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- Denis Giles
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As rapes and molestations take place in the country, we find that instead of making the streets safer, we insist that women should remain at home, dress in a particular way, and keep themselves out of sight. The girls are most often blamed for a crime either for their dressing sense or asked why they were staying out so late, or why they needed to go partying.
In other words we are saying the victims were actually the cause of the crime. I am reminded of a story by Kalil Gibran:
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- Denis Giles
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Yesterday, returning from New York, I flew First Class. Now I’ve flown first and business class many times in my life, but yesterday's was different; I flew first, while all around me was economy. As I sat myself down, I felt a strange sense of joy. It was indescribable, till I realised there was a word for it, a long word, if you put it together, the ‘peacethatpassethunderstanding’! Quite a long word that, and I’ve experienced that word off and on in my life. I remember feeling it when creditors during my business days once knocked at my door, and I knew I could deal with them and the serious situation, because again I was flying first class, when all around me was economy.
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- Denis Giles
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There was once a time not too long ago when the living room of a home reflected the kind of people living it; not how much money they possessed but how much warmth existed within. You could sink into inviting easy chair and be sure moments later your host would be as informal, easy going and comfortable as the chair you were lounging in. Then there were houses with stuffy furniture, over stuffed sofas with protruding lumps that poked deep into your back as if telling you were already on borrowed time.
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- Denis Giles
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By Omkar
Would you like a bunch of bananas or a few for dus rupees each?
A seat by the sea with roadside Bhutta, under the tallest coconut tree?
Would you like a walk in the sand, magnificence for your eyes in swirling aquamarine?
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- Denis Giles
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By: *Muthu Pandi
Pre-colonial era
Rajendra Cholan I (1014–1042 CE), one of the greatest kings of the Tamil Chola dynasty, occupied the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to use them as a strategic naval base to launch a naval expedition against the Sriwijaya Empire (a classical Hindu-Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia). The Cholas called the Nicobar Island Nakkavaram, which is inscribed on the Tanjore inscription of 1050 CE. Nakkavaram in Tamil means naked man or land of the naked, which should have evolved into the modern name Nicobar. Marco Polo (12-13th century CE) also referred to this island as Necuveran. The name of the island, Andaman, might have evolved from the Indian monkey god Hanuman. The Islands provided a temporary maritime base for ships of the Marathas in the 17th century. The legendary admiral Kanhoji Angre established naval supremacy with a base in the islands and is credited with attaching those islands to India.
Read more: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS