Kolkata, still commonly referred to as Calcutta, is the capital of India’s eastern state of West Bengal. It’s now known for its gentle pace of life, but back in the 18th century, the city was British India’s most important trading post and the showpiece of colonial power.

In addition to its history, the gateway to eastern India is famous for its food. Bengali cuisine has evolved over time, but Kolkata still remains an ideal place to experience the cuisine characterized in part by mustard oil and fish.

There are many very good restaurants in the city, but if you want home cooked Bengali food, then that’s possible, too. Iti Misra is one of a number of home chefs that host lunches for visitors to the city: Cooking from her kitchen, Iti dishes out authentic Bengali cuisine and gives her guests a glimpse into local life.

Home to prominent intellectuals, Kolkata is regarded as an artistic and cultural capital of India. In northern Kolkata, the oldest part of the city, you’ll find the stately mansions of famous Kolkatans such as Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore.

That area of the city is also home to the busy Kumartuli clay making quarter. There, potters mold lifelike religious idols for the city’s many festivals.

Running from north to south right through the city is Hooghly River. At roughly 160 miles long, it provides the city with a supply of water and serves as a major transport system for both people and cargo. It was through the river that the East India company sailed into the region and established its trade settlement.

The waterway also provides the perfect place to experience a Kolkatan sunset. You can hire a boat to take you out on the water where you can see the iconic Howrah Bridge and the newer Vidyasagar Bridge.

For the Bengali high society, evenings in Kolkata can be spent at one of the many old colonial private members clubs such as The Saturday Club, which was founded in 1875.

Reminders of Kolkata’s colonial past can be found on every corner, but it’s the combinations of that history and modern advances that make this friendly metropolis a unique Indian experience.

Mohandas Gandhi is one of the most famous leaders and champions for justice in the world. His principles and firm belief in non-violence have been followed by many other important civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. His renown is such that he is mostly just referred to by the single name “Gandhi”.

Mohandas was born in Porbandar, India on October 2, 1869. He came from an upper class family and his father was a leader in the local community. As was tradition where he grew up, Mohandas’ parents arranged a marriage for him at the age of 13. Both the arranged marriage and the young age may seem strange to some of us, but it was the normal way of doing things where he grew up. Mohandas’ parents wanted him to become a barrister, which is a type of lawyer. As a result, when he was 19 years old Mohandas traveled to England where he studied law at the University College London. Three years later he returned to India and started his own law practice. Unfortunately, Mohandas’ law practice wasn’t successful, so he took a job with an Indian Law firm and moved to South Africa to work out of the South African law office. It was in South Africa where Gandhi would experience racial prejudice against Indians and would begin his work in civil rights

Once back in India, Gandhi led the fight for Indian independence from the British Empire. He organized several non-violent civil disobedience campaigns. During these campaigns, large groups of the Indian population would do things like refusing to work, sitting in the streets, boycotting the courts, and more. Each of these protests may seem small by themselves, but when most of the population does them at once, they can have an enormous impact. Gandhi was put in prison several times for organizing these protests. He would often fast (not eat) while he was in prison. The British government would eventually have to release him because the Indian people had grown to love Gandhi. The British were scared what would happen if they let him die. One of Gandhi’s most successful protests was called the Salt March. When Britain put a tax on salt, Gandhi decided to walk 241 miles to the sea in Dandi to make his own salt. Thousands of Indians joined him in his march. Gandhi also fought for civil rights and liberties among Indian people.

Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948. He was shot by a terrorist while attending a prayer meeting.

His birthday is a national holiday in India. It is also the International Day of Non-Violence. He was the 1930 Time Magazine Man of the Year. Gandhi wrote a lot. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi have 50,000 pages! He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times

It is hard to imagine that such a small country, the size of Indiana with the population of Alaska, tucked in the Himalaya Mountains, accessible only by two airplanes, is the “Happiest Country” in the world, the last standing Buddhist Kingdom and has one of the fastest growing GDP’s in the world. This country is Bhutan, “Land Of The Thunder Dragon.” Bhutan is located in South Asia and is landlocked between India, Tibet, China, and Nepal. In 2004, I lived in Bhutan for a month at the time the King was transitioning the government to a democracy. My father had been invited by the Chief Justice of Bhutan to help them write their judicial laws.

