Perverted taste
The world remembers some names because of two reasons, either right or wrong. We bow our heads in reverence when we hear Gandhiji, Swami Vivekananda, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teressa, Gopinath Bordoloi, and others. We also hang our heads in shame and horror when we hear Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Osama Bin Laden, Joseph Stalin and others.
For some obscure reasons, silver screen heroes and heroines have been ruling Tamil Nadu. Examples are MG Ramachandran, M Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Hasan and others. The name of the present CM of Tamil Nadu is Stalin, which instils fear and anxiety in people around the world. Joseph Stalin's people went up to the extent of changing the name of Stalingrad to ST. Petersburg. STALIN, the despot of the then USSR, killed more of his countrymen than HITLER. One can cite yet another example in this regard when we hear that Saif Ali Khan and his better half Kareena Kapoor Khan named their son Taimur, the TAIMUR LUNG, the savage conqueror whom history wants to forget.
If Stalin and Taimur Lung are heroes for Karunanidhi and Saif ALI Khan, respectively, we have no comments to utter.
Dr Ashim Chowdhury,
Guwahati.
Where are the crows?
We all know crows as "birds with brains". But the population of this bird is on the downside for the last 5-6 years. There are many articles on the internet giving a list of challenges that the crow population is facing due to loss of habitat, high-rise buildings, to name a few. But the crow as we know is a very smart bird, it can adapt to the changes very soon. Then why is its population dwindling? One of the reasons that these articles have not pointed out is that our lifestyle has completely changed since the advent of the Internet and social media. Earlier, we used to spend our time mostly outdoors and even there were people who used to eat outside in the summers. Now crows are birds that stay close to human settlements. They like to interact with humans as they trust us. They know we are not going to hunt them but now with the coming of the Internet and social media, our interaction with nature is very less. We should make it a point to spend at least an hour outside in our garden or in our backyard or we can take our newspaper outside and read. The crows really need our attention before they fly off to an unknown world.
Noopur Baruah,
Tezpur
Space tourism
Space tourism is proved successful after the consecutive returns of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk's Inspiration4. It would give the feeling of being in space to ordinary people. It is expensive, only affordable to multi-billionaires. But it will soon become economical like flights.
Aaditya Dutta,
Dhubri.
Politics over 'Dalit'
The word 'Dalit' is generally not used by the general public but politicians play the dirty game over it. When Ram Nath Kovind was chosen for a presidential candidate by the NDA, the UPA, more particularly Congress taunted and trolled Ram Nath Kovind and NDA for playing politically Dalit card. Congress did not see whether the man who was chosen and eventually won the presidential race was fit for the coveted post or not. His credentials were ignored and the opposition kept on harping on the Dalit card.
Coming to the Punjab scenario, where an able person named Captain Amarinder Singh was replaced by Charanjit Singh Channi due to infighting with the Punjab Congress. Now, the same Congress is playing 'Dalit politics' by labelling that the Congress is giving due importance to the Dalit community. Whether the new incumbent is competent or not does matter for them. Even his credentials or qualities are never discussed. Congress will never play development cards in politics, they are always busy playing appeasement cards, minority cards, victim cards or Dalit cards. This is the prime reason why Rahul Gandhi-led Congress is slumping to an all-time low. This is the jet age where the public wants all-around development.
Purabi Miri,
Jakhalabandha.