RajivBuzz

I have come across a Communist Party of India poster seeking to begin the party's centenary year celebrations on January 2, with D Raja, the party general secretary, as the chief guest. In Hindi, the poster has been released by the party's Bihar unit, which used to be one of the strongest in India, but like rest of the country, it too appears to have gone phut.

A little less than two months back, I was reading a story in The Hindustan Times by my journalist friend Maulik Pathak with the headline "How Gujarat villages take the dangerous flight of illegal migration", and I was instantly reminded of the village about which Pathak was referring to -- Dingucha. I visited Dingucha , which is in Gandhinagar district of Gujarat, a few years back, where I was taken by one of our family members whose ancestors belonged to this village. They still have a house in the village, with quite a big open space, where we relaxed. 

  Top multinational corporations appear to be apprehensive: US president-elect Donald Trump may put additional tariffs on goods manufactured in China mainland, even if their headquarters are based in Taiwan, Japan or the US. Hence, they are considering relocating their units from China to several countries, including Thailand and India.

  In an unusual move, Gujarat Dalits from as many as 182 talukas will be handing over as many boxes containing “sava ser sunth” – one and a quarter ‘seer’ (traditional unit of weight) of dry ginger – to district collectors or taluka chiefs (mamlatdars) with a suggestive message to Union home minister Amit Shah: "We won't tolerate your  recent insult  to Babasaheb Ambedkar in Parliament because our mothers had fed with sunth during and after the childbirth to make us strong-willed", to quote a Dalit activist. Conceptualised by Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the boxes will be handed over by Gujarat Dalits groups to local state officials on January 1, the Bhima-Koregaon day, celebrated by Dalits as their “victory” against the Peshwas’ Brahminical oppression in a battle fought between mainly Mahar (the Dalit sub-caste to which Ambedkar also belonged) soldiers of a regiment under the British East India Company and Peshwa Bajirao II’s forces on January 1, 1818. Prepared by ...

Senior Vadodara-based health rights activist Jagdish Patel has forwarded to me an important news item. Emanating from Gansu Province, located in the northwestern region of China, and disseminated by Gansu News, which covers a range of topics, including regional development and economic activities, in the province, the news item, in "simple" Chinese with translation in English, says that there is "breakthrough" in exporting asbestos from China to India.  Hailing the breakthrough in foreign trade for the province's Akesai county for the first time, "showcasing" it as regional economic progress, the news of export to India comes six months after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a ban on the only type of asbestos, chrysotile, used in the United States. Banned in 65 countries around the world, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an estimated 100,000 people die each year from “work-related asbestos exposure” beca...

An interesting feature I noticed during my recent visit to restaurants in the United States was the prevalent culture of tipping. While tipping is common in India too, especially in restaurants, hotels, and other service sectors, one rarely finds an open display explicitly welcoming tips. This is quite unlike the United States, where boards or signs encouraging tipping are often prominently displayed.

On December 14 falls the birth centenary of Raj Kapoor, referred to as a legend who acquired international fame – especially in the former Soviet Union – at a time when few others in Bollywood could dream of reaching that level. Undoubtedly one of the best actors who during the early black and white days showed his empathy towards the underdog -- Awara (1951), Shree 420 (1955), and Jagte Raho (1956), to name just a few -- he is also called the Charlie Chaplin of Indian cinema because he often portrayed a tramp-like figure.