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What is Mad Cow Disease?
In 1996, doctors detected 10 cases of a rare and fatal human brain disease in Britain and they diagnosed that it was probably due to eating beef from animals with “mad cow disease”. Scientifically, this cow disease was termed bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE while the disease affecting humans was termed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The disease caused panic in Europe both among people eating beef and the farmers who were selling it. The European Union, which is the administrative body and includes all countries in Europe, responded immediately by banning imports of British beef....
The Farmer and the Serpent
A long time ago a farmer’s son was going to meet his friends. It was dark and he was in a hurry, so he didn’t see a cobra that was relaxing in the path. He trod upon the cobra’s tail. He stepped back immediately afterwards, but it was too late. The angry cobra lashed at him and bit him. A cobra’s poison is one of the deadliest in the world. The farmer’s son stood no chance against it and died....
What are Go-Go Boots?
Ever seen rock stars or movie stars strutting about in calf-length boots? Well, these calf-length boots were the rage at one point of time. Discotheques at Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York saw young women dressed in thigh high skirts to show off these boots called Go-Go boots. The Go-Go boots had its origin with the original ankle-length boots with pointed toes and inch-high heels worn by Cowboys in the American mid-West. Cowboys needed these boots for riding, and to ensure they don’t bitten by scorpions or snakes when they were walking on the desert undergrowth....
The Thirsty Crow
The Thirsty Crow [Illustrations by Shridevi] Kancharam had been flying for 10 hours without a halt. He had come to the western state of Gujarat to attend his childhood friend Bholuram’s wedding. He had stayed just for the wedding. As soon as it was over, he said good bye to his friend and left. Now he was flying back home. That was in Jaipur, Rajasthan. He was very, very tired. And thirsty, too....
Killing them Surely
Where: Surat, Gujarat, India November 4, 2000: When a member of the Parsi community dies, according to their religion, the body is not buried or consigned to flames. It is placed in the “Tower of Silence” for the scavenger birds or vultures to feed on them so that even in death the body is of use. In Surat, Gujarat, till a few years ago, the body would be eaten up in no time in the Tower of Silence or the Dhokma as it is locally called....
Camp of Coexistence
October 28: The recent flooding of West Bengal might have been a tragic affair in all but one respect. In a time of crisis, the animals of the region are bonding like never before. Be it the hunter or the hunted, the carnivores or the herbivores, they are all living in harmony at seven flood relief camps set up in the Bongaon region of the state. A few weeks ago, floods hit the state of West Bengal, threw life completely out of gear and led to a large scale loss of life and property....
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