Wednesday 30 April 2008

A suggestion from Sapgreen

For example, residents of Gokulam 3rd stage could form a community and decide to plant trees on a certain date. From our side, we could provide an online forum for the community as well as arranging for planting and maintenance of the trees. An offline community also needs to be in place for better participation. . .More. . .

Bringing home the sparrows

Hundreds of residents in this 22 sq km area (skirted by the Outer Ring Road from Marathahalli till the suspension bridge, past the ITPL, down Hope Farm and along Airport-Varthur Road) have already begun to participate. . .More. . .

'Studying' Squirrels

They were spirited little things, scampering about the backyard with such enthusiasm, that they invoked the same in me. In the sultry afternoons, when everyone slumbered, they would play peek-a-boo in the garden,. . .More. . .

Media insensitivity

Journalists are given to adopting such clinical attitude to human tragedy , in their eagerness to get a good lead. I wonder if we react the same way, if the victims included our kith and kin.. . .More. . .

Black swallowtail-er

The nursery sales guy was explaining to me the plants which require minimal maintenance and easy to grow. And this butterfly kept diverting my attention. . .More. .. .

About that multi-million slap

Both Harbhajan and Sreesanth would be immortalized, with the former as the conferrer and the later as the recipient of the most high-priced slap. Harbhajan was auctioned for a whopping $8,50,000 (approximately Rs 3.4 crore), the buyer being Reliance Industries. . .More. . .

From Ooty, unwinding in sizzling Chennai

Since in my family its considered uncivilized to do anything in a sedate sanitized manner, as many people as possible will fit into any car going anywhere. Which meant that 7 of us were traveling around the city on a hot day in a small car including one very small hyperactive child. . .More. . .

Tuesday 29 April 2008

Khelo aur Jhelo

Even though she has clearly said in the interview, that she is going to harness the emotional quotient by depicting the relationship between sportsmen and their in-laws, the media is speculating that this could be about Noshanth, Jlo and her prospective in-laws. . .More. . .

Stressed and tech-driven

If I had planned for 10 things, and I could do only 7, I am no longer upset or disappointed. What should matter is that I could do 7 things much better than if I had done all 10 things, hurriedly. . .More. . .

A poonal in the family

Eleven-year-old Boston schoolboy, Tarun, came here from cool climes, and surrendered himself to the two day ceremony without a whisper of complaint. The heat was enough to send even hard core Madras-vasis into irritation mode. So hot, that mamis attending the function had foregone the mandatory Kanjeevaram silks, and settled for lighter substitutes. . .More. . .

Monday 28 April 2008

Olavipe blooms


Karthik's three-act farce

The introductions happen – the saint is Sirbhajan Singh (recently got Knighted by the Board for Corruption Creators in India) and the lanky guy is Resanth (he reinvented himself after coming to the Indian team!). . .More. . .

Touching tale

I remembered an anecdote (what else) which I had found touching (touching the funny bone, that is) and I wrote it as a comment. Then I thought, what the hell, it is long enough to be a post. So here it is. . .More. . .

Ugadi plants – three weeks on

The park has been dug up right through, awaiting pipe-laying and water connection that has to be given from an adjacent park. The contractor who did that job is said to be holding back, presumably, because MUDA has yet to settle his bills. . .More. . .

Sunday 27 April 2008

Reporting the neighbourhood

The girls who are attending our annual Journalism Camp for senior school students opted for a field assignment and since a majority of them are from the Adyar region, we opted to start from the church and end in the kuppam area further north. . .More. . .

Abraham gets nostalgic

When I returned to the hotel in the evening my client was playing snooker with an American he had befriended – the Chief Officer of a ship that was in the port. I announced the arrival of my first child and the three of us went over to Casino for dinner . . .More. . .

Rupee value of happiness

Mysore hotelier, Mr P V .Giri, once said observing the way in which construction workers lived and worked. In a moving lorry laden with “jalli” (gravel), Mr Giri observed, a coolie could have sound sleep, unmindful of the sharp edges of the gravel. . .More. . .

