435 items in this section. Displaying page 19 of 44
Take Me Back
July 6: A clueless girl stands outside her school building, looking lost among the swirling mass of uniformed school students. She is not allowed to wear the school uniform, ususally sits in the last row without a partner, her notebooks go unchecked and her name does not appear in the attendance register. Meet six-year-old Ekta, who is being punished for something her father, Sunil Mistry, did. He had questioned the fee structure of the school and called it illegal....
A Problem, Naturally!
April 4: On April 1 or Fool’s Day, India’s capital, New Delhi, wore a deserted look. There were no public vehicles on the road. According to a Supreme Court decision passed two years ago, they were required to run on compressed natural gas or CNG, to ease the terrible pollution levels in the city. For two years, two successive Delhi governments slept through the deadline, not bothering to create a system that would make the transition easy....
5000 Years Old Quake-proof Town
February 14: The image on the right is one of the most recognisable symbols of the Harappan civilisation. It is the bearded man of Mohenjodaro and Harappa. But why is this sober gentleman smiling in our image? There’s a reason for it. The January 26 earthquake has devastated a large part of the Kutch region. Village after village, town after town depict the same sad story of death and destruction. It’s almost as if entire towns and villages have fallen off the map....
Winter Guests
December 27: Every winter, the Delhi Zoo in New Delhi, India, spruces up for the visit of some special foreign visitors. They fly in from the distant lands of China, Japan and Central Asia to escape sub-zero temperatures back home and bask in the warmer Delhi sun. These visitors include pin-tail ducks, shoveller ducks, common teals, coots, dab-chiks, yellow wagtails, yellow-winged wagtails and white wagtails. Flocks of migratory birds have made the Delhi zoo their temporary habitat....
Rani Hindustani!
March 27: Poonam Maharashtrian Hindustani (Indian) runs a one-woman-one truck transport company. But it is not merely her name or her profession that are colourful. The lady has had an equally colourful past. A good deal of her time in that past has been spent trying to assert her independence, reports The Indian Express, which wrote an article on this courageous woman. Poonam had been born Hemlata Gaikwad in Pune city, Maharashtra. Her father constantly beat her mother up and even burnt Poonam’s secretly-acquired driving license....
The Fossil Tree
December 27: Which are the oldest living trees in the world? You might think it’s those huge redwood trees, called giant sequoias, dating 4000 years. Not true. How about the Wollemi Pine? Yes, you’re getting there. But the answer is the Nightcap Oak, which was discovered recently. This oldest tree is 90 million years old. The Nightcap Oak has been identified as a living fossil. It dates back to millions of years and was thought to have died out....
Microbes begin Deforestation
May 19: The conifer trees on the hills of Himachal Pradesh may soon become history. No, they are not being cut by humans. This time, it is the turn of microbes to go on a rampage. Insects, fungi and various kinds of insects are eating into the deodar, pine and kail trees of Chopal and the stretch that lies between Sundernagar and Jhenjheli, Suket division in Mandi and at Bharari and Mashobra in Shimla. The trees are drying up due to this....
Bush Takes the Cake
December 27: After causing much uncertainty and merriment to the entire world, the mystery of Who will be the next American President has finally been solved. It’s George W. Bush. Bush Takes the Cake [Illustration by Shinod A.P.] The decision was finally made by the United States Supreme Court. And so, Bush won. But, what exactly happened? As mentioned in World News In-depth a few days ago, All The Presidential Men, the root of the problem was located in the state of Florida....
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....
Still Standing Tall
Still Standing Tall [Illustrated by Shinod AP] March 14: Recently, a severe earthquake shook the city of Seattle in the United States of America (USA). It was the regions strongest earthquake in 50 years. It measured 6.8 on the Richter scale. On January 26, 2001, an earthquake that measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, 10 times stronger than the earthquake in Seattle, struck Gujarat, in India. Thousands of people had died and property worth millions of rupees was destroyed....