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child abuse \ education \ Frank Krishner \ naked truth
Is truth being abused in the ‘St Xavier’s Scandal’?
Sometime between Deepawali and Chhat, news trickled in from the vernacular press that a four year old girl had been abused by two women teachers at the prestigious St. Xavier’s School in Patna,the capital of Bihar. At first glance, one was not amused.Having been associated with the campaign against child abuse in Bihar since 1997, […]
Dateline Bihar \ Frank Krishner
Demonizing drink: Nitish’s ‘Fail-safe’ Mess
The festive season is upon us with less of the festive ‘spirit’ in the Boondocks of Bihar. By now, every dhobi and his donkey knows that this blessed state is dry. The Chief Minister in his role as Master Nanny has shut down the elite watering holes and deprived the well heeled of their single […]
A Game of Chess, not Caroms
The politically motivated post-mortem of the ‘surgical strikes’ of September 29 are enough to make all sensible Indians queasy. Looking at the way politicians and their supporters on both sides of the political and ideological divide have tried to milk this incident on TV and the social media has made me want to puke. As […]
Disability \ Frank Krishner \ paralympics \ Rio Olympics
Paralympians: our new Role Models
India’s sportspeople with ‘different abilities’ did even better than the ‘normal athletes’, bringing home Olympic gold. Will events like the Paralympics change our views about the ‘physically challenged’? The prevailing view of disability in the past was where the individual was seen as ill and the condition was an individual ‘problem’. Perceptions of disability were […]
Frank Krishner \ Mother Teresa \ Saint Teresa of Calcutta \ Yoda
The newest Jedi Knight of Calcutta
The most striking thing about Saint Teresa of Calcutta is her simple slogan and sign language used when asked why on earth she was doing what she did… scrounging for souls in the blackest alleyways the world over. Her answer, five fingers of her tiny palm spread out, practically in your face would be : […]
The joke’s on you
Ever since the ‘new dispensation’ of the Right Wing BJP has come to power, the nature of public discourse has shifted from ‘development’ to ‘demagogy’. Never before have such regressive narratives been heard than in the past two years. Just pause to think about what topics are hitting the airwaves over the past month or so. […]
Dateline Bihar \ editorial \ Frank Krishner \ World Music Day
Imagine! Breaking the Sounds of Silence
The political climate of India is fast becoming critically polarised. The nature of discourse is being vitiated by divisive, shallow diatribe. Parliament, supposedly the platform for enlightened, purposeful discussion and farsighted legislation has been all but reduced to a ridiculous circus of shallow, shouting, sloganeering, and slanderous attention seekers. Where the political leadership in the […]
Our problem : ‘hidden urbanisation’. What?
While the flavour of the month is climate change and the environment, let’s consider a new World Bank study on ‘Leveraging Urbanization in South Asia: Managing Spatial Transformation for Prosperity and Livability’. Quite a mouthful, that title! Making cities “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by […]
Dateline Bihar \ Frank Krishner \ naked truth
Bihar extends land reforms to single urban women!
Bihar ranks first among the states in terms of rural housing shortage (42.10 lakhs), says census data. Back in 1947, Bihar was probably the first state in the country to enact a separate law, namely the Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act, for providing security of tenure to landless rural households. Since then the Bihar […]
Bihar Intellectual Forum: silly symbolism,futile fast?
On Saturday, there was a curious kind of ‘protest’ held for about three hours at the JP roundabout opposite Patna’s Maurya Hotel. A dozen or so people sat fairly quietly under a capony, ‘gently’ raising their voices against the growing intolerance and polarisation in India. The banner they huddled under was, “Bihar Intellectual Forum.” This […]
Bihar \ Bihar mahila samakhya society \ Frank Krishner
Khagaria Women stand up for ‘witch’: Panchayat cows down
In the untamed interior villages of the Wild East that is Bihar, caste and community based Panchayats have a sway of their own, often imposing archaic forms of justice on the communities. Mahila Samakhya women often challenge patriarchy and superstition, and undermine those who want to use distorted religion or superstition to control communities. Now […]
Bihar \ elections \ Frank Krishner \ polatisation
Pre-poll Polarization in progress?
At six thirty on Saturday morning, the quiet of the Church Road in New Patliputra Colony was broken by a chorus that went, “Gai hamari maata hai, yeh hamari dharma ka mamla hai”. (The cow is our mother, this is our religious issue: note the stress on ‘hamari’) A motely group of a dozen men […]
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