Thoughts in HD

  (Though published now, this article had been written long before the controversial bifurcation of the State) Mohammed Aslam, holding his 10 day old daughter in his arms, sat on the steps of the hospital reminiscing what has been going on. He remembered his father telling him how his great grandfather had been killed by the Pathan tribals in October 1947. Angered by this, his grandfather joined the Indian Army to fight against the neighbours and was killed in the war of 1971. Following his father, and hoping for an end to the dangerous situation, Aslam’s father too joined the Army only to be martyred in December 1999. Shocked by his father’s death and radicalised by the clerics, Aslam’s brother joined the separatist militant movement. At the age of 30, he was killed in 2017 by the Indian forces. And Aslam sat here, with the lifeless body of his 10 day old daughter who he didn’t even get the fortune of naming, wondering when this saga would end. He wondered if any member of his fam...

  The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways earned ₹65 crore by providing access to the data stored in Vaahan and Sarathi databases. These databases contain data about the owner, make, model, etc of a vehicle. The data entry operators entering this data into the system would not have imagined the potential of the resource that he was generating. Some decades ago, companies would shred their papers or sell them to recyclers. The same papers would have fetched much more in recent times.  Humble beginnings More than a century ago, Jon Snow, an English doctor had mapped the residences of cholera patients to identify the polluted water pumps. His analysis of the data of the patients that he had attended to, helped find the source of the problem and hence eased solving the problems  The genius idea of a store manager to start a Customer Loyalty programme as a bait to lock his customers helped him generate information about their purchases, frequency of purchases, season of pu...

            Ashok’s mother was looking at his sketch of a clinic that he wanted to open in his village. As she flipped the pages of his blue diary, she read about his struggles, about the beautiful moments of his life, about his dreams and plans. She read about his desires to sacrifice the comforts of life and work as a doctor in his village. One page mentioned his plans to combine the knowledge of ancient Indian medical science and modern medicine to provide holistic healing to villagers in a sustainable and cost-effective way. As pages turned, the diary started getting wetter with her tears. Who will fulfil these plans now? Will these dreams always remain a dream? Will her son be satisfied with the work he has done so far? She was proud of her son, but would he be satisfied with what he could do? She remembered looking at him as she held her baby for the first time. She looked back at his efforts and work to help the sick. She was anxious when her yo...

A mother gives birth to us. All our life, with the blessings of Goddess Saraswati we yearn to get the blessings of Goddess Lakshmi so that Goddess Annapurna favours us. The beauty of ‘Mother’ nature always appeals more than the best of technological comfort. A woman is the vehicle for humans from heaven to earth. Sadly, forgetting the debt of the umbilical chord, a man starts overpowering women as he grows. This is akin to a child playing langadi. While the child balances and hops on one leg, the other leg is comfortably forgotten. But after some distance, both legs are necessary for comfortable walking. Similarly, the role of women is conveniently ignored in society thereby losing an imperative balance. What may have started as a sign of respect to the so called ‘fairer sex’, many actions soon assumed an authoritarian aspect and slowly graduated to superstitions. The easing of strenuous activities like climbing long innumerable stairs of temples or cooking in unventilated hot kitc...

I have lived in a hostel since childhood. When I was younger, I would often hear my peers and hostel mates blame the administration for some failure - bad rooms, intermittent water, power cuts, mismanagement, etc. The administration consisted of some from the school administration and some elected members - who were elected by the students from amongst themselves. It was a belief that the administration has a responsibility to provide our needs, and since we have voted them to and pay our fees regularly (well, then only about 4% of the students would have the right to complain - the others were exempted from paying the fees for various reasons, or some who manipulated their financial condition to fit within the exemptions, and some who simply did not pay the fees), they have to be our caretakers. Hence, speaking against the hostel administration was normal, and widely acceptable. The administration, on the other hand, would not act against everyone who speaks against it. Maybe, dissen...

Mythology is a collection of myths and fictional stories that has been generated throughout time. They may have religious or cultural connotations. Relevance for children The first stories that children hear are mostly sourced from mythology. These time tested stories, passed on through centuries by word of mouth, are a great way to have animated conversations with babies who rely more on the non-verbal cues. This helps create a familial bond between the storyteller (usually a family member) and the baby. As the child begins to understand words, mythological stories are a gateway to imagination. Inanimate objects like trees, celestial objects, etc come to life, animals - both domestic and wild - seem friends of humans in mythological stories. This helps create a bond between the baby and nature. The stories that have developed through the ages, have filtered out the negatives and magnified the positives. Thus, the morally and ethically good actions are glorified and bad vili...