7.5-Magnitude Quake Rocks Papua New Guinea, Local Tsunami Possible
Google Earth
View mobile site
SAJJAD HUSSAIN via Getty Images
In the backdrop of workers taking to the streets on Labour Day to protest against their status, here is why the government's rural jobs guarantee programme presents an alarming picture today.
Anjali Birla
After two long days of sailing through the Drake Passage, I was quite seasick, as were most of my teammates. With constant 4m-6m swells rocking our ship from side to side, I just wanted the ordeal to end soon!
Satish Chapparike
A few months ago, I got an opportunity to be inside the world's biggest community kitchen, along with some of my American and Canadian friends. On that early morning, our 20-member team went for an amazing field visit on the outskirts of Hubli in northwest Karnataka. As we entered and stood inside that three-storied Akshaya Patra kitchen complex, I had vivid flashbacks to my schooldays in the 1980s.
Many of us grew up searching for assignment answers on Google, playing games online, developing crushes while chatting and discovering the joys of Skyping with family even while being a world away. I wish the same for all future generations to come and that is possible only when we have an open and equally accessible Internet for all.
J. Luckham
As of 2011-12, 82% of all urban women workers are in informal employment in India, working in their own homes (as home-based workers); in other people's homes (as domestic workers); and in public spaces (as vendors or construction workers or waste-pickers). Poverty, vulnerability and insecurity mark their existence and their work remains undervalued and unrecognised.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
As the object of repeated death threats during my PEN presidency, I can testify from personal experience that in times of violence, solidarity among writers is paramount.
KHALIL MAZRAAWI via Getty Images
AMMAN -- Whatever happens in Jordan and nearby Arab countries, one thing is clear: it is impossible to obliterate a movement that has popular support.
SAUL LOEB via Getty Images
The most unfortunate aspect of the latest effort to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance is that this step is unnecessarily hyped up as a strategic move to counterbalance China.
Mark Wilson via Getty Images
I'm sure you want this whole episode behind you. I get that: I'm related to the most successful transatlantic slave-trading dynasty in U.S. history.
Shutterstock / Tom Wang
Why does happiness so often elude our grasp? Many of us long for happiness, perhaps not realising that this longing actually acts as a barrier to our goal. It is like standing with one's mouth open towards the skies waiting for the rains to quench one's thirst. Here I have summed up in five "Ds" the essence of the wisdom from some profound teachings of the world such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
It is OK if farmers are at the mercy of moneylenders. We need BIFR packages for industry. Industrial growth is important. It is OK if a few children are forced into bonded labour to repay debts incurred by their dead parents.
Walk of Hope_Sri M
I am often asked why, at the age of 66, I am walking across India. A total of 7500km through 11 states, charting 15-20km a day in gruelling and fast-changing climatic conditions. It's a 500-day soul-seeking journey through the villages and towns that constitute the world's largest democracy. The Walk of Hope is a prophecy come true.
Dirima via Getty Images
While we need to applaud everyone who wishes to get more healthy and fit, sadly that is not what most people are doing. They are chasing the "right" weight (whatever that is) at any cost. So, crazy diets, starvation, excessive exercising and surgeries all go in the name of getting thin. It is frightening. The harm done to bones and bodies in the bargain are often not known or really worried about.
Ruth Dsouza Prabhu
If you visit Gorur Dam in the monsoon months, you might just miss this church unless you go up close. But visit in the dry summer and you will see it in all its Gothic glory. Located some distance away from Bengaluru, in Shettihalli, the Holy Rosary Church is submerged by the Gorur Dam reservoir in the monsoon season and then stands tall for all to see when the water recedes in summer.
Dear B, You might be slightly surprised to see this letter. After all, we haven't spoken in almost four years, since that muggy afternoon when I left. It is not that I have forgotten you, in fact I remember you very often -- and very fondly -- but I have not had the courage to write to you. I have been afraid that talking to you again might reignite my love for you.
My appetite for gastronomic fulfillment, like many other Bangaloreans, is endless. And that is exactly what brought me to Nagarathpet Food Street. The fare you'll find here isn't fancy or exotic but it is authentic, delicious and deeply satisfying. Give me something cooked by one of the sweaty cooks here than any dish made by a white-hatted intercontinental chef.
Big_Ryan via Getty Images
In a free society, we enjoy both, the right to offend and the right to get offended. It is exasperating that any expression that causes discomfort or displeasure to a section of society is met with increasingly vehement censure. For those who don't have the muscle power, the financial bandwidth and/or the legal firepower to deal with such threats, freely speaking your mind will always mean being prepared to pay a huge cost.
OfficeChai
"It was hard adjusting to life in Paderu. People tended to stare at you all the time, and commonplace things become hard if you're a woman, even more so if you are an outsider. It was difficult to convince the farmers that I'd really come all this way to talk about bee farming!"
It was the curse of Kathmandu, a city of beautiful temples nestled in a valley, where there is so much clay in the ground that when the monsoon rains come, the tarless streets become a pool of mud.
