ON a February morning in 1838 Captain T. Burt of the Bengal Engineers rediscovered a huge complex of 85 temples at Khajuraho in Chhatrapur district, Madhya Pradesh. Today there are just 22 of the sandstone temples left including the largest, the Kandariya Mahadev temple. The Khajuraho temples are renowned for their erotic sculptures. They were built by the Rajput Chandela kings between the 10th and 11th centuries A.D. The tall spires resemble the Himalayan mountain peaks associated with Shiva, the main deity. Some archaeologists and art historians believe the ornate carvings depict Shiva’s marriage to Parvati. The gods Brahma and…
Author: oiop
Dr. Anil Joshi set up an organisation that looks into need-based science and technology developments and execution for the mountains. He is rightly called the ‘Mountain Man’ for he makes the mountains smile. THE Uttarakhand disaster in 2013 proved to be a wake-up call for the centre and the state governments, to realise that it is high time that the development model followed in the Himalayan regions be reviewed. A lone man, years ago, realised this importance and without waiting for policy makers to bring about a change, he set out himself, with Mahatma Gandhi’s message ‘Be the change you…
Rajendra Singh’s message to people is to see the earth like a bank. If you regularly deposit water, you’ll always have some to withdraw. If you are just taking, you will have nothing in your account. Rajendra Singh, is fondly known as the ‘water man’ of India, and deservingly so, for he has brought water back to the once barren villages of Rajasthan, thus bringing the villages back to life. It all started at the Alwar district in Rajasthan in 1985. The water sources in the village had long dried up and the ground water levels were low. While deforestation,…
Anna Hazare, single handedly won the hearts of millions of Indians across the country when he sat on an indefinite fast in New Delhi in 2011. His cry was to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption law, the Jan Lokpal Bill. This septuagenarian made the entire country shout in unison, ‘main bhi anna, tu bhi anna, abh toh saara desh hain anna, (I am anna, you are anna, now the entire country is anna) Kisan Baburao Hazare popularly known as Anna was born on 15 June 1937 in Bhingar, near Ahmednagar. He was the eldest…
Corruption, misrule, crony capitalism, lack of accountability and transparency all have exacerbated the condition of India’s common man. Further, the manner in which the Constitution has been worked over the years has proved that the common man has been squeezed out of politics, writes Prof. P. Radhakrishnan. India’s political rhetoric, academic discourses, media mumbo-jumbo, and everyday conversations of the people in general are punctuated by the phrase ‘common man’. Yet the phrase is elusive: it is easy to understand in a figurative sense, but difficult to define it definitively. ‘Common man’ has no precise or definite dictionary meaning: A person…
Chang had lost his axe and he suspected that his neighbour’s son, Wu, had stolen it. As he stood watching the boy from his window, he noticed that he had a scar on his forehead. “He certainly looks like a thief,” thought Chang. Then he heard him talking to his brother and he thought: “He speaks like a thief too!” When the boy began to walk, it seemed to Chang that the boy walked exactly like a thief he had once seen being led to prison. Just then his wife came rushing in with the axe. “It had fallen in…
THE purple frog (nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis ), so named for its vivid skin colour, is a unique frog species that dwells in the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats in India. The first female specimen was discovered in the Idukki district of Kerala in October 2003. The seven cm-long creature possesses a small head, swollen body and a pointed snout. It feeds on termites and other insects that it finds underground. Its call resembles the squawk of a chicken. This remarkable amphibian spends most of its time underground, emerging only for two weeks during the monsoons to breed.
Abstractionist par excellence (1924-2001) IT takes decades to realise quiet reaches of imagination of an artist trying to break new grounds and create his or her own niche. V.S.Gaitonde who travelled the unknown terrain in a lonely journey was no exception. Gaitonde and his art are in the main news columns mainly due to high valuation of his art work sold in the first auction held by Christie’s in India. His works stand out and is lauded in art circles for its far reaching influence over art scene in India due to its intellectual content and spiritual ethos. He was…
Lt. General Vijay Oberoi shares some of his cherished memories laced with vivid details that are attached to the celebration of ‘Raising Day’ of the Indian Army at Shimla. The Army Training Command celebrated its 23rd Raising Day on 1 October 2013. This ‘specified’ command (as opposed to ‘geographical’ commands) of the Indian Army was raised at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh over two decades back, but has its home in Shimla since the early nineties. While the celebrations were spread over a couple of days, the main function was on the afternoon of 30 September 2013. Being an ex GOCin-Cof…
It is difficult for a creative writer to sustain standards of excellence for nearly 45 years. It would have been difficult for a writer to begin writing in English for a niche, English educated audience in India way back in 1970. It is even more difficult to transcend the personal friend-successful writer barrier to nail Shashi Deshpande down to a formal interview. Yes, we are talking about the noted English fiction writer based in Bangalore, who was recently bestowed an award for her contribution to creative fiction by women, by Soi (meaning female soulmate), an organisation of women writers in…