सलाम नमस्ते INDIA

Assam's village of magic is a tourist hotspot Assam's village of magic is a tourist hotspot  An eerie silence envelopes Assam's Mayong village, well known for its  magic  and sorcery, as one drives towards it from the nearby city of Guwahati.  With a  history  that is bound to scare the daylights out of believers and make others gape in wonder, the peaceful ambience somehow looks like a cloak of mystery. Situated near the Pobitora  wildlife  sanctuary, about 40 km from Guwahati, Mayong has often been called India's magic capital.  Astounding tales of a man disappearing into thin air, or being turned into an animal, or a fierce tiger being tamed and serious illnesses being cured lie in the treasure trove of almost every family. Today Mayong's fascinating stories are attracting tourists, prompting the government to develop this place as a tourist hotspot. Naba Deka, who works in a resort in the wildlife sanctuary and...

Matt Damon Tries to Get Clean Water and Toilets for India’s Poor By  ANJALI THOMAS Matt Damon finds it a challenge to get people to care about water. It’s why he was in India from Aug. 23 to 26 on a four-day tour. Not to promote his latest film  Elysium , a sci-fi dystopia with a socialist underpinning, but to help the rural and urban poor in India get access to clean water and sanitation by investing in tube wells, hand pumps and toilets with proper drainage facilities. Mr. Damon cofounded Water.org, a Missouri-based nonprofit organization that partners with microfinance institutions to facilitate loans, so that people can afford the “dignity of a toilet” and “clean water.” In the five years that the organization has been active in India, it has helped 500,000 people in 11 states get microloans, and now the goal is increase this to 800,000 by 2016. It is a high bar that Mr. Damon and the group’s cofounder, Gary White, have set for themselves. Along with Mr. Whit...

Below are 22 of his famous artworks that show how simplicity can reveal stunning and significant visual messages. Art By : Sameer Manchanda, Mumbai                                                                                         

The equation of love If I=1 and U=1 Then I+U=2 and I-U=0 Therefore U=I and I+U<3 If I am one and so are you I plus you must equal two Without you I would not exist The final conclusion of which is this That you and I are equal you see And together we're less than three!

Child sexual abuse- Just being Okay Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on google_plusone_share Share on reddit More Sharing Services Photo Courtesy: unicef.org/india It is no coincidence that the ordinance the government pulled out of its hat did not include child marriage. Child marriage is still quite prevalent in India, and it would make orthodox patriarchs very unhappy to give a definite boot to the practice. The Khap Panchayats are bravely fighting to get the legal age of marriage lowered as some kind of fix for the rising incidents of rape, as though raping married women is fine. Politicians, political workers, police, lawyers, teachers and parents have been accused of raping children, and politician lawyers have defended rapists in courts. Who exactly is on the side of the child in this open consensus to exploit children? A judge acquitted gang rapists of an underage girl by calling it prostitution in the Suryanelli gangrape case. Another judge q...

Travels with Gutenberg Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Hope, one feels once more happy. - Richard Burton, Zanzibar (London, 1872) I am not referring to the German inventor of movable typeface who had little time for travel, but to the ‘Gutenberg project of Google’ which brings out copyright digital books in various subjects. One of the most fascinating subjects in this and other collections such as  www.archives.com ,  ebooks.adelaide.edu.au  and India’s  http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in  are the books on travel to exotic lands like Arabia, Africa, India, Central Asia and Tibet. In the nineteenth century, most of these lands weren’t explored by Europeans and there was a lot of curiosity among the wealthy and new middle class about distant places. Tho...