When I think of the term secularism, our country to me seems like a practical lab. The theoretical concept is taught, discussed and debated all over the world, but it is only in India that its practicality

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Delhi, the capital of India, is truly a melting pot. Dilli, as it is fondly called, is indeed the heart of India . And like any other city , it has a great underbelly too . The characteristics of Delhi are one of its kind. First of all, it doesn’t boast of any climate of its own . And what it has, is beautifully extreme

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“If you have food, please give it to us, but we don’t want to board your boats”. It is said that every major tragedy gets the best out of people and the worst. The statement couldn’t have been more apt for the situation in Bihar where the scarcity of food has triggered an ugly race for survival as people went on to loot a relief camp in Madhepura

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Prostitution in India is a contentious issue. Well, all of us are the proud citizens of a country where hypocrites reign strong. I can say this so emphatically because hitherto our society has allowed maladies like prostitution to grow by not accepting the severity of such issues and thereby not making any attempt to deal with them. As per the present status of Prostitution in our Constitution

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Students today, have a variety of new careers to choose from. Gone are the days when the only conventional careers were to become a doctor and engineer. The subjects of study offered, directly complement the careers they wish to

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So often, I earn the scorn of my friends for criticizing virtually everything about India, sometimes criticizing the political system, or the sports federations, or the educational institutions. That, along with my difficulty with Hindi, has earned me the tag of “firang”. But, does hating the state of things

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It has been 61 years since independence, but we still have not been able to achieve 75 per cent literacy, forget about universal literacy! The quality of education provided is bad.. Lack of teachers, especially the lack of quality

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The magic of Mayawati seems to have just begun as the Bahujan Samajwadi Party supremo made her debut in the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women in the World. The list includes three other Indians- Sonia Gandhi, Indra Nooyi and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

Mayawati may have not quite made it to the post of the Prime Minister but she has definitely made it to this superpower list released by the Forbes Magazine. Mayawati made her debut at the 59th position whereas Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi was present on the 21st position,which is a big fall from her last years 6th rank. The other Indians who made it to the list include Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi and chief of Biocon Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Indra Nooyi has moved two places from here last year’s 5th place to a commendable third place this year whereas Kiran just completed the top hundred list by coming in at the 99th position.

Mayawati’s debut into the list may not come as a surprise to many political critics as ever since becoming the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, she has grown from strength to strength. From having ambitions of becoming the Prime Minister of the country to being the assumed head of the third front of Indian politics, Mayawati has made her agenda in politics very clear from the beginning. The trust vote on the Indo US deal may have not gone her way, but it is a known fact that her political career has risen tremendously in the past few years and who knows her ambitions of leading the country one day may soon be realized. Sonia Gandhi’s position in the list seems to have fallen a bit after she let Prime Minister Manmohan Singh take the limelight and face the contentious issues relating to the Indo US nuclear deal while she herself maintained a low profile for sometime. But never the less, Sonia Gandhi continues to be strongest female politician in our country.

The Forbes top 100 list was topped by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the second year. The second position went to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila C Bair of the United States of America. Hillary Clinton may have not been selected as the Democratic nomination for the President in America but American women have dominated the list with six of the top ten belonging to the States. Wallpoint CEO Angela Braly and the US secretary of State Condolezza Rice also make it to the top ten. Hillary Clinton came in at the 28th place. Other notable women who can be found in the list are Oprah Winfrey at the 36th place, Melinda Gates at the 44th and Queen Elizabeth 2 on the 58th position.

Indian women may not be getting their due in our society but Forbes has acknowledged their power by including four in the top 100 list. All the women mentioned have achieved several milestones in their powerful careers. It is interesting to note that these four women come from politics and the corporate world both of which are supposed to be dominated by the men. Hence these women represent the ambitions and the aspirations of millions of other Indian girls who too want to push the glass ceiling and reach for the sky. These women truly epitomize the Indian woman of today- who is confident and wants to reach for the stars.

Shishir Srivastava

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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The reign of terror being created by Blueline Buses in Delhi has shaken up the death toll at an ever ascending scale. It is sad that almost every other day

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Secularism is that India certainly boasts of even though it is not something that we uphold sincerely

The Amarnath Yatra issue is just another slice to the cake of religious fundamentalism: A perfectly peaceful situation blown out of proportion

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The call of the muezzin and the valley is on its toes. The chirping of the birds and the sound of the gleaming waters, the pigeons swaying in the azure awakens the people of the beautiful valley called Kashmir .Children going to their schools, people going out for work and the streets full of life. As the radio jockey claims that it is the most beautiful morning insouciant about the turmoil that they have been living in since 62 years. But the last two months present a different anecdote. The Amarnath land row has ignited the fire in the young souls .

