The Indie Writers (Team Entity)

In the early hours of the morning, prior to the sun casting its golden rays over the horizon, hundreds of anglers make their way to the banks of Kashmir’s numerous rivers, fed by the melting glaciers of the Himalayas, baiting their hooks, waiting to cast their rods into the fluid mountain streams. The water is exceptionally clear unless it had rained the night before and the rivers, with their deceptive currents, are swollen with rainwater that washes away rocks and sediments from the fertile green banks. The prized catch of the day - trout (brown trout), a species of freshwater fish that rarely survives in warm Asiatic conditions but thrives in Kashmir’s twenty three major rivers. It is a testament to the state’s resolute, ecologically friendly, environment. Be it for sport or a means to an alternate income the cold water breed of fish is highly sought after. A cooked serving of rainbow trout (the most common freshwater trout) contains approximately 981 milligrams of omega-3 fatty aci

Vampire myths are common both in the East and the West and while the normal perception is that the vampire originated from Transylvania there are many other myths around the world that incorporate the vampire element. For long periods in its contemporary history Kedah was under Siamese rule and on one particular occasion it came under the influence of a particularly intimidating monarch. At birth he was given the name Raja Ong Maha Perita Daria but he was more commonly known as Raja Bersiong. According to legend, despite the vice like grip he had on his kingdom, Raja Bersiong lived in constant fear and the threat of being assassinated perpetually loomed over him like a dark cloud. He was so afraid that even when he went to sleep, he had guards posted around his bed. He devised outlandish methods to counter any threats on his life including leaving all culinary matters in the hands of two cooks. Only they prepared his food and no one else touched any of the ingredients th

The old weathered shaman sits idly on a block of land that he calls his own, handed down to him no doubt by his predecessors who had either purchased the land or were granted the deeds to it, for services rendered during colonial times. He stares out in the open, seated on a rickety stool on the verandah of a hut surrounded by the banana trees that he grows for a living. The sun is high and its luminous rays beat relentlessly down on the rugged graveled land below. The sounds of distant drumming echo over the horizon and he hums a little tune. In the valley below a group of young men are beating on a set of tin pan drums. He sings of a young man, on the verge of death, whose soul leaves his body and drifts towards the clouds and there he meets a young maiden and he is instantly taken in by her. His soul returns to his body and the maiden follows him back. The clock strikes twelve and it will soon be time for lunch. He gets off the stool and makes his way to the rear of the hut

Nepal is a landlocked country located north of the Indian border, with no sea access and therefore it is heavily reliant on inland marine resources to meet and sustain the domestic demand for fish and fish-based products. A predominantly Hindu nation, more than 80% of Nepal’s population are Hindus, fish-based protein is an important source of nutrition and sustenance, given the lower intakes of red meat Hindu nations have when compared to other countries. Aquaculture in Nepal started in the 1940s, so it’s by no means a new industry, but progress has been slow, stalled or hampered, by a lack of R&D in the sector. Freshwater fish are normally cultivated in natural ponds and the most popular species to be bred in captivity are carps and carp variants, possibly because they are easier to cultivate in controlled environments when compared to other species of fish, and over the years, carp poly-culture in ponds has become the most viable type of aquaculture in Nepal and currently acc

The case of Uttara Huddar and her alternate personality Sharada presents us with a unique opportunity to study what might possibly be an actual case of an external alternate personality entering the body of another that resulted in dramatic changes to the actual person. Let us start by looking into the personalities of both Uttara Huddar and her alternate personality Sharada to give us some understanding of both personalities and to try and comprehend the cultural diversities that separated both personalities. Uttara Huddar was born on Friday, the 14th of March 1941 (Friday is a day that is synonymous to Sukracharya). Persons born on this day, theologically at least, have the faculty to see into the past, present and the future and have an affinity to the dead by virtue of Sukracharya’s ability to raise the dead) in Nagpur (a city in Maharashtra). Venus (Sukra) is the governing planet and persons born on this day have a closer affinity to the Goddess Durga than others. It is the

On May 10, 1970, a Methodist minister by the name of Caroll Jay conducted a hypnosis session with the objective of curing his wife’s, Delores’s, back pain. When Caroll started asking his wife questions under hypnosis, she did reply, as per the norm, but oddly enough she replied in a language that was foreign to her i.e. a language that she had no prior knowledge of, and her answers were all in German. This prompted Caroll to question his wife further and in so doing, he managed to establish the identity of the speaker. Her name was Gretchen Gottlieb and she was murdered when she was 16 years old by some men in a forest close to the town of Eberswalde, in the 1870’s, while she was waiting for her uncle. The information came to light after a series of sessions. Gretchen lived in particularly difficult times, during a period known as Kulturkampf – which was in reference to a struggle between the Roman Catholic Church and the political powers that were trying to subject the church to