ORANGE CITY LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Now, it’s nobody’s case, in India, to argue for Article 370 along with 35 A (to have remained) as Parliament approved in full majority for the removal of it and even the state governor assented for it. All these years the Congress and other secular parties batted for Article 370 to remain, mainly out of their own appetite to garner minority Muslim votes in the Valley and in the rest of India. It’s they who have made Kashmir a problematic issue and started feeding themselves upon it

The special Constitutional provisions of the J&K having been repealed and the state is made into two Union Territories, the government is concentrating on bringing normal life to the Valley. As we are all aware, Kashmiri’s identity is Kashmiriat. That identity should be protected in J&K, now a UT. In any case, the prime minister has guaranteed to that effect in his latest speech. Like every other state: Tamil Nadu has an identity of its own. Similarly, Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and other states have their own identity. Those are specific forms of Indianness. The specificity of Kashmir is its culture of Kashmiriat. The secularists equated wrongly this (Kashmiriat) – an ethnic identity – with that of Muslim identity. To keep up that identity they used to ask for autonomy for the state through Article 370. As a matter of fact, autonomy is not needed to uphold identity that has been proved in the rest of India.

While researching langar food (free meals made in community kitchen) served in gurudwaras I met Captain Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab and the scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family. He gave me a rare old manuscript with handwritten recipes in Gurumukhi. I got it translated, typed and sought his permission to do food promotions. He agreed following which I have prepared about 70-80 dishes from the book for these various promotions. The notes give basic recipes in traditional units of measurement like pao, tola, ratti and ser.

Many of the cooks working in royal palaces were not literate and hence never documented recipes. And a lot of them also didn't pass it on to the next generation which resulted in a lot of loss of these things. This has driven a lot of chefs to collate, document and promote the traditional food so as to generate awareness about it.

That much against the common perception there was no cuisine of Amritsar or Jalandhar. It was the food which was prepared in the villages of these areas. There was no daal makhni, malai kofta etc. During the Partition, people set up stalls and wondered why anybody would want to eat the daal which is marvelously prepared in their homes so the food was innovated upon. The communities of chefs are also to blame and I feel disappointed that we have projected something wrong. A lot of recipes from this area don't use red chilli and tomatoes. Using tomatoes in food came from Portuguese influences. Even in chukandarvala gosht, there is no turmeric, no tomatoes, no red chilli. The dish uses yoghurt, black pepper, beetroot. Cinnamon, black cardamom, cumin and black pepper are commonly used spices and even the whole garam masala is used only to curb the strong meat flavors.

Mandir at Ram Janm Bhoomi is not just any other temple. Its “RAM JANM BHOOMI” is Lord “RAM”’s birth place. The ones who are born in India, the name Ram is no alien. There are many arguments of building a hospital, dividing the land between Hindu and Muslims, constructing a mosque and so on and so forth. I fail to understand, do we still have to debate about it? When the Supreme Court has accepted the fact that the disputed land is the birth place of Lord Ram, so why a temple can’t be built? 1.3 billion People, irrespective of the religion, caste, gender, skin color have to respect the Supreme Court and the Constitution of India. The below picture may surprise you all, i am sure most of you reading this answer wouldn’t have a clue about it.

Lord Ram is the essence of Sanatan Dharma, the belief of 80% in this country and yes you have to respect the majority. It’s not 1992, the world is quoting Hindus as intolerant, and yes we have become intolerant. Ayodhya is the sign, symbol and soul of Vedic culture/Hinduism of India. If there is no Lord Ram, No India can be expected anywhere. India was never and cannot be as Secular country which secular leaders add this words to Constitution. Our constitution was also made against the Indian ethos.Such Secularism was enforced to Indian people without their acceptance. Be safe, join hands in building the temple. The world has never seen 80 crore people rise for 1 cause and yes because we are intolerant we would be vocal, people won’t just talk.

Mr. Nitin Shende, Chef and professor in food production at GIHMCT, Nagpur, has been honoured with Promising Teacher Award in MTRES TEA 2018. Education plays a vital role in building the future of our nation by transforming lives and communities. We have several educator heroes who help students aim high and achieve their potential, often meeting and overcoming considerable challenges along the way.

The environment or say Ecosystem which we live in provide natural services for humans and all other species that are essential to our health, quality of life and survival. For example, our forests remove carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the air we breathe and also cool our air temperatures, reducing the formation of ground-level ozone, a pollutant that can cause heart and lung problems to worsen; our wetlands store storm water, filter and make harmless storm water pollutants, and recharge our aquifers with these filtered waters; and the dune systems on our beaches form natural barriers to storm waves and provide important habitat and travel ways for wildlife.

There are so many easy ways to become more sustainable. We are all creatures of habit, and changing our behavior takes some time. Small steps are key, and once you find how easy each is, you will be surprised how quickly you can make a positive difference in protecting our environment for your family and your planet. Please explore our website for tips and information on sustainability.

Increasingly, economists, geographers and social scientists would be required to evaluate the costs of environmental pollution and depletion and come up with solutions that are socially, economically and in other ways suitable for the world. Without water conservation, we won’t go very far. It is central in making sure the world has better access to clean water.

Wastewater treatment consists of removing pollutants from wastewater through a physical, chemical or biological process. The more efficient these processes are, the cleaner the water becomes.

