Manoj Machra was born with no hands. In normal circumstances, someone with his disability would have accepted his fate and moved on, but not this 17-year-old: He hopes to get 80-85 percent in his secondary exams and aspires for a career in law.
His sheer grit and determination to complete his education against all odds is now inspiring his peers in a Rajasthan village these days. Manoj uses his toes to write his answer papers.
Built in 1592, a year after the formation of Hyderabad, the Char Kaman (the four arches) are of both historical and architectural value.
After the completion of Charminar, at about 75 metres feet to its north, four lofty arches known as Char Kaman were built in 1592. All four arches are at equidistant with each other with Gulzar Houz in the Centre. These arches were built by Sultan Muhammad Quli.
Anil Trivedi, tall, with an unkept grey beard, settles down over a cup of tea in my Indore hotel room, putting aside his AAP cap. His companion, Gaurav Chandak, a younger man, is an Indian Institute of Technology graduate and a committed social worker. He “had to vote” for the BJP in the December elections, he complains, because the Congress has not offered much of a contest in Indore in recent years.
Therefore when AAP erupted with the suddenness of revelation in Delhi, Gaurav began to inquire if there would be an AAP candidate from Indore for the parliamentary election.
Surprised by the AAP dark horse during the Delhi elections, bookies in Delhi and the National Capital Region are predicting the Arvind Kejriwal-led party will give a similar winning encore in the Lok Sabha elections.
Though the betting books have not yet opened, bookies appear more interested in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and predict the one election-old party has a “chance” of bagging a “good number” of seats in the April 7-May 12 general elections.
Surprised by the AAP dark horse during the Delhi elections, bookies in Delhi and the National Capital Region are predicting the Arvind Kejriwal-led party will give a similar winning encore in the Lok Sabha elections.
Though the betting books have not yet opened, bookies appear more interested in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and predict the one election-old party has a “chance” of bagging a “good number” of seats in the April 7-May 12 general elections.
Actor Salman Khan celebrated Makarsankranti with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad two month back, his father and well-known scriptwriter Salim Khan has written an introductory note in a book titled “Modi, Muslims and Media”, endorsing Modi and point the finger at the media for the BJP prime ministerial candidate’s “anti-Muslim” image.
It was a felicitation staging of Mohammad Ali Baig’s Padmashri award by Falaknuma Palace. Mohammad Ali Baig’s heritage spectacles is the city’s favourite weekend outing. Falaknuma Palace came alive with the story of Queen Hayat Bakshi Begum presented mesmerizingly in Baig’s latest offering ‘Savaan-e-Hayat’ staged at the Falaknuma Sunday night.
With the general elections just days away, Indian political parties are trying hard to woo NRIs in the US to raise funds and help canvass votes for them.
The most active among them is Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which recently launched a unique online platform that it expects to be a game changer in the upcoming general elections by tapping into popular support from inside and outside India.
Some 18,000 Indian Americans have volunteered for AAP’s phone-o-programme to make calls to friends and families in
India asking them to vote in favour of its candidates.
Foreign and national intellectuals taking part in a interactive seminar on Transformations in West Asia: The Next Steps’, have said that the Middle East is still miles away from adopting true democracy in letter and spirit.
Throwing light on the generic turmoil prevailing in the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of the “Arab Spring” revolutions, Ashraf El-Sherif a political science lecturer at the American University in Cairo, criticised the manner in which the Egyptian military and the Muslim Brotherhood were in complete discord with each other.
The Siasat Arty Gallery, an initiative of Siasat Urdu Daily, is organising a three-day exhibition on Islamic calligraphy at the Aligarh Muslim University from Wednesday.
The exhibition titled “The Art of Calligraphy” is being organised in association with the KA Nizami Centre for Quranic Studies at the Centre’s premises in Sir Syed Complex of AMU in Aligarh. The exhibition will have the works of five renowned calligraphers from Hyderabad on display from 10 AM to 5 PM from March 19 to 21st, according to a press release.
Javed Akhtar, noted lyricist and Member of Parliament, speaks his mind not just on cinema but also politics in an interview to The Citizen where he answers an expanse of questions from the Muzaffarnagar violence in Uttar Pradesh to gay rights and women empowerment. Excerpts:
What do you think of the portrayal of Muslims in Hindi cinema? Has there been any conscious effort to promote secular values?
More than 7 million Americans are living with an artificial knee or hip, which may have significant future implications in terms of the need for ongoing patient care, according to new research.
Two related studies also found a growing incidence of adults younger than age 65 undergoing total knee replacement (TKR) and total hip replacement (THR) surgeries, and a potential underutilisation of these procedures in some
segments of the population.
Fresh from shaking up the business community with audits of Delhi’s power firms and an FIR against the country’s biggest industrialist (he who must not be named), Arvind Kejriwal addressed the Confederation of Indian Industries. He took many attendees by surprise.
