off-beat

The event has been named “Chhotoder Durga, Chhotoder Mela”—a carnival of the young, for the young. This is not just a celebration, but a reclamation of dignity. For once, the spotlight will not shine on their identity as “children of sex workers,” but on their talent as dancers, actors, singers, and organisers.

Look deeper and you find a large population of women, living in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, struggling to wriggle out of the minotaur of patriarchy tightening its tentacles vigorously, to counter the first narrative

While Nano Banana and vintage saree edits may be entertaining creative experiments, users should exercise caution.

Every flood season and every flood-prone country has lessons galore for India—extreme rains can wreak havoc if met with weak infrastructure, compromised embankments, floodplain encroachments, obstruction of natural drainage and failure to desilt the rivers.

Habitat loss and fragmentation is the number one threat to koalas. Others include climate change, bushfires, disease, vehicle strikes and dog attacks.

A deadly mite, Tropilaelaps mercedesae or “tropi” is on the march. Beekeepers fear it will wreak even greater havoc than varroa – and the ripple effects may be felt by the billions of people around the world.

“If you have 300-year-old objects, you have to make their history relatable to the contemporary context, to make it interesting,” says artist and museologist Subodh Kerkar, founder and director of Museum of Goa and Museum of Beer.

Yet research conducted in Quebec shows that declawing causes irreversible nerve damage and chronic suffering. This mutilation must be banned, everywhere and forever. 

A study has made a best guess that the total carbon footprint of militaries across the globe is greater than that of Russia, which currently has the fourth-largest footprint in the world.

The organisation “Educate Girls,” founded by Safeena Hussain, began with just 50 villages in Rajasthan and today, it operates in more than 30,000 villages, having mobilised over 1.4 million girls into schools.

There is also a great deal of evidence that socio-demographic cues in a name — such as race and age — can affect who gets a callback. The sound of a name itself could be another potential source of bias.

To proponents, they are a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them. But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously.