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The Bright Ones
September 9: Five-year-old Krishna and four-year-old Rama are two very bright brothers. They are too young to join school but they know by heart all the textbooks of the primary school. The little geniuses, however, are not Indian! Their names are the only thing Indian about these kids. For they are Russians in every other way. The two boys, sons of Ariy Radogar, were allowed to take the test for primary school admissions after their father insisted that they could clear them....
Sitting in Rows is Better for Primary School Kids
October 21: Are you studying in primary school? How does your teacher make you sit – in rows or in groups? How would you like to sit? Does sitting in rows make you feel good or does it make you feel lonely? Do you feel that sitting in a group and discussing things makes you learn more and in an easier way? For those who were in primary school at any time, try to remember your classroom, the way the tables and chairs were arranged....
The South Indian Sikh
October 21: Sardar Bhupinder Singh is 91 years old. He is also a bit of an oddity where he lives – in Kadakarapally, Kerala. He is the only one in his area to keep his hair long, wear a turban and visit the gurudwara or Sikh temple in nearby Kochi. Bhupinder Singh is one of the few living Malayalee Sikhs of his generation, in the south-western state of Kerala. He is known in the area as “Sikh chettan” that is, Sikh elder brother, says a recent report in The Hindustan Times....
The Empowered Woman of Nyala
September 23: For someone who has never travelled beyond the village, a trip to New York is something to be excited about. And it’s no different for Shakuntala Bai, of Nyala, in Rajasthan. She attended a two-day conference in New York organised by the Hunger Project and in the process met US President Bill Clinton too! Representing India, she spoke on “panchayati raj and the role of women”. The Hunger Project is a movement working to end hunger and poverty in India....
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....
Gandhi's School is Dying
Where: Wardha district in the western state of Maharashtra, India October 6 : Every year, October 2 is observed as Gandhi Jayanti in India. Both children and adults look forward to this day, but not to commemorate the birth of ‘the greatest Indian since the Buddha, as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has been called. It is more to enjoy the national holiday that falls on this day. To most people Gandhi Jayanti is more like a history lesson they learnt by rote in school....
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....
Bead Calculator
November 18: Quick! Tell me what you get when you divide the number 992.587318, by 5,647.723? Stumped? Need a calculator? Well, thirteen-year-old Hiroaki Tsuchiya of Japan arrived at the answer in no time at a mental mathematics tournament in Kyoto: the right answer – 0.17575000013279688115015555826658. And, he did it without a calculator, too! Bead Calculator [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Hiroaki is adept at mental arithmetic multiplying, dividing, adding or subtracting large numbers that would make an accountant’s head spin....
The Big Meltdown
September 23: Earth is the only planet with an atmosphere congenial to life forms as we know of. If a blanket of air didn’t surround us…our planet would have been a frozen wasteland – much too cold for human habitation. We have a lot to be thankful for. But we humans have been taking things for granted. As a result, this protective blanket is now slowly suffocating us. The Big Meltdown [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] According to a worldwide study carried out by the World Wildlife Fund....
The Grand Head Hunt
November 18: Making a head count of the number of people in the most populous country in the world, is no easy task. The government of China knows this for a fact. So it sent six million people across the length and breadth of the country, to count its population. The Grand Head Hunt [Illustration by Anup Singh] These people will take 10 days to collect data from 360 million households, says Reuters in a report in ‘The Asian Age’....