Bhutan is the last standing Buddhist Kingdom in the World and, until recently, has preserved much of their culture since the 17th century by avoiding globalization and staying isolated from the world. Bhutan only allows a certain number of foreigners into the country each year, and the two hundred dollars a day that must be paid by every traveler is a deterrent for many. Internet, television, and western dress were banned from the country up until ten years ago. But over the past ten years globalization has begun to change in Bhutan, but things remain perfectly balanced.

Bhutan is the only country in the world that has a ‘GNH.’ You may think GNH is just another statistically based term with no real life application, but it refers to “Gross National Happiness.” The process of measuring GNH began when Bhutan opened up to globalization. It measures people’s quality of life, and makes sure that “material and spiritual development happen together.” Bhutan has done an amazing job of finding this balance. Bhutan has continually been ranked as the happiest country in all of Asia, and the eighth Happiest Country in the world according to Business Week. In 2007, Bhutan had the second fastest growing GDP in the world, at the same time as maintaining their environment and cultural identity.

Bhutan is the only Buddhist Kingdom in the world; Mahayana Buddhism is the official religion of Bhutan. Over two thirds of the people are Buddhist, and Buddhism is supported by the government both politically and economically. The government gives subsidies to Buddhist monasteries, shrines, monks and other Buddhist programs. Buddhists also are very influential politically with a guaranteed voice in public policy. Bhutan has also made significant efforts to keep other major religions out of their country. Promoting Christianity and other major religions is not allowed in Bhutan. Even with globalization, Bhutan has been able to preserve their Buddhist traditions, and they remain the last standing Buddhist Kingdom.

Some call Bhutan the “Switzerland of Asia” because of its size, shape and location in the mountains. But as I flew into Bhutan, I realized that the mountains I saw out of the window of the tiny shaky plane were Mt. Everest and K2, the two highest mountains in the world. As soon as the plane touched down in Bhutan, the beautiful landscape overwhelmed me. Bhutan is a country of mountains and valleys, and the climate varies with elevation. The mountains are extremely cold and snowy, but it is humid and subtropical in the hills, and temperate in the valleys. Bhutan is not an easy country to travel through; traveling from one place to another usually involves passing over a mountain, on two way roads barley wide enough for one car with a thousand feet drop on both sides. Our car trips through Bhutan involved many stops for eating and site seeing, but also puking. The windy roads through the beautiful mountains and valleys were not always “beautiful.”

Bhutan has one of the stable ecosystems in the world and has virtually no environmental damage due to its long isolation. The restrictions on tourism and their protection of natural resources have let Bhutan preserve the beautiful landscape and physical country as well as their cultural identity.

In Bhutan, we were guests of the King and dinners consisted of traditional Bhutanese food, such as Yak Burgers but with a side of French Fries. One day, my mom took me to play basketball at the local court. Being the only foreigners there, we were the center of attention, but that did not stop the local boys from including us in their games. One boy who seemed to be everyone’s center of attention, who was very good at basketball, ended up making friends with me. He played basketball with us, and engaged in a friendly conversation. As we walked out the door, someone pulled us aside and told us the fellow who so kindly helped me with my basketball shot was the Prince of Bhutan. This was very telling to me – that the Prince of Bhutan would play basketball with kids at the local court, showing how Bhutan was still a small isolated world, where a Prince was safe to walk the streets and do as he pleased. And yet, it also showed how Bhutan was starting to more open to the influence of the wider world; the prince spoke perfect English and loved the American basketball.

