The World Through My Pen

New Delhi: The Sabarimala temple management today told the Supreme Court that the ban on entry of females aged between 10 and 50 years was because they cannot maintain "purity" for 41 days on account of menstruation, prompting the judges to ask how periods could be linked to purity. Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the shrine in Kerala, also claimed the ban was not discrimininatory and based on "reasonable classification". "There is no gender discrimination. There is a reasonable classification by which certain class of women are excluded," senior advocate K K Venugopal, representing the Devaswom Board, told a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra. "What is the fulcrum of this classification," the bench asked referring to the bar on entry of women of a particular age group. Venugopal said girls and women in the age group are excluded as they cannot maintain purity for a period of 41 days due to the mensuration. ...

The launch of Bentayga in New Delhi on Friday By: Ankit Berry New Delhi: Bentley, the name says it all. Since childhood, names like Rolls Royce, Mercedes and Bentley have been names taken with bated breaths. These names were of companies, which make cars, well, which could maybe fly! After all, with a name which says Flying Spur, what else can one expect? Today is a special day for me. Bentley is bringing to India its first SUV. Now I know all of you must be wondering, what’s so special? Even Maruti makes SUVs. Well, Bentley in its nearly 100-year-history has never ever built an SUV. The ‘Bentayga’, yes that is what it is called, is a special car for the company. Wikipedia tells me, “The name was inspired by Taiga, the world’s largest transcontinental snow forest, and is composed of the first four letters of Bentley and an altered spelling of Taiga.” Interesting, a car named after a transcontinental snow forest, now that’s new. So let’s get some facts clear. Bentle...

  India is a land of vast and varied cultures. In this country flows the confluence of myriad beliefs, tastes and traditions. India is a country that yields and gives place to each and every. And probably this is the reason why the tradition of music or to be more precise according to our discussion, the folk tradition has undergone a setback. So what is folk music? Folk music is any popular music culture followed by the mass of any particular place or by some race. Generally, folk is not a scripted form of music but that which has been travelling orally from generation to generation. Being a huge country, invaded on several occasions, India has become a bed of diverse folk music traditions. In the east, particularly in Bengal, we have the baul form of music. In west we have Rajasthani folk, which to a great extent has the influence of Sufism for its geographic location. Towards the north, predominately in the Indian Himalayas, a very famous form of folk music is Ga...

Ever since the days of our arboreal ancestors, mankind has been trying to reduce effort by innovating new necessities. And the result is in front of our eyes today. We want pizza, it gets delivered to our place. We want grocery, it gets delivered to our place at our convenient time. This urge of humankind to reduce effort has actually helped us in many ways. Like, if our ancestors would not have made use of crude stone tools, we wouldn’t have been able to make the sophisticated equipment we used these days. Thus, everything undergoes change. However, in today’s world, we tend to forget willingly the etymology of the transformed form. Taking the point of reducing effort to another level, let me take you through the commonly-used abbreviations. We all use them, though in our childhood, our teachers used to scold us for using them, nonetheless we used them for our convenience. Using an abbreviation in this fast-paced life is okay but not knowing the origin of the same may pr...

Fan is Shahrukh Khans film all the way ? but that is stating the obvious. What might, however, not be all that apparent is that it is a good idea that the Bollywood superstar has decided to look for new challenges as an actor. Playing a character that is nearly half his age, SRK, aided no doubt by meticulous make-up, rolls back the years rather convincingly. If only, all the effort was in the service of a more compact film, the final outcome might have been infinitely more salutary. That is not to say that Maneesh Sharmas Fan is not likely to win the fans over. It definitely will because it offers the audience not one, but two SRKs. One is the superstar playing a fictional superstar called Aryan Khanna. The other is the actor essaying the role of a middle class Delhi boy Gaurav Chandna, who looks like him and literally worships him. Aryan Khanna is an integral part of Gauravs otherwise humdrum life. The young man dances to his songs and delivers his dialogues at an ann...

With Shah Rukh Khan's Fan about to release after a few hours, a question in the minds of his ardent fans is surely doing the rounds. There can be no shying away from the fact that despite entering the Rs 200 cr club somehow, Dilwale and Happy New Year as movies were way below standard. So will King Khan be able to satiate his fans through Fan? The movie has all the necessities to make it a box office hit. A superstar SRK, Yash Raj Films, a new concept, innovative marketing strategies and what not. But all these were already there in place in the films which were mathematically hit but could not make a SRK fan say "chhe baat!!". Fan's trailer was released in a very innovative manner. For the ones who do not know, the trailer was released through the Twitter handle of a SRK fan, thereafter, the crew members retweeted the same thus, making it official. So an innovative marketing strategy too has been ensured. However, it is not new that in order to make an im...

