Asian Lite News Archive

Category: Features

  • How Ravi Shankar turned Brazilian into sitarist

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       It was her parents’ love for sitar exponent Pandit Ravi Shankar that introduced Paola Carraro to Indian art and music far away in Brazil Writes Debaprio D Choudhury in Asian Lite, Britains leading Asian Newspaper. Carraro, who started learning sitar from Ravi Shankar’s disciple Alberto Marsicano, says India was the biggest inspiration in her…

  • Indus Valley script numerical

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    Contrary to the age-old assumption that the Indus script is a language, a veteran science historian has claimed that it is numerical, as evident from numbers and symbols in the seals and artifacts of the Indus Valley Civilisation (3000-1900 BC)…reports Fakir Balaji for Asian Lite, Britain’s best newspaper for British Asians  Contrary to the age-old assumption that…

  • Spring Festival of Mkts opens in Mcr

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    – The Spring Festival of Markets will run for 16 days having been relocated to New Cathedral Street from St Ann’s Square.  – The festival takes place from Friday 22 May to Thursday 7 June. The Spring Festival of Markets has now opened in Manchester city centre bringing a 16 day creative extravaganza to New Cathedral…

  • Splashing colours in Kashmir

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    Splash of colour, culture brightens Srinagar’s walls…writes Sheikh Qayoom & Waseem Shah   Inspired by internationally-known Kashmiri artist Masood Hussain, a group of students is painting murals on the walls of Srinagar to bring alive the region’s culture and splash colours on the local environment. “Hussain is our friend, philosopher and guide in this small effort,” Sofi…

  • Moo-ving series of cow-on-the-run tales

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     Everyone is health-aware these days. Last weekend, a colleague lifted his T-shirt to show off his six-pack abs, or abdomen muscles. I told him that I only had one ab but it was a biggie…writes Nury Vittachi in his The Funny Side column for Asian Lite, UK’s  best newspaper for British Asians A rural friend was worried…

  • Tribal politics dogs Guyana

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    By Dr Gitanjali Persaud I do not live in Guyana anymore. Whatever happens in Guyana is irrelevant to the life I am currently leading. Yet, my heart fears for the people of Guyana and the choices they are faced with. Especially the people of Indian descent who are more vulnerable to being mislead. I was…

  • Facebook a marriage minefield

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    One in seven Britons have contemplated divorce because their partners spend too much time on various social media platforms, a top British legal firm has revealed. The study by Slater and Gordon Lawyers found that social networking site Facebook was considered the “most dangerous” place for ruining relationships. “Five years ago, Facebook was rarely mentioned…

  • Attention linked with grades

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    Children who display higher levels of inattention at the age of seven are at risk of worse academic outcomes in their secondary examinations, research by an Indian-origin professor in Britain says. The findings have significant implications for parents, teachers and clinicians. Researchers at the Universities of Nottingham and Bristol studied more than 11,000 children as part…

  • Digital infidelity leading to marital discord?

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    By Vishal Gulati   Digital relationships are resulting in the collapse of family ties, it would seem. As more and more youngsters and newly-weds are logging on to e-relationships, family life appears to be indulging more and more in what is being called ‘digital infidelity’. The virus has apparently left many a couple looking for solutions…

  • AOL, Honeypot join hands to serve kids for Xmas

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    The Art of Living Foundation joins hands with Honeypot Children’s charity and invites you to join its creative service campaign to help children during the ongoing Christmas season and to spread that joy of sharing and giving gifts.  The organisation earnestly appeals to all to be part of this Mission Santa! ‘’A child’s smile is…

  • A cradle which saved 100 female infants

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    Gaurav Sharm reports on a cradle at Udaipur, in Indian state of Rajasthan, which saved over 100 female infants  Nearly three years ago, Radha, an infant then, was found lying in thorny bushes in Rajasthan’s Pratapgarh district. The palm-sized girl child was badly bruised and almost dead. Today, Radha is a chirpy curly-haired girl with…

  • Feeding the homeless Robin Hood style

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    By Shilpa Raina   Every Sunday, at around 8.30 p.m., a group of volunteers in green t-shirts heads out in different directions with packed food like vada pav, khichdi and parathas to serve homeless people sleeping under the open skies in the capital. This is not a government initiative, but a collective effort of two friends…

  • Living with values and hope @79

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    Revered by the Tibetans as a ‘living god’ and idolised in both the Orient and the West, the Dalai Lama, known for his simplicity and typical jovial style, transcends all barriers of religion, language and even distances. He stepped back from an adminstrative role almost three years back but is active like never before in…

  • India’s Airtel touches lives in Ghana

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    By Francis Kokutse   Ignatius Bugyei is an ICT teacher at Som Nyame Kodur Junior High School in the Central Region of Ghana. But his school does not have the basic ICT set-up — computers. For that he has to travel with his students by public transport on rough and dusty roads to the nearest town,…

