The Week - COVER STORY

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

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The middle class icon is still passionate about his three Ws and an H�whisky, women, writing and humanity

By Kallol Bhattacherjee

It is winter in Delhi. And in Khushwant Singh's life. But the celebrated author, who turned 95 on February 2, has found a way to beat the chill. He is busy penning a novel which, he says, will be his last.

I am the only woman in his life

By Sadia Dehlvi

If you ask me about the women in Khushwant Singh�s life, I would say I am the only one. That�s how special he makes all those around him feel.
He is the light of our lives, who guides us with love, gentleness and candour. Women are drawn to him, as he plays the roles of a confidant, friend, father and mentor. Khushwant trusts people, and does not pronounce moral judgments.<

We need public stem cell banks

In stem cell therapies, doctors prefer cord blood stem cells wherever possible. These cells are na�ve and can be easily converted into any kind of cells.

The first preference is given to a completely matched sibling�s cord blood, and the second to a completely matched unrelated donor. To get matching cord blood, stem cell samples have to be imported from public stem cell banks in the west.

Stem cells are the future

INTERVIEW/MAYUR ABHAYA, PRESIDENT, LIFECELL INTERNATIONAL, CHENNAI

Banks can preserve cord blood cells for 21 years. How does it insure a child for a lifetime, which you claim it does?
Though their life expectancy has not been proved, they should potentially last a lifetime.

But stem cells are used in a stem cell-body mass ratio.< more

Our uncommon inheritance

25 PLACES THAT MADE HISTORY

Just places? No. These proper nouns shaped the history of our times

By Mathew T. George

There is no village in India, however mean, that has not a rich sthala purana, or legendary history, of its own.
Raja Rao, in his foreword to Kanthapura

Most proper nouns are like ZIP files.

Sanyasin Shraddha Mata had admitted affair with Nehru

INTERVIEW/KHUSHWANT SINGH

By Kallol Bhattacherjee

Even at 95, Khushwant Singh remains an unusual man. He laughs with gusto, screams at you when you err and knows well when to act vulnerable. Prod him a bit hard, and he will point at the hearing aids and says: �I have gone deaf!�
With his anecdotes, history and tales of infidelity and liaisons, he can effortlessly lift the mood of an evening.

Blood of discord

Private cord blood stem cell banks lure parents to invest lakhs of rupees on a promise they cannot guarantee��lifelong� health of their children

By Gunjan Sharma

Give your child its birthright, bank its cord blood.
Preserve your cord blood and live happily ever after.
Right time, right decision,
I secured my family with stem cell preservation.< more

Don�t go only by the promise

By Raveena Tandon

I was perhaps the first in the film fraternity to bank cord blood stem cells, of my daughter. It was five years back, when the technology was just launched in India. My husband and I read all about stem cell research, which was in its initial stages then, on the internet.
Cord blood is a waste that we throw away at the time of delivery.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR

Dear Reader,

Some places make history. Some others have history thrust upon them. Only a few are born to history. Ayodhya probably belongs to the last category. Infamous Godhra to the second. The first category has many contenders, the country�s largest call-centre hub Gurgaon among them. For this first special issue at the start of the second decade of the new millennium, which also marks the 60th anniversary of the Indian Republic, we chose as our theme 25 places that in the past few decades entered the history books, for happenings good, bad and ugly.

Shaken out of obscurity

POKHRAN

By Neha S. Bajpai

Cutting through the vast expanse of wasteland in the Thar desert is a somnolent town that wakes up only to the muezzin�s afternoon call to prayer. As the azaan from the mosque soars into the hazy, ochre-hued sky, Pokhran somewhat stirs to life.

Scattered over 200 sandy villages, which are home to the Rajputs, Bishnois, Meghwals and Army men on the move, this dusty scrubland seems happy to be in oblivion.

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