North Bengal University

Indra Sundas’s Nepali short story Garimaan (गाडीमान) masterfully fuses magic realism’s veiled supernatural irruptions with the protagonist Saila’s psychological unraveling amid rural-urban collision. This paper dissects how sparse motifs – elongated shadows, haunting wails and piercing lamentations rising through the mist and temporal loops defying starry nights – defamiliarize Gundri Bazaar’s “iron beasts,” catalyzing Saila’s id-ego fracture and cultural dissociation. The formalist repetition of cart groans and oxen instincts amplifies the atmosphere of social flux, where highland folk heroism crumbles into bazaar inferiority. Drawing on Freudian/Jungian psychoanalysis, Cathy Caruth’s trauma belatedness and Himalayan folklore traditions, seven ultra-rare magical moments emerge as psyche mirrors, culminating in Hussel(Whistle) Khola’s shrouded climax. This elevates Sundas’s innovation in Nepali literature, remapping post-globalization identity rifts.

<title>Abstract</title> Whole genome sequencing makes it possible to find a vast number of DNA polymorphisms, including SNPs and InDels, between cultivars. Genetic variation between cultivars and the genomic sites of heritable characteristics may be quickly identified due to these DNA polymorphisms. The whole genomes of four rice lines, comprising two offspring lines(YR13 and YR32) and their parents ( <italic>Oryza sativa</italic> cv. Yamuna and <italic>Oryza rufipogon</italic> ), were resequenced in order to determine the sequence diversity resulting from interspecific hybridization using Illumina next-generation sequencing. The range of sequencing coverage was 18.46× to 27.51×, and the mapping efficiency against the reference genome of <italic>O. sativa</italic> Nipponbare was high (98.21–98.73%). Variant discovery indicated 452,810–1,393,901 polymorphisms per line, with transition/transversion ratios of 2.43–2.50 and SNPs accounting for the majority (88–91%). Functional annotation showed that 7.8–9.6% of variants occurred in exonic regions, with missense mutations being the most frequent (52–54%), while high-impact coding mutations accounted for less than 1%.Unique variants ranged 973–4,041, whereas 15,137 were common to all lines. The progeny lines primarily carried SNPs from a number of agronomically significant genes and QTLs, such as NOG1 (grain number), qSH1 and SH4 (seed shattering), GS2 (grain size), Hd1/Hd6 (heading date), Badh2 (aroma), Saltol (salt tolerance), and Sub1A (submergence tolerance), indicating successful introgression of trait-associated alleles. The transcription, transport, signal transduction, and carbohydrate/lipid metabolism pathways were shown to be enriched by Gene ontology and KEGG analysis. Low to moderate differentiation across lines was revealed by genome-wide Fst analysis (mean SNP Fst = 0.012; InDel Fst = 0.017), which reflected both parental contributions and new recombination patterns in progeny. These findings provide a thorough genetic resource for functional genomics and marker-assisted breeding in rice improvement.

Retrocopies are processed copies of other genes that originate through reverse transcription and are randomly integrated into the genome. Once considered genomic "junk," emerging evidence shows they contribute to novel gene evolution and may aid adaptation to environmental and lifestyle changes. However, the role of retrocopies in the emergence of virulence in Plasmodium parasites remains largely unexplored. This study systematically characterizes retrocopies across 23 Plasmodium pathogenic genomes to elucidate their evolutionary origins, functional relevance, and potential contributions to the emergence of virulence. Using a stringent computational framework, we identified 724 high-confidence retrocopies exhibiting canonical signatures of retroposition. Retrocopies are frequently intact, under purifying selection, and often display detectable apparent transcription during intraerythrocytic stages, with a subset showing FPKM values from RNA-seq data comparable to or exceeding those of their parental genes, particularly in PPIase, PIR, and actin-related families linked to host interaction and immune evasion. Domain, GO, and KEGG enrichment analyses indicate that retrocopies are preferentially associated with processes such as cytoadhesion, chromatin remodeling, stress response, and cytoskeletal organization, and that retroposition has contributed to the expansion and diversification of pathogenic gene families in a lineage and host-specific manner. Ancestral state reconstruction indicates episodic gains and losses of retrocopies, with notable expansions in primate-infecting lineages. The findings show retrocopies in Plasmodium are widespread, evolutionarily dynamic, and functionally associated with key virulence-associated pathways rather than representing inert genomic byproducts. This study highlights retroposition as an underappreciated mechanism contributing to genomic plasticity in malaria parasites and provides a framework for future functional investigations.

Abstract This article revisits Irawati Karve’s early scientific work in Berlin (1927–1931) to illuminate how her empirical refusal of Eugen Fischer’s racial-biological hypothesis constitutes a pivotal moment of epistemic disobedience within the institutional core of European scientific racism. By examining Karve’s doctoral research, her later anthropometric writings in India, and the contradictions of her caste and colonial positionality, the article argues for understanding decolonial pedagogy through ‘disciplinary dependence’, a framework that resists isolated disciplinary silos and instead cultivates relational, cross-disciplinary modes of knowing. Drawing on insights from decolonial theorists, critical pedagogy, and Indigenous epistemologies, the article shows how Karve’s methodological tensions can inform contemporary debates on decolonizing science, curriculum, and knowledge production. The concept of disciplinary dependence is proposed as a pedagogical approach to encourage ethical disobedience, epistemic plurality, and collaborative knowledge-making across scientific, social, and cultural boundaries.

ABSTRACT The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a fragile archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, designated as a UN-biodiversity hotspot. The islands host numerous species and Indigenous people, threatened by changing climate conditions and human-caused development initiatives. The present article seeks to examine the threatened indigeneity of the Indigenous communities, especially the Jarawas in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (A&N), contextualised in a study of Pankaj Sekhsaria's novel, The Last Wave: An Island Novel (2014) and a collection of non-fiction works, Islands in Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story (2017). While establishing Sekhsaria's texts as the basis for intervention, the article extends its arguments by situating the Jarawas within a broader sociological framework to emphasise the Indigenous community's precarious situation. The article highlights the value of acknowledging the Indigenous knowledge and practices of the Jarawas, which the settlers and the Jarawas’ conflicts imperil. Next, the article investigates the multifaceted effects of developmental efforts on the Jarawas, damaging their habitat. Finally, it addresses potential approaches to achieving sustainability in the A&N Islands, given the compromised state of the Jarawas and the wider island ecosystem.