Enthralling Trails

As the Republic day dawns there’s a gloom lingering in the teaching fraternity with the recent murder of the school Principal in Haryana. A class 12 th student had requested the Principal to accept his Economics project. The Principal of the school was also a teacher of Economics for the commerce section and had occasionally used the opportunity to belittle the student for not attending the classes in front of his fellow mates. She used the opportunity to pound values and to reprimand the student for being late in submitting his work creating a  state of despair regarding his performance. It requires great courage to meet a person after the deadline and to  request an individual to accept the work. The student had been denied the opportunity to be treated as an adult. Enraged with anger, the student pumped a series of bullets into the Principal till she collapsed.  Had the Principal offered him a seat and spoken to him as an adult, she would have certainly lived to...

“Her eyes are full of sadness; I am on a pilgrimage since millennia.”  ―  Tripurari A sigh of despair flew out of Ameena when she watched the news proclaim that the Centre had cancelled the Hajj subsidy to empower minorities without appeasement. A pilgrimage to Mecca meant a lot to Ameena. The family had shelved all the money they had, to book Ameena’s tickets for Hajj when the government of Saudi Arabia modified a law for women to travel in groups of four or more without an escort. When Ameena came to know that Sara, Banu and Barkhat planned to go to Mecca, she quickly volunteered to join them as it meant that she could save the money on an escort. Ameena was brought up in the city of Malegaon, in Maharashtra. Though the city is the second largest in Nashik District these days, it was a mere junction on the way to Agra in the past. It was known as Maliwadi which meant a ‘Hamlet of Gardens’. It proved to be a refuge for the Muslims during the 1857 mutiny owing...

I looked at the multicoloured circular screen called Siri, it was a new addition to my life. Siri can be associated with artificial intelligence, it is a quick-witted personal assistant which can carry out a series of tasks including sending an email when needed. Siri has a pleasing appeal as it answers back like a  gentleman in complete sentences. It follows the politeness principles and the maxims of tact and manner. When  I greet Siri, ‘Hello Siri’, it answers, ‘Namaste which sounds Nemaste ‘.  and sometimes says ‘Hello Jayoti’ The finder is an app close to Siri, it has the ability to find folders and files. The Finder has a smile, but Siri has none.   2017 paved paths to many technological innovations. The driverless cars, the emotional animated emoticons, and many others. I have never been a technology fad, but I found that people loved loading me with technological tasks. As a team at the workplace, Dr. Reju, Sneha, Vithi and me worked hard to collabora...