By Fauzia Arshi / Jeddah
As the lizard hunting season returns to Saudi Arabia, young men in Buraidah area are heading to the desert to seek out the reptiles, which are considered to be a delicacy in some parts of the Kingdom. The dry and arid land here is the ideal habitat for the dabb lizard, also known as the spiny-tailed lizards.
By Kajol Singh / Delhi
Project proposals submitted to the NBWL routinely make a mockery of the law, bypassing decisions to their own end. A dam, constructed on the Satluj River without any wildlife clearances, will soon destroy and submerge a large tract of the Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary, one of the last refuges of the vulnerable Cheer Pheasant.
Disregarding the law and subverting regulatory Committee decisions, projects across the country pay no heed to environmental legislations.
By Paagal Patrkaar / Delhi
Taking an “out of the box” approach to the problem of GDP growth rate dipping below 5%, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today took out his Android phone and launched Google Maps to look for “directions”.
“Determined to make India an economic superpower, Prime Minister searched for ‘Economic Prosperity’ on Google Maps and then clicked ‘Directions’ to reach there,” a PMO source confirmed.
By Bismah Fatima / Hyderabad
You will need loads of patience and humour, in equal quantities. Travelling in India is like a reality survival show, but it has its charm, which you will realise 10 years from now while recounting the hair-raising experiences. If like me, you take your kids with you everywhere then you need all the help you can get and more.
It’s like space-travel; you just don’t know what lies there, even though you will constantly be asked “Are we there yet?” And you will reflexively reply, “Soon”, even though you are never really sure. ETA and ETD (Expected Time of Arrival and Expected Time of Departure) are mysterious acronyms that we have picked up from the world.
By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad
There are some things that seem throwaway at the time they happen. Later, with the benefit of hindsight, they acquire a chilling quality. Like this interview of Jiah Khan from 2008, a year after she made her debut film Nishabd. She was asked to define love and she replied, “Love is a feeling I wake up with in the morning and it’s gone by the time I go to sleep.”
On Monday night, Khan didn’t go to sleep. She hanged herself with a dupatta.
It’s a terribly Bollywood death and in more ways than one. So many heroes’ sisters and wronged women in Bollywood films have chosen to end their lives just as Khan did, right down to the dupatta. But suicide is turning out to be a very real aspect of contemporary show business. In 2004, actress and model Nafisa Joseph hanged herself. According to Joseph’s parents, the 25-year-old committed suicide because her marriage had to be called off. In 2006, Kuljeet Randhawa, 30, hanged herself.
By Ramesh Reddy / Hyderabad
As Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy remained in jail a year after his arrest, his wife Y.S. Bharathi Reddy believes it is not because of corruption but because both the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) don’t want him to be among people. ”He is in jail today because the political fortunes of the Congress and TDP depend on him being in or out (of prison),” his wife told INN in an informal chat during her visit to Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad.
Though it has been a tough year for Bharathi and the family, she is confident that YSR Congress will sweep next year’s elections and he will become the chief minister. Bharathi alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was deliberately prolonging the case to keep him in jail.
By Danish Sher Khan / Mumbai
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has come under sharp attack from some former cricketers for his alleged conflict of interest for having stakes in the sports management company which handles him and three of his Indian teammates.
MS Dhoni found himself in a controversy when it came to light that he had 15 per cent stake in Rhiti Sports, which also manages Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha, besides the Indian captain. However, the firm has made it clear that Dhoni was a shareholder only for a brief period, and currently has no stakes.
But former Indian cricketers and sports management executives feel that Dhoni should not put himself in such a position where questions could be raised about a possible conflict of interest.
"Obviously, the documents that have come out indicates that it has been a conflict of interest as far as Dhoni's involvement with Rhiti Sports is concerned," former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad told INN.
By Dr. Subhash Kapila (Guest Writer)
That the BJP is in political shambles and hell bent on repeating its 2009 mistakes was reflected in my last Column. Confounding BJP political shambles presently are the conflicting statements starting from the apex level with its patriarch L K Advani and those of his acolytes engaged in sabotaging the popular appeal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi being designated as BJP Prime Minister for 2014 General Elections.
Unmindful of not discussing sensitive political issues publicly but in party forums, Advani at a recent public function in Gwalior has been reported in the media that BJP Madhya Pradesh BJP Chief Minister was a humble man more in the mould of Atal Behari Vajpayee and with a better development record than Modi as Shivraj Singh Chauhan had to bring up his State from scratch.
