HUMAN PLAY-NET

Sonepur  (Bihar): Away from the din and bustle of city life, rural women can be seen cooking food on hearths using cow dung cakes and dry wood under trees, some others dry their clothes in the open field after a taking dip in the nearby river, while some others can be seen just chatting and listening to popular Bhojpuri numbers on their mobile phones –- that's what the forlorn “Hathi Bazaar” (elephant market) at the famous Sonepur cattle fair looks like this time round. The ever-moving wheel of time has crushed past many traditions and conventions, burying those under the debris of modernisation and aspirations of new-age generations. And like many other traditional events and fests, “Sonepur Pashu Mela” or the cattle fair of Bihar also going the way to enter the pages of history. Spread over sprawling 500 acres along the confluence of the Ganga and Gandak rivers, the Sonepur fair has been known as Asia's largest cattle fair. But this year, the fair doesn't...

PATNA: Defying call for a poll boycott by Maoists , around 52 per cent of the 98.44 lakh electorate cast their votes in 45 Assembly constituencies in Bihar in the second phase of elections which was marred by stray incidents of violence. The second phase of voting in crucial Naxal -affected districts of Bihar came to an end on Sunday. Minor incidents of violence though have caused some disturbance as three polling officials have been reported to be missing from a booth in the Sitamarhi district in Bihar. The overall voter turnout was 52 per cent. East Champaran saw the highest voter turnout at 58 per cent. Stray incidents of violence occurred in Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts. The Naxals who had called for a boycott of the polls set fire to an electronic voting machine and other poll material including voter identity cards. Heavily-armed Naxals raided a polling centre at Subaigarh in Runisaidpur constituency and burnt down the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) b...

WHAT do you make out of the Thackerays versus Shahrukh Khan controversy, which has been holding Mumbai to ransom for over 10 days now? Well, it’s all about politicking in the family, which has now spilled on to the public arena. In fact, what we are witness to is a desperate bid of survival at the cost of non-parties. Be it Shahrukh Khan , management guru Arindam Chaudhary , helpless taxi-wallas, hapless cinema hall owners or the innocent cinegoers…all are turning victims of Shiv Sena ’s bid to reclaim the ground lost to Sena chief Bala Sahab Thackeray’s nephew, one-time family member and now his arch rival Raj Thackeray , who has beat Sena at its own game. Post- Maharashtra Assembly election , while the stocks of Raj’s party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) soared following better than expected gains at the hustings, Bal Thackeray and his son Uddhav were left biting their nails and chewing their fingers in view of the relatively poorer performance of Shiv Sena. Since existence...