According to the Planning Commission, human dignity is worth Rs 2 lakh. That's the maximum compensation for a rape victim who files an FIR with enough evidence and pursues the correct legal channels. The price of a life is higher. A minor or mentally challenged woman, or a woman who gets pregnant or contracts AIDS as a result of the rape, might claim the princely sum of Rs. 3 lakh.

January 2, 2012, the Delhi court awarded compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a 17-year-old rape victim awaiting justice. She was 14 when the incident occurred. In the interim, she tried to kill herself by consuming acid, and was reduced to a vegetative existence. The court, appropriately 'shocked' with the situation, coughed up a lakh and sent her back to the queue.

Article 38 (1) of the Constitution of India provides for Criminal Injuries Compensation Boards in every state. The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of setting up the boards. The National Women's Commission, the Working Women's Commission, and several

For someone who studied in the mountains, had a psychedelic flash after a whirling windchill at a frozen lake in mountainous Nepal, was stricken with sudden fever on a glacial stretch in Spiti, and spent a winter in London without central heating (by choice), these are happy-learning memories of the cold, in comparison with my brother's horror stories from his first posting at Siachen. Also, in comparison with the immensity of the casually used phrase 'cold wave'.

For a cold wave is first a biting change in the air and, if you are outside, its teeth will come for you. By definition it is a very sharp drop in temperature in under 24 hours or a very long spell of continuous chilling of air. Both can become so extreme when prolonged or very sudden. So when studio anchors in a centrally heated studio pontificate on the statistics of the sub-zero, can they empathize with their brrroadcasting colleagues standing for hours delivering the weather report? Listen in to the 200 watts of Kashmir's

Don And a half (yes that's my name for SRK-Akhtar version 1) felt like a turbo-wash scrubbed the circa off the original's flary pants, patchy rope tricks and rustic  Banarsi ale. But here's the scrub. The best dialogues were fully air-lifted from Banarsi to Bacardi zone.

And since it was SRK and not His Baritoneness, intensity got a sidekick. Replaced with a suitable sneer.And now the  F1pace-plot continues to  slicken with graphic novella atmospherics.

Missing in action, in the new Dons - The comic relief of country bumpkin Amitabh.Which had a plotted place for the songs but I guess songs then  were woven with fewer hectic threads than jeez.

To be fair, DON And a half elongated the Don franchise and twisted us successfully, bang into our era. Scam hain naam mera SCAM!
A stupendously less innocent time when the criminal draws us in from everywhere be it murder mysteries, power topis of cops to politicos-Gandi topi anyone?
So much more believable that the crook

The protestor as Time's Person of the Year 2011. From Cairo to New York City. From Tahrir Square to Times Square. And from Ram Lila to Azad Maidan.

Did something really stir this year ? Are Indians zombied-by-unaccountability waking up beyond personal fatigue and tired assaults ?

There is an ire for change but is it as deep as the pockets of the very corrupt? Or is it another instance where the axis of blame is  so wide angle that we  don't see our casual complicity. 2G is now  a numeric uno euphemism for scam and continues to unfold with revelations @ 3G speed. Shock continues to find new voltaic lows everyday ,in exposes of the illegally mined and dined. In a year in which many in India, have gone from who is Anna to I am Anna to why Anna - one experience continues to tether us breathlessly to it all. Corruption.

Wherever you might be on this, you can bet there will be chatter on tv about it, preferably with a hotseat.