156 items in this section. Displaying page 1 of 16
What is a democracy?
If three friends need to decide between eating pizza or burgers, they could debate and agree or they could put it to vote and go with the majority. Since there are only two options and three people, once the votes are counted, there would be a winner. This is an example of democracy at work. More specifically, it is an example of what is called a direct democracy. This is a democracy where the voters have a direct say in the decisions made by the group....
Juneteenth: Celebrating End of Slavery in the United States of America
June + nineteenth => Juneteenth A holiday to celebrate the end of slavery and the freeing of slaves. Also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day Juneteenth (19th of June, 1865) is one of the most important days celebrated by the African American community in the United States of America. For it was on this day, 19th of June in the year 1865 that a majority of slaves were informed that they were free....
The curious history of the world’s most popular board game
There is a good chance that you have played this board game. And perhaps your parents and their parents before them too. According to the company, that makes it, over 275 million games have been sold in 111 countries. Over the last eight odd years over one billion people have traded make-believe real estate with fake money. If you guessed Monopoly, you would be right. Just in case you have not played this board game, a quick explanation is in order....
Summer music of the trees
I always used to think that the drive across a four kilometre stretch from my house to the main road was a pain. Actually, not all of it was a pain. The car bounced up and down a few bumpy patches the first kilometer, then zoomed across a smooth 2.5 kilometre slope before struggling in a three-legged hurdle race at the final half kilometre. Reason: there was a traffic signal there and almost everyone in the world seemed to want to go somewhere at the same time....
A Birthday Surprise
When you live in one place for as long as I have, you get to know everyone in the locality. I have lived in one house for 25 years now. When we moved to this house, the first person I met was Tara. Her parents lived in the next block. I think she was about eight when I first met her. Tara had wavy black hair, big mischievous eyes and a ready smile on her face all the time....
Chess for Children: A Smart Move
When we think of chess we think of two adults sitting opposite each other, thinking of ways and means to outsmart the other. Many people feel it is a very difficult game. But do you know that most chess players and champions start very young? Viswanathan Anand, number two in the world, played his first chess game at the age of five. This was in 1974. Anand’s mother taught him the game and was his first opponent....
The Adventurer
I am sure all families are interesting. But I like to think that my family is especially interesting. I have such great nephews and nieces because of whom there is not a single dull moment in life. Two-and-a-half year old Arshiya goes around asking everyone a very serious question, “Are you happy?” If you ask her to exercise, she says, “I am not Swami Ramdev”. Swami Ramdev is an expert on yoga and comes on a television channel every day....
Crafts kits for kids
I live in a neighbourhood of Delhi which is full of children of all ages, shapes and sizes. In the evenings, the quiet of the place is shattered by the blood curdling cries of boys and girls let loose in the park. They play games that are certainly not for the fainthearted! Ishaan and Tarini are no different. This brother-sister pair is particularly mischievous. Eight year old Ishaan and 10-year-old Tarini are known for playing pranks on others....
Programmed to learn
Two boys and two girls. They were to be found at one of the busiest traffic signals in south Delhi. The boys were about five or six years of age. The girls looked older, about eight or nine. As the traffic zipped along on the road, the four of them would play their own games on the divider. As soon as the traffic stopped on one side of the road, obeying the red signal, the children stopped their games....
The Day Mother raised the Flag
On August 15, at the stroke of midnight, the Indian flag replaced the Union Jack of the British Empire. And millions of Indians went to sleep in a state of excitement. For, they would literally wake up in a free country. Among them was a five-year-old girl called Amrita Rangasami. She lived with four siblings and a young widowed mother, in a bylane of Madras (now Chennai). Sixty-year-old Amrita, a senior journalist and scholar, remembers the day clearly, as if it were yesterday....
- ❮ Previous
- Next ❯