Creative Edge

  Hasina Kharbhih is a nationally and internationally acclaimed human rights activist cum social entrepreneur. Her works on human trafficking are commendable. She was the person who came up with the  Impulse Model  for tracking human trafficking. She is the founder of  Impulse NGO Network . She has gained a multi-sector expertise, including leadership and institutional management, livelihood and rural development, anti-human trafficking, migration, gender based violence, child rights, HIV/AIDS education and intervention, substance abuse and adolescent health. Besides these, she is a trainer, a motivational speaker, a writer and a poet. She has many published books, and articles to her feat. Feminism in India (FII) got a chance to interact with Hasina Kharbhih and profile her ground-breaking work. S.D.: What is a day in your life as a human rights activist and social entrepreneur in Meghalaya? H.K.:  I am a person who takes things positively no ma...

  Sonam Wangchuk  (born 1 September 1966) is an Indian engineer, innovator and education reformist. He is the founding-director of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), which was founded in 1988 by a group of students who had been in his own words, the 'victims' of an alien education system foisted on Ladakh. He is also known for designing the SECMOL campus that runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating. Wangchuk was instrumental in the launch of Operation New Hope in 1994, a collaboration of government, village communities and the civil society to bring reforms in the government school system. He invented the Ice Stupa technique that creates artificial glaciers, used for storing winter water in form of conical shaped ice heap. Wangchuk was born in 1966 in Uleytokpo, near Alchi in the Leh district of Ladakh. He was not enrolled in a...

  IIT's ‘Aryan Invasion’ Calendar: Right-Wing's Beliefs Are Far From Science The Right-wing keeps the theory alive because it’s good to have a handy straw man to attack whenever the need arises. (A 12-page calendar released by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, that presents itself as a rebuttal to the ‘Aryan Invasion myth’ has become the focus of controversy.   The Quint asked Tony Joseph, author of ‘Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and where we came from for his take on the calendar. The following is his response.)   “The only place where the 'Aryan Invasion Theory has existed for about half a century is in the imagination of polemicists. And they keep it alive because it is good to have a handy straw man to bring out whenever the need arises. It is surprising to see IIT Kharagpur giving them company in this endeavour.   Believe Peer-Reviewed Studies, Not Calendar Art   What exists in the real world is strong, mul...

  Prakash Baba Amte  is a social worker from  Maharashtra , India. Amte and his wife,  Mandakini Amte , were awarded the  Magsaysay Award  for 'Community Leadership' in 2008 for their  philanthropic  work in the form of the  Lok Biradari Prakalp  amongst the  Madia Gonds  in the  Gadchiroli  district of  Maharashtra  and the neighbouring states of  Telangana  and  Madhya Pradesh . In November 2019 he was awarded with ICMR Lifetime Achievement Award by  Bill Gates .   Prakash Amte is the second son of Magsaysay awardee  Baba Amte . He obtained a medical degree from Government Medical College (GMC), Nagpur, and he met his wife Mandakini during their post graduation studies at Government Medical College (GMC), Nagpur. Prakash and Mandakini joined Baba Amte and helped her father and others overcome the taboo and fear of leprosy.   In 1973, Amte moved to...

THE MAIDEN FAIR OF MOUNT GAINA  – TRADITION AND LEGEND This month  Revista Atelierul  is celebrating one of the most important events in life – marriage. Revisita Atelierul contributor  ramsmade  investigates the famous Maiden Fair of Mount Gaina (Targul de Fete), and the legends and traditional rituals surrounding it. The Maiden Fair of Mount Gaina is held annually around the feast of St. Elijah for mountain families to arrange weddings for their unmarried children. The celebration can take many years of preparation for the girls, who must collect a dowry packed into beautiful carved chests. Tens of thousands of people meet at the borders of Hunedoara, Arad and Alba and Bihor to spend the night around fires enjoying music, dancing and other traditional festivities. Legend Because legends are stories that have passed through time as stories, they undergo changes during the process and we do not...

  This small commune with an even smaller name appears to have an unlikely amount of dead ancestors. Y bears the shortest place name in France, and one of the  shortest in the world .  The inhabitants call themselves  Ypsilonien(ne)s , from the Greek letter Upsilon  (Υ), which looks like the letter Y. Y is situated 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of  Amiens , at the junction of the D15 and D615 roads, in the far eastern side of the department. The district belonged to the Y family from Vermandois. The village was caught up in the First World War. It was decorated by Croix de guerre 1914-1918 on 15 December 1920. The Church of Saint-Médard, was rebuilt in 1921, after the destruction caused by the First World War. Since 2002, the commune has been part of the community of communes of the Pays Hamois, which succeeded the district of Ham, created in 1960. Then on 1 Jan 2017, Pays Hamois and that of the Pays Neslois...

  Indira Gandhi, the second from her lineage to have wielded the position of Head of State, is the only woman to have been elected as the Prime Minister in India to date. With a long-standing political career, she served close to four terms as India’s Prime Minister from 1966-1977 and then again from 1980-1984.  Born on November 19, 1917, as Indira Priyadarshani Nehru, she was the only daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Born into a family of freedom fighters and political leaders, her entire life was spent in the realm of politics.  Indira Gandhi boasted an illustrious educational background. She studied at some of the most prominent institutions, both domestic and foreign. Her academic years were spent at Ecole Nouvelle, Bex (Switzerland), Ecole Internationale in Geneva, Pupils’ Own School in Pune and Mumbai, Badminton School in Bristol, Vishwa Bharati, Shantiniketan and Somerville College of Oxford University. She became inquisitive about p...

  Why is the collector not wearing makeup...? Malappuram District Collector  Smt. Rani Soyamoi interacts with  College students. ............................................ She wore no jewellery other than a wristwatch. What surprised most of the children was that she did not even use face powder. The speech is in English.  She spoke for only a minute or two, but her words were full of determination. The children then asked the collector some questions. Q: What's your name? My name is Rani.  Soyamoi is my family name.  I am a native of Jharkhand. Anything else to ask ?. A slender girl stood up from the audience. Ask, the child. "Madame, why don't you use any makeup on your face?" The collector's face suddenly turned pale.  Sweat broke out on her thin forehead.  The smile on her face faded.  The audience suddenly became silent. She opened the water bottle on the table and drank a little.  Then she gestured to the child to sit.  Then...