From a third-floor balcony, the fine curve of the road below -- a lane in a locality -- appears so different now during the lock-down. Cars appear permanently parked on both sides, as if frozen in their respective places. A few -- very few -- people stray out of homes to fetch things that they can’t avoid doing. Dogs bark intermittently, giving evidence of both, their restlessness or of their waking up from the slumber. Police patrol cars move about at regular intervals, sometimes alerting people ..

INDIA’S fight against coronavirus pandemic has reached a critical point as it finds itself perched between Stage II and Stage III of COVID-19. Even though India’s national effort until now have been of exemplary standards, the subsequent efforts will have to be much more disciplined and intensified than ever before. The common people, too, will have to extend much better cooperation to and collaboration with the official efforts so that the country is able to handle the rigours of Stage II and Stage ..

‘HOPE’ has found many a definition in human parlance. Despite its positivism, ironically, however, ‘hope’ finds its existence in the thick of hopelessness. When everything is black and bleak, when nothing seems to move, when life appears frozen, a little sprout of hope raises its tiny head and says, ‘Hey, here I am -- with you, by you, and for you. Come on. Come up. Rise. Refuse to succumb’. Hope, thus, is almost an outcome of a time when everything appears lost. For reasons that we do not ponder ..

KEEPING the future dangers in mind, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is working on putting more robust logistics in place during the next round of operations at airports. The CISF deploys about 32,000 personnel to guard as many as 63 civil airports of the country. They are among the most vulnerable people who are likely to get infected by the coronavirus, having close physical interaction with lakhs of passengers. While the country..

IN THE judgment of a bunch of 4 civil appeals in the case –Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. v. Rohit Prajapati & others - delivered on April 1, 2020, Justice Dr D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Ajay Rastogi, at the Supreme Court, have adopted balanced approach, which holds the industries to account for having operated without environmental clearances in the past without ordering closure of operations. The Court has issued the order for payment of compensation as a facet of preserving the environment in accordance ..

THE lockdown regime we are having to brave is an unprecedented pan-India injunction never seen before in the country’s history. And the force of this ruling comes, obviously, from the Covid-19 pandemic which has gripped the world in rapid contagion. The world’s most advanced nations are running short of infrastructure ..

PRIME Minister Mr. Narendra Modi pitching for a common exit strategy of all States is the right step to deal with the situation emerging after the 21-day coronavirus lockdown period ends on April 14. All the States are facing multiple and diverse pressures while tackling the long lockdown, which is imperative to break the chain of Covid-19 spread...

THAT no individual Indian is isolated and the whole nation stands by him even as he stays indoors during the long lock-down, is the message Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has sought to give to everybody in the country when he urged all to light a candle or a lamp or a torch-light or a cellphone light at 9 p.m. for full nine minutes ..

EVEN as the nation stands together in the great com bat against coronavirus, some sections of the larger Indian society are showing absolute insensitivity towards the issue of extreme seriousness. They are refusing to follow the principle of social distancing and voluntary isolation which the nation has accepted by agreeing to stay indoors. ..

THE coronavirus pandemic will leave some deep and fundamental lessons for organising our economy and for a new kind of social policy. If lockdown was the essential way to fight the spread of the virus, it has also shown where our social policies are flawed and how those can be remedied. We have always been talking about 90 per cent of the total employment in India being in the informal and tiny and small sectors. But we have hardly bothered to know how these people worked and lived. They worked in ..

What to cook and what to eat? Other than these, one more questions pops every morning, what to do with my kids, how to engage them in a productive way. Here are some ways of keeping them busy and believe me it will keep you busier...

There is a reason to thank the current lock-down of unprecedented scale. For the first time, some of the common people might have understood what kind of a tough job the cops have on hand monitoring streets and public..

A WEEK can be a very long time and last week was a classic example. It began with the markets falling very sharply and the BSESENSEX losing just about 4,000 points on Monday. Tuesday saw the markets trading in a comparatively narrow range of just about 800 points on BSESENSEX. Tuesday night was also the time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown beginning 12 midnight of Tuesday the 24/25th March. Wednesday saw markets gain 2,000 points. Thursday saw the FM announcing measures ..