No schools, offices are shut, trade halted, empty banks and shops, isolated colleges and universities, desolate streets is the tale of this valley since two months. The Amarnath land row has made people go out on the streets and protest for what is right. Initial opposition to the land transfer was based on environmental concerns. Some environmentalists argued that the land transfer would impede the region’s delicate ecological balance. But who cares about the environment these days? The Amarnath land row was turned into a communal battle in the Jammu region whereas in Kashmir the Amarnath land row taking a back seat, the basic issue i.e. the Disputed territory of Kashmir has come on the forefront and people now want nothing less than a solution for their beloved homeland.

Human rights violation has been taking place in Kashmir since India got independence and when people have finally awoken from their slumber what is wrong with it? The media calls it violence and the people are labelled as a frenzied mob! Is this what we call freedom of expression and speech? Till now 120000 Kashmiris have died .and thousands are missing. There is not a single Kashmiri family who has not borne the brunt of the turmoil. As if the curfew imposed by the government and the lathi charges were not enough the Jammu region economically blocked the region of Kashmi. People of Kashmir are real rock solid pillars: we have survived in the toughest situations and we will continue to do that till our very last breaths!

For the past two months, we Kashmiri kids have not gone to school , our exams are round the corner. The population of Kashmir is out of essential supplies. We have no milk,no vegetables, no medicines , our internet servers have been slowed down. Is it being done to suffocate us?The curfew has been imposed by the government of Jammu and Kashmir for an indefinite period and the masses are under house arrest. The army has shoot at sight orders, this is what is called modern democracy. Bal Gangadhar Tilak who led the Extremists of The Congress quoted the Bhagvad Gita “inaction against injustice is the biggest crime” so are we supposed to just sit back and do nothing about the injustice? The death toll has now reached around 46. Hundreds of people are injured mostly youngsters, thousands have been arrested for no rhyme or reason, atrocities committed against scores of people who neither were carrying trishuls nor swords in their hands but were expressing peacefully their voice for their rights.. The army and the police used rubber bullets in the Jammu region where as the innocent Kashmiris were just killed with bullets wrenching their hearts. Our local channels have been blocked because they were the only ones covering the protests and the demonstrations. National media has just not lived up to its mark. The peaceful protests were never aired and the sea of humanity which had gathered at different places of Kashmir were never shown to the people of India. Why is the ground situation being veiled from the general masses? Why?

Alas! Nobody has an answer to my queries! The kids of Kashmir are really baffled about their identity: whether they are Indians first or just Kashmiris! What we want is just a solution for our problem as I flip through my history book the demonstrations, the peaceful protests , Gandhiji’s idea of Satyagrah just reminds me of the saying that history repeats itself and that is what is happening in Kashmir right now.

We have suffered since a long time , our demands are just simple . Please just solve the problem. We, the present generation of Kashmir has never seen a peaceful Kashmir. We just hear about the grandeur of our valley through our parents and grandparents. Please give us a chance to witness the splendour of our valley and let us live peacefully!

Fatimah Kanth

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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If you have a good memory, you would have no problem recollecting a few cherished childhood Kodak moments. But even if you don’t, ask your parents or just take out one of your old albums from the back of your shelf. And notice how your eyes start to twinkle.

Playing in the mud, getting tanned in May’s summer heat, jumping like frogs in rainy Julys, trying to handle our over-packed selves in winters… you and I have done a lot. We were closer to nature (made possible because of lesser pollution and because Delhi was a safer city back then) and we were innocent little souls too. But this has remarkably changed, and perhaps not for the better. In fact, every now and then, there are news pieces voicing parents’ concern of how their eight or nine year old behaves more like a teenager. Just saying that the current generation is smarter by birth or that they have more exposure which leads to premature onset of maturity does nothing to aid.

While the parents expect their children to be born geniuses who are adept in everything, the entertainment industry is not helping either. The so-called “children’s” cartoons being aired are atrocious. There is so much corruption involved in them that as an adult, I felt disgusted. I can only wonder about the kind of impact it must have on the budding minds. Interestingly, the animated series do not belong to our indigenous brains; they are a gift of the global market. So now that we have apparently stopped aping the west, we are indirectly training our future generations to live a disastrous life.

I find it immensely ironical that today’s three year olds go to playschool but they don’t know how to play with clay! Because it is a ‘play school’, the child must study.

