www.crdj.in

Thursday, Nov 21st

Last update04:55:26 AM GMT

About Guides FAQs

Font Size

Screen

Profile

Layout

Direction

Menu Style

Apply Reset  
Cpanel

A cynical nation on overdrive

By Sidharth Mishra
The controversy over the instant noodle brand Maggi suddenly has everybody rushing to make a story out of a non-story. With the way the script has unfolded, we could well commission a full-length feature film with the title, “Noodles take the nation to cleaners.” Have we become unnecessarily hysterical over something as innocuous as a brand of noodles?
Well, truth be told our hysterical media, especially television, is capable of going bonkers on any non-issue and miss the forest for the trees. Let me start today’s notebook with the disclaimer that I am not a devoted eater of Maggi noodles. The Nestle product which I go looking for on the shelves of the best endowed Kendriya Bhandar in Pandara Park area is the can of
Add a comment

Read more...

Time Modi talked about Railways

By Sidharth Mishra

Last Saturday in the sultry heat of the Indian summer midnight, I spent two horrendous hours on the platform bridge of the Allahabad Junction for my train to arrive from Varanasi. I was waiting for the train eagerly so that I could slump exhausted on my berth immediately after a long day of work. On reaching the station, we were told that the train was on time and waiting at Allahabad city station. As to why the train took more than 90 minutes to cover a paltry two kilometres from Allahabad City to Junction was beyond my comprehension.
Spending those two hours on the station were illustrative of the pathetic state of the Indian Railways.
Add a comment

Read more...

Turning national icons into caste leaders

By Sidharth Mishra

In older times in suburban India, the homes which had school going children, ubiquitously adorned a symbolical chart of famous national leaders. This would hang alongside another chart, which told us succinctly about our national bird, national animal, national game and so on. It was taken for granted, courtesy these charts, that children would know who the first president of India was and who was the inaugural chief of army staff. The television was still to arrive and these leaders were recalled with certain respect and dignity attached to their name.
Today’s notebook doesn’t purport to discuss the ill-effects of television on school-going children. There is no immediate need for it; television hasn’t got better or worse during the past week to invite a discussion. It’s the increasing evolution of historical and national icons as caste leaders which worries your reporter today.
Add a comment

Read more...

Year of failed Opposition

By Sidharth Mishra

The Budget session of the Parliament has ended. The members of Parliament are more or less off to their constituencies. Several would also perhaps be preparing for a summer break with families. However for the 24-hour television news channels it would not be vacation time. With politics being their staple diet and parliamentary intrigues having taken a break for the summer, the channels being bereft of headlines to air are already doing to death the analysis of the one-year of Narendra Modi government.
Being a keen follower of the media, the Prime Minister, knowing full well what would lay in store for him on his return from the tours of China, Mongolia and South Korea, set the ball rolling on the discussion of his performance during the lengthy interaction with the Indian community in Shanghai. He told the expatriates last week quoting 
Add a comment

Read more...

Insure quality healthcare for all

By Sidharth Mishra

About a fortnight ago a good friend’s roommate met with a severe accident in Uttarakhand. Out on a bike expedition in the mountains, he fell into a deep gorge. Luckily, his descent into the gorge stopped after falling for about 200 feet, whereas his bike fell for another 600 hundred feet. The villagers rescued him and took him to a government hospital nearby. Since the biker was wearing a good quality helmet which cushioned the impact of the fall, he managed to retain his senses and this helped him to contact his friends in Delhi.
Rescue teams were immediately dispatched in a modern ambulance from a private hospital in the National Capital Region (NCR) and he was immediately ferried back. On reaching the hospital,

Add a comment

Read more...

Hop, step and jump politics

By Sidharth Mishra
The longtime-waiting heir to the Congress leadership, Rahul Gandhi, is back from ‘agyatwas’ (time spent incognito) and is doing everything possible to catch the eyeballs. However, his performances in the past three weeks have been unable to define whose attention he was seeking. Questions have also emerged about who were appreciating the Gandhi scion’s acts and what plans he has to revive the party’s fortunes.
Let’s take a quick count of his acts in public life, since the Gandhi scion returned from his sabbatical. His first major attack 
Add a comment

Read more...

An avoidable scandal at a school

By Sidharth Mishra

The unsettling images of the earthquake emanating from Nepal over the past four days has pushed to the background a video clip which quickly went viral on social media. The aforementioned video depicted one of the worst ailments gripping our society. I was beyond horrified to the see the pictures of a parent mercilessly beating up the director of a school in Jalandhar for merely confiscating the mobile phone of her child.
What followed next was even more disgusting. The school had to move heaven and earth to get the offending parent booked under relevant sections of the law. For the people of my generation it was inconceivable that our parents would go to the extent of thrashing a teacher for the correctional measures s/he was taking. I am reminded of the letter which Abraham Lincoln wrote to his son’s teacher. “Teach him to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God,” are the best lines of a very meaningful letter, which concludes by saying, “This is a big order; but see what you can do. He Is such a fine little fellow, my son.”
Add a comment

Read more...

Sagina Mahato syndrome grips politics

By Sidharth Mishra
In three decades, Indian politics has come a full circle. The party, which was once the torch bearer of development, today wants to be the pall-bearer for the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015. The National Democratic Alliance government, on the other hand, is keen on pushing through the Bill, as they believe it will relieve the nation’s long standing agrarian distress and create alternate avenues of employment.
During a discussion on the current agrarian situation in Parliament on Monday, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s made a pithy “suit-boot government” remark. His comment calls for a deeper analysis of the idea of progress and change in the Indian context. Gandhi’s reference to “suit and boot” made this author reminisce about the 1970s Bangla-Hindi film Sagina Mahato starring thespian Dilip Kumar.
Add a comment

Read more...

CRDJ JOURNALS

  Jan-Jun 2022

  July-Dec 2021

April-June  2021

Jan-Mar  2021

  

Oct-Dec  2020 July-Sept  2020


April 2020     Jan 2020
 
Oct-Dec 19 July-Sept 19
 
April-June 19   Jan-March 19
 
Oct-Dec 18  |   Jul-Sept 18
 
April-June18    |   Jan-March 18
 
Oct-Dec 17  |   july-sept 17
 
April-June17  |   jan-March 17

Oct-Dec2016 | July-sept 2016
J
june 2016 | March 2016
Dec 2015 | Sept 2015
June 2015 | March 2015
Oct-Dec 2014 |  july-Sept 2014
April 2014 | Jan 2014
Oct 2013 | July 2013
April 2013 | Dec 2012
July 2012 | Nov 2011

 

Books Review

 Book your copy 

  http://sriav.crdj.in 

Follow us

Contact us

  • Add: 1304 Satpura Appt.
    Kaushambi, Delhi NCR, INDIA
  • Tel: (+844) 456 789 101
You are here: Home