New Delhi: A shoe was hurled at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today by a man who claimed to be from Aam Aadmi Sena, a breakaway group of AAP, during a press conference but it did not hit the AAP chief. The attacker, identified as Ved Prakash, was detained by police, which quizzed him. He talked about alleged irregularities in distribution of CNG stickers and claimed that no action has been taken though a complaint was filed by him with the Chief Minister. The incident occurred during a press conference at Delhi Secretariat here addressed by Kejriwal on roll out of the second phase of the Odd-Even scheme from April 15. The shoe fell short of the Chief Minister, who had earlier been targeted with ink and was slapped by a man during campaigning for last Assembly election. The attacker, who is about 26-27 years of age, shouted as he was being whisked away. Kejriwal later continued with the press conference.

New Delhi:  A special court has urged the Delhi High Court to initiate "contempt of court" proceedings against some CBI officials, including the investigating officer in a corruption case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar and others. Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Jain sent a reference to high court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Deputy Suprintendent of Police of CBI, Jayant Kashmiri and agency other officials. The order came in the wake of CBI's March 11 reply field in response to an application filed by Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd, which was alleged to have received contracts from Kumar who had purportedly favoured it by abusing his official position. "...a criminal contempt reference is also sent to High Court through District and Sessions Judge, New Delhi District requesting therein to initiate contempt of court proceedings against IO DSP Jayant Kashmiri and other officials of CBI ...

New Delhi: The Delhi government is committed to bringing state-run schools on a par with private schools in the city so that parents put these on their priority list, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said today. Unveiling the vision and plan for school education for the upcoming academic session, he said, "A lot of work has been done on infrastructure and quality at government schools. Still they are not on the priority list of parents. I wish that to be the case and we all are working towards it." At an interaction with school principals and education department officials, Sisodia, who is also the Delhi Education Minister, said there are three questions that need to be answered if the education system is to be improved. "The clearer the answers are in the mind of teachers, principals and education administrators about the need for education, how to impart it and what to provide as part of it, the more it will improve in Delhi," he said. ...

Moscow: Russian aviation investigators said today that the pilots of a flydubai jet that crashed and killed 62, including an Indian couple, last month put the plane into a nose-dive and were unable to pull out of it. The Boeing 737 flying from Dubai crashed short of the runway in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in the early hours of March 19 after it aborted a landing in poor weather. The 55 passengers, most of them Russians, and seven crew members were all killed. Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, which probes plane crashes, said in a preliminary report that the jet hit the ground at a speed of 600 kilometres per hour after the pilots put the plane into a steep dive. The accident came following the crew's decision to abort a landing and try to ascend, the committee said. But at an altitude of 900 metres, the pilot pushed the control column, or steering controls, back into a dive and "simultaneously" shifted a tail stabiliser "to dive, after ...

New Delhi: A 51-year-old Uber cab driver was killed allegedly by two passengers, both minors, in west Delhi's Mundka area, police said today. The incident took place Wednesday afternoon. The two juveniles had booked the cab from south-west Delhi's Najafgarh area. While travelling, they had a heated argument with the driver, following which one of the juveniles allegedly pulled out a gun and shot at him, police said. The duo then dumped the driver's body at a secluded place and fled. The police zeroed in on and tracked them down with the help of the online booking software, they said. "Both juveniles have been apprehended," DCP (West) Pushpendra Kumar said. The driver was affiliated to both Uber and Ola cab aggregator services. Uber in a statement later said, "Our thoughts are with the family of our driver-partner, the victim of this mindless violence. We have pro-actively shared details with the police to assist them with the...

Representative Image Mumbai: The Direct Current (DC) driven suburban local trains will ply for the last time on the Harbour Line tomorrow as part of a special service run by the Central Railways from Kurla to CST wherein passengers can book a historic ride for Rs 10,000. "We are operating this special service to mark the irreplaceable contribution of DC rakes in the suburban local operations. Also, this would be an unmissable offer to get a ride on the last DC local," General Manager of Central Railways, S K Sood told reporters here. This special train would leave Kurla at 11.30 PM (on Saturday) and reach CST at 12.15 AM on Sunday. Also, people will get to witness the 'live' conversion (from 1,500 DC to 25,000 volt AC traction). After the train reaches CST, our team will start the conversion work of DC to AC, Sood said, adding a special function will be held at the CST heritage building here, where participants will get to see the 'live' conversion. Sood...

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today appointed two amicus curiae on appeals of four condemned convicts in the December 16 gangrape and murder case against the Delhi High Court order upholding their death sentence. A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra appointed senior advocates Raju Ramachandran and Sanjay Hegde as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter. While Ramachandran would assist the court in appeals of the convicts --Mukesh and Pawan, Hegde would appear for convicts Vinay and Akshay in the case. "We must express our concern in the matter. We feel the gravity in the whole issue. Sometimes there are many perceptions and we don't want to miss anything. We would like to be assisted by the amicus curiae in the matter. We appoint two senior counsels Raju Ramachandran and Sanjay Hegde as amicus in the case," the bench, also comprising Justice V Gopala Gowda and Kurian Joseph, said. The matter is listed for next hearing on July 18. On April ...