  • World Peace Meditation adds more partners

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    Leading world organisations Peace One Day, Dalai Lama Foundation,1 Giant Mind, 1914.org, Conscious Meditation Foundation, Feel Good Communities, Unify and United Religions Initiative for Peace have joined hands to partner with the World Peace Meditation for 21 September. If we are not peaceful in our own minds, how can we be at peace with those…

  • Thanks to Mamma, FB for a new life

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    Sahana Ghosh  writes about a student gets new life courtesy mother’s liver, Facebook campaign A month and a half ago Srijani Halder had slipped into a coma following the sudden onset of jaundice that irreversibly damaged her liver. Her life-saving liver transplant came in the form of an odd mix of family support and the social…

  • SPECIAL FEATURE: Human Development

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    Amit Kapoor in his weekly column Active Voice looks into Human Development: Ends over Means Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical ones are to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and to enjoy a decent standard of living. – HDR 1990 Human Development Report-2014 (HDR 2014) was released…

  • INTERVIEW: M.S. Swaminathan

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    Anando Bhakto talks to eminent agriculturalist M.S. Swaminathan and he says special Agricultural Zones can aid food security in India He’s been credited with mentoring the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s that saw India grow from a food deficit nation to a food surplus nation. Now, in the face of an “unpredictable” monsoon,…

  • Diabetic patients and fasting

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    Doctors are saying diabetic Muslims must be cautious during fast Muslims around the world fast in this holy month of Ramadan — from pre-dawn hours to dusk. Health experts have a word of caution for those who may be diabetic. Due to prolonged fasting, diabetics undergo metabolic changes as they don’t eat anything for long,…

  • A mountain named Mt. Sinha

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     Arun Kumar writes about Akhouri Sinha, an Indian-American research scientist, was looking for some information to write a few words on the death of his team leader on an expedition to Antarctica in the seventies. To his surprise, he found a Wikipedia entry dated May 17, 2012, saying a 990-metre high mountain at the southeast extremity of Erickson…

  • EDUCATION – Chalo Delhi, not Oxford

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    Shradha Chettri says institutions across the national capital are offering courses to mould social entrepreneurs, medical experts and disaster management experts, to name just a few, as the rush for students from all over the country to study in Delhi continues. Fancy pursuing distinctive areas of study to create a niche for yourself? Institutions across…

  • ‘Team Shunya’ in Paris

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    Rajendra Shende writes about Team Shunya, a collaboration of IIT Bombay and Rachana Sansad’s Academy of Architecture, is one of these 20 international teams selected for 2014 Solar Decathlon Europe after first level screening in 2013  Just 20 km west of Paris stands a huge icon of French grandoise, the Palace of Versaille. Wealth has been the…

  • Phone apps aid Genxt Muslims

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    Mohit Dubey  says the market is flooded with new apps for the young Muslims to follow their religion Hard pressed for time in today’s fast-paced world, keeping track of religion and its day-to-day rituals is not an easy task. Cutting across religious lines, this seems to be a niggling problem for the Genxt devout, in…

  • Indians thrive at Bapu’s Durban

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    Hadra Ahmed reports from Durban on the city which helps Gandhi to formulate his freedom struggle Once home to the young Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the city of Durban in South Africa has more overseas Indians than any other city outside India. Glimpses of India are visible in the sights, smells and sounds of this city on…

  • In search of a missing rhino horn

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    Karishma Saurabh Kalita looks into the journey of a rhino horn, from the Orient to the Middle East As authorities continue to grapple with the deeply entrenched racket of poaching of the famous one-horned rhinoceros in Assam, the demand for its horn in markets abroad refuse to die down. The state symbol of the northeast Indian…

  • FEATURE – SOS Children’s Village

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    Shilpa Raina looks into the life of selfless mothers who are the backbone of SOS Children’s Villages  Every time eight-year-old Rishab (name changed) asks his “mother” how he came into this world, she replies that a fairy gifted him to her. But Sonia Yadav is actually waiting for him to grow up to reveal how…

  • VIDEO – Shameless Onlookers!

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    An Actor Tried To Recreate The Infamous Nirbhaya Post-Rape Scenes. Look How People Reacted.This is so scary…it could be you or I. Go through it, please and share it with the world. It is not essentially Indian yet it is. We do not want to get involved, so corrupt is our system it has made…

  • Please protect your parents!

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    Kaliph Anaz says old-age homes in India are providing security and company for the aged.June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Sushma, 70, whose abode is an old-age home in the national capital, blames her daughter-in-law for her plight, but for 65-year-old Kamlesh Gupta “lack of emotional support” is the main reason for shifting to…

  • PEACE- An elusive dream?