The Delhi high court in the year 2013 had decriminalized non-natural sexual activity between two consenting adults. Section 377 IPC criminalizes all the sexual activities which are against the order of the nature including the homosexual activities. The main idea behind the starting of this petition was to enhance every gender of the society and make them inclusive in nature. India has a commitment to provide democratic right to each and every citizen and the decriminalization to the section 377 IPC leads to the breach of enhancement of the rights of the citizen. There have been constant news in the past years where the police has arrested LGBT people- leading to more harassment, threatening and extortion. The section 377 IPC enabled and encouraged the police to harass the homosexuals and exploit them in a certain way where, it led to the breach of their fundamental rights to live with dignity. But, the implication of unnatural intercourse also involves most cases of child abuse. There were a lot of child victims who were sexually abused and it was noted that a lot of cases were not related to the issue of the same gender sexual activities. We are living in the 21st century where each and every day there have been some progressions done and there is still a law which denies and violates the basic

fundamental and human right of the citizens. I believe that nobody is allowed to earn harassment or non-equal treatment just on the basis of their different sexual preferences. What a man does in his own private room is none of anyone’s concern and the state should not hinder with their right to live with dignity and without discrimination.

Various saints and political leaders from Swami Vivekananda to Dayanand Saraswati and Lokmanya Tilak had publicly called for a Hindu revival before Savarkar did. The major difference was that Savarkar defined his idea of a Hindu resurgence in political terms, not religious. He defined the nation as based on the unifying Hinduness of its people. And called as much for a combative spirit as a cohesive one if India was to retain its essence, which in his opinion was its Hindu civilization and Hindu way of life.

The British believed that any staffers belonging to India’s majority community might be sympathetic to political prisoners, most of whom were Hindus, and so only Muslims were tasked with supervising the inmates. To Savarkar these overseers appeared fanatical and overzealous, and not just in their mistreatment of the prisoners. They also converted non-Muslim prisoners to the Islamic faith by way of threats, coercion and inducements. Savarkar described the Pathans, Baluchis and Sindhis as the most fundamentalist of Muslims he met in prison, followed by the Punjabis.

At the very outset, Savarkar made it clear that Hindutva was not the same as Hinduism. It had nothing to do with religion or rituals. The term in English which came closest to the one he was using, he wrote, was perhaps Hinduness. As a principle, Hindutva formed the basis of India’s national character, he maintained, and, to provide greater clarity, offered his own definition of who was a Hindu.

I didn’t know much about the women scientists involved in the Mars mission or the others working at ISRO. I was struck by the iconic photograph of a bunch of sari-clad women (with flowers in their hair) congratulating each other when Mangalyaan was a success. Later it was clarified that they were administrative staff, but their pride was valid. Two years later, I was invited for a women achievers conclave by the Indian Women Network, Confederation of Indian Industry, in Mumbai. Among the speakers were three Mangalyaan scientists — Ritu Karidhal, Moumita Datta and Minal Sampath. I listened to them talk about how they ‘balanced’ their work and families and the germ of an idea for a book sprouted in my head. From that to the published book was a long journey but the interactions with the women scientists at ISRO was the most rewarding part for me.

I have written about the women scientists in an engaging way — using human stories, family members’ comments, and male bosses’ interpretation of women scientists’ contribution. These are remarkable stories of grit and determination. They have more to do with gender than pure science. I hope that will be attraction enough.

I am specifically targeting young girls who want to pursue a career in STEM and who are told that ‘science is not for girls’. The ISRO scientists are shining role models for every girl who dreams of becoming a scientist or an astronaut. They deserve far more attention. I thought that the work they do at ISRO, quietly and efficiently, and the way they lead their lives, was a larger story well worth telling.

Nature has been battered by us, humans, over thousands of years, ever since we invented agriculture and animal husbandry. We have compounded these traditional pressures through modern commerce, industry and cultural changes, and even through “eco-tourism” and “habitat management”. Nature is now like a patient in an intensive care unit, thanks to our own actions.

We need to study and understand how things work in nature if we are to evolve a rational solution to conservation problems. Unfortunately, a predominant section of the environmental community constantly proposes conservation solutions that are based on wishful thinking and political correctness, rather than on real data or hard science. These “conservationists” are acting like a doctor prescribing cures without even studying the patient’s problems. Without hard, research-based, data-driven wildlife science, we cannot see through this fog of ideology or arrive at real conservation solutions. And we don’t have too much time left before the last remaining wild places disappear off the face of this country.

Learn to watch animals and birds, the joy and satisfaction you will get from this will far exceed anything cricket, cinema or rock music can give you! Also, remember that people from all professions, not just wildlife conservationists can act decisively to protect nature. Meet and badger key officials, educate important decision makers and officials, write to the press, file court cases. But be clear that all such action must be based on a clear understanding of the problem and always articulate realistic solutions. Apart from the depletion of forest cover and commercial trade of wild animals, mini-hydel projects and mining activity in watershed areas are having a negative impact on the natural habitat of wild animals.

A positive attitude helps you cope more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worries and negative thinking. If you adopt it as a way of life, it would bring constructive changes into your life, and makes them happier, brighter and more successful.

Humans did not evolve to go into space, but we go there anyway. That has led to the development of various technologies that feed back into the economy and improve our lives on Earth.

There are currently more than 7 billion humans, which is a lot. However, we’re all crammed together on this one planet. If something happened to Earth, our species could be wiped out. For example, the aforementioned asteroid impact. Colonizing other bodies in the solar system is a way to create a “backup” of humanity that will survive no matter what happens to Earth. Maybe future humans will be Martians who will never set foot on Earth.

There are more practical reasons for space exploration, but one of the principle reasons we must continue is that we’re explorers. That’s why humans number in the billions — from our earliest upright steps, we’ve endeavored to learn more about the world around us, and this allowed us to build civilization. Exploring space is an opportunity not only to discover new worlds and build advanced technologies, but to work together toward a larger goal irrespective of nationality, race, or gender. If we stop exploring, we stop being human