Paper Bag Day: A day to rethink everyday choices
As plastic bans continue to be enforced across various regions in India and beyond, paper bags are once again gaining favour—not just as a practical item, but as a symbol of conscious consumption. However, Paper Bag Day is not just about switching materials; it is about rethinking therelationship with single-use items altogether.
While paper bags are less harmful than plastic, their production still involves resource use, including water and trees. The true message of the day lies in responsible use, reduction, and reuse, encouraging supporting eco-conscious practices, and educating communities about waste management.
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Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Citizens, PMC to ‘adopt' key roads, footpaths to ensure maintenance
1 2 3 Pune: The civic body on Wednesday launched the road adoption project for daily maintenance of roads and footpaths with the participation of citizens to ensure waste is lifted, debris cleared and better civic services related to commuting provided to taxpayers. In the initial stages, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) with citizens plans to 'adopt' around 30 key stretches across the city. One PMC officer along with a team of local residents will monitor each road stretch on the basis of 30 different requirements. There will be regular inspections and the team will list shortcomings like illegally dumped waste, broken footpaths, potholes and lack of signage. The observations will be shared with the departments concerned for immediate action. You Can Also Check: Pune AQI | Weather in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune The project will take off in areas of Nagar Road, Yerawada and Wadgaon Sheri. It will be extended to other locations in a phased manner. PMC commissioner Naval Kishore Ram said the administration is looking forward to work on cleanliness and sanitation, primarily. Among other focus areas are water supply, roads and drainage as well as health services. Ram said there was a need to set up a robust system to look after such civic issues effectively. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Citizens and civic activists from various parts of the city have said the plan should not remain on paper and the result should be visible. "The administration launches initiatives and projects with tall claims, but the momentum fizzles out within months. Residents are expecting long-term commitments now," said Vikram Gaikwad, an activist from Narhe. Madhav Jagtap, head of PMC zone I, said, "Problems persist despite the administration's efforts. Therefore, we are involving citizens to make the work more effective. We have prepared a comprehensive list of various issues which the teams will observe during regular inspections. Forty-five PMC officers along with 45 citizens will take up reviews in the first phase. There is a plan to make use of an app to execute measures. " Additional municipal commissioner Omprakash Divate said the project is unique because it will see local residents participating actively and they will play a key role in identifying problems in their areas. Shyamla Desai, member of a mohalla committee and apex committee of citizens, said citizens and members of civic societies from various areas will join the initiative to improve the situation of roads.
Indian Express
6 hours ago
- Indian Express
The Kennedy curse: The tragedy of America's royal family
On this day 26 years ago, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and her sister Lauren vanished into the Atlantic Ocean, capping the 20th century with one more tragedy for the Kennedy family. John Jr.'s death was particularly cruel in its irony. The boy who had captured America's heart as a three-year-old saluting his father's coffin died piloting a plane into the dark waters off Martha's Vineyard. He was heading to a wedding – a celebration that soon became a wake. In less than a century, the Kennedys have lived through more public misfortune, scandal, and sudden death than seems plausible for any one family. Plane crashes. Assassinations. Overdoses. Suicides. Their story, full of promise and pain, is one America cannot stop telling. In 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy – who had already lost four siblings by then – asked aloud whether 'some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys.' Fifty-five years later, that question still lingers. The Kennedy saga begins with Joseph Kennedy Sr., a wealthy businessman who dreamed of political greatness for his children. His eldest son, Joseph Kennedy Jr., was the golden child, groomed to become America's first Catholic president. A Harvard graduate and Navy pilot, Joe Jr. volunteered for a dangerous World War II mission in 1944, piloting a bomb-laden plane over Nazi-occupied France. The plane exploded, killing him at the age of 29. 'Now the burden falls on me,' his younger brother John F. Kennedy told a friend, as the family's political hopes shifted to the sickly second son. That burden would define the rest of his life. John was not supposed to be president. He suffered from a chronic illness, lived much of his childhood in hospitals, and was given the last rites more than once. But he was also fiercely resilient. The historian Robert Dallek described Kennedy's decision to hide his condition from the public as 'the quiet stoicism of a man struggling to endure extraordinary pain and distress and performing his presidential (and pre-presidential) duties largely undeterred.' John made it to the White House as the youngest President in American history. A little over one thousand days later, he became the youngest President to die. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was travelling through Dallas, Texas in an open air car with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, when he was fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine. The images are seared into American memory: Jackie's pink suit stained with blood, the frantic rush to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the nation watching in stunned silence as Walter Cronkite announced that the President was dead. Five years later, history struck again with cruel precision. In 1968, third son and Presidential hopeful, Robert F. Kennedy was shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, just after winning the California primary. His wife, Ethel, pregnant with their eleventh child, watched as he collapsed to the ground. He died the next day. Joe, John and Robert are perhaps the most famous of the Kennedys to succumb to early and shocking deaths, but they are far from the only ones. Kathleen Kennedy, Joe's daughter, lost her husband in World War II, then died herself in a plane crash four years later. John and Jackie lost two children in infancy—one in 1956 and another