DHUMAVATI is the seventh of the ten Mahavidya Goddesses. According to Thodala Tantara Maa Dhumavati is the equivalent of Varaha Avatara. Devi Dhumavati is an old widow and is associated with things considered inauspicious and unattractive. She is always hungry and thirsty who initiates quarrels. In characteristics and nature She is compared with Goddess Alakshmi, Goddess Jyeshta and Goddess Nirriti. All these three Goddesses are embodiment of negative qualities but at the same time worshipped at special ..

Maa Chhinnamasta is the sixth among Dasha Mahavidya. The image of Chhinnamasta is a severed head. She is the Goddess who causes us to cut off our own heads or to dissolve our minds into pure awareness. She brings transcendence of the mind and represents the non-mind (unmana) state. Freed from the limitations of the mind, consciousness realises its true nature beyond death and sorrow. Chhinnamasta -- A severed head..

HUMANKIND is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and Governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. ..

Maa Bhairavi is the fifth among Dasha Mahavidyas. As the name indicates, Bhairavi means frightful, terrible, horrible or formidable. According to Swami Vivekananda, “Bhairavi provokes different fears. For, she is said to shine with the effulgence of 10,000 rising suns. She has many names including Tripura Bhairavi, Sampath Praja Bhairavi, Kaulesh Bhairavi, Siddhida Bhairavi, Bhay Vidwamsi Bhairavi, Chaitanya Bhairavi, Kameshwari Bhairavi, Nitya Bhairavi, and Rudra Bhairavi. Her body is the color of ..

SPORTS PERSONS across the globe are facing a similar and peculiar quandary of sitting idle as the world has gone into a lockdown mode to break the chain of coronavirus spread. Such extraordinary times were never imagined by the world. The sporting arenas falling silent simultaneously across the globe is a rare phenomenon that should not repeat again. This is a fervent prayer, not only by the sporting world but also shared by entire human race. ..

LEGEND has it that a foreign professional body acknowledged his greatness when a native body found it difficult to grant him membership since he did not have an official certificate as an architect -- at least initially. This anecdotal corollary sums up the achievement of Mr. Satish Gujral as a world-renowned architect ..

A mature society should have behaved differently and more responsibly. But quite many sections among us refused to do so. They thronged the markets. They crowded the streets for prayers, they indulged in political protests regardless of warnings and cautions from the administration...

  THAT the Pakistani Army authorities are pushing coronavirus patients into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) so that the province of Punjab in Pakistan is cleansed of the scourge, is nothing but an expression of dirty minds at work in Islamabad. It is common knowledge that PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan are among the most marginalised areas in Pakistan and the efforts appears obvious to treat those as garbage dumps. Though the authorities are reported to have set up quarantine centres in some ..

THE deadly terror strike by Islamic State (IS) in a Kabul Gurudwara killing at least 25 worshippers is one of the freshest example of how Islamic jehadi groups have been targeting members of the minority Sikh community in Afghanistan for years -- almost as part of an organised campaign to eliminate the Sikh community from that country. A similar campaign has been going on against other minority communities as well. ..

THE expert estimation that India may end up with a gaping 4% hole in its GDP -- worth Rs. 9 lakh crore (USD 120 billion) -- as the price for its fight-back against coronavirus, will make anybody feel shell-shocked. Even as the experts who have predicted the size of the damage to the economy have asked for a bail-out package, and the Government, too, has expressed its willingness to offer help to the best of its capacity. Thus, once the coronavirus scare is effectively dealt with, then the real task ..

THE period of three weeks of extended lock-down across the country will pass quickly, if all of us stay indoors happily and also with a sense of duty -- towards ourselves and towards the larger human community in India and in the world. For, when there is a well-set goal, well-defined method and manner of doing things, and the innate interest in common good, staying indoors for three weeks would not be impossible. ..

