By ROHIT GHOSH | INNLIVE Ramesh Kumar Bhantu is in his sixties. He looks like the archetypal school teacher - he wears thick glasses and talks deliberately and didactically. But he was never a school teacher. For decades, he worked at Kanpur's ordnance factory, which made parachutes for the Indian military. Bhantu's personality and professional background defies his address. He was born, grew up and still lives in the Criminal Tribe Settlement, or CTS Basti, a colony meant for criminals, in the Kalyanpur neighbourhood of Kanpur.
Legends say that Lord Ganesha - the harbinger of success a`nd the remover of obstacles, will take a new avataar to save our nature from a deadly rakshas called pollution. He will take the form of a tree to prevent the earth from massive destruction and bless humans with the wisdom to protectour nature. His devotees will pray him in the form of Tree Ganesha – The Lord of Nature. Anyone who worships him will be blessed with good health and prosperity.
In the Western Ghats, a bunch of intrepid researchers are climbing up trees to peek into an unexplored world. Walking into a forest is probably one of the most immersive ecological experiences. It isn’t like walking into any other landscape like a mountain or a desert, both of which introduce their marvels at a deliberate pace. When you step into a forest, it is almost as if the edge zips shut behind you. The trees sieve the bright sunlight into twinkling stars, the soggy ground softens your step and the foliage pushes against the world outside.
By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s recent decision to contest the Bihar assembly elections does not augur well for the Janata Dal (United)-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress camp as his entry is bound to splinter the alliance’s Muslim vote bank. This announcement comes shortly after Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav walked out of the “secular” grand alliance and tied up with the Nationalist Congress Party.
By SARAH WILLIAMS | INNLIVE A bar whose liquid nitrogen cocktail caused a teenager to literally lose her stomach while celebrating her birthday has been fined approximately $156,000. The Lancaster wine bar accepted blame for the near fatal 2012 concoction which left 18-year-old Gaby Scanlo "smoking from her nose and mouth,". "Straight away I knew something was not right," Scanlo, now 20, said while recalling looking to the bar's staff for help and guidance after downing the complimentary drink.
By RABIA BASRI| INNLIVE In a country where class mobility is inaccessible to most, questionable approximations of all sorts burgeon. The Pakistani love affair with meat has been a long and enduring one. In decades past, every neighbourhood, rich or poor, featured a butcher shop, whose front prominently featured a fresh carcass swinging from a hook. Housewives would debate quality with the butcher or argue over the price or the freshness or the cut.
The slew of meat bans in BJP-ruled states seems to have energised the Sangh Parivar's campaign against cow slaughter, particularly in Muslim-dominated areas. On 13 September, the RSS frontal outfit Rashtriya Muslim Manch organised an 'All India Cow Protection Conclave' in Firozpur in Haryana's Mewat region. The objective: to persuade Muslim farmers and political and religious leaders to curb cow slaughter. According to the organisers, it was only the first of many such events to be held in Muslim areas across the country.
By REHMAN JAAMI | INNLIVE Think about online classifieds marketplace like OLX and Quikr, and their television advertisements immediately pop into your head. Advertisements urging you to sell your motorcycles, cars and furniture for reasonably higher prices and with reasonably less hassle. These websites have grown considerably in the past few years, but there is one category on them - a rather unconventional one - that has seen a substantial growth without any promotion: Cattle. Yes, people from around the country are buying and selling cows on OLX and Quikr.
