RAPIDSTORIES

From the start, it was apparent that Tripura was an important battle for the Bharatiya Janata Party to win. Its campaign started early, with large rallies being  held  in the state as far back as March 2017. National leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, were parachuted down several times into the tiny state. With Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh turning saffron, Tripura became another crucial stop for the BJP as it spread across the North East. But the intensity of the campaign suggests something more than mere numbers was at stake. The BJP saw this as a significant ideological win, a rightwing party triumphing over a long-running communist government with a popular chief minister. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s mobilisations were visible on the ground, paving the way for the BJP. But on the eve of the elections, saffron politics was not the burden of the BJP’s campaign. While it exploited old social fissures between Tripu...

It was around 8 at night, people were returning home after office, TV was switched on as usual, PM was speaking at prime time, it was thought to be an usual political speech that our PM tend to give. But, minutes later masses realised that PM was announcing that 85% of cash in our hands will turn just pieces of paper after midnight.  Initially, the general public didn't pay much heed to it, but as the news started pouring in on all channels, the people swung into action and lined outside petrol pumps, grocery shops, medical stores and supermarkets in order to change or use their high denomination notes. The merits and demerits of the demonetisation row are being talked about. Interesting parallels have been drawn to nation love, patriotism and surgical strikes against black money by our clever, diplomatically "correct" ruling coalition. The actual benefit or risk of this drive in the short, medium and long run is difficult to predict, only time has the capacity ...

In ancient indian literature maya is described as power or the principle that conceals the true character of spiritual reality. In todays context, in this kalyug, the maya has taken the centre stage. Life and its constituents are often linked to the possessions you have, the possessions you earned and yes the possessions you boasts of. Its the comparison drawn by the society on the quality of life based on these possessions. Life has become a meaningless monetary chest, which goes on till there is new additions to this chest,  which may come to a standstill when there ceases to be any significant addition. Humans as we are, compete against each other to satisfy the maya inside us. Not realising that maya according to the same ancient indian texts also means the powerful magic of the asuras. Money can buy you most of the things, but can money buy you happiness? Probably most of us might think yes it does! Level of maturity of people have declined as the cranial size during e...

It was a dream come true to get admitted to a medical college and studying my course of choice. I came with a mindset of making only studies my friend. But life had something else scripted for me. Yes i did initially befriend studies but one destined day i found a person who i never ever thought in my wildest dreams would become the most special friend here and by far in my life. Yes Noddy, its you, its you!! , remeber the day we met, a very unusual kind of introduction thanks to ashu and the boring SPM class. I know i just overdid the moment and my first impression wasnt that good which a future best friend might want to have. But moslty happy endings have a silent beginings. Then came the day, when we actually interacted well and here also thanks to our common friends ashu and delu for planning that movie and also destiny for making the shows housefull. That was an eventful day but i was a bit taken aback as i found you too much into my friend(may be he was your better friend...

 In recent days i had a brief discussion rather argument with two of my colleagues Megha and Anshuman about the relevance of article 370 in the indian constitution and the proposal of Modi Government to abrogate it. Here's a look at what this article is all about. Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir signed the accession papers on October 26, 1947 under which the state acceded to India. The accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India was carried out following the common pattern as drafted for other states acceding to India or Pakistan. Nehru the Great took it upon himself to force the Maharaja for handing over power to Sheikh Abdullah. On the insistence of the latter it was decided that the State Assembly will take the final decision on the accession. We do not know whether there was a special mutually obligatory relationship between Nehru and Sk. Abdullah, (why did Nehru declare himslef a Muslim in culture?) or such a relationship was forged on prompting by the British and w...

In Indian society the status of women has changed from time to time ; position of women in society is the index to the standard of social organization .We can divide the past [history] in to three phases to analyse the status of women. They are: ancient India , Medival India and Modern Indian period. In ancient India women enjoyed equal status with man in all fields of life, she received the same education like man, many Hindu religious books like Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata have mentioned the names of several women who were great scholars, poets, philosophers of the time. The wife was 'Ardhangini' which means she is half of her husband. An unmarried man was considered to be incomplete man. All religious ceremonies were  performed by the husband along with the wife. This shows the importance given to the women in ancient period.   But in the Medival period, the status of women went down considerably. She was considered to be inferior to man. Any historian...