An afternoon of food, books and friends.

I am part of a Facebook group of bibliophiles. When I saw a post a week ago, about plans for a get together, I had mixed thoughts running through my mind.

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Names of cities haven't changed

From November 1, Bangalore is written in all English communication as Bengaluru. I doubt, how right it's to say that the names of the cities have changed.  ... More

Successful Mars mission and unsuccessful earthly missions

The nation erupted in joy yesterday as India's Mars Orbitor Mission decelerated to the right extent to descend to the Martian orbit. But the spectacular achievement of our scientists also elicited some cynical comments. If they space mission succeeded, there are reasons; if our earthly missions have failed, there are reasons for it. More

Rape fallout - fear, suspicion, loss of innocence

The assaults on girls and women are leading to serious personal and social issues in families. More 

When All India Radio delayed its news bulletins

Thirty years ago, a number of Indians tuned into All India Radio at 8 pm to listen to a special address to the nation by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. But for reasons that were not known then, it was delayed. The most popular 8.45 pm Hindi news and 9 pm English news were also put off - most unusually. Only the next day, we all got to know Mrs Gandhi addressed the nation the previous night.
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Gmail at it again -- with Shelfie

It's tailor-made for Gmail to pull it off on April 1. That is the day when the service was launched as a beta release in 2004. So, when Gmail tells you that on their birthday, they have something new on offer, it's quite natural for anyone to be taken in, unless of course, you remember what Google had been up to the previous year or years. .... More

Newspaper seen as credible source of information

Those days there were no apps, mobiles, computers, internet or 24x7 news coverage.  After getting to know very briefly about news developments on All India Radio or Doordarshan, we had to wait for the next day's newspaper to know the details.

Cut to the present. The widespread belief is that fewer and fewer people are interested in reading the newspaper. But it may be too early to write their obituary. More