Category: article

The numerals, now in everyday use, are called Arabic numerals, because it was from the Arabs that these numerals spread to Europe. Actually they are Indian in origin and should rightly be called Indian numerals.

The concept of zero and the digital system (including decimals) are India’s contribution to the science of numerals. The Arabs adopted the Indian system. The European got it from the Arabs (see landmarks of science).

Among the authors, who were instrumental in transmitting Indian mathematical knowledge from Arab sources to Europe, the most famous was Leonardo of Pisa (AD 1202). Other important authors were John Seville (1135), Adelard of Bath (1142), Robert of Chester (1142), Villedien (1240) and Sacrabosa (1242).

 

Student: CHITRA.K.LAL

I walk the hills, and the barren lands,

With a passion in my eyes, a gun in my hands.

 

Roads to freedom, the journey long and short,

The incessant firing, the sound of the impending calm.

 

Cold winds blow and they hit me hard,

Violent and fierce, but I can’t scream, not even an ‘ah’.

 

In my aim to protect my country,

I wonder what would happen if we go wrong.

 

Banish the thought from my head,

With a promise to my motherland, I move on.

 

The gun shots and the wounded friend,

I see them all with my two eyes, I am human I want to say out loud.

 

I tell myself to be of stone, be invincible to it all,

A small prayer to God to let me see the end of the day.

 

It all goes unanswered when I am shot in the head,

One last bullet I fire, take the one last step.

 

To kill the enemy, that was the perfect aim,

Free my country from the bondages of Satan’s game.

 

Heavens above call to me, for I have done my duty, they say

Protect the people I love down here, don’t let my sacrifice be in vain.

Student: Shruti Chopra

Aren’t we expecting too much from our women?

All right, this is not cool at all. A survey by Nielsen revealed that Indian women are the most stressed out in the world — 87% of Indian women suffer from stress. This statistic alone caused me to stress out. Even in workaholic America, only 53 per cent women feel stressed.

What are we doing to our women?

I may be biased, but Indian women are the most beautiful in the world. As mothers, sisters, daughters, colleagues, wives and girlfriends, we love them. Can you imagine life without these ladies? It would be a universe full of messy, agressive and egomaniac males running the world, trying to outdo each other for no particular reason. There would be body odour, socks on the floor and nothing in the fridge to eat. The entertainment industry would die. Who wants to watch movies without an actress? Kids would be neglected and turn into drug addicts or psychopaths by age ten. Soon, all male world leaders would lose their tempers at the slightest provocations and bomb the guts out of each other’s countries. In short, without women and their sanity, the world would perish.

Yet, look at how we Indians, a nation of spiritual people, treat them. At an extreme, we abort girls before they are born, neglect their upbringing, torture them, molest them, sell them, rape them and kill them to protect our honour. Of course these criminal acts are performed by a tiny minority.

We judge our women, expect too much from them, do not give them space and suffocate their individuality. Imagine, if you did this to men, would not they be stressed out? At the end, I would say, ‘We should love women, respect them and never underestimate them’.

 

Student: Harsh Negi