New Delhi:  People seeking license for starting restaurants, bars and pubs, multiplexes, newspaper and publications and even the ones applying for arms will no longer have to wait in queues with Delhi Police making the licensing system online The facility was inaugurated today by Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung at the L-G house here. Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma said that this move will help the police force come closer to the public. "In this latest initiative, we have tried to ensure that law-abiding citizen do not have to go through any inconvenience," he said. The system is designed in consultation with all the involved stakeholders -- which includes representatives from a wide range of industries -- and IT experts. "People will now be able to check the status of their application online sitting at their homes," Verma said. The licensing unit has a strength of around 100 officers and deals with licensing of arms, hotels...

 New Delhi: Mizoram Governor Nirbhay Sharma has commended Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the quality of services at the 'Delhi State Cancer Institute' (DSCI), saying it compares favourably with the best private hospitals in Delhi-NCR. The Mizoram Governor sent his compliments after a visit last month to the institute situated in Dilshad Garden to see his younger brother, who is admitted there. "I visited this hospital (DSCI) on March 22 to see my younger brother Dhukharan Sharma, who is admitted there as a cancer patient. "It was gratifying to see the overall cleanliness, maintenance and upkeep, which could be compared favourably with the best of private hospitals in Delhi-NCR," the Mizoram Governor said in his letter to Kejriwal. PTI

Kolkata:  Another senior official of the Hyderabad-based construction company IVRCL, responsible for construction of the Vivekananda flyover which partially collapsed on March 31, was arrested today. Nine other IVRCL officials had been arrested earlier. Manager, Civil Execution of IVRCL Niloy Roy was arrested by Kolkata Police sleuths from the central part of the city this evening when he was waiting to meet somebody, a senior police officer said. Investigations have revealed that Roy was present at the site on the dreadful day when concrete laying was on, he said. "Labourers who were working there have told us they had informed Roy about problems with the metal bolts. But, now Roy is denying that he was informed of it," the officer said, adding Roy had been involved in the project since it started. Roy was on the run since a portion of the under-construction flyover collapsed killing 26 people and injuring around 90. "We have found discrepancies in his version. He h...

New Delhi:  Studying at prestigious IITs will now be costlier with the government deciding to increase the annual fees for undergraduate courses from existing Rs 90,000 to Rs 2 lakh, a rise of 122 per cent, for new enrollments from the upcoming academic session. The HRD Ministry has also decided to give a total fee waiver for the differently-abled, students from SC and ST community and those belonging to families with annual income less than Rs 1 lakh, officials in the Ministry said. Students from families with annual income of less than Rs 5 lakh will also be entitled to a fee waiver of two-thirds amount. The education of the rest of the students will be facilitated through interest-free loans under the Vidyalaxmi scheme, the officials said. The HRD Ministry issued an order in this regard this evening in which it said the decision will be implemented after ratification by the IIT Council. HRD Minister Smriti Irani is the chairperson of the IIT council and sources said there was...

New Delhi:  Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing legal proceedings for alleged default of loans worth over Rs 9,000 crore from various banks, was today directed by the Supreme Court to disclose by April 21 the total assets owned by him and his family in India and abroad. The apex court also sought an indication from him when he will appear before it. It asked Mallya, who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to around 17 banks, to deposit a "substantial amount" with it to "prove his bonafide" that he was "serious" about meaningful negotiations and settlement. The directions by the bench, comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman, came after a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India "unanimously rejected" the proposal in the current form offered by Mallya and his companies to pay Rs 4,000 crore by September towards settlement of his loan. The bench agreed with the consortium that Mallya's presence was necessary in the country to show h...

New Delhi:  Pakistan on Thursday indicated that an Indian probe team is unlikely to be allowed to visit that country in connection with investigation into the Pathankot terror strike, pouring cold water on India's expectations. Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit said the whole investigation is not about question of reciprocity and is about cooperation between the two countries in probing the Pathankot attack. "It is very difficult for me to say. But at this stage... the whole investigation is not about question of reciprocity in my view. It is more about extending cooperation or our two countries cooperating with each other to get to the bottom of the incident," Basit said. His comments came days after a five-member Joint Investigation Team(JIT) from Pakistan visited India to carry forward the probe into the attack at the Pathankot airbase after which India was expecting to send an NIA team to the neighbouring country. Earlier, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swar...

Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders may miss their mystery spinner Sunil Narine for their IPL-9 opener against Delhi Daredevils at Eden Gardens Sunday. The Windies off-spinner, who had already arrived last week, rushed back home after the demise of his father as KKR head coach Jacques Kallis today said they are not putting any pressure Narine to join. "We are certainly not putting any pressure on him to get back. It's something that I've been through. I know how tough a time it is. When he's right and he feels he's ready to play cricket he will come to us." Narine, who has pulled out of the World Twenty20 because of his suspect action, has remodelled his action and Kallis said they're hopeful to get a positive verdict from the ICC. "He has done a lot of work. We haven't got official verdict from the ICC yet but hopefully it will come back positive. I'm pretty sure of it."  PTI