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    Vishnu Makhijani says  the world is in greater conflict than at any previous period in its history   On June 6 was celebrated the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the allied landings on Normandy that marked the beginning of the end of World War-II, a war that was supposed to end all wars. July 28 will be…

  • Health Check – Beware of RSI

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    Azera Parveen Rahman says long hours in front of the computer will lead to RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)  Pain around the neck and upper limbs? Beware! It could be Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) that comes from spending long hours before a computer. At the NH Narayana Multispeciality hospital in Bangalore, an average of 200 patients, all…

  • More fancy foreign holidays

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    Rahul Vaishnavi says more Indians fancying foreign vacations this summer. Asian Lite, the top newspaper for NRIs and international Indians, will carry regular travel features. Keep reading A strengthening rupee, the impact and influence of social media and, most importantly, the yearning of Indian travellers to explore the world, especially during the ongoing summer vacation,…

  • Plight of a holy river

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    Brij Khandelwal visits Mathura/Vrindavan/Agra to file a report on the holy river Yamuna. He says in Krishna’s land, ‘holy’ Yamuna is a sickly drain. Every day, thousands of devout Vaishnavs from all over the world return disappointed and frustrated from the ghats in Braj mandal, the land of Sri Krishna-Radha, when they see the miserable…

  • Nagaland is rich in gold

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    “There’s gold in them thar hills” was a promotional campaign that ran in Georgia in the US for almost a century from the 1830s and this could well apply to the Naga Hills straddling India and Myanmar, which are a promising place to prospect for the yellow metal, according to a geologist , reports K.S. Jayaraman…

  • India’s demographic mystery

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    Amit Kapoor in his column Active Voice narrates on demographic dividends vs demographic burden  India is a country of a billion strong people which is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2050. Presently, a little more than 50 percent of the population is above the age of 25 and below the age of retirement.…

  • Living with dignity

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    Azera Parveen Rahman says Old-age homes are choice of the elderly “To live with dignity,” was the simple, four-word response by 75-year-old Sharmila Borah when asked why she opted to move into an old age home here. No, she has not been abandoned by her children, nor was she living a life of penury. It’s…

  • London to host Arab Film, TV awards

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    The first Arab Film and TV Awards will take place in February 2015 in London. London based public relations and promotions company Medium Enterprises has announced that they will be staging the first ever Arab Film and TV Awards (AFTVA) on the 3rd February 2015 at the luxurious 5-star Langham Hotel in Central London. AFTVA…

  • Prescription for dance, music

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    Rupesh Dutta looks into the new trends in treatements – battle ailments using music, dance and painting. Asian Lite, the best newspaper for NRIs and Indian diaspora will carry regular Health Features How about a prescription for dance, music and mimicry to fight and overcome trauma associated with ailments like cancer, Alzheimer’s and even heart…

  • Ballets retell ancient tales

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    Shilpa Raina looksinto India’s ballets – an ancient form of telling tales, Asian Lite, top Asian newspaper in the UK will carry regular features from India. Keep reading  It’s an endearing saga that’s lasted for decades and will endure for many more: retelling stories of mythological characters like Ram and Krishna and goddesses like Kali…

  • London to pay tributes to Ritu

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    LONDON ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL TO CELEBRATE BENGALI FILMMAKER RITUPARNO GHOSH Tribute coincides with the first death anniversary of a writer and director many compared to the legendary Satyajit Ray.  The passing of Rituparno Ghosh in 2013 left Indian cinema bereft of one of its finest craftsmen. The Kolkata-born writer, director, activist and literary figure – just 49…

  • Analysis – Security at North Africa

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     Suresh Kumar, Associate Professor, Department of African Studies, Delhi University, says tinderbox situation prevails  in North Africa: Can have dangerous spillover effects ? The region of Sahara and Sahel in northern Africa is currently undergoing dramatic changes, and faces serious security threats and escalating tensions. Several cases and developments reflect this critical situation — from the upsurge…

  • BIG INTERVIEW – Kangana Ranaut

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    Her performance in her latest movies like “Queen” and “Revolver Rani” has earned Kangana Ranaut the epithet of being Bollywood’s ‘rani’. She says she has been receiving respect and acknowledgment for her work like never before. “I feel like this is a beautiful time of my life. I’ve never been respected or treated the way…

  • Biggest dinosaur ever discovered

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    Fossilised bones of a dinosaur believed to be the largest creature ever to walk the Earth have been unearthed in Argentina, palaeontologists say. Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall, BBC reported. Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven…

  • Ballet revives ancient tales

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    Shilpa Raina looks into the India’s ballet culture which revives ancient tales It’s an endearing saga that’s lasted for decades and will endure for many more: retelling stories of mythological characters like Ram and Krishna and goddesses like Kali and Durga through the performing arts to bridge the gap between myth and reality in the…