By Dev N Pathak Life options: double-edged choices! The former Vice-President of India Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma was stunned to hear the speech of a class six boy named Mukund Mani Pandey, at Mawlankar Hall in New Delhi (India). The boy was taken to Dr. Sahrma after the ovation thinned. Dr. Sharma exclaimed, ‘well done my boy! Where are you from?’ The boy said, ‘ I am from Vatayan school’. A perplexed Dr. Sharma asked, ‘I have never heard of this school! Where is it?’ The boy answered with a swelling chest, ‘it is as small a school as me in a small town called Siwan in a big state... 

Festival time for Kesariya : celebrating local history in Bihar!   Kesariya[East Champaran]: around ten years ago, the local residents in Kesariya, a grand Buddhist circuit site took the initiative of starting an annual festival in the area. By now the task has been taken up by the Bihar government which has organized a three-day Kesariya Mahotsav from Friday. This year besides the performance of singers Malini Awasthi and Amitabh Kumar and dancer Parween Samrat, a national seminar on Lord Buddha and a Kavi Sammelan have been organized for the festival. The festival will also have a... 

Zahra Daudi (1923-2003): and some inspiring pages from Bihar’s history   By Dr Mohammad Sajjad A champion of women and labour rights and left-leaning freedom fighter, Zahra Daudi, was born at Chapra, Bihar on 16 March 1923. Her father Maulana Ali Asghar, a staunch nationalist, was close to the luminaries of the freedom movement like Maulana Azad and Dr Rajendra Prasad. Ali Asghar preferred to wear hand-woven Khadi clothes, participated in the Non Cooperation-Khilafat Movement and was a rabid critic of the Muslim League. He regarded Muslim League as disgusting collaborator of the... 

Batras  [बतरस] What Bihar needs urgently: a history of post-independence Bihar!   By Ratnakar Tripathy  History is about memory, about story telling, about refreshing memory over and again and constant retelling of tales. The way history was given to us in schools and colleges is more like the history of the graveyard type or history as calendar. You don’t need to approach a philosopher with graying beard to seek an answer to the question – what is history? Sitting across a potential girl/boy friend in the college canteen, when you come face to face with the question ‘tell... 

Some Forgotten history from Bihar: Mohammad Yunus [1884–1952], our 1st Chief Minister By Mohammad Sajjad While turning the pages of history of the colonial Indian Muslim politics, only issue that comes immediately to our mind is their engagement with the question of Hindu-Muslim relations, communalism, and power sharing formula in various sectors/ institutions. Here is a case a little away from all such issues. It is a relatively lesser known aspect of history that Mr. Md. Yunus earns the distinction of having served as the first Premier (Prime Minister, now called Chief Minister) of Bihar... 

भागलपुर:बदलत  इब्राहिम खां मकबरा क सूरत भागलपुर । पर्यटन विभाग कए धीरे धीरे बिहारक उपेक्षित स्‍थल दिस ध्‍यान जा रहल अछि। एहि क्रम मे उपेक्षित रहल ऐतिहासिक इब्राहिम खां मकबरा क सूरत बदलबाक प्रयास शुरू कैल गेल अछि। एकरा लेल जिला...