chakravarthy

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu took several Rail Bhawan mandates to task within hours of the latest tragedy on the tracks. Thirteen coaches of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed at Khatauli, near Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 23 people. A portion of the track had been disjointed and was being welded in order to be put back in place as part of 'routine maintenance'. But no one bothered to put a traffic blockade in place, as required, and the welding could not be completed before the train passed through. A probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety may reveal whether this was a systematic communication failure or an instance of a casual approach to a task that needed to be done but could have waited if traffic blocks were not feasible that day. Reposing confidence in the inquiry process may appear difficult as the CRS is yet to conclude its investigation into one of the deadliest railway mishaps in the past decade: the Indore-Patna Express crash near ...

"It is not easy to compose a lyric for a duet without knowing the given situation, more so if it is a dream song. It is a difficult task to weave words from thin air, and allure the audience". This was the lament of lyricist Gona Vijayarathnam during the course of an interview while narrating his own experience. The teacher-turned-lyricist was assigned by writer-producer-director Giduthuri Suryam the job of writing a song for his movie, Kathanayukudu (1971). Vijayarathnam was then in the august company of literary luminaries like Sri Sri, Arudra, Sunkara Satyanarayana and Elchuri Subramanyam to write lyrics for the film and he was eager to prove himself. Suryam gave him the dream song to be shot on the film's lead pair - Sobhan Babu and Vansiri. Even after a week and the lyricist having come up with about forty pallavis (opening lines of a song), music director Akula Appala Raju alias A.A. Raj was not satisfied. He had started his career as a violist with Saluru Raje...

K. Sudhakar Yadav, Guinness World record holder for "The Largest Tricycle" in the world, and known for his wacky car creations has made a unique 'National Flag Car' to celebrate India's seventieth Independence Day. Powered by a 150CC engine, the single-seater car can travel at a speed of 40 kmph. It has 33 wheels and a length of 80 ft and a height of eight ft. It took Mr. Yadav four months to design and build the vehicle. This new car too joined the other 54 innovative cars of the Sudha Cars museum. "My wish is to make at least 100 such wacky cars", says Mr. Yadav. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 

Mallesh Naini, tenth class student of Telangana Tribal-Welfare Residential School, Asifabad, did his alma mater proud and joined a select group of students from the social and tribal welfare educational institutions who have defied under-privileged backgrounds and climbed some of the world's highest mountains. Belonging to the Mannevar Primitive Tribal group (PGT), Naini, along with thirteen other members from India and under the mentorship of mountaineer Sekhar Babu unfurled the 100-ft tri-colour on 14th August midnight atop Mt. Kilimanjaro. He and his team began their climb on 10th August and reached the peak on the eve of the seventieth Independence Day celebrations. The daredevil mountaineering team also sang the national anthem after successfully conquering the mountain, which is Africa's highest mountain at 5,895 metres height. "I never imagined that I would one day board a flight and would go on mountaineering expedition considering my family's poor backgro...

One of the most significant trends visible in wildlife conservation and management today is the increased use of 'technology'. Camera traps, for instance, have provided new evidence of tiger presence in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa and of the Asiatic wildcat in Bandhavgarh, Madhya Pradesh; radio collars have helped solve the mystery of tiger deaths in Bandipur in Karnataka and Chandrapur district of Maharashtra; and satellite telemetry promises to provide new insights into the behaviour and movement patterns of the Great Indian Bustard in Gujarat, which includes its journeys across the border to Pakistan. New software and sophisticated surveillance technologies are being operationalised to keep an eye on developments across large landscapes and the use of contraceptives has been suggested to contain runaway populations of animals ranging from the monkey in large parts of India to the elephant in Africa. Within easy reach : We may not be able to escape such a technol...

In Charlottesville, Virginia, a crowd of angry protestors marched on 12th August, 2017 in a manner reminiscent of Nazi para-military gatherings. Most of them were white men protesting the removal of iconic statues of generals from the American Civil War who fought to preserve slavery. Their appearance mimicked the famed Ku Klux Klan mobs united in their desire to keep black Americans in their place through violence and intimidation. Their anger escalated to encompass Jews and immigrants through chants like, "Jews shall not replace us", and "Blood and Soil" (a popular Nazi slogan). A member of this angry community drove his car into a group of peaceful counter-demonstrations and killed a young woman. Events in Charlottesville saddened America, but what shocked it was Prsident Donald Trump's refusal to criticise this collection of Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups. He continues to equate these groups inciting angry white men with peaceful counter-demonstrations, ...

The middle of August, 2017 has seen an extraordinary exchange of rhetoric between North Korea and the United States. In response to UN Security Council resolutions tightening sanctions on North Korea after its two missile tests in July, 2017. Kim Jong-Un said that he would fire four missiles over Japan into the waters off Guam and destroy the US territory in 'enveloping fire'. President Donald Trump retorted that his forces were 'locked and loaded' and he would launch 'fire and fury' at his enemy. Behind the verbal sabre-rattling lies a long and convoluted narrative of US-North Korea ties, when the two sides have an occasion taken tentative steps to address their differences, only to fall into a quagmire of mutual mistrust, name-calling and military brinkmanship. The two countries had entered into solid agreements in the 1990s, when North Korea had agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons programme in return for US support for its civilian nuclear programme and ma...