Bharatham : Uthishtatha-Jagratha : (wef-05/11/2012. )

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH by Mohandas K. Gandhi Part-1.   4.  PLAYING THE HUSBAND : About the time of my marriage, little pamphlets costing a pice, or a pie (I now forget how  much), used to be issued, in which conjugal love, thrift, child marriages, and other such subjects  were discussed. Whenever I came across any of these, I used to go through them from cover to  cover, and it was a habit with me to forget what I did not like, and to carry out in practice whatever I liked. Lifelong faithfulness to the wife, inculcated in these booklets as the duty of the husband,  remained permanently imprinted on my heart. Furthermore, the passion for truth was innate in  me, and to be false to her was therefore out of the question. And then there was very little chance  of my being faithless at that tender age. But the lesson of faithfulness had also an untoward effect. 'If I should be pledged to be faithful...

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH by Mohandas K. Gandhi Part-1. 3. CHILD MARRIAGE : Much as I wish that I had not to write this chapter, I know that I shall have to swallow many  such bitter draughts in the course of this narrative. And I cannot do otherwise, if I claim to be a  worshipper of Truth It is my painful duty to have to record here my marriage at the age of thirteen. As I see the youngsters of the same age about me who are under my care, and think of my own  marriage, I am inclined to pity myself and to congratulate them on having escaped my lot. I can  see no moral argument in support of such a preposterously early marriage. Let the reader make no mistake. I was married, not betrothed. For in Kathiwad there are two  distinct rites--betrothal and marriage. Betrothal is a preliminary promise on the part of the parents  of the boy and the girl to join them in marriage, and it is not inviolable. The ...

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH by Mohandas K. Gandhi PART ONE 2. CHILDHOOD : I must have been about seven when my father left Porbandar for Rajkot, to become a member of the Rajasthanik Court. There I was put into a primary school, and I can well recollect those days, including the names and other particulars of the teachers who taught me. As at Porbandar, so here, there is hardly anything to note about my studies. I could have been only a mediocre student. From this school I went to the suburban school and thence to the high school, having already reached my twelfth year. I do not remember having ever told a lie, during this short period, either to my teachers or to my schoolmates. I used to be very shy and avoided all company. My books and my lessons were my sole companions. To be at school at that stroke of the hour and to run back home as soon as school closed--that was my daily habit. I literally ran back, because I cou...

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH by Mohandas K. Gandhi PART ONE 1. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE The Gandhis belong to the Bania caste and seem to have been originally grocers. But for three generations, from my grandfather, they have been Prime Ministers in several Kathiawad States. Uttamchand Gandhi, alias Ota Gandhi, my grandfather, must have been a man of principle. State intrigues compelled him to leave Porbandar, where he was Diwan, and to seek refuge in Junagadh. There he saluted the Nawab with the left hand. Someone, noticing the apparent discourtesy, asked for an explanation, which was thus given: 'The right hand is already pledged to Porbandar.' Ota Gandhi married a second time, having lost his first wife. He had four sons by his first wife and two by his second wife. I do not think that in my childhood I ever felt or knew that these sons of Ota Gandhi were not all of the same mother. The fifth of these six brothers was Ka...

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH by Mohandas K. Gandhi INTRODUCTION Four or five years ago, at the instance of some of my nearest co-workers, I agreed to write my autobiography. I made the start, but scarcely had I turned over the first sheet when riots broke out in Bombay and the work remained at a standstill. Then followed a series of events which culminated in my imprisonment at Yeravda. Sjt. Jeramdas, who was one of my fellow-prisoners there, asked me to put everything else on one side and finish writing the autobiography. I replied that I had already framed a programme of study for myself, and that I could not think of doing anything else until this course was complete. I should indeed have finished the autobiography had I gone through my full term of imprisonment at Yeravda, for there was still a year left to complete the task, when I was discharged. Swami Anand has now repeated the proposal, and as I have finished the history of ...

http://www.civilserviceindia.com/subject/Essay/is-india-fit-for-democracy.html Having walked all way through the bridge, I saw an old man sitting at the end and babbling with himself. I confronted him and asked,” Baba why are you sitting here?” He looked at me with his clumsy eyes and perplexed expression and said,” I am wondering what will I say when the National Population Statisticians will ask me my ‘caste’, I never thought myself to be something other than an Indian”. I was awestricken by his answer and realized how ill equipped our democracy was. Our country has been developing rapidly economically but it still lags behind in the Social developments. When China started its economic reforms, India was a larger democracy. But now we are far behind the Chinese in almost every aspect of development. Despite china being the most populated country in the world, it has soared to the second fastest growing economy in the world behind Japan just on the model of expo...

Mathrubhumi 12/08/2013. Street children survive on porn, videos; not food : New Delhi:In a dark and dingy room, the only thing visible is the blue flickering light from a television set as a dozen-odd boys, teens and below, watch with eyes riveted on the screen. 'Ohs' and 'ahs' are heard on occasion. At first it seems they are watching a Hindi film, but a closer look reveals they are hooked on to a porn movie. The boys are runaways or vagabonds who beg at many of Delhi's crossroads or are rag-pickers. According to child activists and NGOs working with these children, most of them are hooked to either porn movies or video games and spend most of their earnings on them, on occasions forgetting to eat. 'I can sit for hours playing video games or watching movies. I spend Rs.50 or more on them. So I have stopped eating from outside and survive on tea and beedis,' Vishal Kushwaha, a rag picker, told IANS. The 17-year-old rag-picker makes Rs.150 to Rs.2...