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Jean Clad Superman
Who wears a red chaddi over blue tights and a flying cape to save the world from disaster ever so often? Superman, of course! But why is he flying around in jeans and shirt all of a sudden, looking like a high school student? What is even more amazing is that when he’s not saving the world, he seems to have all the problems that teens usually have, from pimples to dating! In a new television serial, Smallville, soon to hit the US, Superman (Clark Kent) will appear as an American teenager of the 21st century....
Chess Bonanza
It’s a sky full of young Indian stars and superstars, in the world of chess today. Leading this amazing pack are 15-year-old Pentyala Harikrishna, and 14-year-old Koneru Humpy, who have created major records in the last fortnight. Harikrishna became the youngest Commonwealth Chess Champion, and Humpy won the World Junior Chess title, which falls in the under-20 category! Add to the list the names of the World champion (Anand), the Boys Under-10 champion, Deep Sengupta, and several Asian champions like Krishnan Sasikiran, Pallavi Shah and M....
Do You Know What You are Eating?
June 5: When you think of a cold drink, you think of its sweet taste, the fizz, and the sparkling bubbles under your nose. But not for a moment do you imagine animal parts being mixed in it. And yet that is what seems to be happening, says a report in The Hindu newspaper. The use of animal ingredients in ‘vegetarian’ food products is more common than you can ever dream of. According to the report, an organisation called the Animal Welfare Board of India has brought out a list of vegetarian food products containing disguised animal supplements....
Rats Race through US Cities
Rats Race through US Cities [Illustration by Shinod A P] August 7: Even as Americans compete with each other in the “rat-race” for a good life, the real rats are coming out of the sewage dumps and are literally dancing on the streets. Funny though it might sound, rats have become a menace in many US cities. So much so, that in New York City, a rodent task force has been appointed to tackle the problem....
They Don't Listen To Us
June 8: We have all heard of adults doling out that fearful thing called a report card to children year after year to remark on their academic performance. But as the school year comes to a close in the US, the Uhlich Teen Report Card, released in Chicago, is bound to raise many eyebrows. Here adults don’t give grades, they get graded by teenagers on their ability to handle issues affecting the youngsters, says a report in the Hindustan Times....
Reaching the Top of the World
May 23: Looks can be deceptive. At 16, Temba Tsheri Sherpa looks like any ordinary schoolboy from Kathmandu. But look closely. He is the youngest person to scale the world’s highest peak – the 8,848-metre-high Mount Everest, The Telegraph newspaper reported. Reaching the Top of the World [Illustration by Anup Singh] By climbing the peak 16 days after his 16th birthday, on May 22, he broke the record set by another Nepali climber, Shambu Tamang, in 1973, at the age of 17....
Flooded by disaster
July 31: Monsoon in Orissa has meant only one thing in the recent past: floods. It’s no different this year. Floods have left 85 lakh people in over 15,000 villages homeless. The official death toll: 80. And one lakh hectare of crops have been submerged. About 5,000 kilometres of roadways, 500 kilometres of the national highways, and piped water supply sources to 61 towns have been submerged, causing widespread chaos and distress. As happens in such situations, water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, malaria and jaundice have affected more than 15,500 people, says a report in...
A New Ancient Civilisation
Where: Central Asia May 19, 2001: Imagine people living in large apartment complexes made out of bricks. Their city may have been a major stop for silk traders that is why they were well off, decked in gold and semi-precious stone jewellery and using fine ceramics utensils. Bronze axes were among the implements used for cutting and carvings on alabaster (white marble) and bone were used as decoration pieces. Doesn’t sound all that different from what we see around us today, does it?...
No Begging for Merit
May 25: When Nagarathna, a beggar girl from Mysore, was preparing for the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (Class X) examinations, she had to beg to buy books and study under street lights. She passed the exams with flying colours and the Indian Express newspaper published her success story. After the story appeared in the paper, Nagarathna has been receiving innumerable offers from people who are keen to fund her education. A non-resident Indian, a retired statesman, actress-turned politicians, the list is endless....
A school for budding politicians
August 1: The ‘Netagiri Vidyalaya’ (Leadership School) in Ranchi gives the impression of being one of those ‘dingy-lane’ institutes that spring up like mushrooms during rains. What could a school situated in such premises possibly teach its students, you wonder. Apparently a lot, says a report in the India Today magazine. As the name suggests, the recently opened school, the first of its kind in the country, aims to educate aspiring politicians. And the institute is sure to get a lot of ‘students’ for Ranchi is now the capital of the new state of Jharkhand, formerly a part of Bihar....