105 items in this section. Displaying page 10 of 11
Dead Poet's society
October 28: Do any of these names make your heart sing a sonnet – Oliver Goldsmith, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Byron? All of them are famous poets of England of long ago. But where has the poetry of these poets gone today? Is it only to be confined to a select few intellectuals, the older generation, and to the dusty cobwebbed shelves at home? Dead Poet’s society [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Will the younger generation sweep aside the lyrics of Madonna and Michael Jackson and read classical English verses that are literally poetry-in-motion?...
More Disturbing Attacks on Indians in Australia
Where: Canberra, Australia February 3, 2010 : A large number of Indians living in Australia have become the targets of violence in the past months*. Most of the victims are students, who have been beaten, robbed, and in some cases, murdered. The most recent case was that of Nitin Garg, who was stabbed to death on January 2, 2010. In 2007-2008, there were almost 1500 cases of crimes against Indians in the state of Victoria alone....
Spate of Attacks on Indian Students in Australia
Where: Melbourne, Australia May 31, 2009 : A number of Indian students were attacked in a series of violent incidents in Melbourne over the last few days. One of the most shocking incidents was the one in which 25-year-old Shravan Kumar was stabbed by a group of teenagers who forced their way into his house. Kumar, who almost died on the way to hospital, had to be put on life support systems. Days later he was reported to be out of danger, but doctors expressed doubts that he would ever recover fully....
The Common Man's Film-maker
September 23: From the rollicking ‘Chupke Chupke’ and ‘Golmaal’ to the shades of jealousy in ‘Abhimaan’, from the quiet seriousness of ‘Anupama’ to the tragic ‘Anand’, veteran film maker Hrishikesh Mukherjee has covered an entire range of emotions and relationships in his films. In a career spanning more than four decades, he became known as the man who touched a chord in the common man – the middle class in particular. And the ordinary film viewer responded to his quiet flowering in the only way he or she knew – by seeing Hrishi_da_‘s films again and again....
Report cards
October 21: The two news reports appeared almost at once and said a lot about the state of affairs in education in the world. One was the announcement of a whopping US$210 billion Gates Scholarship set up at England’s prestigious Cambridge University by the richest man on earth, Microsoft boss Bill Gates. The scholarship fund will enable 225 youngsters from across the world to be Gates Cambridge Scholars every year, beginning 2001. Report cards [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Graduate students from every country in the world, barring the United Kingdom, would be eligible to apply....
All for One
February 26: What happens when someone in authority takes advantage of the position that he is in, to harass someone weaker? In India, more often than not, the victim ends up doing nothing about it. Why not? Fear forces him or her to keep quiet. But not everyone believes in living up to the image of the powerless Indian. And when that ‘someone’ turns out to be an entire village, generally thought to be unchanging, it demands our attention....
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’....
Conquering Britain!
Where: Birmingham, UK November 25, 2000: A few weeks ago, we wrote about Indian-born Roshan Doug, who has been selected as the poet-laureate for the city of Birmingham in Britain. Close on the heels of that news comes another: Birmingham councillors will be giving an Indian name to a few suburbs in the city. Birmingham’s Apna Town Apna Town (our town) will be the new name for Sparbrook, a group of suburbs in Birmingham city. So this Christmas, if you drive past the Midlands (160 km north of London) you can see the Apna Town signage in English, Hindi, Gurmukhi and Urdu....
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)....
The Brightest of Them All
November 4: Children of Indian origin in Britain, are outperforming white children in important secondary school examinations. The British office for standards in education, Ofsted, shows that the number of Indian children passing five exams at the special Grade C level, a level corresponding to the Indian class 12, has risen from 23 per cent to 49 per cent between 1988 and 1997. What this means is that many more Indian-born children are eligible to attend university in Britain now, than in the past....