No, he is not my friend
By Belu Maheshwari

SOON Parliament will be faced with the question whether reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should be allowed to continue beyond January 26, 2000, or not. The founding fathers had opted for reservation as a special case to offset the wrongs perpetuated on the last varna for more than two millenniums — to allow them to obliterate the lingering effects of oppression, and also to allow them to catch up with the rest of the people for the true unification of the country.

• A memorable drive for Shahji, by Baljit Kang
• This surgeon is also a poet, by N. S. Tasneem
• A moment frozen into history, by Tarlochan Singh
• Say cheese with a smile, by Mridula
• Lessons from Pakistan, by Amardeep Bhattal

• Interview: "I am trying to create a tradition of my own", Girish Karnad tells Chaman Ahuja
• Fauji beat: Playing with pilots' lives, by Pritam Bhullar
• Laugh lines: Up the garden path and back by Amrita Dhingra
• Your option: Humility is strength, too by Taru Bahl
• Living space: Life in a glass pond, contends Harkiran Sodhi
• Nature: The hunting strategies of killer whales, observes Nutan Shukla
• Wide angle: There's Something About Mary, by Ervell E. Menezes
• Feedback: Card for cash
• Film and TV: Those were the days, my friend, by Mukesh Khosla
• Bollywood bhelpuri: Singing her way to fame, by Madhur Mittal