It used to be a matter of genuine, low-intensity adventure for Nagpurians to enter the woods on both sides of the Telangkhedi lake and make their way up to the top of Starkee Point. The lake and the woods on both sides were little patches of genuine vegetation that could scare the weak-hearted even during noons. There were some daredevils who would enter the lake-water from its eastern embankment, swim across to the western edge, and then walk through the wooded patch of well over a kilometer to the ..

EVEN as the world counts the immeasurable human costs of the coronavirus, large-scale economic ramifications also stare in its face, calling for a united effort at global level to limit its damage. The International..

IT IS heartwarming to know that Dr. Roderico Ofrin, Director of Regional Emergencies, South-East Asia, of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has described India’s efforts to contain coronavirus as “comprehensive and robust response”. Thanks to the promptness and no-nonsense approach of the Government, India’s fightback against the deadly virus is being appreciated the world over. When the world is engaged in a serious war against the disease, such appreciation comes as a genuine encouragement to ..

THE nation can only ill-afford the word of caution from Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi about the long-drawn battle against coronavirus. Even as he thanked people for their response to the ‘Janata Curfew’ and to the appeal for clapping at 5 p.m. to express gratitude to coronavirus warriors, Mr. Modi has also expressed a sense of urgency about continuing the efforts for a fairly long period so that the spread of the deadly virus is contained within reasonable limits, which he described as a long battle. ..

AFTER a big gap 17 security personnel were martyred in the worst affected Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. These Special Task Force personnel were declared missing after an encounter with the Maoists on Saturday. Their bodies were found on Sunday, while 15 more have been hospitalised with bullet injuries. No doubt the security forces have been able to control the menace of Naxalite extremists in the last few years and were successful in retrieving v..

THE departure of PK Banerjee has taken away a golden hero of Indian football. He will be fondly remembered as Indian football’s Goliath but PK Banerjee’s career went much beyond soccer, leaving a legacy that deserves rich tributes from the sporting world. Calling it a huge loss of football would be looking at life in a myopic way, for, Pradipda had carved his place in the psyche of lovers of sports of any discipline, any form. Banerjee was a synonym for Indian football, being part of the holy trinity ..

WHEN the nation observes ‘Janata Curfew’ on Sunday and stays indoors, it will bring into effect any such move of national scale for the first time. There is every reason to believe that the 14-hour moratorium will work to the fullest and there will be nobody on the streets for whatever reasons, except in the cases that have been specified as essential services. It would be historic day when the whole nation stays indoors for 14 hours in a massive effort to isolate the deadly coronavirus that has shaken ..

LIKE the soft rays of gallant sun seeping through the darkness of the night, like the harmonious waves of a tranquil sea caressing the dry, shady shores, like the white mountains rising high against endlessness of azure sky, poetry, through all ages, like clear waters of a rippling river, has stirred human consciousness time and again. It is not for nothing that those who nurse it are also called wordsmiths. For, they turn words into gold. As the world celebrated World Poetry Day on Saturday, The ..

MR.JOE Biden appears to be racing ahead of Mr. Bernie Sanders in securing Democratic party’s nomination for the Presidential election of the United States. Within the Democratic party it is an ideological fight between Mr. Joe Biden and Mr. Bernie Sanders with the latter having pronounced sociological moorings. While hot favourite Mr. Biden..

EVEN as he goes full distance to explain to the countrymen the meaning of diplomacy, Minister of External Affairs Dr. Subramanian Jaishankar often insists upon futility of jumping to conclusions or offering knee-jerk reactions to small developments. Of course, he does not shrug his shoulders and lets some events pass without any Indian response. But he often insists upon a long-range view of international relations that would forbid India and Indians from assessing a situation with a sense of finality...

Of poet and poetry OF COURSE, poets have often tried to decipher what they do when they write poetry, in the process giving rise to countless definitions and explanations -- and even apologies. They have also tried to understand the poetic process and have seen themselves in its depths and tentacles and shrinking or expanding labyrinth. But what Peter Howard has done in these few lines is to offer a wide range of questions that the poets and readers of poetry have to explore. In fact, this can be ..