Amur - the immortal

Ice forms in Amur in second week of October.
Upper reaches become ice-bound at the beginning of November.


Fed by monsoon rains in summer and autumn, Amur floods and fills from May to October.


Amur reaches it's lowest level in March and April.
And the spring flood is fed by melted snow run-off.


- Encyclopaedia Britannica

office of citizen

Walter Lippmann insight-fully pointed out that democracy can succeed only if it draws sustenance from civil society and it's institutions.

Addressing the University of Rochester in June 1936, he said that, "One of the reasons why democracy has worked in America is that outside the government and outside the party system, there have existed independent institutions and independent men."

"There have been free churches, free press, free universities and free men with sufficient secured property of their own, farms, factories, shops, professions, savings which were protected by the law. And not dependent on the will of elected or appointed officials."

Trade, business and industry constitute vital elements of civil society as indeed do teachers, educationists and journalists.

It is necessary that citizens strengthen civil society.
And help it's institutions break free, from the crippling reach of state power.

A G Noorani - When state fails, civil society steps in 
Deccan Chronicle, August 21, 2016.

raaja-tarangini

I find in Raaja-tarangini, - the thousand year old Kashmiri historic epic, of poet Kalhana, -  that the phrase is repeatedly used, in the sense of law and order.

It was duty of the ruler and state to preserve, dharma and abhaya – righteousness and absence of fear. 

Law was something more than mere law.
And order was, the fearlessness of people. 

How much more desirable is this idea of inculcating fearlessness, than of enforcing ‘order’ on a frightened populace!

 - Aung San Suu Kyi, 
Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture, New Delhi