Category: Culture &Tradition
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India fails its heroes, every time.
When you sit and think about what all is wrong with India and our mindset, the question has a potential to leave you mad, without offering any solution.One of them is the one in which I am indulging right now, i.e., posing too many questions. But this time, it’s more confessional in nature than a…
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Uncle Pai – The Master Storyteller
If I say that the majority of us Indian children since the late 1960s have learned the majority of our religion, mythology and history from the comic book called the Amar Chitra Katha (Immortal Illustrated Stories), it won’t be an overstatement. The creator of these hugely popular comics, a master storyteller, Uncle Pai, was an…
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Who is a Hindu? What is Hinduism?
A lot of ink has flowed over the question how to define Hinduism. There is no other religion for which the question of definition is so difficult. A Roman Catholic could be defined as a person who is baptized by a priest ordained within an apostolic succession going back to Jesus, and who accepts the…
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बिहारी होली .. फगुआ !!
फगुआ मतलब फागुन, होली। बिहारका फगुआ जम कर मौज मस्ती करने का पर्व है। जब मैं बिहारी होली की बात करता हूँ तो उसका मतलब बिहार की चौहद्दी से नहीं है । बनारस से उत्तर की तरफ गोरखपुर होते हुये अगर नेपाल की सीमा तक जायें और वहाँ से पूरब मुड़कर सीतामढ़ी, और फिर दक्षिण की…
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Glorifying rapists: A repugnant idea !
There is an outrage going on against a documentary made by Leslee Udwin of BBC called ‘India’s Daughter‘. The documentary will be broadcast on Storyville on BBC Four on Sunday 8 March at 22:00 GMT. It was also scheduled to be shown in India on NDTV at 21:00 local time. Government of India has issued…
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Makar Sankranti : Rituals, celebration and significance.
Makar Sankranti is famous for its sesame sweets and kite flying. But there is much more to this festival that is a celebration of the Winter Solstice. Sankranti literally means movement. Let’s look at the significance of this festival of movement, and know how it is based on a profound understanding of cosmic and human…
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The hypocrisy of “Happy Diwali BUT No Fireworks”!
Hello friends! Diwali is here. So is the Green-Diwali campaign. The usual suspects and the #SayNoToCrackers brigade are out again to teach us how to celebrate our age-old festivals. All seems normal. Last year, the Supreme Court had temporarily banned the sale of firecrackers in Delhi till Diwali saying that the ban on firecrackers in Delhi would be…
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Chhath Puja (छठ पर्व, सुर्य षष्ठी)
Missing my mother today, mai as we call her in Bhojpuri. Mai resides in Jamshedpur (part of erstwhile Bihar, now in Jharkhand) and even after much dissuasion she has not stopped performing chhatth puja though not in the best of her health for the last 3-4 years. She is now in her 70th year observing chhath at my brother’s place in…
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