Latest news with #Ranjit
The Hindu
4 days ago
- General
- The Hindu
What does it mean to be ‘hardly dry behind the ears'?
What is the meaning and origin of 'wet behind the ears'? (Sandeep Sinha, Ranchi) This relatively old expression is mostly used in American English to refer to people who are green or inexperienced. 'Wet behind the ears' also carries with it the suggestion that the individual is rather young, and therefore, gullible — a naïve individual who can be easily duped or tricked into doing things. The expression is sometimes used to refer to someone who is new to a place. It is also possible to say, 'hardly dry behind the ears'. We need someone who can run the department. Not a recent graduate who's wet behind the ears. I don't think it's a good idea to make Ranjit the project leader. He's hardly dry behind the ears. When a baby emerges from its mother's womb, it is usually covered, from head to toe, with amniotic fluid — the water-like substance that protects the baby while it is in the womb. Some animals lick this fluid off their baby; others, let the baby dry themselves. One of the last places of a newborn to dry is a small spot behind each ear. If these spots continue to be wet, it means the animal is a newbie — and hence helpless to do anything on its own. What does it mean when someone says, 'I want the painting to be completed by Wednesday'? (K Sudharshana, Bengaluru) When you tell your painter that you want him to finish painting your house 'by' Wednesday, you are giving the man a deadline. You are giving him time between now and Wednesday to complete the task at hand. Wednesday is the last day he will be allowed to finish the job. He can, if he wishes to, complete the task before Wednesday; but the painting work will not be allowed to continue after Wednesday. The deadline for completing the task is Wednesday. Of course, deadlines mean very little in our country! They are seldom met! Today is Saturday. I want you to submit a comprehensive report by Friday. The boss wants the repairs to be carried out by the 25th. What is the difference between 'murder' and 'assassinate'? (L. Manivel, Erode) In the eyes of the law, whether you 'murder' someone or 'assassinate' someone, you end up performing an illegal act — if caught, you could end up getting the death penalty. In both cases, you plan and intentionally take someone's life; the planning and execution of it is carried out in a cold-blooded fashion. One does not 'assassinate' or 'murder' someone accidentally. When famous individuals are killed, especially for political reasons, it is called an assassination. For example, Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, and Martin Luther King Jr. were all assassinated. If someone were to shoot and kill lesser-known mortals like you and me, the media would label it 'murder'. Ordinary people are murdered and extraordinary individuals are assassinated. By the way, in the word 'assassinate', the stress is on the second syllable – e-SASS-i-nate'. The police have been asked to investigate the murder of the old woman. My wife and I were in Delhi the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated. upendrankye@
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Malala and Kiran faced violence, threats and shame. Now their fathers want ‘all men to stand with women'
The day Ranjit's daughter was born, he distributed sweets to the entire village – not just because he was thrilled to be a father for the first time, but because he was father to a girl. 'God heard my heart and granted my wish,' he says. His devotion to baby Kiran* was immediate and unshakeable. He would rush home from his work in the fields to spend time caring for her. Millions of fathers around the world will relate to the joy Ranjit felt, but in deeply patriarchal rural India publicly celebrating the arrival of a girl is an unusual, even defiant, act. Ranjit's love for and faith in Kiran is captured in the film To Kill A Tiger, which follows the poor rice farmer as he pursues justice for his daughter after she was gang-raped aged 13. Kiran is determined to see her attackers in court and Ranjit is determined to support her. Quietly but doggedly, he refuses to give up even in the face of threats and ostracism from his community. He credits Kiran and his wife, Jaganti, for giving him the strength to keep going. After a screening of the film this year in New York, Ranjit and Kiran were joined by another supporter of an extraordinary daughter: Ziauddin Yousafzai, better known as Malala's father. The screening was used to launch #StandWithHer, a global gender-justice campaign to support survivors of sexual violence. At the time, Yousafzai spoke of Ranjit as 'a man all men should be proud of – the father all fathers should look up to'. On Sunday, a short film will be released of the two men in conversation, discussing fatherhood, courage and their commitment to seeing their daughters become independent young women despite the social and political barriers they face. Nisha Pahuja, To Kill A Tiger's director and founder of #StandWithHer, says the film marks the start of a wider drive to invite men and boys to discuss the ways patriarchy limits both sexes. 