Genesis

Republic of Sudan witnessed the first civil war from 1955 to 1972 and second civil war from 1983 to 2005. As a result of the civil wars more than 2 million people died due to famine, disease and human rights violation. 4 million people were displaced due to the civil war. This picture was taken by Late Kevin Carter in Sudan in 1993. Kevin was from South Africa and he was in Sudan for an assignment. During those time Sudan was facing acute famine and the little girl in the picture is trying to get to the UN feeding center and all of a sudden a vulture came and landed just behind the starving girl as if it is waiting for its prey. Kevin took the photograph and waited if the vulture would spread its wing. After a wait of 20 minutes he chased away the vulture. He sold the picture to The New York Times and it was published on 26th March 1993. This picture had a massive outcry and many people called the office of The New York Times to know about the well being of the girl in the sub...

On this day I remember three of the legends in their respective fields.  Hindi literature is incomplete without the occurrence of the name of "Upanyas Samrat" Munsi Premchand. Munsi Premchand was born on 31st July 1880 and his real name was Dhanpat Rai Srivastav. Till date in the Hindi heartland of India, the school going children studies his classic writings and tries to understand the reality of socio economic life of India under the British rule. His novels and short stories such as "Godaan", "Namak ka daroga", "Nirmala" and "Seva Sadan" reflect the stark realities of those times.   Ask any one in India to name his/her favourite playback singer in Hindi films and in the most probability you will hear this gentleman’s name i.e Mohammed Rafi.  Mohammed Rafi passed away on 31 st  July 1980 in Mumbai.  His association with legendary music directors like Naushad, S D Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, O.P. Nayyar, Ravi, Laxmikant-Pyarel...

As soon as I entered the room I could hear the sound of loud sobbing and crying of a woman. The room was not a big one, but it was large enough to accommodate a double bed, a sofa, a TV and an almirah. All the furniture’s were stuffed in that room, inside that room a group of women were sitting (some on floor, resting their back on the sofa and some on the bed). The center of attention was a woman sobbing uncontrollably. She just lost her husband, who died due to a sudden heart attack. She is the daughter of one of the brother of my father. She said, “There are a lot of doctors in our family, but none could save my husband”. Her father was a doctor himself. My father a prominent medicine specialist was sitting nearby on a chair; I looked at him to know his reaction, but couldn’t guess what was running in his mind. May be he knew he is helpless; he tried to cover his helplessness through a grim facial expression. At that moment I thought how difficult it is for a doctor to realize that...

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Laxman better known as R K Laxman, passed away peacefully on 26th Jan 2015. He was 94 year old. R K Laxman was a cartoonist for the Times of India (TOI) for many decades. He had no formal training but his work speaks for itself. He groomed a "common man" (a character from his cartoon strip, "You Said It"). His brother was legendary writer R K Narayan. R K Laxman drew cartoon for Malgudi Days (written by his brother). R K Laxman worked with TOI till 2010 (He was 89 years then). When he suffered yet another stroke, which left him paralysed, he stopped cartooning. This was the only way he could have been stopped from his passion of cartooning. I have a special link with the legend. As early as I remember, TOI comes to our house and I always look for the comic strip in the right hand side of the front page. In my early days though I couldn't understand the deep political satire (Laxman sir was master in it), the cartoon would make my day. My...

September 2005 : Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishes cartoons which depicted Islamic prophet Muhammad. These cartoons created a lot of controversies. On Oct 2005, Muslim organization complained about the cartoons and the police investigated on their complain. In Jan 2006 the case was dropped as the police  couldn't  find any violation of  Danish  laws. September 2012 : Indian national Assem Trivedi (cartoon against corruption) was arrested on sedition charges. Earlier in Dec 2011 his website was suspended by Crime Branch, Mumbai. The reason for this arrest is that the government thought he discredited the national emblem of union of India in his cartoon. He was later released on bail. January 2015 : The office of French weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo came under attack from armed gunmen which resulted in death of 12 persons (including editor and cartoonist). The armed gunmen claimed that they attacked the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo because they didn...