Harper Lee, who wrote one of America’s most enduring literary classics, To Kill a Mockingbird, about a child’s view of right and wrong and waited 55 years to publish a second book with the same characters from a very different point of view, died at the age of 89 on Friday. Mary Jackson, the city clerk in Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, said by phone that Lee had died. A […]
An Indian teacher who runs a not-for-profit school in Mumbai for girls from the city’s red light areas was on Wednesday named in the top 10 short-list for a global prize for teachers. Robin Chaurasiya, founder of Kranti, will compete with teachers from the UK, US, Nairobi, Palestine, Japan, Finland, Australia and Pakistan to win the $ 1-million Global Teacher Prize 2016. “There was a teacher behind every great artist, […]
There was jet lag from travelling 13 time zones, daddy’s absence that was keenly felt, and the brilliance of the world’s brainiacs arrayed before her. None of this fazed Ishita Katyal, a 10-year-old Pune writer and middle-schooler who, quite extraordinarily, debuted as the opening speaker at the TED2016 (Technology, Entertainment, Design), a nerdy conference of some of the world’s smartest people. Alpha-geeks from Google and Tesla, Apple and Uber, not […]
Pope John Paul II had a close relationship with a married woman which lasted over 30 years, according to letters which feature in a documentary being shown by the BBC on Monday. While the documentary does not claim he broke his vow of celibacy with Polish-born philosopher and writer Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, the tone of some of his letters to her points to intense feelings between them, the broadcaster says. The […]
Born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay, Naidu was a political writer, feminist, poet and writer. She is remembered today as one of India’s front running female freedom fighters. On the occasion of her birth anniversary, here are some lesser known facts about her life and why she is one of the greatest Indian women in history. 1. She went to university at the age of 12 A brilliant student, she was chosen […]
A billion prayers were behind him but Siachen hero Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad lost the battle for life on Thursday. 33-year-old Hanumanthappa passed away at 11:45 am at Indian Army’s Research and Referral Hospital in the national capital. His condition had worsened last night. The brave soldier had slipped into deeper coma and was on maximal life support since then. The shortage of oxygen to his brain and failure of […]
Indian lawyer Chandan Kumar Singh recently stunned many Indians when he tried to sue popular Hindu god Ram. Mr Singh told the BBC that he took the action because he felt “Lord Ram was unjust to his wife Sita”, and he wanted a court in the eastern state of Bihar to “acknowledge this fact”. The court wasn’t convinced with his argument and rejected his plea last week, saying it wasn’t […]
From extreme poverty to building a company worth Rs 60 crore, Raja Nayak’s incredible rags-to-riches story is an inspiration. At 17, Raja Nayak ran away from home. Like millions before him, he wanted to escape the punishing life that poverty inflicts on its victims. “I knew I had to earn money. I wanted to earn big money. That was my only focus then,” Raja Nayak, 54, tells me as we […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to the 10 Indian Army soldiers who were trapped under snow in the Siachen Glacier after an avalanche hit on Tuesday. “Demise of soldiers in Siachen is very tragic. I salute the brave soldiers who gave their lives to the nation,” he wrote on the microblogging platform Twitter. Earlier in the day, the defence ministry had said that chances of finding the soldiers “are […]
Matthieu Ricard, a 69-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk, has been called the “world’s happiest man.” That’s because he participated in part of a 12-year brain study on meditation and compassion led by University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Richard Davidson. And Davidson found his brain waves and activity to be off the happiness charts. In 2008, Davidson had a group of expert meditators (including Ricard) and a group of controls (people who were […]
