CELEBRATION OF SENSUALITY AND LIFE IN GHALIB’S POETRY

• HARBANS MUKHIA, Former Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University • Ghalib, the epitome of Urdu poets, is renowned for his poetry of sadness, loss and helplessness. He also amazes us with his celebration of sensuality and life. Seen as a counterpoint to the perception of life itself as a sin or punishment to atone for and avoidance of any sensual joy in some segments of human communities, Ghalib's poetry celebrates life itself, even a life immersed in sorrow. Read full story...

REVISITING OLD BOOKS, PLACES AND TV SHOWS IS MORE THAN NOSTALGIA

• ALLIE VOLPE, Journalist • Strangely, it is but not nostalgia that drives people to rewatch. There is something else at play here. Nostalgia is a yearning for the past. It’s a desire to go back to a previous time. It’s not so much people yearn for the past. It’s that the rewatching experience allows them to appreciate how much they had grown. Read full story...

HOW DOES SANTA CLAUS DELIVER GIFTS ALL OVER THE WORLD IN ONE NIGHT? SCIENCE HAS THE ANSWER

• VICTOR INGRASSIA, Journalist & Lawyer • Millions of houses and gifts, and only about 30 hours to visit each one and deliver them. That is the expanse this mythical figure of Christmas has to cover. Mathematicians and scientists analysed the way how Santa Claus achieves this, thanks to numerous calculations. Read full story..

LATA MANGESHKAR: THE GOD OF MUSIC WHO DWELLS IN ME

• PARTHASARATHI DESIKAN, Music Practitioner and Educator • Portrait by KUMAR JASAKIYA, Assistant Professor, Kala Bhavana, Viswa Bharati • Talent, hard work and meticulous training in Classical music made Lata Mangeshkar, the Queen of Melody. She believed, to excel in music training in the Classical genre is important. Read the story..

THE NAGA CONUNDRUM: UNDERSTANDING THE PAST

• LIEUTENANT GENERAL (Retd.) SHOKIN CHAUHAN, Indian Army • Northeast India is not a single entity with a common political destiny, This region shares an international border with the neighbouring countries, inhabit an area almost eight per cent that of India and is predominantly inhabited by tribes existing with a degree of diversity and autonomy even within themselves. Their existence was the result of ancient and continuous migrations from neighbouring regions. Further, what distinguishes these strategic tribal communities is that some of them have still not accepted the idea of India, resulting in the continuation of India’s longest insurgency. There is need to understand certain core issues of this extremely crucial matter and frame our response with sensitivity and wisdom and bring an end to this insurgency. Read full story

SATYAJIT RAY — GENIUS?

• ANDREW ROBINSON, Author and Journalist • Was Ray a genius? — a word which he himself used only for Charlie Chaplin and John Ford, among film-directors? Over seven years of researching and writing my biography, wherever he had gone in the seven decades of his life I tried to follow him in my mind. During this journey, I encountered many highly intelligent and creative people, including Nobel laureates, who keenly admired Ray’s films. Kurosawa told me: “Mr Ray is a wonderful and respectful man. I feel that he is a ‘giant’ of the movie industry”. Featured Image of Satyajit Ray by Raghu Rai. Read full story..

KUMARI PUJO – OFFERING OBEISANCE TO GIRL POWER

• PURNATMANANDA MAHARAJ, Principal, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Dhaka, Bangladesh • As the Devi's more fierce personification, which is chiefly worshipped, is Durga, her more benevolent side is worshipped as Uma, and this facet of her character is represented as both beauty and light. Read full story...

READING CAPITALISM PHILOLOGICALLY: THE HISTORY OF FONDACO

• JAIRUS BANAJI, historian and Research Associate, Department of Development Studies, SOAS, University of London • With the expansion of Islam, the funduq, transmuted form of the late Roman/Byzantine pandocheion, emerged as a purely commercial establishment. This is what is striking about it. In Basra in 943, al-Mas‛udi claims an ancient aristocratic abode built by one of the Prophet’s Companions had been reconverted to serve as the city’s leading funduq for ‘merchants, bankers (arbāb al-amwāl) and maritime businesses. Read full story...

THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN IS KILLING AFGHANS

• REVATI LAUL, Independent Journalist • A big international agency had decided on yet another save-their-souls strategy for Afghanistan, providing homes to people so they don’t get 'Talibanized'. But they didn’t trust the Afghans. So they only offered homes to those who had once fled the land and were in refugee camps. The agency provided bricks and cement and told the Afghan refugees they had to find their own money for the rest. What these homeless people ended up with were brick walls and windows covered with plastic because they could not afford to buy glass. Also, there was no provision for drainage or water or toilets. I leave the logic of this to your imagination, save for one word - imperial. 

THESE HIBAKUSHA SURVIVED THE ATOMIC BOMB: THEY NARRATE THE HORROR

• VINCENT BERNARD, former Editor-in-Chief, and Hitomi Homma, Communication Officer, ICRC, Tokyo • Interviewed three hibakusha The Edition features the voices of three hibakusha, those who survived the nuclear bombings in Japan. These hibakusha have shared their experiences with the hope that the readers will understand the horrors of nuclear weapons use. They have each suffered and witnessed the horrific suffering of others caused by nuclear weapons, and their families may continue to suffer medical problems for generations to come. Each calls for assurances that nuclear weapons will never be used again. These are their stories. Read full story...

THE 3 SECONDS DISASTER

• By SAMUEL OSBORNE, Journalist based in London, reports on international affairs, terrorism and refugee crisis • The world climate is in deep crisis. June 5 is a strong reminder of the global environmental disease. The ailment, perhaps, lethal than CoViD-19, is ticking away, literally, faster than time... Read full story.

ON EARTH, WE LIVE IN A VAST OCEAN

• By SARAH BARMAK, American journalist and author • Just like an ocean, air also has got currents that distribute warmth throughout the world, and it also has creatures moving through it.

DUTCH TEACHER KNITS DOLLS TO REMEMBER HER PUPILS DURING LOCKDOWN

Miss Ingeborg Meinster-Van der Duin, the primary school teacher, missed her students so much during the lockdown that she took to knitting tiny dolls resembling all the 23 kids in her class. The Edition features the teacher on the International Women's Day. While most parents are at least a tiny bit upset about schools being …

JANAKINATH REMARKED, “SUBHAS, ONE DAY YOU WILL BE THE GARIBALDI OF INDIA”

On the occassion of the 125th birth day of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, SURYA KUMAR BOSE, reminisces the bits and pieces of the personal anecdotes about Netaji, which his father Amiya Nath Bose who was the nephew of Netaji, relayed to him at different times in his life. I grew up at 1 Woodburn Park …

AS AN INTERNATIONALIST, RABINDRANATH ALL HIS LIFE CHALLENGED ‘WALLS’ AS MUCH AS HE CHAMPIONED SOCIAL INCLUSION

Tagore resisted walls of the mind with his deep humanism and sense of the inherent dignity of all people that led him to question the primacy or superiority of any culture over another. At Santiniketan, he wanted to dissolve the walls between the inside and the outside where connections were made possible between the curious …

THE MORE YOU SLEEP, THE SAFER YOU ARE FROM CORONA VIRUS ATTACK

Sleep is at the root of treating an arsenal of diseases as it improves a host of health parameters, enhances body metabolism and, very importantly, the immune system significant for fighting CoViD-19, and recent research suggests, melatonin, the sleep inducing chemical, could emerge as the treatment of choice to thwart the virus, writes JAMES HAMBLIN. …

RAMEN PREET KAUR: THE LADY WITH THE LIGHT FOR THE NEEDY

• JOSEPH S. SPENCE, SR. • Ramen Preet Kaur is an ardent social activist who live and help the needy people of the north Indian town of Dehradun in India live a good life. She has become a messiah for them for her tireless endeavour to uplift the downtrodden in the region. She has been …

