The idea of personal freedom is a one-sided belief. A situation of freedom to one person can seem like an unbearable bondage to another. Is it freedom then to be taken care of, or does freedom mean to be able to take care of oneself?How far does personal freedom go? Does personal freedom mean believing, doing, and saying whatever we wish to believe, do, or say, having no obligations to anyone?

Gandhi said “Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.”Does freedom come with responsibility then? Is freedom respect for human dignity, or love for life? What is freedom to you? And how precious is it? Let us know, Answerers.

Nida

Yahoo! Answers

Yahoo! Answers Team

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The Bhajji-Sreesanth episode has been spiraling off so much media coverage, that experts are betting on increased viewership. First, it was the face-off between Harbhajan and Andrew Symonds during the Test series in the land down under and this time, it’s a national controversy – slapping his team-mate and IPL rival, Sreesanth. Don’t you think IPL is taking over K serials and our life?

As Raj points out, is IPL an end to all other sports in India? Will cricket ever be the same again? What’s your opinion on IPL, Harbhajan and the cheerleaders’ controversy? Was the Bhajji-Sreesanth row a publicity gimmick, like many believe? Do you think Sreesanth and Symonds will become best buddies now, like it happens in Bollywood?

Where is cricket going with all this, Answerers?

Nida

Yahoo! Answers Team

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Like the year before last, this year too has been nothing short of an eventful year for Yahoo! India Answers. Check out what caught our fancy in 2007-2008. We’ve discussed everything that mattered to you, given our featured users a global soapbox, asked the planet, been a better community, raised not only self-awareness but awareness about everything under the sun and even discovered a few superstars along the way! And you know what the best thing about all this is? We did all this together as one people!

A huge thank you to each and every one of you who take the time to come on Answers everyday, ask questions, share your knowledge and expertise generously with the community and spread the light, but most of all, for making Answers, and us, a part of your life. To those of you who have been regular on Answers since the very beginning, thank you for choosing us, and to those of you that we've managed to win over along the way, stick around and let’s take Answers to new heights in the coming year!

Happy Answersversary, everyone!

Nida

Yahoo! Answers Team

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You would know that Earth Day is being celebrated all over the world today. Suddenly, people will wake up from their slumber of the last 364 days to shout slogans about saving the environment, greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion. But is it just about slogan shouting, or is there more at stake here? Why is it that we need to designate one day in a year to treat our planet with respect? Why can’t we do it all year round?

Recently at a party, I saw a beautiful lawn strewn with a lot of litter – plastic bottles, paper napkins, and other assorted trash after a night of revelry and excess, obviously. Is it time to introduce an anti-littering law in our country? In a land where people use public roads as personal spittoons, will this even work?

With every passing year, we’re finding out new ways of making our lives more comfortable. But what are we doing to protect our environment? What about educating younger generations on how cleanliness is next to Godliness? Are these sayings as passé as expecting Earth’s citizens to treat her with some respect?

Global warming or no global warming, don’t you think it’s time that we became accountable for all the trash we leave behind? What do you say, Answerers? What have you done lately to make every day Earth Day?

Suma

Yahoo! Answers Team

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Some like jayo88 may criticise the public’s fascination with celebrity culture as unhealthy and superficial. While the argument is that we may have become a very judgemental generation, who wouldn’t want to trade places with these celebs? They earn big bucks and they look stunning all the time, points out N!K! Which side of this argument would you take and why?

We have a love-hate relationship with public figures. The public's curiosity is insatiable, and often for good reason. Most superstars, be it sportsmen, actors or politicians, reach their demigod status because of public support. Many celebrities even seek media exposure in order to advance their careers, like Ally points out, revealing many aspects of their personal lives.

But do celebs really deserve this media and public scrutiny? Is someone’s break-up a fit subject for a news story? How would you feel if the spotlight were trained on you all the time? Aren’t these celebs entitled to privacy like we all are?

What do you think, Answerers?

Suma

Yahoo! Answers Team

Hi Answerers,

The Yahoo! Answers engineers are scheduled to perform regular maintenance on Monday, April 14, around 9.30 am. We expect the work to last about 2-3 hours and there will be a total outage on Yahoo! Answers during this time.

We apologise for the inconvenience. We’ll keep you posted if there are any changes to the schedule.

Update (@ 12.30 pm): We regret to inform that the downtime might last a couple of hours longer. We should be back up soon and we thank you all for your patience!

Update (@ 1.30 pm): And we're back up! Hurray!

Yahoo! Answers Team

For these students, an entire year’s hard work will finally pay off. Cracking these exams will buy a ticket into some of the finest colleges. For most, it’s in the same city; for the others, it’s a new life waiting in a different place. As many celebrate the freedom that the end of board exams bring, many others figure out what they want to do in life, both on a personal level and the much-hyped about professional level as well. Which has been the most harrowing exam you’ve faced so far?

Do you remember the feeling when you wrote the last exam of your student life? What experiences and preparation do exams bring with them? If given a choice, would you still want to face those last minute jitters? Do you still get exam hall nightmares like I do? How have exams altered your life, Answerers?

Nida

Yahoo! Answers Team

While we can grudgingly agree that Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai in their own way helped put India on the global map, what has stumped most people is the spillover of the wannabe Ash-Sush effect over the years. Every beauty queen says she wants to do something about poverty, children, AIDS and the lesser mortals of the world. How many of them really do it, though? This kind of answers might win them the crown, but then, what next? Don’t you think this in itself is a farce?

Most of these beauty queens go on to become actresses and don’t really keep up their promises of making a difference to this world. With the TRP ratings for these shows falling with every passing year, what purpose do these contests really serve, then, if not adding to an already under-talented and over-populated film industry?

Do these contests really bring out the beauty of a person? As Praxis questions, do these pageants do anything more than portray women as mere objects? Do you think we are pushing in an anorexia culture? Do such shows really bring forth women of substance, Answerers?

Nida

Yahoo! Answers Team

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