New Delhi: Renowned scholar-politician and former Governor (Sadr-i-Riyasat) of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir Dr Karan Singh on Thursday 25 November released “Rendezvous with Tigers” by Bobbie Jamwal, a Coffee Table Book compiled by Kiran Jamwal in memory of her late husband Kr Kanweshwar Singh Jamwal to mark his 64th birth anniversary.
The book release function was held at Dr Karan Singh’s residence in the capital.
Rendezvous with Tigers is a collection of beautiful pictures and heartfelt writeups by Bobbie Jamwal on the tigers of Ranthambore. Kanweshwar Singh Jamwal, who was popular as Bobbie among friends, had shot these photos during his many visits to the world famous Tiger Reserve. Its a sincere tribute to showcase his passion to save the tigers in India. The pictures capture amazing moods of the big cat.
Bobbie Jamwal
Bobbie’s collection has come forth after a life span of love for the wild – especially the tiger. Bobbie Jamwal as Managing Director Quest, India, was a front-ranking consultant in areas like InfoTech, Infrastructure, Eco-Technologies, Health Care, Aviation and Wildlife Conservation. He was an avid wildlife photographer and was deeply concerned about the fate of all species from tigers to birds and bees.
Bhubaneswar: Defending champions India opened their campaign with a shock defeat as they went down to unfancied France 4-5 in their opening match of the Junior Hockey World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium here this evening.
For the winner’s skipper, Timothy Clement (3), Benjamin Marque and Corentin Sellier (One each) were the goal scorers. For India, the goal scorers were Sanjay (3) and Uttam Singh (One)
Earlier in the morning Title contenders, Belgium and Germany commenced their campaigns with emphatic victories. Belgium outplayed South Africa 5-1, while Germany overwhelmed Pakistan 5-2.
The two-afternoon matches were closely fought affairs in which Poland surprised Canada 1-0 while Malaysia struggled to beat Chile 2-1
In the five matches of the day, 26 goals were scored with nine of them coming in a contest between India and France .
France surprised India with their tearaway attacks as they did not allow the hosts to settle down, Vivek Prasad led side looked disjointed and there was no coordination among the forwards while defenders looked tentative.. But for goalkeeper Prashant Chauhan, the defending champions could have lost the match by a bigger margin.
France caught Indian defence napping and was 2-0 up within seven minutes. Timothee Clement capitalised on a good attack sent the ball home with a reverse hit off a rebound after goalkeeper Prashant had made a good save.
Soon after France were 2-0 ahead after Benjamin Marque scored a superb field goal.
Indians however regrouped and drew parity in the first quarter itself, Uttam Singh scored a superb goal after a penalty corner was saved. The hosts, made it 2-2 when vice-captain Sanjay capitalized on a penalty corner
Clement scored the third goal for France in the 23rd minute (3-2) when he converted a penalty corner. The Indian forwards- Uttam Singh, Manjeet, and Yashdeep Siwach launched a number of attacks but failed to make use of them.
Clemens scored in the third quarter to make it 4-2 for France and then Corentin Sellier made it 5-2 to seal the match for the visitors.
India reduced the margin as they scored d two goals through penalty corner conversions by Sanjay but that proved too little and too late.
Hyderabad: Vani Kapoor blazed to 5-under 67 to take a three-shot lead at the end of the first round of the 13th Leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Boulder Hills Golf & Country Club, Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Vani, who has been searching for a win for quite some time, was even par for the front nine with one bogey on sixth which was compensated for by a birdie on ninth but was in electric form on the back nine with five birdies over the last seven holes.
Vani has of late begun to show the form that made her one of the most consistent golfers on the domestic circuit. In between, she seemed to have lost form but is now making up good performances. Playing steady, she navigated the front nine carefully and was all fire on the back nine.
Seher Atwal also had a good back nine with three birdies after being one-over for the front nine and was sole second.
Two others, Saaniya Sharma and Pranavi Urs carded 1-under 71 each for Tied-third, while Amandeep Drall and last week’s winner Jahanvi Bakshi shot even-par 72 each and were Tied-fifth.
Asmitha Sathish with three closing birdies carded 73 and was seventh, while Neha Tripathi had a 74 with no birdies and was Tied-eighth with Ridhima Dilawari. Ridhima carded two birdies in the first three holes but struggled thereafter and had no more birdies.
Oviya Reddi, Khushi Khanijau, Hitaashee Bakshi, and Shweta Mansingh were all tied-10th with cards of 75 each.
Seher, too, was rather quiet on the front stretch before picking three birdies against no bogeys on the return journey. With four players in the sub-par territory, it should be a close fight over the next two days.
There lived a habitual thief in a village. Villagers were exasperated with his nuisance. So the villagers decided to punish him. They chopped off his nose as punishment.
The thief could not show his face to anybody. He relinquished the village and went in hiding in a forest. Slowly his hair grew to be unkempt tresses. He hit upon the idea of faking himself as an ascetic and started doing meditation and reciting prayers.
Slowly his name got spread as an ascetic with nose chopped off. People started flocking to him. Some even offered to become his disciples. He initiated the disciples to his sect by chopping off their noses. Over the time, an entire religious sect got established where all members had their noses chopped off.
I read this story by Swami Vivekananda in my childhood. We used to lough aloud by imagining the appearances of the sect members. But the profound implications of this story, I realised much later.
I have closely observed the dynamics of growth of mediocres in a team or in an organisation. Many times misadvertently or by bad choice or deliberately to have a control of the team, a mediocre character is reposed with the responsibility of a team leader, bypassing many deserving and meritorious contenders.
While meritorious employees prove themselves with excellence, mediocres get strength from numbers of equally qualified colleagues. They quickly start ganging up with other mediocre colleagues to corner the meritorious ones. The meritorious colleagues, find themselves asphyxiated gradually in the environment of mediocrity. Then the survival instinct overpowers the meritorious members. They realise that if they start mimicking the other mediocres in the team, they will get acceptance and importance from the leader. This infection of mediocrity spreads fast. Very soon, the whole team turns out to act like a bunch of mediocres. Just like the sect, all of whose members have their nose chopped off.
It is no guarantee that the team will be a high performing one just because the team members are selected with care and with merit in mind. It is most important that due care is given in the choice of the leader. More often than not, it is the leader, not members, of the team who turn it into a bunch of mediocres. There is no dearth of examples where our industries and institutions end upturning from productive to mediocre ones simply because of faulty choice of leadership.More often than not, mediocrity seeps from top, not from bottom as conventional wisdom suggests.
Tapan Misra is a globally acclaimed distinguished scientist. He has headed the Space Application Centre and also served as Advisor in Department of Space. His contribution to ISRO and India’s Space Programme is immense.
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