SOUMITRA CHATTERJEE AND I

• PARTHA GHOSE • Distinguished Fellow, Tagore Centre For Natural Sciences and Philosophy, and Rabindrasangeet exponent. He can be reached at partha.ghose@gmail.com I came to know Soumitra Chatterjee many, many years ago, first casually and distantly but later more closely. I used to see him frequently in the College Street Coffee House during the late …

UNRESOLVED ‘DIFFERENCE IN PERCEPTION’ OF THE LAC LEAD TO OCCASSIONAL FLAREUPS BETWEEN INDIA AND CHINA

Border related skirmishes between India and China are repeatitive for decades. Following the 1962 Sino-India war, the next major bloodshed between the troops of the two nations happened in 1975. After a long lull, a Doklam in 2017 had again almost pushed the two nuclear powers on the verge of a full-scale battle although the …

BHANU BANDOPADHYAY, THE COMMON MAN’S COMEDIAN

In addition to being a loud and funny man, Bhanu, the ace comedian of Bengali films, also carried in his persona a political message – one that made his comedy the common man’s comedy, recounts SHARMISTHA GOOPTU on the comedian's birth centenary. Samyomoy Bandyopadhyay, whose stage name was Bhanu Bandopadhyay, was born on August 26, …

FULL TEXT OF NAGASAKI PEACE DECLARATION ON 75TH A-BOMB ANNIVERSARY

The following is the full text of the Peace Declaration read on Aug. 9 by Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue at a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the city on August 9, 1945. The true horror of nuclear weapons has not yet been adequately conveyed to the world at …

“EMMANUEL MACRON, YOU HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED THE ABSOLUTE INHUMNITY OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, I DO.”

Open letter from 2017 Nobel Peace Prize recipient SETSUKO THURLOW to French President Emmanuel Macron as rebuttal to his speech on Nuclear deterrence. President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech at Ecole de Guerre in February this year on the hundreds of nuclear weapons in France, refusing nuclear disarmament and citing the unrealism of the efforts …

THE NEXT POTUS..

Bidden or Trump? Forecast November 3, the Election Day in the US, is now less than five months away. At this point, on 11 June, 2020, The Economist launched its first-ever statistical forecast which finds Joe Biden likely to beat Donald Trump in the electoral college. According to the Economist analysis, Biden currently has 83% chance of winning America's presidency. Photo courtesy: The …

A (SHE)LIOPHYSICIST LIVING IN A (HE)LIOCENTRIC WORLD

"Have you ever stopped to think that we literally live in the outer atmosphere of our own sun," MADHULIKA GUHATHAKURTA, on the occasion of the International Women's Day, gives overview of her journey as a young girl from far away India decades ago when, besides watching humans step foot on the moon, America, NASA, and …

MARGARET THATCHER NAMED HER DRESSES AFTER GORBACHEV AND REAGAN

Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev Margaret Thatcher named many of her outfits after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the late broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan, newly-released documents show. US president and close ally Ronald Reagan was also a top choice when it came to identifying her clothes. Britain’s first female prime minister began to keep a …

NAMOSTE DON! HOWDY ROWDY?

By JON JOST In India, at a rally for him, with "Lil' Rowdy" standing at his side, and with a rabid mob of 110,000 present, Hindi nationalist all, The Don announced before the stunned public that he was Shiva, known back in the USA as The Shiv*. Some people, many who had worked in the …

FROM THE METOO INCIDENT THAT SHOOK ANCIENT ROME, LEGACY OF BAILING OUT RAPIST STILL LIVES ON

A prominent politician was accused of raping a 12-year-old actress — in 54 B.C. The way his legendary lawyer dismissed it speaks volumes about how we prosecute these crimes now, writes MARK OLIVER “You say that he raped an actress,” Cicero told the court. “And this is said to have happened at Atina, while he was …