in 1963. Robert's son David died of a drug overdose in 1984. Another son, Michael, died in a skiing accident in 1997. More recently, the deaths have come in cruel succession: Kara Kennedy (heart attack), Mary Kennedy (suicide), Saoirse Kennedy Hill (overdose), Maeve Kennedy McKean and her young son (drowned during a canoe trip). Each death has its own story. Each has added to the myth. To some, the Kennedy curse has a point of origin. In 1941, Joe Sr.'s daughter Rosemary, whose mood swings and rumoured scandals threatened the family's image, was subjected to a lobotomy at her father's insistence. The procedure went horribly wrong, leaving her with the intellectual capabilities of a 2-year-old, unable to walk or talk. Rosemary spent decades in private institutions, hidden from public view. For those who believe in curses, this act—an ambitious father silencing his daughter to protect his legacy—is the Kennedy family's original sin. Others look to Joe Sr.'s financial dealings and wartime flirtations with fascist regimes. Still others believe the curse stems from the family's unrelenting pursuit of power, at whatever cost. But maybe it isn't a curse at all. 'Virtually every family has its own silent tragedy. Large families are likely to have a larger number of tragedies. Highly publicized families have more highly publicized tragedies,' Theodore C. Sorensen wrote in the New York Times after John Jr.'s death. With Joe Sr.'s nine children producing 29 grandchildren—Robert alone had 11—the Kennedys' size makes their losses statistically less surprising. Others point to recklessness. 'They fly their own single-engine planes when they could afford a crew of airmen. They ski without poles on the hardest hills of Aspen on the last run of a December afternoon. They coax their way into the military in hopes of facing combat. It is and always has been the Kennedy way,' Boston Globe reporter Brian McGrory wrote in 1999 There is another theory, one rarely explored by the family themselves. In Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed, journalist Maureen Callahan argues that the curse is not myth or misfortune – it's misogyny. Across generations, Kennedy women and the women who married into the family have faced early death, psychological torment, and silence. 'Whatever grievous harm a Kennedy man may have done to her,' she writes, 'the message remains clear: She was asking for it. It was her fault.' In some ways, the Kennedys are not unique. In India, the Nehru-Gandhi family has endured three major assassinations. In Pakistan, the Bhuttos, father and daughter, both died violently. In Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was murdered along with most of his family. Around the world, political dynasties often end in blood. Ultimately, the Kennedys faced their own share of joy and sadness. And while they have undoubtably suffered devastating loss, as Sorensen writes, 'they have also been endowed with good genes, good brains, good looks, good health and good fortune, with both instincts and opportunities for serving their country and helping those who are less fortunate.'
Time of India
13 hours ago
- Time of India
Air India crash: Pilots slam 'deliberate' ambiguity in report timeline
Air India crash KOLKATA: Serving and retired pilots have expressed concern over what they term "deliberate" ambiguity in the timeline mentioned in the preliminary probe report prepared by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the AI 171 crash. They allege this has been done to absolve the aircraft manufacturer of any responsibility in the accident and pin the blame on the dead pilots. They also point out that the word "transition" of fuel switches used in the report attempts to insinuate that they were manually moved. "This is an American expression. In India, it would normally have been written: The switches were moved. It is the fuel valves that transition while the switches can move from RUN to CUT OFF or vice versa," a veteran pilot pointed out. While several timelines are mentioned in the report, it is unclear during the crucial phase immediately after takeoff when the two engines momentarily shut down after fuel flow stopped, leading to the crash. The AAIB provides the timestamp to the exact second for a number of actions. The aircraft started rolling at 8:07:37 UTC (13:37:37 IST, i.e., 37 seconds past 1:37 pm). The aircraft and ground sensors recorded the liftoff at 08:08:39 UTC (13:38:39 IST). It then states the aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 knots (333 km/h) at about 08:08:42 UTC (13:38:42 IST). Thereafter, the timelines become unclear. It says immediately thereafter, engine 1 and engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 second. It then states, 'In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he cut off. The other pilot responded that he did not do so.' You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata "When did all of this happen and in which sequence? That is a crucial segment of the flight when something catastrophic happened that took down the plane. It is not possible to move both switches from RUN to CUT OFF in a second. The SOP as laid down in the manual for reviving engines during a dual engine failure is to move the switches from RUN to CUT OFF and back to RUN. The pilots in the ill-fated aircraft did so and we know the engines revived but the plane crashed because it did not gain enough altitude to clear the buildings," another experienced captain explained. The report goes on to state that CCTV footage obtained from the airport showed the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) getting deployed during the initial climb immediately after lift-off, but the time is not mentioned. The next timestamp is when the RAT hydraulic pump began supplying hydraulic power at about 08:08:47 UTC (13:38:47 IST). A pilot pointed out that since the RAT takes around 7-8 seconds from auto deployment to begin functioning, then the plane should have lost the engines around 08:08:40 UTC (13:38:40 IST). "If that is so, then how did the plane achieve the maximum airspeed 2 seconds later at 08:08:42 UTC (13:38:42 IST)?" he questioned. Another pilot said it is critical to know the exact conversation that took place in the cockpit from the start of the takeoff run to the Mayday call to know what the pilots were experiencing in the cockpit before the crash. "This is not just for the sake of learning why flight AI 171 crashed but to ensure that another flight does not meet the same fate in the future," a pilot said. Another captain also pointed out that both pilots in the ill-fated flight were wearing headsets and they spoke on different channels, as is the mandatory procedure during takeoff. "Then why is there no clarity on who said what because it's available in the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR)?" he questioned.
