Yoginder Sikand

We have hospitals and clinics to cater to our ill and infirm. But who takes care of the injured and sick wildlife forced to share space with us in our concrete jungles? Meet a band of wonderful people from the Bangalore chapter of People for Wildlife, who rescue and rehabilitate these helpless creatures.

Modern urban life, exciting and rewarding as it may be for many, brings its own share of problems. People feel isolated being away from family, don’t have time to make lasting friends, and often feel depressed. Helping Hand volunteers counsel those who have no one else to turn to and provide support to mental health professionals as well. Read more about this unique organization.

Doctors said he would become a "vegetable" and wouldn't be able to do anything. Not the one to live a life like this, Azeem Bolar started counseling people and has successfully changed many lives in a positive way. "I’d rather someone envy me than pity me," he says. Know more about his tremendously inspiring journey.

As curfew continues for the 12th straight day in Kishtwar based on the reports of communal violence, it might be difficult to imagine it as a place where Hindus and Muslims lived in perfect harmony, in fact much more than in many other parts of the country! But writer Yoginder Sikand recalls a time when he witnessed this communal bonhomie with his own eyes and felt it strongly in the many exceptional people that he met on his visits there.

Yoginder Sikand was just settling in for some peace and quiet in a tiny hamlet of the deliriously scenic Spiti ecosphere, when he was hit by the recent snowstorm. Faced with the possibility of being stuck without food and warmth for weeks, he decided that he would try to get to a bigger town and seek help. But how was he to find his way, being completely foreign to those parts and terrains? Much to his wonder, a helping hand was always around!

The Bagariyas of Rajasthan are one of the poorest and least literate tribes in India. While they are barely eking out an existence, their children don't go to school, they have no electricity, or in fact, any facilities that make life easier. Most developmental schemes seem to have bypassed them. But we see here, how a little money and a lot of initiative, can have a large impact on people's lives.

Yoginder Sikand introduces you to the renowned scholar Khurshid Kaimkhani. Chacha, as he was fondly called, lived an extraordinary life and strived hard to work for the betterment of the lower caste Hindus and Muslims in Pakistan. Having been forced to leave his village in Rajasthan, Khurshid Chacha travelled extensively and even penned a book about his home town. Read on to know more about him and the inspirational life he lived.

Yoginder Sikand takes you on a daring trip to a remote part of the remote state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is not for the faint-hearted or the luxury-seeker. You will not be observing exotic wildlife or grandiose architecture. But if you are a daring adventurer who can rough it, want to experience a unique sense of oneness with nature and have a deep love for primitive cultures and tribal traditions, you will not find a more perfect place than this!

It seems to be a widely-shared lament that with the rapid spread of modern education, time-honoured values are quickly disappearing from our personal and collective lives. This may not be a mere coincidence because modern education focuses mainly on the cognitive or intellectual development of children, paying relatively little attention to nurturing their affective or emotional intelligence. VITAL is an initiative that aims at making value education an integral part of a student's life, with an interesting model for teachers to adopt.