The winners of Rs 3,000 are...

Kudos to TSI
After the “50 forgotten stories” in the 5th anniversary issue, now TSI has come out with another unique feature on villages (TSI, Jan 8). Every village mentioned in the story is unique in some way. The story of Madhapar, with 17 banks for 15000 people, makes for an interesting read. The village can be called Singapore of India in the terms of purchasing power. The “Twin village” in Kerala is also a believe-it-or-not story. A village is dedicated to Gandhiji, and another devoted to Sanskrit even now, is a positive thing. It shows that somewhere some people have not forgotten our old culture and virtues. While all other periodicals and media depict the ups and downs of the middle or upper middle-class, TSI has come out with stories of the downtrodden and underprivileged villagers such as the pickle makers of Andhra and cooks of TN. It's a welcome model for others in the field. Congratulations and thanks to the TSI team for giving us a “unique” new year gift edition which can be preserved for ever.
KG Unnikrishnan
Kochi

A new saviour
Apropos the cover story “New dawn or a new pawn?” (TSI, Dec 25), Imran Khan might be made Pakistan's PM by that nation’s powerful military. If this is so, he will be the first Pashtun to lead the country. Having spent his life in the upper-class Lahore neighbourhood of Zaman Park, Imran actually doesn’t speak much Pakhtu either. But he is seen as an unbending Pathan by his followers. In Pakistan, the Punjabi is enamoured of the Pathan because he represents the extreme end of honour on the subcontinent. Oxford-educated Imran does not believe in evolution, and this helps with those who think of him as their saviour. He is favoured by the army because he wants peace with the Taliban. The other reason is that Pakistan’s economy has sunk. Pakistan’s generals are worried about a reduced share of defence spending and believe that a clean politician is all that’s needed to revive the economy. This is untrue, but Pakistan’s generals are not marked by their intelligence. States founded on such unstable principles always yearn for saviours. Pakistan’s latest is Imran, and like the others he will fail.
Sundip Sengupta
Kolkata

Improve the system
This refers to Arindam Chaudhuri’s editorial “Eleven things that can transform education in India” (TSI, Jan 8). The current educational system in India is not only inefficient but also inadequate to meet the challenges. There is no denying the fact that the eleven prescription to improve the education system in India put forth by you are brilliant. In addition to it, no detention policy till class VIII should be introduced to encourage and motivate the students. Self help groups should come forward to help the poor students in different ways like helping them get the various government scholarships. 
Shimu Roy
Kolkata