Tushar Mangl

This is the story of Harpreet Kaur. A girl from a small town in Punjab who probably had a lot of dreams like all young people have. 7th of December, 2013 was supposed to be a big day for the 22 year old. She was getting married. But at around 9 in the morning when she was being readied for the big moment at an upmarket beauty salon in Ludhiana, a boy masked with a handkerchief barged into the salon and spilled acid on her. Before running away he dropped a note which spoke about a love affair that never materialized. Everyone naturally thought that it was a jilted lover who did it. People have known to commit worse things for love. But not the mother of the victim. She suspected a woman relative from the groom's side. Indeed it happened to be true. The woman was the groom's brother's divorced wife who out of spite wanted to ruin the wedding. So what does she do? She cooks up this conspiracy along with her paramour and some hired goons to throw acid on the young girl so a...

In the year 2011, a movement was launched for a jan lokpal by activist Anna Hazare. We all know about it. Many of us especially born in the late 80s or early 90s were quite fascinated by the sheer energy of the movement. Our parents might have had seen another high voltage movement by Jai Prakash Narayan in the 70s but for us, this was our very first large social movement. Add the high density exposure of social as well as television and it was all very good. We have read about the JP movement and it was already clear that even though the two movements could not be compared but they both were similar in the sense, they both caught the anger of the people against the governments of their times and channelized it into their movements. Hence, it was clear that like in JP era, here also, politicians would be produced. A large part of the present leadership in India from Nitish Kumar to Arun Jaitley is a product of the JP movement. From the Anna movement came Arvind Kejriwal a former I...

First, they feminized rivers. Then they said, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" Then they forgot to connect the obvious dots. Recently, rains, followed by a cloudburst or two, caused a major havoc at Uttarakhand, a Northern state in India. UK, as I fondly call it, is a beautiful place. It is also a Devbhoomi, a land of many Gods, temples, pilgrimages and also the place where Holy Rivers are at their very best. The rivers mainly being Ganga and Yamuna. It is here in UK, where the Britishers built the hill station of Mussoorie. Again, in Rishikesh, another district of UK, many foreigners like Steve Jobs and Rock Bands like Beatles come to seek nirvana or learn Yoga or just to do what tourists do. Technically speaking, each Hindu has to land here for upon cremation, the ashes have to immersed here in Haridwar, another place in UK popular amongst visitors. The list goes on and on. Basically, you can stay there for months and discover yet a new place that ...

I say, languages are like water. You travel a few miles and the water is different. Same is with languages. But, like civilizations and culture, languages too evolve. Many die a slow death. Some are merged into another dialects and languages. So, why are we discussing it here? Darwin’s theory should apply to languages too. That which will be the fittest shall survive. Right? I am a very practical person. So yes, my practical thought says, languages have to evolve, have to change and even die. How would a truly globalized world happen, if we all keep sticking to our regional or local dialects? How will knowledge flow smoothly? Look at how English is helping connect so many people with each other. Most of the governments in the World recognize English as their first or second or even third language. Most of the companies recognize English as their official language. It makes life and career so easy. So it is a good phenomenon. Let the languages compete and the winner shall be accept...

LOBBY GENERAL CLEANING (DONE IN THE DAY TIME):- 1. Dusting of furniture and fixtures. 2. Dry mopping of the floor. 3. Window cleaning. 4. Upper of uppolstery, furnishings. 5. Repositioning of furniture. 6. Removal of shots and stains. 7. Flower arrangement and cleaning of counters. 8. Empting of ashtray. EXTRA CLEANING (ALLOCATED ONE DAY OF THE WEEK):- 1. Wiping of planters, hots, cleaning of stores. 2. Brasso of door handle, rails etc. 3. Wiping of window frames. 4. Cleaning of groves, jalies etc. 5. Washing of mats. 6. Through cleaning of staircase one by one. SPECIAL CLEANING (DONE IN THE NIGHT):- 1. Floor scrulling and polishing. 2. Carpet cleaning and shampoo. 3. Brasso of all articles. 4. Word polishing. 5. Chandeliar cleaning. 6. Uppolstery vaccuming. 7. Cleaning of porch. 8. Dusting of floor mats. 9. Entrance doors cleaning. LOUNGE AREAS GENERAL CLEANING:- 1. Dusting of furniture and fixtures. 2. Dry mopping of the floor. 3. Wi...

War is a wonderful item. We all like to abhor it and we all love it. Wars have that kind of effect on us. It brings out the best and the worst in human beings. It brings about feelings of patriotism, brotherhood, pride and macho ism that many people so love.  Some of the biggest industries and enterprises have been built on war. Petroleum companies, clothing mills, steel mills all have a special earning season every time a war breaks out. Look at India as an example. We are a peace loving country. So we say and blabber around. You take India's history and it is flooded with wars. Everyone was fighting everyone, every time. Our biggest legends were based on war. Ramayana ended with a war. Mahabharata ended with a war. Buddha, so they say was a prince once. Sikhism, has had its shares of wars with the Mughals. Then came the mighty Britishers who fought against the Portuguese and French and Indian states of course. Then India got Independent and has been fighting ever since. Even as I...

Since 1967, the Maoists or Naxalites or whatever u wish to call them, are creating havoc in India. Recently they ambushed a Congress party cavalcade and killed several politicians. Suddenly the political class erupted into a frenzy. Especially the Congress party workers. While the PM and Party President and Party Vice President all rushed to Chattisgarh where all this happened, the Home Minister of India who should have been tackling this mess, was seemingly in such a shock that he had to extend his United States visit. The Maoists played a great game here. They have made it clear that it is not the welfare of tribals they are interested in. They want to play the dirty political game of India. They don't want to participate in democracy and swindle people of their lands by involving in petty corruption. They don't want to play golf and wine and dine with the industrialists to gain power and property. Power for themselves and property for their kin, obviously. All this, a demo...