Good Samaritan: "Aai" is a Marathi word which means "mother". The Aai Foundation, launched by Santosh Narayan Garje is just that - it is a mother to 43 destitute children. Read more .....
Science: Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers announced they have seen further back in time than ever before and have uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 3 per cent of its present age. The deepest images to date from Hubble yield the first statistically robust sample of galaxies that tells how abundant they were close to the era when galaxies first formed. Read more ....
Using computer simulations, scientists from the NASA Astrobiology Institute team at the University of Hawaii are shedding light on a question that has challenged astronomers for years: What causes wide binary stars? Read more ....
December 22 was the 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, and to mark the occasion Emory University mathematician Ken Ono and his students explored Ramanujam's writings and have solved one of the greatest puzzles left behind by the mathematics genius that may prove useful to physicists who study black holes. Read more ....
Fiction: All of you, I believe, love to travel - all youngsters do. But Shrikant is an exception. He hates to travel. The word travel conjures up visions of heavy luggage, that he has to carry, before his eyes. A crude translation of a story by Bengali humorist Shibram Chakraborty.Read the full story .....
Brain Teaser: Ask any numismatist and he or she is sure to tell you that rare coins are invaluable. So, RARE + COIN should have been equal to INVALUABLE. However, my friend has given me this problem to solve, according to which RARE + COIN = TEPID. Now, whatever does that mean? Can you help? Please help .....
History: The 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda is being celebrated. On the occasion here are some selected teachings of Swami Vivekananda. Read more .....
Good Samaritan: Ajit Kulkarni grew up in rural environs. After reading books about Baba Amte he went to meet the social worker and inspired by Amte's work, Ajit decided to dedicate his life to social work - a decision that has today brought succour to many poor, destitute, deprived and differently-abled children. Ajit was recently conferred an award instituted by an educational group of institutes for his contributions to the society. Read more .....
Science: NASA's car-sized rover, Curiosity, has taken significant steps toward understanding how Mars may have lost much of its original atmosphere.Read more ....
A mother's willingness to sacrifice her own health and safety for the sake of her children is a common narrative across cultures - and by no means unique to humans alone. Female polar bears starve, dolphin mothers stop sleeping and some spider moms give themselves as lunch for their crawly babies' first meal.Read more ....
Three members of the Expedition 33 crew undocked from the International Space Station and returned safely to Earth on November 19, wrapping up a mission lasting more than four months. Read more ....
Fiction: The Government has sent notices and Harshabardhan and his brother Gobardhan have also received them. The country is facing hostilities at the borders and the prospect of a war is looming large. The Government has, therefore, sent notices to all men, urging them to enroll in the military services. Will Harshabardhan go to the war? Find out by reading the crude translation of a story by Bengali humourist Shibram Chakraborty. Read the full story .....
Brain Teaser: During Diwali, a fair was organised near my house. One of the chief attractions in the fair was a contest.In this contest, four kinds of sweets - a "laddoo", a "barfi", a "gulab jamoon" and a "pedha" - were placed on a table in full view of the participants. A curtain was then dropped blocking the participants' view and the sweets were rearranged and inverted cups were placed over each of them. The curtain was raised. The participants had to correctly guess as to which sweet lay covered by which cup. Can you tell how many participants guessed three sweets correctly? Please help .....
Indian Festivals: Although Diwali was celebrated on November 13 across the country, a few odd houses are yet to remove the colourful sky lanterns as if unable to come to terms with the fact that the festival of lights has indeed ended this calender year. Read more .....
www.youthaffairz.in
Good Samaritan: Alkagauri Joshi was the quintessential Pune girl till her twelfth standard. Then she attended a camp organised by the Vivekananda Kendra at Kanyakumari and her life changed. Since the last fourteen years, Alkagauri has been engaged in teaching children in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and changing their lives for the better. Read more .....
Life: I am glad my memory is short, else those haunting eyes of Pluto would have tormented me forever. The memory still lingers but it is not so intense now. It was a few months ago that Pluto died and I was afraid his eyes would continue to rove and speak to me about his anguish. He was a dog and could not communicate as effectively with me with his mouth as he did with his eyes. Read more .....
Who we call and how long we speak to them changes with the weather, according to new research by experts at Newcastle University. Read more .....
Science: Heightened activity between the emotional and auditory parts of the brain explains why the sound of chalk on a blackboard or a knife on a bottle is so unpleasant. Read more ....
The average area covered by the Antarctic ozone hole this year was the second smallest in the last 20 years, according to data from NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites. Read the NASA release ....
A comprehensive study of hundreds of galaxies observed by the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unexpected pattern of change that extends back 8 billion years, or more than half the age of the universe. Read the NASA release ....
Brain Teaser: One day while taking a walk I came across a flock of crows feasting on carrion. I was trying to find out how many crows were there in the flock. Can you help me determine the number? Please help .....
History: Following the passing away of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru delivered a moving speech that is one of the greatest speeches ever. Read the speech .....
Indian Festivals: India is in the midst of the festival season. Durga Puja and Dussera were recently celebrated and everyone is now eagerly awaiting the Diwali festival. Durga Puja is the biggest festival of the Bengalis and here we bring some glimpses of the celebrations in Pune. Read more .....
Good Samaritan: Kulandei Francis from India is among the six persons who have been chosen for the 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Award which is considered to be Asia's Nobel Prize. Read more about his work .....
Life: "C'mon, Champ! One more!", he vociferously urged as I summoned the last vestiges of strength that remained in my straining body to lift that 100 pound barbell a final time. "Sab self hai! Ek aur ho jayega! Puusssh!", he egged me on with such belief in his tone that made it impossible for my leaden arms to give in just yet. Pradyut Hande pays a moving tribute to his trainer at the gym who passed away in an accident. Read more .....
