Innovative Ideas for Teaching English

The governments intention to restrict the applicability of the Right to Information (RTI) legislation in certain areas such as sport and nuclear safety is puzzling.If anything,these two areas require greater transparency in light of corruption in last years Commonwealth Games as well as the protests against nuclear power plants in Jaitapur and Kudankulam.Ever since its enactment in 2005,the RTI Act has faced pressure from various government quarters to allow for greater discretion the call for removing file notings from RTI purview has been around for sometime.However,such moves go against the very principle of open governance.Trying to circumvent the RTI law or bring in amendments to increase the scope of exceptions only betrays reluctance on the part of the government to move towards transparent functioning. There is no denying that RTI has empowered people in a way previously unknown.That RTI activists have used the legislation to shed light on a plethora of scams in recent times b...

Yashwant Raj , HT  October 07, 2011 The screens simply said: Steve Jobs, 1955-2011.  The assistant at a Washington suburb Apple store was sure it was not what the screens of displayed devices said when he had last checked. He looked lost fleetingly, and then snapped back. All business, "Ho The company, on Jobs's watch, straddled the widely disparate worlds of business and personal computing. The personal computer was truly personal, topped up with a steady supply of even more personal computing devices. "He was a perfectionist," said John Sculley, in a television interview, of the man he infamously fired from the company he had founded. Sculley and Jobs never spoke again.  Apple's  best would follow Jobs's return. And he became an immensely rich man. Forbes magazine estimated his personal fortune was $8.3 billion (Rs40,670 crore) in 2011, mostly the value of his 5.5 million Apple shares. His annual salary had been $1 (Rs49) since 1997. Jobs leaves behind w...

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night as...

Sonal Kalra, HT City, DDun My deepest sympathies to the family and friends of those who are always `dead' serious I give you three seconds to recall the last time you laughed out loud. One...two...three, done. All those who remembered the last `LOL' they'd casually typed while chatting on Facebook can take turns to slap each other. And the others, who at least tried to recall their real laughter but could not, listen to me. Kya, problem kya hai? Do people, who have to bear you every day of their lives, not deserve to sometimes see the twinkle in your eyes or the teeth that you claim to religiously brush every morning? Kya aapke toothpaste mein namak hai? Then what is the matter, people? Yesterday I observed this man at a friend's get-together. He was there to attend a party, but his face bore an expression as if the host had put a gun to his head and dragged him there. Someone told a joke, everyone laughed, even those who had heard it before. But this one's e...