Dilip Simeon's blog

I grew up in fear – every face around me depicted nothing but fear. I am sure that the first expression on my parent’s face on my birth as a female child born to Hindu parents living in Kandhkot would have been that of fear also. Why did I bring so much fear into the lives of my parents? I grew up always wondering what is it about me that continues to terrify. But I always drew a blank. How naïve I was. Before I knew it, the time to attend school had arrived. School was comfortable; however, there were times when I felt like an outsider, finding it difficult to gel in with rest of the majority. Perhaps the snide remarks and incidents of discrimination led me to believe that I am not one of ‘them’. Of those incidents, I still vividly remember no one eating with me and refusing to sip from the cup I drank from. Home wasn’t very different either. My mother asked questions about my life at school and otherwise looking for answers that would somehow relinquish her from the unknown fear....

In a huge setback for the Gujarat government, the Supreme Court today said that the case pertaining to Sohrabuddin Sheikh's fake encounter cannot proceed in the state . "We have strong reservation about the trial to be conducted in the state", a bench comprising justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said. The observation came during the hearing of a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - which is probing the case - to shift the trial of the encounter case outside Gujarat. It also wants former Gujarat Minister Amit Shah's bail - granted in October 2010 by the Gujarat High Court - to be cancelled.  Mr Shah, the former Home Minister, is accused of playing a key role in the fake encounter that led to the death of Sheikh. The latter, a petty criminal, was shot dead by the Gujarat Police in the outskirts of Ahmedabad in November 2005. The police originally claimed that he was a terrorist from the Lashkar-e-Taiba. But investigations suggest that he...

Nasa  is showing off the first high-resolution colour picture sent back by the  Mars  rover Curiosity, detailing the mountain where scientists plan to focus their search for the chemical ingredients of life.  The images reveal distinct tiers near the base of the three mile high mountain that rises from the floor of Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed on 6 August.  Scientists estimate it will be a year before the rover reaches the layers of interest at the foot of the mountain, 6.2 miles from the landing site. From earlier orbital imagery the layers appear to contain clays and other hydrated minerals that form in the presence of water, Nasa has said. Previous missions to Mars have uncovered strong evidence for vast amounts of water flowing over its surface in the past. Curiosity was dispatched to hunt for organic materials and other chemistry considered necessary for life to evolve.  In this first picture, the layers above where scientists expect to find hy...

The Arctic has lost more sea ice this year than at any time since satellite records began in 1979, Nasa says.  Scientists involved in the calculations say it is part of a fundamental change. What is more, sea ice normally reaches its low point in September so it is thought likely that this year's melt will continue to grow.  Nasa says the extent of sea ice was 1.58m sq miles (4.1m sq km) compared with a previous low of 1.61m sq miles (4.17m sq km) on 18 September 2007.  The sea ice cap grows during the cold Arctic winters and shrinks when temperatures climb again, but over the last three decades, satellites have observed a 13% decline per decade in the summertime minimum.  The thickness of the sea ice is also declining, so overall the ice volume has fallen far - although estimates vary about the actual figure.  Joey Comiso, senior research scientist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, said this year's ice retreat was caused by previous warm years reducing th...

Professor Prasenjit Duara is a historian of China & Raffles Professor of Humanities at the National University of Singapore where he is also Director of Asian Research Institute. Among his other books, Rescuing History from the Nation is the first systematic account of the relationship between the nation-state, nationalism, and the concept of linear history. This essay is taken from Tan Chung (ed) IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF XUANZANG: TAN YUN-SHAN AND INDIA . (click the title for the link to this volume)    On Theories of Nationalism for India and China   (click title for the full text) Whereas most nationalists believe that there is a continuous history of the nation from ancient times to the present, identifiable as the history of a self-same people, scholars of nationalism, particularly in the last fifteen or so years, have debunked all such notions of a continuous path as mythical. I am basically in agreement with the scholarly critique of nationalist myths, but the sch...

An article from IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF XUANZANG: TAN YUN-SHAN AND INDIA Edited by  Tan Chung The  text of the  entire book is available here:   http://ignca.nic.in/ks_40.htm My first visit to Gandhiji: Tan Yun-Shan http://ignca.nic.in/ks_40040.htm The editor of the book, TAN CHUNG is an Indian Citizen of Chinese descent born in Malaya in 1929, having lived first, in China for 23 years, and then in India for 44 years till date. He stepped into the shoes of his illustrious father, Prof. Tan Yun-shan (1898-1983) of Shantiniketan - a pioneer of Chinese studies in India and Sino-Indian studies- and contributed to the building up of the Chinese studies programmes in Delhi University and Jawarharlal Nehru University from 1964 up till 1994 when he finally retired from JNU as Professor of Chinese.  He has been a Consultant of IGNCA from 1989 onwards to help develop its East Asian Programme. He has authored many books, among which, China and the Brave New World...

Rachel's intention was to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah refugee camp.. Scores of homes had already been crushed..  on 16 March 2003  Corrie was one of eight American and British volunteers acting as human shields for local families... she  was buried under a pile of earth as she tried to stop an advancing Israeli military bulldozer.. eye- witness accounts suggest little doubt as to what happened. According to Tom Dale, from Staffordshire: "the bulldozer went towards her very slowly, she was fully in clear view, straight in front of them"... According to the Observer, nine Palestinians, including a girl, 4, and 90-year-old man, were killed on the same day.   Her blonde hair, megaphone and orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes made 23-year-old  Rachel Corrie  easily identifiable as an international activist on the overcast spring afternoon in 2003 when she tried to stop an advancing Israeli military bulldozer. The young...