MIG
Optical art: Aesthetics playing tricks
April 13, 2021
“From different perspectives, these will look like just some random strokes of art, but viewed from a particular point, be prepared for some stupendous optical illusions,” says Mohak Pandit, a 35-year-old optical artist based in Delhi. The artform that Pandit is skilled at, n...
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Pandemic heaps more hardship on street children
April 11, 2021
Wearing a worn-out pair of shoes that are too big for his feet and no clothes on his body, 6-year-old Raja plays with a toy dog given to him by an NGO about a week ago. Beside Raja, stands 7-year-old Puja, his sister, eagerly waiting for her turn to play with the toy. Puja, weari...
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Food, festivals & other things that Indian diaspora misses
April 9, 2021
“You don’t know what you have got till it is gone,” says 28-year old Rekha Acharya who is pursuing a PhD degree in Physics from Michigan State University in the United States. Acharya belongs to New Delhi, the Indian capital city, and had moved to the US for higher studies....
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Maithili cinema: Awards, appreciation but no viewers
April 8, 2021
“Maithili cinema’s fate has not changed despite good quality content and awards that we have received in the recent past. We still struggle to get some time on television or even a theatrical release,” says Nitin Chandra, a Maithili filmmaker based in Bihar’s capital Patn...
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Shashikala: The exemplary second fiddle
April 6, 2021
Born in a small town, Solapur in Maharashtra, Shashikala had exhibited talent from an early age whether it was working as an artiste in a village fair at the age of five or moving to Mumbai to act in films at 11. However, that shift had happened due to a rough stroke destiny inst...
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Dawki: A divine discovery in Meghalaya
March 24, 2021
When Deepak Kumar, a second-year student of Psychology at the University of Delhi, visited Dawki in January this year, he felt it was nothing less than a fairy-tale in real life. “A boat takes you along the gleaming stream that has different kinds of fish and snakes floating be...
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Sikki craft: Art made of golden grass in Bihar
March 23, 2021
Every day at about 10 am, Munni Devi of Raiyam village in Bihar’s Madhubani district sits alongside a pile of Sikki, a golden-hued grass that grows in the wet and marshy areas around rivers and ponds in the state. Her deft fingers weave the pliable grass into an organic and bi...
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World Water Day 2021: Drinking water shortage in India
March 22, 2021
In a cramped slum of Bawana village, located in the northwest of the national capital, stays Mrinali. A 17-year-old school-goer, who stays awake almost every day till 3 am in the morning to make sure that the buckets and all the vessels at her home are filled with water. Mrinali ...
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Water, Water Everywhere. But where exactly? Treasure hunt for water begins
March 22, 2021
Yes, there is water everywhere. We all know that 70 pc of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. But for a glass of water, every second a woman in rural India walks an average of 173 kilometres – the distance between New Delhi and Kurukshetra– to fetch potable water in ...
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Sorry state of sanitation adds to the farmers’ woes
March 20, 2021
An intensely pungent smell greets one nose as one approaches the camps of the farmers protesting at the Tikri border on the fringes of north-western Delhi. The source of the odour becomes evident once one is inside the protest site. All around heaps of garbage lie scattered and e...
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Working part-time makes us independent & responsible: Indian diaspora students
March 19, 2021
Parul Priyadarshi, a 24-year-old actuarial science student at London’s City University, had always dreamt of working in an old bookshop. She wanted to spend lazy afternoons and quiet evenings at a bookstore, away from the noise of the busy city; arranging and finding books, whi...
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Air Pollution: India again tops dubious global list
March 19, 2021
The latest index of air pollution around the world again puts an uncomplimentary spotlight on South Asia, notably India as the country has 9 of the 10 as well as 35 of the 50 most polluted cities in the world. China, by comparison, has only 7, while Pakistan 5 and Bangladesh has ...
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