'Power comes at a cost – not just to women and girls, but also, to men and boys,' says Pahuja. 'There is of course no denying the obvious, material benefits of this power imbalance or the violence it has permitted, but there's also no denying the suffering of men and boys. 'It's so clear today that men and boys are struggling to define themselves. I do feel Zia and Ranjit are powerful, unapologetic role models here.' Yousafzai describes how Malala was named after a 19th-century Afghan heroine 'because there was power in this name'. He says he knew it would suit her. 'In my mind, I associated a girl with strength, and I thought if I had a daughter she will be strong; she will have her own voice and she will be known by her name.' Yousafzai was adamant his daughter would be educated – something his own mother and five sisters had been denied. 'Education was the front door and it had to stay open,' he tells Ranjit. He recalls how he used to invite Malala to join discussions and debates with friends at home because he recognised that she had a great mind and always had something to contribute. Malala, he says, was not just a daughter but a 'comrade and a friend', so when, in 2012, she was shot in the head by the Taliban for standing up for her right to go to school, losing her was unthinkable. When she survived the attack and became a global advocate for education, Yousafzai campaigned alongside her. They are 'one soul in two bodies', he says. His nickname for her, Jaani, means soulmate. After Kiran was assaulted, Ranjit was expected to marry her off to one of her attackers – a common response to sexual violence that insists women and girls can only rid themselves of shame by becoming wives. Ranjit and Kiran refused to accept that shame and instead placed it squarely on the perpetrators. 'A real, caring father puts his daughter first,' he says. Yousafzai says he sees Malala in Kiran. 'It is as if Malala appears in front of me. Her voice will be a step against extremism, a step against violence; it already is.' The campaign, he adds, will spread the message that men should be allies, using their privilege to challenge long-held beliefs. 'Every father, every brother: all men must stand with women.' Resistance and change start at home, he says. 'This institution of the family is an agent of change, an informal one … there's no force more powerful than the family.' Ranjit agrees. 'We can convince men; it needs to enter their minds. As more and more people come together, I feel it will definitely have an impact on men and boys.' * Kiran is a pseudonym
Time of India
07-06-2025
- Time of India
Tea shop owner held for killing neighbour
Ghaziabad: A 35-year-old tea shop owner was arrested from Indirapuram on Friday for allegedly beating his neighbour to death over a personal dispute earlier this week. According to police, a body was found on Wednesday night in Sector 11, Vasundhara, which was later identified as Gendalal (36), a truck driver originally from Bihar's Samastipur, who lived in the area. His family was informed and the victim's brother Dipendra Kumar Lodhi later filed a police complaint in the matter. An FIR was subsequently registered under BNS Section 103 (1) (murder). According to ACP (Indirapuram) Abhishek Srivastava, initial investigation revealed the victim died from a head injury inflicted by the accused beating him over the head. CCTV footage from the area showed the victim fighting with another man, which led cops to the accused. "Based on an informant's tip, the police team from Indirapuram arrested the accused, Ranjit, and recovered the murder weapon, a stick, from Sector 11, Vasundhara," the ACP said. Ranjit owned a tea shop near the spot where the incident occurred, just 50m away from his house. During interrogation, Ranjit told cops that he got into an argument with Gendalal on Wednesday night. "In a fit of anger, the accused struck Gendalal on the head with a stick, resulting in Gendalal's death. Out of fear, the accused fled the scene and hid the stick behind the slums," ACP Srivastava said.
