Russian model Maria Sokolovski posing for the 2013 collection of Seasons, a Mumbai based fashion company famous for its modernised traditional Indian dresses…
South Asia
For Malala & right to education
Malala Yousafzai [wiki] is a 15-year-old education and women’s rights activist from the town of Mingora in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. She was shot (and survived) in an assassination attempt by Taliban on October 9, 2012.
November 10 has been designated as Malala Day by The Office of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education [] aimed to deliver education for every child around the world.
There’s lots of stuff going in my mind but I’m short of words… it’s never an easy thing to tackle issues like human-rights, poverty, overpopulation, terrorism, child-labour etc. Perhaps education is the answer… it’s a long and difficult journey regardless.
Malala’s courage and bravery deserves my utmost admiration. I’m feeling a bit ashamed to be frank, and I’m pledging myself to do more to make the world a better place.
India power outages
More than 600m people were affected by the power outage in India after a massive power breakdown for the second day in a row on Tuesday.
India has one of the lowest per capita rates of power consumption (about 1/10 of global average). Energy shortage is a known issue and probably will continue to be a thorn in future. It’s the world’s worst blackout ever, and it might happen again soon.
World’s shortest man, ever
72-year-old Chandra Bahadur Dangi from Nepal has broken the record for the world’s shortest man. At 54.6cm he’s also the shortest person ever measured…
Bhutan’s royal wedding
Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, 31, has married his commoner bride in an elaborate Buddhist ceremony on October 13th.
The newly crowned queen is 21-year-old student Jetsun Pema. It’s widely reported in Chinese media that the royal couple has known each other for years.
Aakash – world’s cheapest tablet computer from India
India has launched what it dubbed as the world’s cheapest tablet computer on Wednesday, to be sold to students at a subsidized price of US$35 and later in shops for about $60.
The touch-screen device, called Aakash, or “sky” in Hindi, is currently assembled by a British company. A pilot run of 100,000 units will be given to students for free, with the first 500 handed out at the launch to a mixed response. Image by Parivartan Sharma, more details on Reuters.
Very little technical information is available beside the fact that it’s running on Android. And speaking of “cheapest”, India also wowed the world in 2008 with Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, which is doing pretty well domestically. What you pay is what you get; but there’s always demand for cheap (and relatively low quality) stuff.