Knowledge Tree

My Royal Connection--a birthday bonanza The other day while surfing the net to read the newspapers published abroad as part of my routine cerebral exercise, I came across the news item on the colourful celebrations of the 90th. birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. The queen, surrounded by her family members, made public appearance on the balcony of the Buckingham Palace to enjoy the spectacle of air show by the RAF and marching army band.I was a little surprised as I had perused a news item in the web version of the same newspaper on the Queen celebrating her 90th birthday in a rather muted manner a couple of months back. After a little searching in the net, it was revealed to me that the British monarchs had been observing two birthdays since the days of King George II of the 18th century--one being celebrated on the biological, that is, actual day of birth and the second being observed officially on a Saturday in the month of June. In case of Queen Elizabeth II, her actual birthda

Beyond Rohithgate ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These days the media--print as well as electronic- come up with stories on daily basis that sadden my mind, often make me extremely despondent. Some, mostly belonging to vested interest groups, would often say the media thrive on them(for commercial reasons).I think such description does not stick to them under the prevailing environment of our country which is indeed standing on a crossroad. The moot point is how much of 'history' is allowed to carry on board on our long-pending flight to inclusive growth and prosperity in social, economic and political terms. The tragic suicide of Rohith, a research scholar at the Central University in Hyderabad is not just a case of unfortunate demise of a budding scholarly pursuit. It begs many questions from us. We must face them with an open and unimpassioned mind. It has become expedient to highlight this point,as it appears that some people are ONLY concerned with the 'dalit' ident