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AN UNWORSHIPPED TEMPLE

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  AN UNWORSHIPPED TEMPLE                                     Declared a world heritage site in 1984, by the UNESCO, the Konark Sun Temple stands bravely amid the tempests of time for about seven hundred years now. It is a 13 th century sun temple portraying the expertise of engineers and sculptors of the bygone era. On 17 th of June, during our much awaited summer vacations, we slipped off to Puri for a break from our daily chores. It was a time when the cyclone- Fani had   struck and ravaged the vegetation and civilization at Odisha. After visiting the Puri hallmark- the Jagannath Temple-we had no choice but to loll, slop and lounge about the sea beach whose topography had now changed due to the catastrophic cyclone. The next day we called on the legendary Sun temple in Arka Kshetra of Odisha. It reminded me of what Keats once said, ”Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” -true...

An India for Children

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  An India for Children                      The root causes of  child exploitation in India are poverty, lack of education, and the need to support their family, unemployment, rural-urban migration. UNICEF study analyze that out of the total trafficked victims, approximately 40 percent of the children enter into commercial sexual exploitation below 18 years of age. In the same way, in India, 3 to 5 lakh children enter into sex slavery or prostitution yearly. The trafficking of the children involves multiple forms of physical, emotional, and sexual violence, abuses and neglect. Children are being trafficked for various purposes such as begging, domestic service, agriculture, hazardous factories and mines, construction work, compulsory labor, restaurants and bars, armed force and most particularly, girls are sold for high profit sex business. Trafficking of millions of...

APOCALYPSE OF AUGUST

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  APOCALYPSE OF AUGUST With the Japanese people patriotism was a passion, and soldiery was a great virtue. “Thou shalt honour the Gods, love thy country and fight for the country.”-was what Japanese religion called ‘Shintoism’ taught. Hideki Tojo led Japan was unwilling to surrender. Japan in the World War years was a formidable power. United States of America desperately wanted to end the World War, which was only possible by complete destruction of Japan. On August 6 th , 1945, at 2:45 A.M. local time, a B-29 bomber of Group 509 of the United States Army Air Force lifted off from Tinian Island in the Marianas and headed out into the night over the Pacific Ocean. The aircraft, commanded by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets’ , was going to drop a new kind of bomb, more destructive than any, on Japan. The bomber was not alone on its mission. Three planes flew in advance to report the weather conditions over Japan.   At 6:30 A.M. Japanese time, the massive bomb was primed. At 8:30 A.M...

A Reflection!

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  A Reflection!   Independence is profound. In all truth, independence is a perplexing word to try to define. However it’s absolute nature is a near impossibility. There is no gainsaying that we are all enslaved by nature by some way or the other. The final quest of all life is freedom. This means that life as we know it is not free. We are all struggling from bondage to freedom. What binds us? We are bound by one law or another. What is a law? Any event or phenomenon that repeats is a law. For example, a mango tree will bear a mango fruit. A guava tree will bear a guava fruit. So, by this law humans conceive humans and not any other species.So a break in this law means to go against nature. We have to drink when thirsty, we have to eat to survive, stay healthy to survive, we have to respond to nature's call and obviously obey the doctor when we are ill. Even we are so dependent on ourselves, on our relationships and our beliefs and convictions. Hence we see that this natura...

ARE WE READY TO FIGHT COVID-19?

  ARE WE READY TO FIGHT COVID-19?                                                                                                     India is a haven to a mammoth  1326.20 Million (according to 2020). It becomes extremely difficult for such a country to wage a war against a challenging, formidable and novel Corona virus (COVID-19). But before analyzing the situation in our motherland-India, we must plunge into the statistics of some of the other nations plunged into abyss of disaster. USA has reported more than 200000 cases (population: 331,002,651 ; deaths: more than 4000) , Italy has reported more than 120000 cases (population:6.05 crore deaths: 13155) ,UK has reported 33718 cases (population:6.64crores ;deaths:2921). This scary...

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT – A MENACE TO BE RECTIFIED

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  CAPITAL PUNISHMENT – A MENACE TO BE RECTIFIED  Punishment acts as a tool for inducing deterrence and setting a standard for preventing future crimes. The essence of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology lies in hating the crime and not the criminal. To err is human however, heinous the crime may be. Murdering the criminal under the guise of a ‘heinous crime’ is criminal again as it initiates a never ending chain of crimes. It is like the great game of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Which invariable makes the whole world blind. Neither does it foster deterrence nor garners the sense of justice. It presents the criminal justice system as a mockery – a state machinery meant for state sanctioned murder.  Here lies the irony. We have constitutional statutes which with social sanctions portray murder as a crime yet the state itself acts as a human slaughtering system for ‘preventing’ future crimes. Anton Chekov quipped “The government is not God. It does not have the right ...