The Time-Travel Telescope

The Time-Travel Telescope

We’ve all seen many science fiction movies about a time machine that allows us to rewind into the past and even fast-forward into the future. But we’ve all wondered if this would ever become a reality. Nonetheless, what if someone tells you that it is indeed possible! Would you believe it? If it helps the predicament, then one such claimant is NASA—the National Aeronautical Space Agency of the USA... 

Inheritance of Loss

Inheritance of Loss

Held as usual a few days before COP (October 28-31 last year), this youth conference is the biggest so far, with thousands of participants having registered from over 140 countries. This is leaps and bounds ahead of the few hundred participants that would attend the conference a decade ago. The sixth edition of the conference, for instance, held in Cancun, Mexico in 2010, saw just 500-odd attendees. The main agenda of the youth conference this year, as per Heeta Lakhani...

Pioneering Physicist: CV Raman
Stalwart Statesman: Lal Bahadur Shastri
The Veranda Classes

The Veranda Classes

Navdeep Salam, a teacher at the Government Primary School, Nathukonha village, Dhamtari district, Chhattisgarh, redefines the grim ground reality by creating a room-to-read where none existed.

The road leading towards Nathukonha, the only one connecting it with the rest of the world, is undoubtedly its most recent and significant development. Nathukonha is a small, remote village of the Gond tribe. 

Peti Waali Didi

Peti Waali Didi

Reeta Mondal, a teacher at the PG Umathe Upper Primary Government School, Raipur, volunteers to colour the doomsdays of lockdown with her bag of crayons.

When the countrywide lockdown was imposed last year, we witnessed three kinds of people. The first were those who locked themselves inside their houses. The second were those who couldn’t afford to do so like, the migrant labourers. And the third were those who had no option, like the doctors, medical staff, and police...

Haan, Hum Padhate Hain… Tum Padhoge?

Haan, Hum Padhate Hain… Tum Padhoge?

(Yes, I teach... Will you learn?)
Story of an inspiring teacher who sets up classes where most desired but none took the initiative.

Friends, this story belongs to the period when corona had stretched its arms wide across our country. The way this pandemic spread worldwide, it seemed as if this planet was welcoming it willingly. Gradually, it spread into the nook and corners of our villages as well.

On 21st March 2020, the lockdown was imposed in Uttar Pradesh. We were asked to beat our ‘taali aur thaali’ (claps and plates) to destroy this airborne virus...

Enlightenment under the Tree

Enlightenment under the Tree

A standing ovation to those who actually do something about the problems they see around them—a story of a simple teacher who rescues kids without a future.

Namaste friends! My name is Amit Rajbhar. I stay in Chaknapur (Kosda) village, which lies in the Araji Line Block of Varanasi. Since the past 15 years, I have been working as a school teacher in the Asha Samajik Vidyalaya. It is run by an ngo called 'Asha for Education'...

Science through Turmeric and Detergents

Science through Turmeric and Detergents

One fine day, we woke up and found our city, country, whole wide world and everything else come to a standstill. Something absolutely unexpected, not even in the worst of our dreams, had happened. Then, suddenly, all the related challenges began hitting us.

There came in the role of a teacher. I have been a person who is not so tech-savvy and struggles to overcome her anxiety about going online. In fact, just as me, there were many teachers, mostly at the verge of retirement, who were trying their best to connect with their students. We were aware that life shouldn’t stop because of the lockdown and that the show must go on. 

Did You Get Your Vaccine?

Did You Get Your Vaccine?

“You got the vaccine!?” Babbi screeched excitedly. She was talking to her 13-year-old cousin, Manu, in the US. “Did it hurt? Did you get fever? And did you get the clot?” Babbi could barely sit still during that video call.

“Nah… nothing happened,” Manu assured her, behaving like a responsible older brother. He didn’t experience any major adverse effects after the COVID-19 vaccine. But he understood why Babbi was worrying. He too had been scared of the vaccine and had read up extensively about it. Not wanting to lose this chance to show-off, he offered to explain how the vaccines work to Babbi.

 

Illiteracy, Poverty, Pollution
Your Right ≠ My Right?

Your Right ≠ My Right?

A Freedom Pledge against child labour— a promise to provide and protect everyone’s rights equally.

We Can Do it!

Unknown Viruses Dating Back 15,000 Years Found in Tibetan Glacier

Scientists have discovered viruses nearly 15,000 years old in two ice samples from the Tibetan Plateau. The study conducted by the team from Ohio State University has been published in Journal microbiome. The researchers analyzed ice cores taken in 2015 from the Guliya ice cap in western China. Most of those viruses are unlike any viruses that have been catalogued to date, says the study. 

Window Lights—Photo Contest results
How Green is Your School?

COVID-19 Vaccination for Children Likely to Begin from August 2021

When will children in India get inoculated against COVID-19? It could be as early as August 2021, if the health minister Mansukh Mandaviya is to be believed.He said this at a recent BJP parliamentary party meeting.There are concerns about the impact of an impending third wave on children.A vaccine would enable the reopening of schools and the resumption of outdoor activities. A timeline for September had been given earlier according to data from clinical trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. 

Lockdown Lores

Lockdown Lores

Last year, when the lockdown was announced nationwide, I felt very excited at the thought of not going to school anymore and getting a break from studies. I had thought that this would go on for a couple of days and once the situation becomes better, everything would be back to normal. But then, the days turned into months, and I never expected it to go on for a whole year!

Life on Autopilot

Life on Autopilot

Attend classes, study, eat, sleep, then rinse and repeat. Sounds peaceful, doesn’t it? It sure did to me, at least in the first few weeks of lockdown. Though now, instead of the noisy interruptions by many loud students, my classes are punctuated by silence.

Miss You, School!
My New Normal

My New Normal

‘All’s well that ends well.’
My lockdown experience is the exact opposite of this commonly used quote from the famous play by William Shakespeare.

My first reaction:
When I got to know about the lockdown in the entire country, I got excited thinking that I will get more time to spend with my family, more time for TV, and no more school! Most of my friends felt the same way.

Classroom in the Time of PANDAmic!

Classroom in the Time of PANDAmic!

We all like pandas, don’t we? Those cute furry little creatures with big shiny eyes who do nothing all day but roll on the grass and munch on bamboos!

But unfortunately, pandas live mainly in temperate forests, high in the mountains of southwest China, or in the zoos in which your parents will never take you because they’re six hours away from your house. I mean, why go to the zoo when you can solve 15 math problems from RD Sharma in those six hours and actually be ‘productive’ in that time!?