Saturday 26 April 2008

Karthik's fund-raiser

Accounting for Non-Accountants. Priced at $2, you can download it as an ebook. http://www.lulu.com/content/1812867 All proceeds from the book go to the blind relief fund and towards my idea of the quiz for AIDS and blind. . .More. . .

Great, but real thing looks better

Simply put, one synthetic tree could absorb 1000 times more carbon dioxide than a living tree. Won’t a forest look better? . . .More. . .

A tree message

Save trees; tree saves.

Subanna: A dishes-to-riches story

Subbanna returned to Bombay when the Kuwait war broke out. He set up his own company which takes Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC) for maintenance of lifts of high raise buildings. . .More. . .

Pastels for Summer

Tiny zinnia seedlings have gone into flower beds, but may never live to grow and bloom, as caterpillar-s are eating them up. . .More. . .

Green-card holder in the poll fray

Maybe there is nothing in our electoral law that says he can’t contest election. The issue is whether Mr Gowda would serve the best interests of his voters; whether he would be available for them whenever he is needed in the constituency. . .More. . .

The Congress vote seekers

They had no answer for any of my questions. However, an exasperated old woman in the group requested me to vote for their candidate since all of them gave me a patient hearing while I was asking them questions!!. . .More. . .

Friday 25 April 2008

The run on rice

Filipinos, Latinos and Indians started to rapidly buy the rice bags off the shelves in the US market. Yesterday, even mainstream US TV, after the Pennsylvania presidential primaries of Tuesday had been done with, was interviewing Indian shop owners!!. . .More. . .

Dr.Anand on flower thieves

What is wrong if I pluck flowers when I am offering the same to God? – He asks me! I never knew that God loves stolen flowers more than those that were grown by the devotee. . .More...

Anup takes delivery of his aircraft

I was presented with a Sheep Skin jacket with the Mustang logo and serial number of my Aircraft embossed on it. It's so heavy that it felt like I was wearing the whole sheep, not just the jacket. I'd cook in Singapore if I wore the jacket but it will come in handy when I go across the pond. . .More. . .

Thursday 24 April 2008

Dancing girls of Olavipe

The Latin name is oncidium splendidum. It is also called Golden Shower orchid. What we have at Olavipe is yellow. The sprays of yellow and brown flowers are small and give an image of dancing girls in skirts. . .More. . .

Wednesday 23 April 2008

RC's green thoughts

It's simple, just ride a special type of tricycle to a local water source, fill water to a small tank in the back of the tricycle. Pedal back home and by the time you reach home, you get a tank of 20 gallons of filtered water and also in the process you didn’t add any pollutants or toxins to the atmosphere. . .More. . .

Gillian's button-phobia

The news also quotes the girl saying “I have always been fearful of buttons, especially when they are grouped together……… For me touching a button would be like touching a cockroach. It feels dirty, nasty and wrong. When I was younger my brother used to tease me by opening my mum's button tin. I hide in my bedroom until he put them away”. . .More. . .

Naren on a Shenoy wedding

A second class compartment of the Indian Railways is about smells. There are good smells, bad smells, interesting smells, boring smells and the Unique Smell of The Train. In the twenty four hours that it took to get to Bangalore, we had a fair sampling of all of them. . .More. . .

Tuesday 22 April 2008

The face of happiness

How many are truly happy and content with the money and material they earn. There is something beyond the rush for money that actually makes us happy. For achieving that state of happiness we need to train our mind a bit and mold our way of thinking. . .More. . .

Nampoothiris

Eight years back a committee of fifteen acharayas was formed by the Yogakshema Sabha Vidika Parishad to look into the problem. After in-depth studies and intense debates this peer group modified and codified the traditional practices and rituals of the community. . .More. . .

Monday 21 April 2008

The choices women make

When my sis and I were growing up, the kitchen clearly seemed to be the arch-enemy of self-respecting women. . , ,Life is funny, I tell you. Ten years ago, I would have laughed at the very thought of cooking. Today, I'm watching Kylie Kwong's magic cooking on TV with my daughter.. ..More. . .

