247 items in this section. Displaying page 19 of 25
The Girl who Failed the Citizenship Test
July 22: Twentyfour-year-old Vijai Shree has lived in the US since she was four months old. She holds a “green card” which permits her to stay on in the country. Her parents, Mr Sunder Rajan and Ms Shakuntala, are American citizens. Though they were not born in America, they have lived there for a long time and the US government has recognised them as naturalised Americans. That is, the government will protect them in the same manner that it protects its local people....
Teachers who Ticked Correct Answers Wrong
August 19: Do you know what a universal truth is? It is a truth that never changes, wherever in the world you might wish to test it. For example, we all know that the earth goes round the sun. It’s a truth that will never change, at least not until the solar system lasts. Another universal truth we’re told to believe is that our teachers know more than us. It’s a non-scientific universal truth, for sure....
Still Going Strong!
Still Going Strong! [Illustration by Anup Singh] December 27: Something momentous happened at London’s West End theatre a few days ago on December 16. A play by famous mystery writer Agatha Christie, The Mousetrap, was staged to a standing ovation yet again. Nothing unusual in that except for one thing. It was the 20,000th stage performance of The Mousetrap. And this makes the play the longest running in the world, having premiered in the year 1952....
Child's Play!!
February 26: A new game for children is being touted as the next big thing in America. Called Flip-Itz, the game is a colourful collection of three-legged toys with wacky human, animal and alien faces that propel through the air once their owners press down on them. Really so simple. Child’s Play!! [Illustration by Navin Pangti] And earlier this month, 11-year-old Justin Lewis and 12-year-old Matthew Balick, the creators of the toy, also flew to New York to market their product at the city’s annual international toy fair....
Too Much Information
October 28: Over 1400 years ago, Chinese scholar Hiuan Tsang travelled thousands of miles from his home to reach the city of Nalanda in Bihar. His objective was to study precious Buddhist manuscripts at the University of Nalanda, which was famed in those days for its library of Buddhist manuscripts. In the process, he also recorded his observations of seventh century India, and this remains one of the most valuable sources of information on the land during that age....
Children's Theatre of the World
August 5: At this very moment in Japan, a city called Toyama is hosting a very interesting event — the 6th World Festival of Children’s Theatre. The purpose of this year’s theatre festival is to encourage children of the future to create a new theatre. Through which they will foster new values and a new culture for themselves and others around them. Since it is these kids who will be the new millennium’s first citizens....
The Privileged Moles
April 4: When you take a walk in the streets of Canada’s largest city, Toronto, you will probably come across people who hold out their hats for money. At least this is what a Reuters report in The Indian Express says. Though Toronto is a prosperous city, there are many homeless, sick and destitute who have made the streets their home. To avoid running into them, the city’s richer citizens have gone underground. Literally. Here is where they are: Toronto’s underground is made up of 27 tunnels, that are about 10 km long....
Illiterate Americans
October 6: Last week we had written about Ganga, a teenaged girl who taught the women in her slum how to read and write. These women are not an isolated case. A very large percentage of the Indian population does not know how to read and write. In fact, the mass illiteracy of its citizens is one of the biggest problems staring the Indian government in its face today. Illiterate Americans [Illustration by Anup Singh] Now there’s news that the richest country in the world, the United States of America, is struggling to cope with ‘illiteracy’ too....
Made to Order
December 9: We’ve heard of gene therapy for humans. But for seeds? And yet, this is exactly what seeds in India will be treated for in the future. Thanks to gene therapy, the seeds will have made-to-order properties. Some scientists are introducing a gene (the element that gives hereditary characteristic to a living thing) from a weed into the Indian mustard seed to make the crop consume less water. This is to help farmers survive droughts in India....
Destination Mir
Destination Mir [Illustration by Shiju George] August 19: Dennis Tito is a very excited man. This businessman-cum-space-enthusiast has won the first prize in a game show called Destination Mir. He is now all set to be the world’s first space tourist, and is training at Russia’s Star City space-base for his unusually long journey. Russia has launched a television game show to revive interest in its ageing space station, Mir. The winner of the show gets to shoot into space, straight to the Russian space station Mir, which has been in space for 14 years now....