Noted Dutch post-impressionist painter, Vincent Van Gogh, was not always an artist. In fact, he wanted to be a church pastor and was even sent to the Belgian mining community of Borinage in 1879.…
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The man with big ears, and big dreams that took India to the moon
Aug 11, 2019: On August 12, 1919, a baby boy was born in the home of Ahmedabad’s leading textile mill-owner; his siblings looked at him and declared he had big ears, “just…
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Manipur: How one man planted a 300-acre forest near Imphal
IMPHAL: At a time when global warming and climate change are dictating geopolitics, 45-year-old Moirangthem Loiya from Manipur comes across as a leading light. For the last 18 years, Loiya, a resident…
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The Bhishma way or the Jatayu way?
No two people react to the same situation in a similar way. Here are examples of two legendary personalities who were faced with very similar situations, but their responses were diagonally apart. It…
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Lithium-ion battery inventor introduces new glass electrolyte technology for fast-charging, noncombustible batteries
2017: At the age of 57, John B. Goodenough invented the lithium battery which powers all our smart phones, tablets and laptops – as well as electric cars. 37 years later at…
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The good doctor of Malkangiri
When Kumulu Kirsani, a tribal teenager, fell seriously ill on a dull grey morning on September 17, 2019, all the ills that keep Odisha’s Malkangiri district backward seemed to conspire against him.…
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Charity begins on the footpath
A young man in his twenties used to stand on the footpath opposite the famous Tata Cancer Hospital at Mumbai and stare at the crowd in front of him – fear plainly…
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Life is baeutiful
Do you remember the name of your kindergarten teacher? I do, mine. Her name was Mrs. White. And I remember thinking she must be some older relation of Walt Disney’s Snow White,…
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‘Dear teenage boy at the skate park’
A visit to the local skate park took an unexpected turn for a mother and her little girl. The mother of a little girl aspiring to be a skateboarder has posted a…
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Blind to failure
Scaling Mount Everest requires the enthusiasm and boosterism of a physical-education teacher combined with the survival instinct of a Green Beret. You have to want that summit. Erik Weihenmayer, 33, wasn’t just…