By Mamta Aggarwal Hyderabad, April 1 (IANS) Jayamma Bhandari was orphaned at the age of three and spend her childhood in grim poverty. She was forced into the sex trade by her husband. But unlike…
By Jaideep Sarin Casablanca (Morocco), March 30 (IANS) With the growing threat of terrorism-linked radicalisation across countries, an international NGO has initiated a campaign across Europe and other countries to involve mothers and women to…
By Nury Vittachi In Norway, any child over the age of six can now legally change his or her sex. “Daddy, guess what, I’m a female now! Daddy, what does female mean?” Gender trends in…
By Nivedita Singh New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) At a time when younger people are privileging smartphones, television and video games over other sources of entertainment, a nearly 55-year-old museum housing thousands of dolls from…
By Jaideep Sarin Dakhla (Morocco), March 28 (IANS) For the first time in the world, a tiny island nation in the Pacific Ocean has made it mandatory for visitors to sign a pledge not to…
By Somrita Ghosh Jhunjhunu, March 25 (IANS) Sending her elder daughter Manushree to an English-medium school in Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan) was a distant dream for Sushila Thakan some eight years ago. Though she had her husband’s…
By Nury Vittachi Two large sums of public money went missing in Nigeria recently. In one case, the official concerned said a MONKEY had run off with the cash and, in the other, an official…
By Saket Suman New Delhi, March 21 (IANS) Celebrity memoirs and biographies, despite the terrific attraction they have for readers, have come to be quite controversial in recent times. It was not very long ago…
New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) Biplap Sarkar is a fresh and talented artist from Siliguri but his artistic journey has found new boost after he was announced as the seventh recipient of Glenfiddichs Emerging Artist…
New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) “When Krishna is your muse,” says Ajmer-based artist Ashok Hazra, “the art that captures the myriad nuances of this blue-skinned deity is bound to be both enigmatic and spiritual”. And…
By Archana Sharma Jaipur, March 16 (IANS) Sulochana Chaudhary, a mother of three successful daughters, was watching TV with keen interest as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the audience while launching the “Beti Bachao, Beti…
New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) Are women getting their due at workplaces or are they being overlooked? What happens when a devastated man embarks on a quest to find the recipient of his donated kidney?…
By Nury Vittachi As the years go by, this columnist becomes increasingly aware of the vital importance of being stupid. Consider the evidence. My rational friends said cryptocoins were stupid. An irrational friend of a…
By Saket Suman New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) He can barely speak a few lines of English, yet his deep insight and observations of rural life are reshaping how we view the hinterland. With a…
By Kushagra Dixit Leh, March 11 (IANS) Years back, on a harsh winter morning in Ladakh in the northernmost Himalayas in India, a young and curious boy in a remote mountain village of the cold…
By Nury Vittachi “An alligator can eat a quarter of its bodyweight in a single meal, equivalent to a human eating 89 bowls of rice,” a reader told me in an electronic conversation. I was…
By Somrita Ghosh New Delhi, March 8 (IANS) There is an increasing focus on women’s empowerment and gender equality in our public discourse and every year it reaches its peak on the occasion of International…
By Venkatachari Jagannathan Chennai, March 7 (IANS) Among the several types of idlis — a healthy South Indian dish — the Kanchipuram idli has a special, even divine, status. It is offered to the Lord…
By Subhash K. Jha Mumbai, March 6 (IANS) Film writer-editor Apurva Asrani, who chose to come out with his battle with Bell’s Palsy — a kind of facial paralysis — says celebrities should open up…
New Delhi, March 6 (IANS) Entries have opened for the inaugural edition of a literary award that breaks down language barriers and recognises the full cosmopolitan breadth of contemporary Indian literature. The award provides the…