Why do we even care to harp about a child’s overall development when we do not let development take its natural course? And so try not being surprised when you see a very young child thinking about “love” and its verses. The reason is this. A child who matures at the age of 10 will become an adult by 16 whether or not you lower the age for drinking or consented sex. Furthermore, while he/she has already entered adulthood before time, earning money is not much of a concern; from call center jobs to part time jobs, earning money has become stronger a possibility. The kid no longer belongs to the ‘dependant’ population and after working for a few years, say a decade, will get tired of life. End result: frustration, longing for change, suicides, ruined health, extravagance and the list goes on.

Do our future generations have the right foundation? Living life in fast lane does not mean not living life at all. Evolution is not a computerized process which will work on our convenience and with our desired speed. There are some things that should not be tampered with and childhood is one.

Let a child be a child. Let them get dirty in the mud (they are not supposed to be Page 3 stars!), let them play in the sun, let them get wet in rain, let them make their own toys and stop trying to teach them everything. There are things which ‘experiment’ teaches a child and which an educative toy cannot. Let him/her tear the pages of their books; there is a whole life to read, the eyes need not be burdened at the age of three.

Let him/her observe, learn by themselves. Parenting is not about grooming the child so that he/she fits the bill and gets the approval of your social circle. It is about nurturing a human being. Hence it is imperative that we let the ‘human’ element remain because robots with emotions can be engineered but a life is born and should be left free to take its own course.

Meghna Baveja

(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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No species has been found in which homosexual behaviour has not been shown to exist, with the exception of species that never have sex at all, such as sea urchins and aphis.

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Bus journeys everyday to college has only turned me furious at the Indian mind-set!

Time and again, we have been taught to be conventional, follow the mob and to just adjust with the existing situation. What has resulted out of this is a government that is so hierarchical that one needs all one’s life to finally get to meet the top officials!

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‘It is difficult to like everybody’s sense of humour’. Yet some things are sure to make you laugh. Wondering what could they be? I believe cartoons are surely the funniest. Vibrant colours, vigorous mobile pictures and the niche to make one laugh are a commendable achievement by the animation world.

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How often have we blamed the government for any shortfall? Uncountable times. But then, I have one question for all, if one blames the government and bureaucracy for not performing their duties, have we performed ours? There is something missing in us, which is making me restive.

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There is a Czech proverb, “Kolik jazyku znáš, tolikrát jsi clovekem.” (You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once! )… Recently, I have come across an online community– My Happy Planet.

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Genetically, almost indistinguishable from the closest primate relatives, human beings are tiny branch of great evolutionary tree. The spread of civilization made human beings ruthlessly exploit nature. In this race for progress, we have failed to respect intrinsic value of animals. Almost all religions consider animals as symbolizing God. For Hindus, God appears in different forms at various times to fulfill specific purposes like Narishma. Prophet Mohammad is believed to say that all creatures are the family of God and he loves the most those who are the most beneficent to his family.

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A person can still be alive even after death making the death meaningful by donating organs and giving new lease of life to the needy.

Advances in medical technology and science have made organ procurement, or the search and transfer of organs and tissue from one body to another a debatable issue. The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 allows relatives and strangers on consideration of affection to donate organs.

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Monsoon is a welcome change after the rising humidity levels in Delhi. The cool showers provide respite to the thirst quenching weather, stabilizing the temperature. But as happy children relish sinking into the depths of the puddles before going to school, gleefully awaiting the authorities to declare a holiday;

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India is paying little attention towards the security of children and this country cannot be considered safe for a child. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reports that every year, 7,058 children are reported missing in Delhi. Delhi ranks second after Kolkata in this case.

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We have, by now, been over-exposed to the the Aarushi Talwar murder mystery. It has been everything, from breaking news to an unsolved mystery to a scoop. Some television producers even rode piggyback and laughed their way to the banks cashing in on the teenager’s plight.

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India does not have an exemplary higher education system. Apart from a handful of (less than 12) colleges, there is no international recognition of Indian universities.

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“No just cause can be advanced by terrorism.” - Koffi Anan

Terrorism is the organized use of violence for political ends and is directed primarily at non-combatants. The Department of State (U.S.) defined terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non- combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.”

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The story of Abraham and Hagar and the event of the incarnation of Jesus clearly establish a historical precedent which can never be denied. - Ignacio L. Gotz

The word ‘surrogate’ means ‘substitute’. The concept of surrogate mother originated at the time when it became possible to create life of own child in other’s womb.

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