In a world dominated by globalization, developing nations may benefit from globalization – economies made stronger, access to more advanced technology, better health care, but this all comes at a price. With globalization comes integrated western culture, loss of traditional languages, religions and ideas, and the destruction of many folk cultures worldwide. Though a developing country’s GDP might benefit from globalization, does its Gross National Happiness? In many cases, developing nations lose their cultures, origins, and way of life, languages, as well as natural resources to globalization. The society and culture, as well as the economy, become linked to the rest of the world and the ideas of the world flow into that country, often destroying culture. Is it worth giving up culture for a better economy? If all nations worldwide used a (GNH) to judge “the preservation and promotion of cultural values,” I think many people would judge globalization negatively.

Bhutan has found the perfect balance. In recent years, internet, cable television, cell phones, as well as many other modern technologies and ideas have become a part of Bhutan, but their desire to preserve of cultural values, as well as the desire to protect the environment has remained high. Bhutan’s economy and culture are growing and changing. Bhutan’s unique strategy has presented a solution to globalization. They are able to adapt to globalization, to strengthen their economy, while still preserving thousand year old traditions and culture. Bhutan is the only Buddhist Kingdom still in the world, and one where cell phones and cable television are present.

Prerna, 14, took her own life after she failed two subjects in her Class VIII half-yearly exams. She is one of thousands of Indian students who take their own lives in India every year..

According to a 2014 report from the Indian government, exam-related pressure was the largest cause of suicide in India’s youth. On this podcast you’ll hear from people who work with suicide support groups, doctors, as well as the last words of several students from their suicide notes.

India’s student suicide crisis is no new development. India has consistently reported high suicide rates. A large number of suicides were reported in the 15-29 age group.

Twenty-two students took their own lives in a week in Telangana in April 2019, because they had failed their school’s intermediate exams.

What kind of psychological pressure leads students in school, like 14-year-old Prerna, to take their own lives?

But failure to live up to expectations isn’t the only cause for student suicides. A 17-year-old from Ghaziabad took her own life after she cracked the IIT-JEE entrance examination in 2016.

In her five-page suicide note, she wrote about how she never wanted to study science or be an engineer.

Seventeen-year-old Kriti Tripathi wrote the suicide note before jumping to her death from a five-storey building in Kota on 28 April 2016.

She had scored 144 marks in the JEE Mains 2016 results declared a day before, on 27 April. But she writes….she never wanted to be an engineer. The pressure to succeed eventually leads to everything else in a student’s life being side-lined, like extra-curricular activities and other things that could lead to a more well-rounded, healthy sense of self.

reference-the quint site

A government survey shows that 93% of rural households in India have access to a toilet and 96% of those having a toilet use them. However, critics point out contradictions between these data and micro-level assessments in different parts of India.

Water is a basic necessity, and an important resource for sustaining life. The decline in water quality endangers the health of humans as well as the ecosystem. Clean drinking water, hygiene, and sanitation play an important part in maintaining health. 

Contaminated water causes many water-borne infections like diarrhoea, and also serves as a carrier for vectors such as mosquitoes spreading epidemics. Open defecation means no sanitation. It fouls the environment, and spreads diseases. According to WHO-UNICEF report (2010), India has the highest rate of open defecation. Access to safe drinking water and good sanitation are vital for family well-being. It results in control of enteric diseases, and boosts child health. A healthy child has better learning and retaining ability. Girls avoid going to school where there are no proper sanitation measures.

Sanitation makes a positive contribution in family literacy. According to a UNICEF study, for every 10 per cent increase in female literacy, a country’s economy can grow by 0.3 per cent. Thus, sanitation contributes to social and economic development of the society. Improved sanitation also helps the environment. 

Clean drinking water and good sanitation would not prevent infections without practicing good hygiene. A simple habit of washing hands goes a long way towards preventing diseases. The stored water supply may also serve as a source of infection in the absence of hygiene. 

In India, rapid urbanisation and the increasing population has placed a major strain on the existing infrastructure. It has affected the capacity of the government to provide clean drinking water, and effective sanitation measures. Though the government has tried to overcome this problem through urban development programmes like Clean India Campaign, the total costs required for successful operations continue to mar their efforts. Hence, the contributions of corporations, and other organisations is a welcome change.