A House on Fire One evening I had not been long in bed when I was awakened by cries of ‘Fire ! Fire !’ I at once dressed myself and hurried out of the house to see where the fire had broken out. There were many like me who, roused by the alarm, were hurrying towards the scene, and I joined them. We had hardly gone a furlong or two when...

Recollections of My Childhood My childhood was a sheltered and uneventful one …. In the evenings usually many friends came to visit father and he would relax after the tension of the day and the house would resound with his tremendous laughter. His laugh became famous in Allahabad. Sometimes I would peep at him and his friends from behind a curtain, trying to make out what these great big people said...

Prakash Singh Badal Prakash Singh Badal has been at the centre of Punjab politics for well over three decades. Most people considered him the least communal of all the Akali leaders. He was a breed apart. Moderate, pacifist, liberal were the adjectives used to describe him, that is until he too became a hard-liner in the wake of Operation Bluestar. Born on 8 December 1927, Badal was an affluent sport-loving gentleman-farmer...

A.K. Antony Votaries of clean politics there are many, but very few have the credibility that A.K. Antony has maintained in his long years in politics. This was also Antony’s main problem, though many people. As one sympathetic commentator put it many years ago, “The trouble with Mr A.K. Antony is that he wants to project his image as a saint in a business that does not allow saintliness.”  In the...

Lal Krishan Advani There is a rather pessimistic French phrase, toujours le regrets (always the regrets). In essence, no matter what you achieve, you always. tend to remember the things that went wrong with much more clarity. Lal Krishna Advani nowadays seems to convey the impression that he genuinely regrets the happenings at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. He has even gone on record to say that the demolition of the...

Farooq Abdullah At the breakfast table in a friend’s house in New Delhi, Dr. Farooq Abdullah was holding forth on the merits of dynastic succession. ‘It is only natural for sons and daughters to take to their family business…there is nothing wrong in Rajiv being groomed by his mother to succeed her…’ That was in early ’81. Farooq, who was then 44, had been called back from London by father Sheikh...

Violence against Women POINTS TO DEVELOP 1. Violence against women not a recent development. Also cuts across all sections of society and cultures. Historical perspective Forms of violence against women. Violence against women related to their position in society. Causes and consequences. remedial efforts. Women have to help themselves and also draw in the men to create a better world. VIOLENCE against women is not a new or recent phenomenon. Women...

Working Women Problems POINTS TO DEVELOP 1. Working women are common but their problems have grown. Taking just one sector of working women, i.e., urban women in paid employment, there are several problems. Problem of getting work one wants. Remuneration unequal Women workers are expected to work harder working mothers have greater problems. sexual harassment faced by working women. most of the problems are rooted in the social attitude to the...