435 items in this section. Displaying page 36 of 44
The Colour of China is Red — Henna Red
July 31: Madonna, the international pop star, was among the first to use henna as an international fashion. But young people around the world are using more and more of it to beautify their bodies or their hair. And now even the Chinese have adopted it in a big way. The Colour of China is Red — Henna Red [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Call it henna or call it ‘mehndi’, that coffee-coloured extract from the henna plant, which has been used down the ages in India as a beauty aid....
Man Who Could Make The Taj Disappear
August 12: Franz Harary is the magician. He has a simple wish: he wants to make the Taj Mahal disappear. Nothing doing, says the Indian government. Harary is an American magician. His specialty is making huge monuments disappear. In ten years, he has done things no other magician has dared do before. In Hawaii he moved a volcano two miles out to sea. In Japan, he made the Tokyo Bay Bridge vanish. At Cape Kennedy in the USA, he made the NASA space shuttle vanish....
Where is Sirisha?
July 22: Two-year-old Sirisha has been missing since March. Missing along with her are eight siblings. Sirisha’s father P.L Narasimhan has been running from pillar to post to get her traced, but has not had any luck so far. Now, the Hyderabad-based Indian has taken the extreme step of appealing to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of America, for help. Yes, the same FBI that is shown in Hollywood films as rushing to find the criminal who has hijacked the American President’s plane....
Mending Fences
August 19: South Africa is all set to sign an important agreement with its two neighbours – Zimbabwe and Mozambique. If all goes well, this agreement will help create the largest animal reserve or wildlife park in the world. The fences separating the national parks in the border region of each country will be removed and tourists and animals alike will be free to cross over. Millions of antelopes, almost 20,000 elephants and many, many animals on the endangered list can be found in this region....
Children's Theatre of the World
August 5: At this very moment in Japan, a city called Toyama is hosting a very interesting event — the 6th World Festival of Children’s Theatre. The purpose of this year’s theatre festival is to encourage children of the future to create a new theatre. Through which they will foster new values and a new culture for themselves and others around them. Since it is these kids who will be the new millennium’s first citizens....
A Memorial to Children
July 31: In a wintry morning in Delhi three years ago, a school bus packed with children going to school, skidded off a bridge. It fell into the cold waters of the river Yamuna below. More than 30 children died. Today, there are plans to develop a memorial in a park for them, very close to the spot where the terrible accident took place. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decided to build the memorial. The DDA is the government body in charge of public construction in the city....
Shopping for Buyers
August 5: In June, German carmaker Volkswagen opened Autostadt, Europe’s first automotive theme park on cars. The company spent $424.4 million to build the complex. Situated in Wolfsburg, the park features displays, events, a motor museum, special areas for kids, special chambers to check how your car fares against wind and vibration, and even a section where you can design your own car. All this merely to persuade customers to buy a VW car. Companies are going out of their way to lure customers to buy their wares....
Where Guns rule
Where: The state of Texas, USA May 19, 2001: In yet another shocking incident of firearms violence in US schools, 16-year-old student Jay Goodwin shot himself to death before the eyes of a teacher and female student, at the Ennis High School, in Goodwin, Texas. The incident happened just two days after the march of mothers and grandmothers in the US capital, Washington DC, to demand that the government pass stricter gun control laws to protect children in the world’s most violent and gun happy society....
This Time Teachers are the Students
August 12: About 55,000 teachers in West Bengal are going back to school. They are going to be taught English so that they can teach the language to their students. The West Bengal government has realised that most primary school teachers in the state do not know the ABC of English. Rather, they don’t remember. The reason is not hard to find. For 20 years the government had banned the teaching of English at the primary level....
Teachers who Ticked Correct Answers Wrong
August 19: Do you know what a universal truth is? It is a truth that never changes, wherever in the world you might wish to test it. For example, we all know that the earth goes round the sun. It’s a truth that will never change, at least not until the solar system lasts. Another universal truth we’re told to believe is that our teachers know more than us. It’s a non-scientific universal truth, for sure....