted peoples die on first contact with outsiders from Western diseases to which they have no immunity.Almost a year later, the situation is still so serious that a Brazilian federal judge has described it as a "real genocide."Karapiru is now extremely concerned for his daughter's future. "I hope the same things that happened to me won't happen to my daughter," he says. "I hope she will eat lots of game, lots of fish, and grow up to be healthy. I hope it won't be like in my time."4. Briefly put: No Pāṇini, no software industry.Perhaps some may remember Pāṇini as the person who authored the most definitive treatise on Sanskrit Grammar – the Ashtadhyayi. What many do not know however, that Pāṇini was infact not only a grammarian but also a linguist, the foremost in the world at that. Why is this important? Because, again, he was not only the foremost linguist, but also the foremost mathematical linguist. So what? Well, Pāṇini’s rules for framing mathematical problems in simple phrases have been pivotal in the framing of a language called ALGOL 60, the 1960s precursor to modern day programming languages like Pascal and and the C family!!When Pāṇini’s work became known in Europe in the 19th century, many American and British linguists drew heavily from his ideas on structuralism, by which a language can be reproduced in a definitive form every single time an iteration of an operation is required. All the greats like Franz Bopp, Leonard Broomfeld and others extensively discussed and debated his rules for structural frameworks on languages. Along the way came a young man, Noam Chomsky, today regarded as one of the foremost intellectuals in the world, who also came under Pāṇini’s spell. So did another named Alan Turing.One thing led to another, and soon enough a new comprehensive computing language was born: the ALGOL 60, characterized as procedural, imperative and structured, which has been the predecessor of all “ALGOL like languages” which include Pascal, Ada, the C language family and so on. Yes, C, C+, C++ and et al!! There is even talk of renaming the Backus – Naur form, the original definition of a programmable language as defined by Pāṇini, using reiterative constraints on strings, as the Pāṇini – Backus form as it rightfully should be known!!5.Briefly put: No J.C.Bose, no communications.The odds this man overcame to achieve what he did were substantial to say the least. His thinking is now accepted to have been at least 60 years ahead of his time. And for what? Let’s see.Jagadish Chandra Bose, a true blue Bengali babu was born in Munshiganj in present day Bangladesh and raised in Calcutta. As a student with varied interests (he would later on become a leading authorirty on subjects as diverse as Physics, Plant Biology, Linguistics, Bengali Literature, Archaeology and Popular Science Fiction), Jagadish Chandra Bose at various points in his early student life had studied at University of London, University of Cambridge and St. Xavier’s Calcutta. Given the fact that the British pretty much didn’t like Indian presence in academia (they had good foresight, those Britishers), its an achievement in itself that Bose became a Professor of Physics at the Presidency College, Calcutta.What is even more remarkable is the fact that Bose was the first person in the world to successfully demonstrate remote wireless signalling in November 1894 at Kolkata’s town hall. Yes, without him, no radios or cell phones would have been possible today. Moreover, Bose was working unpaid at Presidency College (in protest against the low salary offered to Indian professors as compared to others), without a laboratory, in a small 24-square-foot (2.2 m2) room, with an untrained tinsmith as his sole assistant.Despite such odds, Bose quickly went on to publish two papers on Polarisation and Diffraction of waves. In those days wave receievers or detectors were termed as coherers. In 1895 the newspaper “The Englishman” noted, ”Should Professor Bose succeed in perfecting and patenting his ‘Coherer’, we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout the navigable world revolutionised by a Bengali scientist working single handed in Presidency College Laboratory.”In May 1897, two years after Bose’s public demonstration in Kolkata, Marconi conducted his own wireless signalling experiment on Salisbury Plain and in 1909 was awarded the Nobel Prize for the same, 14 years after Bose’s pioneering research. Marconi’s experiments would not have been possible if not for Bose’s initial research. Moreover, Bose is also the inventor of several components now commonplace in all wireless communications equipment from radars to radios like semi-conductor crystal wave detectors and so on. Sir Nevill Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked that “J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time” and “In fact, he had anticipated the existence of P-type and N-type semiconductors.”Then why doesn’t the world know him as well as Marconi? The reason, it turns out, is that Bose (like a true Bengali babu), had little patience with capitalist ideas like patents. He publicly expressed his disdain for patenting inventions, arguing that the greater common good is all that mattered. Marconi, on the other side, happily harbored no such misgivings, and the rest as they say is history. As we shall see, Bose is not the only one to be ignored by the Nobel Society in their annual awards.NARINDER SINGH KAPANY (BORN 1927)6.Briefly Put: No Narinder, no internet, no laser surgeries, no high speed communications.He is regarded as the founding father of Fibre Optics. Heck, he even coined the term Fibre Optics!! His groundbreaking research led to wide ranging applications in not just high speed communications, but also medical imaging from OFC networks to endoscopies to laser surgery. Born in 1927 in Moga, Punjab, he graduated from Agra University and went on to his Ph.D at Imperial College, London.There he became the first person in the world to demonstrate that light can travel in bent glass fibres. His research paper entitled “A Flexible Fiberscope, using Static Scanning” appeared in scientific journal Nature in its January 2, 1954 issue and paved the way for instruments such as endoscopes and laser probes. Kapany followed up this first paper with one published in Optica Acta in February 1955 entitled ‘Transparent Fibres for the Transmission of Optical Images’. As an author and lecturer, Kapany has published over 100 scientific papers and four books on opto-electronics. He has lectured to various national and international scientific societies. His popular article on Fibre optics in Scientific American in 1960 established the new term (Fibre optics); the article constitutes a reference point for the subject even today. In November 1999, Fortune magazine published profiles of seven people who have greatly influenced life in the twentieth century but are unsung heroes. Kapany was one of them.So when the 2009 Nobel for Physics went to Charles Kao for the discovery of Fibre Optics, the scientific community was stunned at the exclusion of Kapany. True, Kao also had made tremendous strides in the field, but his work was only the successor of the ground breaking research undertaken by Kapany, and built upon it. Once again, due to the blatant refusal to award Indians a Nobel (as has been the case with George Sudarshan,Satyendranath Bose, Jagadish Chandra Bose etc.), Kapany remains bereft of the recognition he so deserves.As has been in ages before and will be in ages hence, history’s depths throw up a few names, that rise above and shine as beacons of excellence for the wayfaring humanity to take courage and inspiration from. What happens to the many others who helped mankind progress in equal measure? Why are they bogged down to murky depths of oblivion with seeming randomness? Why is it that as a race of beings, we fail to take cognizance of some of the most stellar efforts that make us what we are today? Why is it that cruel life goes on unchanged, not realizing how it has indeed been phenomenally changed by men such as these? Why indeed? The silence, as always, is deafening….