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World's First Space Tourist
May 11: The world’s first paying space tourist is back on earth after a week-long joyride in space. On Sunday, May 6, American millionaire Dennis Tito and two Russian cosmonauts landed back on earth, as their space capsule gently parachuted down onto the barren steppe in Kazakhstan. World’s First Space Tourist [Illustration by Shinod AP] Emerging unsteadily from the capsule, the exhilarated 60-year-old Tito, who is also a former NASA rocket scientist, said the trip was the culmination of a lifelong dream....
A Boisterous Bedtime Read
Mister Jeejeebhoy and the Birds Author: Anitha Balachandran Illustrator: Anitha Balachandran Publisher: Young Zubaan Books Author and illustrator Anitha Balachandran’s Mister Jeejeebhoy and the Birds, just published by Young Zubaan is a delight to the ears! Hey! But it’s a book! Exactly. A book that, as soon as I opened it’s luscious orange cover, immediately let loose a cacaphony of “bustling, hustling, crinkling, crackling, creaking” sounds, and much more. This delightful book follows two young girls, Diya and Tara, who come to live in their aunt Ninamasi’s house, and discover a world that is obviously on it’s own trip....
Ali Sardar Jafri
He was a poet who spoke out for the poor. He was also one who truly believed that India and Pakistan could be friends, if the countries tried hard enough. From the time he was arrested for writing against British rule in India, to when he climbed onto the famous Lahore “peace” bus with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last year, Ali Sardar Jafri spent his entire working-writing life speaking out for what he believed in....
The Gift of Wonder
Eleven years ago, under the sequinned sky on a warm summer day, on the roof of his palatial home in the town of Vrindaban, my grandfather introduced me to wonder. As I lay on a mattress surrounded members of the family, my grandfather or “Nana” as I used to call him, asked me to look at the sky and try to spot the patterns and the constellations. “What does that look like?” he would ask, pointing to the Little Bear....
Every dog has his bark
August 17: The next time your pooch goes ‘woof’, listen closely. He could be saying “I’m hungry”, or “You’d better take me for a walk fast, or I’m going to do it right here on the carpet.” Japan’s third-largest toymaker, Takara Co. Ltd, has just launched a hand-held electronic device that gauges a dog’s moods by listening to its bark. Every dog has his bark [] The ‘Bow-lingual’ has a mike attached to the collar which sends a voice print via infra-red beams to the owner’s canine emotion pager, which has a small liquid crystal display that shows how the dog feels....
More fuel to the CNG fire
August 16: It’s a nightmare either way. Too little, and we have thousands of autorickshaws and bus drivers in Delhi waiting for their turn to fill their fuel tanks with the new eco-friendly CNG or Compressed Natural Gas. Too much, and we have the gas pipe of a bus bursting when a careless attendant over-filled a tank at the Bhikaji Cama Place mother station. On the other side, Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik is now championing the cause of low-sulpher diesel, and more recently, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), which we use as cooking gas....
Indian Shooters Combat Racism
The Indian squad that just won the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in the UK, has brought back more than just 13 gold, six silver and eight bronze medals. They’re also carrying some bad memories. According to the Indian shooters, who included Jaspal Rana and Mansher Singh, the behaviour of their British hosts bordered on racism. In a report in The Hindustan Times, the Secretary General of the National Rifle Association of India, Baljit Sethi recalled the day when India won all four gold medals....
UFO in Kolkata?
Where: Kolkata, West Bengal, India October 30, 2007 : In a city as passionate about football as it is about Rabindra Sangeet and rosogollas, an unlikely visitor made a flying visit. An unidienfitied flying object or UFO was spotted in Kolkata’s skies early Monday morning. The fireball, which was filmed by a Kolkata-based executive, seemed to move very rapidly and kept changing its shape. When the film footage was shown on television, it showed the fireball changing shape from a round object to a triangle to a straight line....
Care for your Dog
The immense joy a dog brings to a family is unparalleled. The thrill of coming home to the deliriously happy barking of a dog is one of the few moments that makes owning a dog such a magical experience. The dog often becomes the one member of the family whose love for each person in the family is unconditional and unflagging. Yet, owning a dog has its pitfalls. Or, to put it more positively, responsibilities. Responsibilities that, ultimately, parents must be willing, and able, to take, irrespective of whether their children will take on some of the attendant chores....
Jumbos have some oily fun
August 9: It’s a slippery situation that has officials of the Oil India Limited (OIL) in Assam religiously muttering the Ganesh Mantra. The public sector company owns and operates the world’s oldest oil producing wells here and they’re helpless against the antics of wild elephants who love the swooshing sound of oil spurting in Digboi’s oil fields. Jumbos have some oily fun [Illustration by Shinod AP] According to a report in The Indian Express, the wild tuskers move around freely in the oil fields, often opening crucial valves in the pipelines that connect the oil wells to the refineries....