Science: For several days in July 2012, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its 2-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists. Read the NASA release ....
Your Voice Your Opinion: Pradyut Hande delves into the Maruti Suzuki India Limited's crisis at its Manesar facility and tries to analyse the situation. Read his views .....
Fiction: Everyone is cheering for Palaram but, yet, he is hiding behind the bushes! A crude translation of one of Bengali writer Narayan Gangopadhyay's short stories. Read the full story .....
History: August 15 marks India's Independence Day, and first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's "Tryst with destiny" speech is the apt page from history to celebrate the occasion. Read the speech .....
Heritage: Khadki in Pune, which is one of the oldest cantonments in the country, houses a novel landmark - the Kirkee War Cemetery (KWC) - which is so serene that the hand involuntarily rises in salute. Read more .....
Achiever: All the odds were against him - he is afflicted with polio, hails from a small village in Solapur district of Maharashtra, and his father had died when he was very young. But Ramesh Gorakh Gholap overcame all the adversities and has topped the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) Main exams 2011 and has also cleared the Union Public Service Commission examination. Read more .....
Expert speak: Here are excerpts from the address delivered by former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam during the first convocation of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram on June 28, 2012.Read more .....
Science: Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed Saturn's moon Titan likely harbors a layer of liquid water under its ice shell. Read the full NASA release ....
Fiction: A crude translation of one of Bengali humorist Shibram Chakraborty's short stories. The story "Gora's bargaining prowess" is about a small boy's determination not to be cheated by a shop-keeper. Whether Gora gets cheated in the end or is it the shop-keeper, it is for the readers to decide.Read the full story .....
Brain Teaser: This is rather simple and even I have been able to solve it. So, it should be child's play for you, although it may be a bit tedious. You have to break this secret code and once you do so, your efforts will be rewarded with coins. Please decipher this secret message .....
History: Father of Indian Unrest Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born on July 23, 1856. To commemorate the birth anniversary, here is the text of a speech delivered by him at Nashik in 1917. Read more .....
Faith: Towards the end of the second week of June, Pune welcomed a "city on move" - a vast congregation of faithfuls who passed through Pune on a rigorous pilgrimage to the temple town of Pandharpur in Solapur district on foot.Read more .....
Good Samaritan: The word "nirman" means to "create" and that is what the initiative "Nirman" is aimed at - to create a new generation of leadership to take up social challenges like poverty, food shortage, energy crisis, child deaths, global warming, unemployment, and others. Read more .....
Innovation: Four final-year mechanical engineering students of the Pune Zilla Shikshan Mandal's College of Engineering at Manjri in Pune have designed an agro-scooter which is a multi-purpose vehicle that can perform 12 different farming operations. Read more ....
Fiction: A crude translation of one of poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore's short stories. The story "Feast of the rats" is about a group of school students who have not yet seen their new Sanskrit teacher, but yet taken a dislike for him. They undergo a change of heart subesquently. Read the full story .....
Brain Teaser: Never ask a mathematician his age, or for that matter, the age of any of his family members. This is what my friend Ajit faced when he wanted to know the ages of our Mathematics teacher's three children. Instead of giving Ajit a straight reply, the teacher told him to determine the ages by looking at the house number and his oldest child's love for adventure sports. Can you help Ajit in detrmining the ages?Please help .....
History: Here is the text of Swami Vivekananda's famous Chicago speech through which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions on 11th September, 1893. Read more .....
Science: Indian scientist Prof Ashutosh Kotwal from Pune has announced the World's most precise measurement of a fundamental particle called the W boson. Read more .....
Grit: Flying Officer M P Anil Kumar is the personification of an indomitable fighting spirit. Kumar, an alumnus of the National Defence Academy who was adjudged the best Air Force cadet of the 65th Course, had gone on to become an ace fighter pilot. But his brilliant flying career was cut short in a freak road accident when he severely injured his spine, losing complete mobility below the neck. Kumar taught himself to write initially by holding a pen with his teeth and subsequently on a computer using a specially-modified keyboard holding a stylus in his mouth. A prolific writer, his life story "Airborne to Chairborne" is part of the tenth standard syllabus in Maharashtra and Kerala. Read the story .....
Expert speak: "Mera Bharat Mahan - India, is indeed a great country - full of contradictions. We talk of corruption, but who started it in the first place?" These are excerpts from a speech delivered by Dr Vijaypat Singhania at the 47th annual convocation of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in his capacity as chairman of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) Society and the Board of Governors. He has since relinquished office as the chairman following completion of his tenure. Read more .....
Inspiration: Marsha Ivins, a veteran astronaut who has logged 55 days in space, advises youngsters to "Never take a 'no' for an answer". Read more ....
Fiction: May 7 marks the birth anniversary of poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. To commemorate the occasion, we have attempted a crude translation of one of Tagore's short stories. The story "Holiday" is about the travails of a teenager. Read the full story .....
Brain Teaser: There are 12 coins. One of the coins is fake. It is known that a fake coin weighs either slightly less or slightly more than a real coin. Using a balance scale, how can you find the fake coin, and determine if it weighs less or more than a real coin in only three weighings? Can you help me solve this?Please help .....
History: May 7 marks the birth anniversay of poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. To commemorate the occasion, here is a speech delivered by Tagore. The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Tagore in 1913 but he could not be present for the awards function. On May 26, 1921, he visited Stockholm and addressed the Royal Swedish Academy and delivered this speech and acknowledged and accepted the honour. Read more .....
Art and culture: Ramesh Pachange is a "chowghada" exponent who represents the fifth generation of his family to continue the tradition. He is determined to preserve this dying art form. Read more .....
