I happened to be reading the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, 1972 when it turned 12 today and I saw the new google logo of Earth Day. Its quite amazing how we humans can live with ourselves. For 42 years now, we have been celebrating Earth Day and Earth Hour and World Environment Day and the likes, but if one has the opportunity (and immense patience) to go through the international agreements and conventions w..
April 22nd, 2011
The cover story of February’s Newsweek was about George Clooney and how his work at the ground level has impacted the lives of many in Sudan. Clooney is not one to make a hue and cry of his work, and yet one cannot deny its magnificence and his perseverance in doing the job of a "celebrity statesman". The sexiest man alive has very subtly directed the world’s attention to where it is needed the most.
The following are j..
March 22nd, 2011
2010 was an eventful year. It was like a wild party where chaos prevailed and collectively, we humans acted thoughtlessly. Its not that the human race witnessed something spectacular, unprecedented in history. But that is the point. Like every other year, we saw a repetition of the mistakes we made the previous year. Just for example, what real progress did we make in Cancun in 2010, from the summit in Copenhagen in 2009?
..
February 14th, 2011
Everyone loves the guy who knows secrets. Especially secrets meant to take big organizations down. And especially if he is willing to leak those secrets. These are precisely the emotions that Julian Assange of Wikileaks is cashing in on. This 39 year old, born in Townsville, Queensland, Australia has a thrilling story as his life. His parents initially ran a theater company and he changed 35 schools and had moved 30 times ev..
January 5th, 2011
One of the greatest ironies of our race and its intelligence is that though we advice balance as the ideal way to conduct one's thought, it takes obsession to produce a genius, indelibly change the course of human life and have your name imprinted in history. Karl Benz's life is one of the most conspicuous examples of how one man's will can change the way we perceive our world.
Born on November 25th, 1844 in Karl..
November 25th, 2010
Amongst those whose names are celebrated as leaders of women’s liberation, few would agree that Coco Chanel deserves a place. But perhaps those who know the nature of Chanel’s designs would be votaries of this idea. In an age, in which women wore corsets with heavily embroidered dresses in striking colours, Chanel represented emancipation from discomfort with a chic simplicity impeccably blended with sophistication. She wa..
October 23rd, 2010
Humans seem to attach a lot of importance to soil, especially the soil of their birth and its change and growth. In his book Istanbul – the City and Memoirs, Orhan Pamuk says that there are 2 kinds of people - people like Salman Rushdie and VS Naipaul who find solace in transcending between cultures, and others like the author himself, whose salvation is attached to the city they have spent their lives in, and most ..
September 17th, 2010
The Time Magazine report dated August 01, 2010 said –
For four days straight in mid-June, Kyrgyz mobs attacked the Uzbek community in the city of Osh, looting and burning entire Uzbek neighborhoods. Hundreds of people were murdered.... As borne out in hundreds of similar stories over the past six weeks, the tragedy suffered by the Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan is far from over. It has simply shifted from the open slaugh..
August 24th, 2010
It is an absolutely gorgeous morning here in India as we see the dawn of the 63rd Independence Day. The only conspicuous black spot on the white sheet is that we Indians have forgotten what independence really means.
Back in early 1900s, when we were trying to fight the British, it was easier for us to comprehend the term independence because there was a foreign entity on our land which was consuming our resource..
August 15th, 2010
There are certain people who leave a mark such that even after they have stopped playing the game, they are always remembered for times to come. Apart from their having such an impact, what seems to be important is the effect they still have on people. Diego Maradona is a name that has been immortalized in football history, not only for the gifted player that he was, but also for his knack of finding himself in precarious si..
June 29th, 2010
