(According to the trends, the Congress has crossed the half-way mark and is currently leading on 67 seats. The BJP, on the other hand, is leading on just 13 seats. Chhattisgarh had voted in two phases – November 12 and 20.) Forest strewn, verdant and lush green State of Chhattisgarh[Read More…]
Tag: Opinion
Why the Right to Information Act must be protected
In fact, this legislation has been so successful in exposing various scams and holding authorities accountable that a lot of RTI activists have been unfortunate victims of attacks.
Are you an early bird or a night owl? It may determine personality and its in the genes
One of the desirable traits constantly mentioned in the Adarsh Balak (ideal boy) posters is the habit of getting up early in the morning. It was most famously articulated by Benjamin Franklin who said, “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” and the[Read More…]
Why now more than ever do we need a secular India?
Indian democracy has been unique in encompassing the plurality of religion, giving freedom to practice religion, recognising it as an essential part of Indian psyche and yet never declaring a state religion. The nation’s constitution-makers took care to adopt the term to plural and multicultural Indian sensibilities. Our secularism is[Read More…]
The importance of humour in the workplace
Who doesn’t like a good laugh every now and again? – The saying that ‘’laughter is the best medicine’’ is absolutely true. The reason for this is that when we laugh, were able to decrease the stress hormones that give us sleepless nights and also complicate our life, our body[Read More…]
NaNoWriMo: If you wanted to write a novel but didn’t know where to start!
If you are a regular on social media, chances are, as November approaches, you would have come across NaNoWriMo, a short form for National Novel Writing Month. It is an annual, global and open for all creative writing platform that encourages the participants to start and complete a 50,000 words[Read More…]
Blue whale challenge decoded and 7 guidelines on helping children to be good digital citizen
Blue Whale Challenge is a deadly and sinister game that has reportedly claimed the lives of a hundred of teenagers across the world. A couple of days back media reported another teenage suicide in the city of Panchkula, Haryana linked to Blue Whale. His last words, “‘I should just die,[Read More…]
Let the lawmakers make laws
Louis XVI in 1787 reminded the Parlement of Paris in vain that it was a mere registering body of royal edicts. Indian Parliament needs no such reminder, for it has, of its own free will, reduced itself to that position. In the Westminster system that we follow, the executive is a creation[Read More…]
Online communication is overtaking face-to-face chats and that may be a good thing
Large part of discourse that has centred around critiquing technology has been insistent on one common theme: the death of face to face conversations that are fast and firmly being replaced by digital modes if communication- Skype, Whats App, emails, FaceTime and Facebook etc. Recently a picture surfaced of a[Read More…]
Did fiction trump fact in the Sunanda Pushkar case?
The manner in which the Sunanda affair has been pursued by some sections of the media raises several questions on journalistic ethics and how TRP driven sensationalism coupled with a latent political objective can erode basic norms of fact checking and accurate reporting, which are considered basic to, andessential in,[Read More…]
Unnoticed sexism in every day life
On a regular Friday evening after winding up work, I dragged a friend of mine to explore the culinary world hidden in the by-lanes of Delhi’s Paharganj. It was purely coincidental that this friend happened to be a man. As we were navigating the busy streets unable to locate this particular restaurant[Read More…]
Leaving hotel rooms…
Leaving a hotel room induces mild anxiety. Firstly, one is compulsively turning the thick duvets and opening the random bed side drawers (which one can swear have never been used) to check for any stuff left behind- earrings are most likely candidates but there are also chargers, and in worst[Read More…]
China: The new axis of evil power to its neighbours?
China has to its credit a great civilisation, the discovery of compass, centralised administration, gun powder etc. In the present day, China is known for making cheap and low-quality goods, anti-dumping and infamous for border disputes to most neighbouring countries (14 countries by land, and 6 by sea). China is[Read More…]
Is Sridevi in Mom going to be the new age Mother India?
The intense thriller that releases this Friday seems all set to deconstruct the mother image sanctified by the 1957 Nargis epic. Sridevi’s upcoming thriller, Mom, has been grabbing headlines for the choicest of reasons. It happened again recently when the Censor Board certified the film U/A without a single snip.[Read More…]
North Korea and Pakistan: Nuclear rogue nations
India is one of the few countries in the world who is striving for peace development and security. It has always helped poor, underdeveloped, developing nations to strive for progress and peace. It conducted nuclear test only for its regional security and never violated any international norms or regulations. However,[Read More…]
The Discreet Charm of the Small Town…
Ruskin Bond, besides his writing, is known for his fondness for his hometown Mussoorie. Most of his stories are also based in the hills. His Roads to Mussoorie is his loving tribute to the beautiful hill town. He writes about the lovely and languid pace of the city and his[Read More…]
Ramnath Kovind, a symbolism of BJP’s caste-politics amidst rising Dalit atrocities
BJP has been asserting supremacy over the marginalised sections of India slowly yet steadily, leaving no stone unturned. On Monday, Amit Shah the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party declared that the NDA government is forwarding the name of Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind as their candidate for the upcoming Presidential[Read More…]
Stop making mockery of martyrs
On the evening of 23rd March 1931, when the British government in India hanged Bhagat Singh along with Sukhdev and Raj Guru, he was merely 23 years old. With a smile on his face and sparkle in his eyes, he kissed the noose and met his death as if he[Read More…]
My love affair with Momo in the age of bans
The call for a ban on momo by a BJP MLC in Jammu and Kashmir a few days ago took me quite by surprise. As a lover of the white, crescent-shaped piece of instant gratification, I couldn’t for the life of me understand what did it ever do to the[Read More…]
My Safety is more important than the National Menu!
At the outset please note that the my intention is not to hurt the sentiments of any community or sect. I am, in fact, amazed that I need to write this article in the hope of bringing fellow citizens back in focus. The utter ridiculousness that we, as a country, have been[Read More…]
With ‘Digital India’, we are riding a wounded tiger
India needs to put itself in high gear on the road to information sovereignty, or it may trail further behind in the race for dwindling global resources. I see a strange paradox in front of me. The world has never been this safe – the end of the Cold War[Read More…]
Women involvement is key to making India open defecation free
In India, one in two people defecate in the open, making India a country with the dubious distinction of having the largest number of people defecate in the open in the world, at more than 564 million (UNICEF report). The rural-urban divide is most pronounced in this case with about[Read More…]
Both Hindu, Muslim divorce laws are unfit for this era
Talaq, no matter which side of the political spectrum one comes from, is against the basic right to equality, and right to life and dignity. However, to say that Islamic Jurisprudence is totally arbitrary in matters of divorce would be overreaching. In the other form of Triple Talaq which is[Read More…]
Justice denied: Nirbhaya & Bilkis Bano
“Rape, is the most heinous form of murder. A murder victim dies just once. A rape victim dies every day till she is alive.” These lines were told to me by a Psychology student who was working first-hand among Rape victims for her Doctoral thesis about 20 years back. I[Read More…]
Disrupting the Indian TV News eco system
Can a media outlet survive on sound alone? Or would that just be Image, signifying nothing? What makes a long-term brand and how sustainable is it, beyond the first 100 days? These are some of the initial questions that confront anybody attempting to understand the launch of Republic. That it[Read More…]