Posts by Neena Bhandari

COVID-19: Beaches, bouncers and quarantine bouquets

1 Comment read Arts, Entertainment & Lifestyle, Features, Health & Science
Bondi Beach, Sydney. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 27.03.2020 (Live Mint): Autumn (March – May) is one of my favourite seasons in Sydney, my home for two decades. Bright blue skies, gentle sea breeze and the mellow warmth of the sun provide a perfect setting for outdoor barbecues, picnics, music and theatre events. But as new shoots were just appearing on the charred landscape after a prolonged spring-summer of bushfires, droughts and floods, which had devastated communities and the economy, the novel Coronavirus (COVID 19) put a full stop to life as we know it.

`Social distancing’ is the diktat we must all abide by, if the spread of current contagion has to be halted. All non-citizens and non-residents have been banned from arriving in the country and Australians have been advised not to travel overseas. This big island continent is fortified. Friends far afield from Nepal to the UK are trying to get a flight home. But with the country’s flagship carrier, Qantas, slashing 90 percent international flights, these are trying times.

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Of original oil lamps in the times of LED lighting

3 Comments read Business and Trade, Travel
Robert J. Aernout, owner of The Original Oil Lamp Shop. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Braidwood (NSW, Australia): In the historic town of Braidwood, tucked away on leafy Duncan Street is a store with perhaps the largest collection of original oil lamps in the country.

A sloping gravel pathway leads to an opaque door, which slides open into a space every inch occupied by antique oil lamps from around the world. A young couple is intently listening to a tall man in his seventies, relating the story of a large floor-standing Egyptian oil lamp. It’s the owner of The Original Lamp Shop, Robert J. Aernout, who greets us and continues to show the couple his collection of myriad lamps. There are lamps of all shapes, sizes and materials, adorning the shelves, the floor, and some hanging low from the rafters.

One can’t help, but wonder, who would still be buying this medieval source of light in the times of LED (light emitting diode), sensor and automatic internet-operated lights?

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The Future Pacific Island Children Want

0 Comments read Education, Features, Gender
Teenager Karen Semens from the Federated States of Micronesia.

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY, Australia, Mar 5 2020 (IPS) – For 13-year-old Karen Semens, growing up on Pohnpei — one of the four main island states in the Federated States of Micronesia, which comprises of more than 600 islands in the western Pacific Ocean — the main challenge is being a girl.

“In our culture, girls don’t have the same rights and opportunities nor do they get credit and recognition for their achievements as boys do. This prevents us from speaking our minds. For example in family meetings, only men make the decisions. I would like all girls to be treated as equals and have a say in decision making,” the 8th grade pupil from the Ohmine Public Elementary school in Pohnpei, tells IPS.

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