Women have emerged as a potential vote bank in India. Analysing election manifestos, Kiran Moghe says there is not a great deal of substantive difference in the promises made by Congress and BJP. It’s election time a time to make promises, never mind if they are not kept later! If the electoral pledge to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill is any indicator, for women, at least these promises appear to be empty political rhetoric. It’s an assurance that has appeared in the manifestos of every major political party ever since the 12th Lok Sabha elections and remains unfulfilled for the…
Author: oiop
Public transport is the backbone of Mumbai but this is an area which has been neglected for too long, resulting in increasing dependence on private vehicles and traffic congestion that is adversely impacting human life, writes Amit Bhatt. India is growing rapidly and transport is a foundation pillar of that growth. But the current focus on facilitation of private transportation (two and four wheelers) does not augur well for the economic growth of the country. Our cities are congested and polluted, and on an average we are losing one to two percent GDP growth annually due to this. In addition,…
Kathakali can be described as the “theatre of imagination” where the dance signifies good over evil. Dr Kanak Rele explains the nuances of this dance form through its acting, music, colour and costumes. Kathakali is the story dance from the southern state of Kerala. Kathakali literally means “Katha” (story) and “Kali” means a dance or a performance. It is a composite art where different actor-dancers take different roles. The stories are usually from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Kathakali is a very majestic art and when you see the costumes you realise how much thought and aesthetic values have…
The oldest museum in India turns 200 this year. When and where was the Indian Museum established? The museum was established on February 2, 1814 at the premises of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Kolkata. Who was the first curator of the museum? Dr Nathanial Wallach, a Danish botanist was the first Honorary Curator of the Oriental Museum, as it was then known. He was one of the largest donors to the Museum in the beginning. When did the public gain access to the museum? After the museum shifted to its present location, it opened its doors to the…
Alyque Padamsee is an institution unto himself – in the advertising world and in the world of theatre. His personal life has also been extremely unconventional ranging from his complete agnosticism when he withdrew from the religion he was born into through his three marriages that amazed the masses when he took all three wives together with the children for lunch or dinner at some posh dining place. When this very radical and revolutionary socialist who is immersed in civil rights in his city withdraws from the stage as an actor but continues directing, it makes news. It makes bigger…
Mumbai trains have become death traps for commuters taking an annual toll of over 3500 lives. Commuting can be made safer by adopting modern traffic management and cyclic timetable that is followed internationally, writes Dipak Gandhi. What an irony of fate! The local trains which ferry lakhs of commuters up and down daily and, which were once proudly called Mumbai’s Lifeline have now become its death line, taking an annual toll of over 3500 lives. This is despite the fact that both central and the state governments, the World Bank and commuters (through safety surcharge) having pumped in thousands of…
DR. SYEDNA MOHAMMED BURHANUDDIN SAHEB An inspirational spiritual leader (1915-2014) As the 52nd Dai al-Mutlaq, His Holiness Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb stood for peace and prosperity for the Dawoodi Bohra community. He was held in great respect by leaders the from world over and was honoured with awards and rewards for his knowledge and tremendous work towards the Bohra community, thus building a legacy of goodwill for his followers who had entrusted him as a leader. Born in 1915, Syedna received religious and administrative training from his father and predecessor, Syedna Taher Saifuddin Saheb. He succeeded his father in…
ADVOCATE VASUDHA DHAGAMWAR Legal campaigner for gender justice (1940-2014) Vasudha Dhagamwar, legal activist and academician, passed away on 10 February 2014, in Pune due to multiple organ failure. Vasudha’s mother Geeta Sane was a well-known Marathi writer and feminist and her father, Advocate Narasimha Dhagamwar was active in the Indian freedom movement. Vasudha studied at the Indian Law Society’s Law College in Pune and taught at the Department of Law, University of Pune. As a young lawyer, she fought a well-known case of a teenage tribal girl Mathura who was gang-raped by two policemen in uniform at the police station…
‘….in this street live many merchants, and there youwill find all sorts of rubies, and diamonds, and emeralds, and pearls, and seed-pearls, and clothes, and every other sort of thing there is on earth that you may wish to buy.’ Thus wrote Domingo Paes, a Portuguese traveller who visited Hampi during the reign of Sri Krishnadeva Raya. Hampi is a small village on the southern bank of the Tungabhadra River in Bellary district of Karnataka. Traditionally known by many names such as Pampa Kshetra, Kishkinda Kshetra, Bhaskara Kshetra, Vidyanagara, Virupakshapura, Hosapattana, Hosa Hampapattana, Hastinavathi, Hampe Hastinavathi and Kunjarakona, the village…
V. Gangadhar is concerned about the growing menace of manifestoingitis, a dreaded disease which crops up every five years during election time and numbs the brains of the public. The awful season is back again,” sighed Dr. Pollster as he wiped his face wearily. “Thankfully, most of the time, it comes once in five years but that is hard enough for the likes of us”. I nodded sympathetically. “Look at the size of it,” pointed out the doctor. “This huge, entire nation is affected. No one, not one area, region can escape its devastation. Mind you, the impact of this…