ANI reported that India reported 6,650 new Covid cases, 7,051 recoveries, and 374 deaths in the last 24 hours. This takes the number of active cases to 77,516, the total recoveries to 3,42,15,977, the death toll to 4,79,133, the total number of Omicron cases to 358, while the total vaccination stands at 1,40,31,63,063.

Let’s come back to the present realities. With that, all that I can say: We were better off in those years passed by…when verse and sentiments held sway, with carefree abundance holding out. There was less of violence, hate and divisions and more of togetherness and free flow of the arts and creativity, of words […]

Characters in novels have a home. In some cases, fictional addresses are precise, complete with apartment number, street address and town.  The address 7 Eccles Street in Dublin refers to the row house of Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce’s 1922 novel, “Ulysses.” The house existed but was demolished in 1967. There is now a hospital on that site. […]

Thus, after seven years, the RSS has achieved its objective: religion is centre-stage in our political and social discussions. And religious fervour of the worst sort is now everywhere: the violent, divisive, destructive sort. And because India is a Hindu majority nation and the RSS is a Hindu supremacist ideology, rank majoritarianism once again raises […]

The case related to the police registering an FIR against a CPI-ML activist who uploaded vacation pictures with the caption ‘Trip to Sirumalai for shooting practice’, which the police interpreted as preparations to wage war against the State. Justice Swaminathan quashed the FIR against the 62-year-old accused while underscoring that the case was ‘absurd and […]

Several Amazon workers at two of its facilities in the US staged a pre-Christmas walkout, which is the busiest time of the year, asking for better treatment and higher wages. Before walking out on Wednesday morning (US time), the workers handed over a petition listing their demands to the management, but didn’t receive a response, […]

A pair of Quidditch leagues announced on Wednesday that they will be changing the name of the ‘real-life’ version of the sport in order to ‘distance’ themselves from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling for her statements about the transgender community. In a joint statement on Wednesday, the U.S. Quidditch (USQ) and Major League Quidditch (MLQ) […]

Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Prof Saifuddin Saif has termed the recommendations of the JK Delimitation Commission to add six additional Assembly seats for Jammu and only one seat for Kashmir as a conspiracy hatched by the RSS to change the demography of the region and ultimately install a Hindu Chief Minister in […]

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, which kicked off the film arm of the Wizarding World, was released in November 2001 — and the special will commemorate the franchise’s 20th anniversary, reports ‘Variety’. “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts”, which will reunite actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, was taped at the […]

It has become the bestselling series of novels of all time, and later on one of the highest grossing film franchises (behind Star Wars and Marvel because people have no taste, of course). Everyone knows their Hogwarts house. J.K. Rowling’s creation has basically become a personality test for the average Millenial, and even Gen Zers, […]