What was the Dalai Lama doing on the cover of the Christmas issue of the French fashion magazine Vogue's Christmas issue (see page 3)? He was the editor! Taking a step up from the newspaper columnist he already is (for The Times of India), the Dalai Lama decided to go chic. He apparently wrote some of the text and "helped caption the photographs".
The Indian Northeast is little better than Kalapani for Indian civil servants and journalists alike, according to Prasun Sonwalkar in the TOI. He reports that an unnamed "national" English daily treats its Shillong office "as the punishment posting for errant corresondents". (We had always thought that Kathmandu was reserved for that.) As for IAS officers, Sonwalkar writes that the cadre in the Northeast is generally manned by reluctant and disgruntled officers, many of whom "have no interest in the hills and find the tribals tiresome." The assignments are made without taking into account a particular officer's "aptitude, willingness. or suitability to a particular state." Apparently, career prospects for those serving in the Northeast are considered dim, as they are considered to lack "sufficient exposure and experience to deal with 'all India' matters." Oh really?
Indian Himalayans finally seem to be getting over the fear of flying. STOL-fever, which Nepal has long been afflicted with, is finally catching on in the Uttar Pradesh hills, perhaps egged on by private "air-taxis" keen to carry rich plainsfolk who want quick access to exotic valleys. The UNI agency reports that three new airstrips are to be commissioned over the course of the year in Kumaon and Garhwal —in Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts. The Chamoli airstrip will be at Gauchar ("cow pasture"), which was also the original name for Kathmandu's international airport until it became Tribhuvan. So Gauchar lives!
The 17 December issue of Nature, the science magazine, carries an 'article (page 647-651) with some complicated scientific mumbo jumbo on how the monsoons developed as the Himalaya arose from the sea of Tethys. Since this columnist could not follow the. drift, if you know what I mean, reproduced here is the printed summary for your edification: "General-circulation-model simulations used to estimate the sensitivity of the Indian monsoon to changes in orbital paramaters, the orography of Tibet-Himalaya, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and the extent of glacial-age surface boundary conditions show that increased elevations and increased summer solar radiation are most effective in strengthening the monsoon. Strong monsoons (similar to today's) can be induced by strong solar forcing only when the elevation is at least half that of today. These conditions may have been attained in the late Miocene." In simple English all this seems to be saying is that monsoon clouds deliver rain because the Himalaya block their path.