Researchers have suggested that people should thick twice before saying the words ‘shame on you’ because they may end up harming an individual’s sense of value and self-worth.
Thomas Scheff, professor emeritus of sociology at UC Santa Barbara, said that in modernity, shame is the most obstructed and hidden emotion and therefore the most destructive.
When hidden, he continued, shame causes serious struggles not only for individuals but also for groups.
The High Court has upturned an earlier order allowing the AP State Wakf Board to supervise the activities of Mumtaz Yawar-ud-Dowla Wakf (MYDW) Trust, which operates various educational institutions in Malakpet.
In February, Justice Vilas V Afzalpurkar had chucked out a petition filed by former MLC and trust president Ibrahim bin Abdullah Masqati, who had challenged the decision of the APSWB, after it sought to manage the affairs of the trust.
Justice Afzalpurkar had then delivered a verdict that the APSWB had the powers to manage the institutions, trusts and their properties.
In a crackdown against alleged corruption, commissioner of minorities welfare Shaik Mohammed Iqbal on Tuesday said a criminal case has been slapped against Syed Muneeruddin Mukhtar, a former member and coordinator of the AP State Haj Committee (APSHC).
Mukhtar is reportedly the president of Tek ki Masjid in Aghapura, Nampally, and is also associated with a political party.
Rahul Gandhi in an election campaign meeting said that ‘RSS people killed Gandhiji and today their people and BJP talk of him…They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhiji.” In a reaction to his statement RSS has lodged a complaint with election commission. This is not the first time that Rahul Gandhi has made such a statement; on an earlier occasion also he had made similar statement. What is the truth of Gandhi murder; did RSS as an organization had any role in it? Were members of RSS involved in it? What was the reaction of RSS followers in the wake of Gandhi murder?
The National Human Rights Commission on Monday took suo motu cognizance of a media report carrying the story of Mohammad Amir, who was released in January after a 14-year-long incarceration in jail, destroying his youth due to wrongful arrest on 27th February1998, from Old Delhi as an alleged ‘terrorist’ when he had just turned 18.
While Amir remained confined to a solitary high security cell in Tihar Jail, he had little idea that his father had passed away in penury, and his mother had got paralysis suffering a brain haemorrhage and losing speech amidst a social boycott.
A journey of a lady full with courage, sorrow and carelessness by society
Khuda Kaha hai chalo usko dhondne niklen,
Suna hai woh mazloom ki aah me rehta hai,
Dharti ko banake douzakh behisht maangte ho,
Tumhari chah pe ab tou khuda bhi hasta hai
People who are born blind are capable of learning to perceive the shape of the human body through soundscapes that translate images into sound.
With a little training, soundscapes representing the outlines and silhouettes of bodies cause the brain’s visual cortex—and specifically an area dedicated in normally sighted people to processing body shapes—to light up with activity.
Arvind Kejriwal, the anti-graft supporter turned activist, was welcomed, and sometimes hordeed, by small groups of supporters. He uncomplainingly heard their problems and urged them to vote contrary to the incumbent.
This well-known scene playing out in the unknown territory of Gujarat on Wednesday was an indication that Modi land wasn’t indifferent to the Aam Aadmi Party.
In what will be one of India’s most keenly watched Lok Sabha elections, the only declared prime ministerial candidate is pitted against many more hopefuls.
With the Congress shying away from naming a nominee for the top post, BJP’s Narendra Modi is the only prime ministerial choice of any political party. The Bharatiya Janata Party named Modi in September last year, much ahead of the polls to the 545-seat Indian parliament. By all accounts, Modi, the four-time Gujarat chief minister, is a picture of confidence.
Qutubuddin Ansari and Ashok Mochi, the contrasting faces of the 2002 Gujarat riots, are not only sharing a room, but living a dream too in Thalassery, the communist heartland of Kerala.
Salman, 13, a student of a government school in this Haryana town, wants to become a computer engineer. The small town boy with modest hopes began dreaming big after his ill-equipped school was provided with a computer lab equipped with a dozen computers.
Like the 10 other government schools in the area, Salman’s Rewasan School is one of those to have benefited from a computer lab, a library, a playground and clean drinking water – and most importantly, separate toilet for boys and girls, under the Coca-Cola-NDTV Support My School campaign.
In May 2012, sitting with a borrowed iPad, a few metres from the White Nile in Juba, I saw a show aiming to flow against the current of television advertising. The Nile, as we know, flows from south to north!
Being aware of the merciless onslaught of weekly rating numbers, I had hoped that “Satyameva Jayate” would ride the tiger. But knowing a bit about rating meters, I doubted whether India’s Rs. 80,000-crore (Rs.800 billion/$13 billion) media and entertainment industry, or even the high priests of “responsible TRPs”, would take notice.