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The human genome sequence has been completed and shows some surprising findings. Despite having one-third less genes than estimated, human beings are still very complex. With access to disease genes, medicine and diagnostics will be revolutionised. However, this will also raise ethical questions on cloning and genetic privacy.

Hope In Hell
Four weeks after the earthquake, Gujarat is still coming to terms with the devastation. True grit is emerging from the rubble but it will be some time before lives are rebuilt. INDIA TODAY's teams went out across these death zones, capturing stories which record this renewal.

Simmer Time

Profitable Loss
36 With over 90,000 employees opting for the VRS scheme, PSU banks are set to get over their problem of overstaffing. But is it going to make banks more competitive in this age of automation? Besides, it is also going to cost more than Rs 7,500 crore and will deprive the banks of skilled workers.

Paper Money

Spreading Terror
The attacks on Delhi's Red Fort,
the Srinagar airport and the city's police control room show the Lashkar-e-Toiba is increasingly catching the Indian security forces unawares-and emerging as the most daring terrorist group from Pakistan.

Face Off
It's David Vs Goliath as India play an Australian demolition squad at home. What makes the Aussies tick and how can India take them on?

Cricketwatch:
Ashley Mallett

STATES: GUJARAT

DAWA TSERING & TEAM, KABRAU/DESALPAR
Heart & Soul

A group of Tibetan volunteers pour energy, prayer and practice into rebuilding two villages

The group sings a song in chorus, a lilting melody of freedom that no outsider can understand. But they know it must mean something for there to be so much emotion. "In our dream last night we were in our beloved Tibet/ But when we woke up we found ourselves in India/ We miss Tibet/ So let's get together and get what we desire: Tibet."

These days, when Dawa Tsering and his team of 134 Tibetan refugees wake up, they find themselves in a terrain somewhat removed from Lhasa's Potala Palace. Kabrau and Desalpar are villages near the triangle of death marked by Bhuj, Anjar and Bhachau. Kabrau tallies a deathcount of 72, and the village of 1,200 flattened. Desalpar, much smaller, records its 40 houses beyond salvage. And when they sing the song of Tibet, which ollows a heaving chant, "don't be selfish, be dedicated", Tsering & Co are usually lined up in a human chain, clearing debris with their bare hands.

It's a clash of cultures that few deride. At 9 a.m., when they start work, fresh from prayer, breakfast and plans for the day, villagers greet them in the traditional way, "Ram Ram." They reply with folded hands, "Ram Ram." If the accent sounds odd, nobody minds. When the team arrived in Bhuj on February 6, armed with Rs 22 lakh, a busload of provisions and the blessings of the Dalai Lama, they went straight into action, removing rubble with their hands to extricate bodies-they pulled out 10-from a spot that better equipped rescue teams had given up on. Another team went to Kabrau, almost untouched by officialdom, where the first building they cleared was the Ram temple, a pilgrimage for devotees from 70 villages in that area. This firmly established rapport with the villagers. "For the past 40 years India has looked after us as a mother looks after her child," says Tsering, team leader and a welfare officer with the Tibetan government in exile. "This is the time to repay that debt."

They are being realistic about it. Finding that Kabrau is too big a village for them to rebuild, with limited resources coming in from Tibetans settled abroad-their final purse won't cross Rs 60 lakh-the team decided to adopt the smaller village of Desalpar. A breakaway team of 70 is at work there, clearing debris, inquiring about quake-resistant house designs for their Desalpar project. They plan to rebuild the village again in about three months. Says Pasang Dolma, joint secretary of the Tibetan Women's Association and a team member: "Our contribution might be just a drop in the ocean but it is giving us tremendous self-satisfaction." Mahadev Patel, the sarpanch of Desalpar, won't have any of that. "To us it means everything," he says, adding, "these Tibetans have conquered us."

-Uday Mahurkar

MetroScape
Delhi On My Mind...
I'm very flattered to have this act of 'piracy' take place," laughs William Dalrymple, as extracts from his engrossing travelogue City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi were interpreted by photographer Agnes Montanari and art historian Nathalie Trouveroy in an exhibition.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi: Restaurant

Delhi: Exhibition

Mumbai: Exhibition

"I was very much against the idea of India," says William Dalrymple, author, The City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi. In conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro, he talks about his old girlfriend, Delhi and his "enormously exciting" next book, The White Moghuls in Interviews.