Reflections from the Village Bard
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Bhagat Singh was an Indian revolutionary socialist who was influential in the Indian independence movement. Born into a Jat Punjabi Sikh family which had earlier been involved in revolutionary activities against the British Raj, he studied European revolutionary movements as a teenager and was attracted to anarchist and Marxist ideologies. He worked with several…
Jatindra Nath Mukherjee was the principal leader of the Yugantar party that was the central association of revolutionaries in Bengal. Having met the German Crown-Prince in Calcutta shortly before World War I, he obtained the promise of arms and ammunition from Germany; as such, he was responsible for the planned German Plot during World…
Indian Space Research organization (ISRO) continues to make history in space science and research that surprises the world that underestimates Indias capability in space and often derides its focus on space when the money could be spent on other pressing needs. This shows the truth and why India is so advanced in space. Recently India…
This song was sung by Lata Mangeshkar who died not so long ago but this song has immortalized her in the Galaxy of stars that look down from the Heaven on humanity and where Lata will live forever even if she had sung no other song. She was awarded the highest award a nation…
I often think of people who made a deep impression on the nation of India and left behind a legacy that to this day endures. Such people are rare and are born to change the world in a positive and profound way like no one else. There have been only a handful of such people…
The legacy of the British Raj in India is a reminder of what price the Indians paid in lives and riches to make England prosper that made India poor and in need of help. Today, India has risen again to be a powerful country where its economy is the fastest growing in the world. I…
The statue of Chandra Shekhar Ajad in a park in his name in Prayagraj My hometown of Allahabad (now Prayagraj) is well known for its leaders in the freedom struggle for Indias independence. Many great leaders were born there and spent their lifetime either working with the likes of Gandhi and Patel but there were…
Old age comes with its own set of challenges that vary from one social group to another, from one country to the next. The challenges are related to the values that are practiced by the people who have to take care of their old parents, so either they keep them at home or admit them…
Politicians tend to be arrogant and often treat people like dirt because they want to show that they are important, so everyone must kowtow to them. In a democracy, they are to serve the people who elected them, but after the election such politicians get drunk with power and expect everyone to serve them no…
How some people are treated by the historians is a matter of who writes the history and whether or not they are treated fairly. The story of Razia Sultan is an extraordinary one, but she too became just a flash in the annals because she was ahead of her time and was a…
A great change has come to India that is empowering women by making education and job opportunities available for them so that they can be independent. They are being encouraged to be self-employed with loan assistance and vocational training, and are being encouraged to take the leadership roles in their communities. I was watching the…
The common perception that cows are sacred to Hindus is a fallacy that originated during the Buddhist period in India, when most of the population followed Buddhism and when any animal slaughter was banned in the country. The vegetarian diet is still practiced by millions, but the Hindus ate beef and other meat a long…
All countries need to have the ability to protect themselves from their enemies, so India is no exception. With its, 7000 kms of shoreline, its navy faces special challenges to safeguard the country from sea invaders. Now a modern warship INS Vikrant designed and made in India joins the Navy to bolster its ability in…
This is a true story of an illiterate village girl in India who stood up to people who raped her and tormented her just because they could get away with it, but they did not know that they could not get away with it. They paid for it with their lives. Phoolan was born in…
Prime Minister Modi offers prayers at unveiling of statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose As the glowing sun set behind the Presidents palace in New Delhi on September 8, 2022, a reporter asked her cameraman to focus on the setting sun and said that the sun will set on the scene today for the…
The idea of an Indian Union just like the EU does not seem too far-fetched, but it has many hurdles to overcome. Great visionaries like Dr.Ram Manohar Lohia and Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay put forth this idea long ago but said that it could be more of a union of shared cultural values and traditions,…
Nathuram Godse shot Gandhi dead in New Delhi on January 30, 1948 Nathuram Vinayak Rao Godse is seen by millions of Indians as a true patriot who acted in the best interest of the nation no matter how much scorn had been heaped on him by the Congress party at that time. His last words…
A few years ago, I took up the idea that I could write about some social issues about which I felt strongly enough and let the world know how I felt about them. So, I became a sort of armchair activist to bring a focus on the ills that people face in any society…
Humanity often fails to learn the lessons from the past. Here is one person who taught the world how to govern people in a fair and equitable way to bring justice to all. There was a legendary Khalifa of Baghdad in the olden times called Haroun Al Rashid (AD 763-803) and was known for his…
Some people have to die in the most painful manner before they become a legend that people talk about for centuries. Queen Padmini of Chittorgarh in Rajasthan was such a person who gave her life to preserve her honor and dignity rather than to submit to the sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi for his depravity.…