435 items in this section. Displaying page 39 of 44
Polite Police
July 8: Very soon, a banner will appear in the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi. It will read: The Tourist Police For you, with you, Always. But, most people are scared that it might actually mean “The Tourist Police, For you, with you, after you, Always. Polite Police [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Disappointed with the police force and its rude ways of dealing with the public, the Ministry of Tourism now wants to have its own police force, says a report in ‘The Indian Express’ newspaper....
Swimming in Trouble
July 1: All governments and leaders talk about children as the “future” of the nation – a “strong” nation. They specially talk about the need to encourage sports among children from an early age. But if you ask the young swimmers who participated in the National Swimming Championship for the 11 and 13-year-old category recently, they will tell you how nonsensical these statements are. For they have a horror story to tell. Two weeks ago, all the star swimmers of India in the 11 and 13-year-old category travelled to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh....
English and Indlish
July 15: Students are often rebuked for using what is known as ‘Indian English’ words. Perhaps these teachers need to know that many Indian words have actually become a part of an Oxford Dictionary. The Asian Age newspaper reported that the Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary of Correct English has a section on Indian English. The section has 2,500 words The fifth edition of the dictionary was released recently. Words like bandicoot, bungalow, jungle, chit, cushy, juggernaut are commonly known....
Lenses for Dogs
Blind dogs or dogs with eye problems can now wear special lenses to see. Dabbu, an eleven-year-old Lhasa Apso, lost his left eye in an ugly fight with a street dog. Lately, he was losing vision in the right eye too because of a cataract. And has been stumbling around his owner’s house in Calcutta, bumping into things and being rather miserable. Lenses for Dogs [Illustration by Shiju George] But Dabbu was lucky....
Lucknow Students Win Robotics Trophy in Canada
July 1: It’s a long way from Lucknow to Calgary, Canada. But five schoolboys did it very easily. The students of City Montessori School (CMS) went to participate in the World Robotics Championship and almost pocketed the entire championship. They won five golds, four silvers and a bronze medal. Among the ideas that won them these medals was a “seeing” cap for the blind, and a robot that can trace the place from where a fire starts....
Marriage in Prison
July 15: He was a prisoner in Model Jail in Lucknow and she was the warden of the jail. The fell in love. And got married. Sounds like a filmi story? It happened in real life. And the story just goes on to show that prisoners are human beings too. And wardens are not villains who keep prisoners under lock and key. The warden, Ranjana, met the prisoner, Santosh, three years ago in Lucknow jail....
Operation Clean Up
The bricks came a tumbling. And the concrete made a rumbling. Leaving behind a huge mound of debris. And a huge crowd of human beings. With tears in their eyes. Their houses had been destroyed before them. Jagmohan, the Minister for Urban Development was in action. He was cleaning up the city, he said. The people were sent to Narela, a far flung area in the suburbs of Delhi. They would get new houses, they were told....
Protest Without Clothes
July 1: See this picture. What do you think the children were doing? No, they were not waiting for a community bath. They were at a gram sabha (village meeting). They had gone there to tell officials that the increased cost of power is making them miserable. This kids protest happened at Sitarampura near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh recently. Protest Without Clothes [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] The gram sabhas were being conducted last week by officials of the Andhra Pradesh Transmission Corporation (AP Transco)....
Injured Deer Lands on Dinner Plate
July 8: A deer was in great pain. It had got injured in the forest. It was discovered by some villagers who lived near the forest. This incident happened in the Champhai district of Mizoram, in north-east India. The villagers picked up the deer and gave it to Hranleikapa, a leader of the Mizo National Party, to hand over the deer to the zoo in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. But, that was not to be....
The World's First Floating Airstrip
July 8: It was a day like any other. A light aircraft prepared to take off from an airstrip south of Tokyo, Japan. But it was no ordinary flight. For, the plane took off from a metal airstrip right in high seas — a floating airstrip. Japan has claimed that it is the world’s first of its kind, says a report in ‘The Asian Age’. Four big steel companies and 13 shipbuilding firms came together for this project....