‘90 per cent cases go unreported’
Pratibha Chauhan
SINCE sex is still considered a taboo, societies have often reacted with an ostrich-like attitude towards abuse of the young ones. They either close their eyes to child sexual abuse or label it as "mere imagination" of the child.

Divine sermons in stones
C.D. Verma
THERE appears a story in the Old Testament (Genesis 28.22) that Jacob, on his way to Haran, reached a certain holy place. There he took a stone, used it as a pillow, and went to sleep. God appeared to him in his dream, and said, "I will give to you and your descendants this land on which you are lying." When Jacob woke up, he took the stone that was under his head, and set it up as a memorial. He called the place "Beithel," which in Hebrew means House of God.

Appetising aromas from Awadh
LIVING rich, savouring everything was a full-time occupation in the erstwhile province of Awadh or Oudh as it is sometimes called. Reminiscent of PG Woodhousian England, the bankas or the gentlemen and the begums or the ladies made sure each season and nuance produced richness in all aspects of life.

A tribute
Hepburn survived while others faded away
Vikramdeep Johal
AFRICA, World War I. Fleeing from the Germans, a prim-and-proper spinster hitches a boat ride with a scruffy, boozy skipper. Showing remarkable presence of mind in a perilous situation, she first empties his liquor bottles into the Congo river and then persuades him to sink a German gunboat with torpedoes. On top of that, she falls in love with him!

Celebrity couple
Shabana-Javed: A marriage of muses
THEIRS is not a conventional marriage where the husband and wife exchange neighbourhood and office gossip, discuss in-law troubles and haggle over buying vegetables. Instead, here’s a marriage where the couple discuss various ‘isms’ (socialism, Marxism or secularism) over a cuppa adrak tea which Javed cannot make and Shabana loves. it’s another matter altogether that their rare disagreements lead to heated debates. shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar’s is a marriage of intellect, and like true believers in democracy, they agree to disagree.