435 items in this section. Displaying page 32 of 44
Finns Favour Freezing Swim
November 4: It’s winter in Finland and temperatures are touching single digits. Across the Arctic, from Burbank to Murmansk, the land is completely frozen. Suddenly a group of Finns appear with a pickaxe and drill a hole in the thick ice pack. Are they going to fish? So where are the rods? Before you can blink a frozen eye, they have stripped down and stand shivering at the hole’s edge eyeing the chilly winter waters. Then, the bravest (or is it the most foolhardy?...
Army Comes to the Aid of Birds
October 14: Harike sanctuary, a large wetland in India’s Punjab district, has just undergone a massive clean-up operation. The sprucing-up of a large part of the sanctuary has been done to welcome a special group of tourists who had stopped coming to the sanctuary because it had stopped being hospitable. These tourists used to come all the way from Siberia, China, Central Asia and Ladakh to escape the harsh winter months. They were migratory birds like the cotton teal and common pochard, says a report in ‘The Indian Express’....
Alcoholics Beware!
November 24: After centuries of subjugation at the hands of their men, Indian women are fighting back. We have been featuring news stories of how women across India, especially village women, are charting their own routes, learning to stand up for their rights and scripting their own successes. For instance, the women of Nyala village in Rajasthan, who have received praise from President Bill Clinton, of the United States, for putting their village on the road to success; or the women of Simayal village in the Kumaon hills, who’ve done the same for their village....
Asia's First Floating Museum
October 16: Wouldn’t it be exciting to visit a war museum of vintage aircraft on a huge ship floating in the ocean ? And when the ship in question happens to be INS Vikrant, the experience promises to be truly memorable. INS Vikrant is India’s first aircraft carrier and came into service in 1961. Once the hallmark of the Indian Navy, it has been decommissioned for some time now. This means that it is no longer in use....
Simayal's Women
September 30: Rows and rows of fresh vegetables and fruits: cabbages, cauliflowers, tomatoes, peas, bananas, apricots and apples in clean surroundings. That’s some of the stuff that greets Delhi-ites at the government-run ‘Mother Dairy’ outlets, which have mirrors on their walls to give a rich sense of plenty to buyers, at reasonable prices. No wonder, these outlets are great favourites with consumers. Ever wondered where the outlets’ seemingly never-ending source of fresh produce comes from? There are many different sources and one of them happens to be Simayal, a remote mountain village in the Kumaon region of Uttar Pradesh (UP)....
Fungus Threatens Chinese Warriors
September 23: These Chinese warriors have survived over two 2,000 years of wars, earthquakes and revolutions, but now find themselves battling against their most formidable enemy yet — a fungal infection. These Chinese warriors are not made of flesh and blood; they have feet – and bodies – of clay, and they are a valued cultural treasure not only for China but also for the world. Fungus Threatens Chinese Warriors [Illustration by Shiju George] The bad news is that over 7,000 terracotta figurines of soldiers, archers and horses in China’s northern city of Xian (pronounced Shee-ahn), capital of Shaanxi Province, have been found suffering from attacks by over 40 species of mould....
Taming the Boors
October 28: Regulars at the Lucknow University campus in Lucknow, are familiar with the site of a tall, well-built young woman, in police uniform, zipping past on a powerful motorbike. The young woman is Lakshmi Singh, a police sub-inspector who has recently taken charge of Lucknow University’s outpost. And she is on a mission – to curb the spiralling violence against girls studying in the University. The Lucknow University campus, is supposedly one of the most notorious campuses in India....
The Teenage Teacher of Pune
September 30: If you educate a man, you educate one individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a family, so goes a popular saying. But Ganga Waghmare of Pune has done more than educate a family. She has educated all the women of her neighbourhood. That would make it many families! Ganga is 16 years old. She’s been teaching for three years now. Because of her efforts, 30 women have become confident about being able to read and write....
Eleven-year-old Eco-ambassador
July 31: Somya Ahuja does not like the way people treat their environment. So she wrote an essay about it. And that essay led to her becoming India’s Eco-ambassador at a children’s conference in England recently. Eleven-year-old Somya lives in Delhi – a city which has the distinction of being one of the most polluted cities in the world. The city’s roads are choked with cars, lorries, buses, tempos and three wheelers. Most of these vehicles belch poisonous gases....
Rat Menace
August 12: About 26 people in Mumbai and nearby Thane died recently due to a strange fever. Initially the doctors in Mumbai were unsure which disease had afflicted these people, because no tests were conducted to find out the nature of the fever. Most patients had avoided getting the test done because it cost a lot of money (Rs. 750) and they did not see why they should spend so much money for what appeared to be just an ordinary fever....