Keeping the ritual, killing the essence!
It is hard to imagine how a shoe-shop, any average one, can have more visitors than a library that holds thousands of books in its lap and offers a window to world of knowledge and wisdom. But, truth be told, it is the reality of our society and one is amazed to see how many […]
Vox Popli: A tale of mountains, lakes, valleys and apple!
The state of Jammu and Kashmir is known for its scenic beauty as much as fresh and juicy apples. Tourists reaching here from various party of the world usually appreciate the flora and fauna as well as the grand manicured gardens as well as lakes and water bodies. They also love the fragrance of the […]
Interview : List of Things We Can Talk About Is Shrinking Every Day: Audrey Truschke
In conversation with the historian about her work on Aurangzeb and Mughal history, self-censorship, her cancelled event in Hyderabad and more
Jahnavi Sen: Hello and welcome, I am Jahnavi from The Wire, and with me today is Audrey Truschke. She’s assistant professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University in the US. Today, she’s going to tell us a little bit about her work, and also some recent experiences she’s had in India. So to begin […]
Jaun Elia – popular but not great
By: Rafay Mahmood Among the many tributes and eulogies that flooded social media after the APS attack in 2014 was actor Ahsan Khan’s Facebook post. Ab nahi koi baat khatray ki, ab sabhi ko sabhi sae khatra hai(There’s nothing left to be scared of, for everyone is scared of everyone), said the post. It was nothing […]
Why forests are the best ‘technology’ to stop climate change
Expanding forests is a much more effective solution to climate change than bioenergy.
BY: Jennifer Morgan The warning from the world’s top climate scientists that carbon dioxide (CO2) will need to be removed from the atmosphere to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is both a due and dire recognition of the great task in front of us. What must not be forgotten, however, is the hope […]
Nobel laureate Harold Varmus is a free radical
Harold E. Varmus graduated in English Literature but did his master’s in Medicine
By: Partha P. Majumder Dr Harold E. Varmus, who will be in Calcutta next week, won a Nobel Prize in Medicine jointly with mentor J. Michael Bishop in 1989 for discovering the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. This will not be his first visit to India. “My desires to practice medicine… were also tempered by […]
‘Without language we cannot claim our identity’
By Sayim & Bariya Hamid It is a widely accepted fact that Kashmir valley is not known just for its beauty but also for its rich culture, tradition and heritage; and also, it is no wonder that Kashmiri language is loved and admired by the people other than Kashmiris. We often find the visitors here […]
Early snowfall – boon or bane
Nature, having no substitute, is always under the control of Almighty. So having not our control for it’s early occurrence, snowfall, a natural phenomenon, can occur any time by the will of God, as it happened this year before more than a month’s time from the beginning of winter. And it caused huge damage to […]
Manto’s political insight without doctrines
A combination of political awareness and lack of political involvement saved the writer from being predictable and uncreative
By: Vidyarthy Chatterjee Each time Saadat Hasan Manto changes position in his 63-year-old grave in Lahore, “wondering whether he is a better short story writer than God”, the subcontinent, more than any other part of the world that recognized his genius belatedly, goes into raptures. Some recent films, books, and stage adaptations to do with […]
How fair is social media criticism?
Instant online opinions impoverish our public sphere
By: A.S. Panneerselvan Social media activists seem to have different notions about corrective action, justice and fairness. They want retribution, revenge and punishment rather than non-punitive course correction, which is the essential function of a news ombudsman. A news ombudsman adopts a light-touch approach to visibly mend mistakes. I refrain from naming the reporter while […]