India Today
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Housefull 5 review: Cringe and chaos in this mystery of who killed comedy
In 'Housefull 5', a comedy-thriller, a whodunnit, things get messy and confused almost immediately. Everything is happening on a cruise, but you are the one feeling like jumping off the boat, just to escape the understand 'Housefull 5', you first have to understand that this is not the most acclaimed world of comedy. Since this is the world where no woman was likely involved in the writing, women are merely on board for their glossy bodies, and to make the men in the franchise look smarter than they are. Sexually explicit references masquerade as jokes, and self-deprecating humour is limited to name-swapping and men pretending they have full control of the story begins and ends on a luxury cruise owned by Ranjeet's Ranjit. Before succumbing to a heart attack on the day of his 100th birthday, he leaves 69 billion pounds worth of wealth to his first son, Jolly. Except that nobody knows who Jolly is or what he looks like. Julius (Akshay Kumar), Jalabuddin (Riteish Deshmukh) and Jalbhushan (Abhishek A Bachchan) all claim to be the real Jolly, and then begins the hunt - for the killer on the ship, and for the real Jolly. The board of directors, the captain of the ship and Ranjit's attorney are all in the picture - ready to be framed for an unexpected murder on the cruise. Things have to be sorted soon, because the killer is one among good thing about 'Housefull 5' is that it looks like a nice commercial entertaining package. But, it's not for everyone's taste. The cringe comedy, where creepy men are lusting over women's bodies and making jokes out of beating birds and monkeys, does not make for very heartening humour. It also feels artificial at one point, as if the audience is being forced to throw a chuckle here and biggest problem with 'Housefull 5' is that the audiences have evolved enough to understand what is genuinely funny. With access to world cinema, we have come to appreciate that the best kind of humour often comes from everyday situations - from something which is rooted in reality, not drowned in glitter. A murder mystery-comedy overloaded with glamour and gloss loses its edge when its sparkle becomes a efforts as a slapstick comedian are visible, and yet you miss what you once loved about him in 'Welcome' or 'Singh is Kinng'. He owns 'Housefull 5', and tries his best to hold together a 12-member cast performing on a Abhishek Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh add well to the madness, but the real villain here is the lack of good humour - the actual killer of the joy that a full-blown comedy entertainer on the big screen is meant to deliver. There are no real jokes in 'Housefull 5'. Everything is just a rehashed version of a situation, or a character we've already seen in the previous 'Housefull' real comedian, though - Johny Lever - is hardly offered anything to do. The brilliant performer, who has ruled the Bollywood comedy space since the '90s, is reduced to a frame filler. And guess who's relied upon for laughs? Sanjay Dutt, Nana Patekar, and Jackie Shroff in their brief 5' is not even a family-friendly film, with its '6 and 9' jokes, and a long scene focussing on nothing but the glistening frames of the three leading ladies - Jacqueline Fernandez, Sonam Bajwa and Nargis Fakhri. Soundarya Sharma, making her big-screen debut, is reduced to a cardboard cutout meant purely to satisfy the male gaze. 'Housefull 5' makes you truly believe in the lack of female gaze in mainstream cinema. If this is the class of our comedy, perhaps we would be better off not laughing at all. If this is what they want our children to watch, let's go back to the time when children weren't even allowed to watch TV, let alone a film in theatres. And if this is what Bollywood calls a 'blockbuster comedy', then maybe, just maybe, the real joke is on us. IN THIS STORY#Akshay Kumar#Abhishek Bachchan#Jacqueline Fernandez#Riteish Deshmukh#Sanjay Dutt
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Siblings dupe Amethi contractor of 48L using forged land documents
Kanpur: Two siblings from Etawah have been accused of duping an Amethi resident of over Rs 48 lakh in the name of selling a land in Lucknow using forged documents. They also took his SUV. The victim, who works as a contractor in Amethi, tried to recover his possessions and after over an year of efforts, he approached the police. He filed a report at the Friends Colony police station in Etawah on Monday. Police have registered charges of fraud and other serious violations against the brothers and have launched operations to arrest them. Ranjit Yadav, a registered contractor of Amethi, said in his complaint that he was acquainted with Kuldeep Yadav from Vijay Nagar, Friends Colony. On Feb 10, 2024, Kuldeep told him that he wanted to sell two bighas of land in Khujoli village behind Medanta Hospital, Lucknow, worth Rs 3 crore. However, since he received a project, he was willing to sell it to Ranjit for Rs one crore 40 lakh. Kuldeep and his brother Sandeep also showed the documents of the property having both their names. Trusting them, Ranjit transferred Rs 75,000 on March 22, 2024 in their account followed by Rs 46 lakh. He also transferred Rs 1 lakh 37 thousand to six different accounts. The two brothers agreed to register the land in Feb 2025. On Jan 2, 2025, the brothers borrowed Ranjit's SUV for a few days claiming that their car was broken. When Ranjit asked for his car, they started making excuses, and from Jan 30 they stopped answering his calls. Growing suspicious, Ranjit investigated the land and discovered that the documents shown to him were fake. On Monday, Ranjit filed a case against the brothers. Station in-charge Amit Mishra stated that both the accused are residents of Friends Colony and were known to the contractor beforehand. A report has been filed against them, and an investigation is underway. "They will be arrested soon," he added.