‘F**K CANCER’, THE WOMAN WHO WROTE DEFIANTLY ON HER FACE, DIES

Kathryn Cartwright died aged just 28 A woman who defiantly wrote "F**k cancer" on her face as she fought the disease for almost 13 years has died aged just 28. Kathryn Cartwright lived with leukaemia before she died peacefully in hospital, surrounded by her family, on Saturday, January 18. Her death was announced in an …

MOST FOLLOWED PRESIDENTS

Being the president of any country is no child-play. You're basically the guardian of every single citizen of your country, and one would then assume that you shouldn't find the time to be tweeting, chatting or updating your statuses.   Between preparing for speeches, running their cabinet and attending international visits. Here are some presidents who …

MEET THE SCIENTIST DOING THE MOST DELIGHTFUL JOB IN THE WORLD: HE STUDIES BABY LAUGHTER

Babies start laughing before they can speak, and this delicious sound just may serve as a powerful source of human communication and connection, according to psychology researcher Caspar Addyman, writes LAUREN SCHENKMAM There are few sweeter sounds in this world than a baby’s laugh. In fact, the essential ingredient is both simpler and more profound. …

MAYOR TIED TO TRUCK AND DRAGGED ALONG STREET AS PUNISHMENT FOR NOT REPAIRING ROAD HE PROMISED

His fault was he did not fulfil the promise he made to the people during campaign. So ended up paying a hoary price - dragged along the streets tied at the rear of a truck. This rare punishment a group of angry villagers meted out to a Mayor in Mexico on Tuesday for his failure …

GET QuizED

Which is the first Indian Language to attain Classical Language Status? a) Malayalam b) Tamil c) Telugu d) Kannada Answer: b) Tamil. Tamil was the first language in India to gain the Classical Language status. The other languages which got Classical Language Statue are Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia. Classical languages are those which …

FLOOD PUTS TIGER ON INDIAN FAMILY’S BED

For any of us this view could be the shock of our life - a live tiger relaxing on your bed. Sounds straight from an adventure novel? But this is real, exactly what happened in the house of Motilal, a resident of the Harmuti village in the northeastern state of Assam in India. In an …

HIV MOWED, AIDS LOOKS CURABLE

3D generated illustration of HIV Aids virus cells for medical science background In a breakthrough research, scientists for the first time, have been able to contain HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. They administered slow acting drug therapy and gene editing in lab mice infected with the virus, to achieve this feat. Writing their findings …

HEAT MAKES YOU GO DUMB

As the summer temperature shoots up activity in the human brain starts dipping, crumbling your power to think straight. So says a Harvard study. India, a tropical country, experiences summers between the months of April and May. During these months the average temperature hovers around 40 degrees celsius with the highest spiralled up to 51 …

TYPEWRITER ARTIST

With careful strokes on his typewriter, he, however, doesn’t give shape to words. He draws portraits with the finest precision. 72 years old Chandrakant Bhide from Mumbai, India, draws portrait of politicians, film personalities, cricketers, animation characters and religious figures with unmistakable resemblance to their subjects. Bhide has produced around 150 pieces of typewriter art …

WORLD RADIO DAY

13 February, 2019 marks the 8th edition of the World Radio Day. It is the day when people around the world celebrates radio and the way it shapes human lives. The first proposal for observing the World Radio Day was made to the UNESCO by Spain, on a request from the Spanish Academy of Radio …

DATA HEAVY

This planet is soon going to be enormously data heavy. Courtesy our daily use of the internet which creates massive amount of data – 2.5 quintillion bytes. And this is surging with advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT). Current world population is about 7 billion. By 2020, it’s estimated that 1.7 MB of data …

FLU-less

Now be rest assured with your next sumptuous feast on chicken. For, it would be flu free. Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Britain, famed for creating cloned ship, Dolly and gene-edited pig, are now developing gene-edited chickens. The objective is to generate poultry that will not get flu and contaminate humans. This will stop …