Why abolish an icon

After all, the Nepal King has always been regarded as a national icon, regarded by various Nepalese citizens as a quintessential part of the Nepalese nationality and culture (like what the British monarchy is for the UK). . .More. . .

Grow-with-trees drive among school kids

Every child that starts his/her schooling at A G Vidyalaya - from LKG or Std. I - should be encouraged by the school authorities to plant a sapling, so that children can see themselves growing with their trees. They could plant the saplings on the school premises or at their own backyards. . .More. . .

Sunday 20 April 2008

Aalok's GD/PI for b-school entry

There were two groups with ten candidates each. I was with panel 2 consisting of two friendly looking gentlemen, referred here forth as P1 and P2, who introduced themselves as professors of Operations Management and Organisational Behaviour respectively. . .More. . .

A tea garden tale

The next day, Bawarchi went about looking less grumpy than usual. His sudden cheeriness made me stop and ask him about the bad egg. Had he managed to get a fresh one in its place? . . . .More. . .

Shenoy could get verse

So one fine day she ate him -
A pity! But that's his fate.
How sad to be remembered
As the poet Laurie ate. . . .More. . .

Anil gets his site right

From the day I quit my job I have been dreaming about staying away from computers and getting close to nature. Well everything went as planned. But there was one small thing we didn't consider in the initial stage of planning. Yes, it was the website for our company...More...

Saturday 19 April 2008

Clothesline satyagraha

Not, perhaps, in the same league as Gandhiji’s Dandi March, but a ‘satyagrah’ it is nonetheless, to assert citizens’ right to do their own thing with their laundary, within the confines of their own homes. Their fight for the ‘right to dry’ their laundary is no small matter,. . .More. . .

A Lalbagh in Chennai ?

Woodlands Drive-in, located in the wooded, 320 grounds on Cathedral Road off Gemini Circle had to close down last week after the state won a legal case and can now take charge of this prime land worth Rs.1000 crores. . .More. . .

The 29-point Indrani

Point- 6) Favorite sounds?
My daughters’ laughter.
22) One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?
Lakshmi’s innocence and her ability to appreciate the little treasures of nature… I also love the way she welds her pen. . .More. . .

Friday 18 April 2008

Raji has line trouble, again.

The person assured me that the problem would be resolved at the earliest in 48 hours. I was confused – 48 hours is earliest? He explained to me patiently that the technical side did not work on Sundays, and hence 48 hours, otherwise it would be solved in 24 hours. . .Such was 24x7 service of a major brand company. . .More. . .

Filing US tax returns

I went back and forth, getting into discussions with like-minded, not fully informed gentlemen, individuals, who had as much proficiency in accountancy and related information as I have, in say, Carnatic music. . .More. . .

A Mumbai weekend

MSRTC had realised that most of the weekend travellers are IT professionals who do not bat an eyelid before throwing away a couple of hundred bucks and the number & frequency of AC buses had been increased, not to mention the increased fares. So the situation now is that you can get an AC bus within 15 minutes . . .More. . .

Sapgreen update

After a few days of lull in our outdoor activities, we plan to plant some more trees this Sunday. A few people now understand the concept of trees as commemorative gifts and hence this activity. . . .More. . .

Have you seen the torch in Delhi ?

What was the elaborate bandobust in aid of? To show the world (through TV cameras) that India is willing to drop everything to protect a torch, which is, at the most, a symbol? The third, and parallel rally of the day, was of course the media tamasha. Photojournalists and reporters are running frantically. . .More. . .

A forum of love

In my village, Olavipe, there is an exclusive club where I am not yet eligible to join - Sneha Sadasse (Forum of Love). Only people of the village who have attained the age of 75 and their spouses can become members. . .More. . .

Where pawnbrokers score over banks

I had occasion, and this was a decade back, to observe credit habit of tea-estate workers at Valparai in Coimbatore district of Tamilnadu. I was struck by the number of pawnbrokers in this taluk town. I counted at least six within a kilometer stretch on the main street. . .More. . .

A bride-in-waiting

Spot the bride-to-be in this picture. And to know what she is upto these days....Read. . .

Thursday 17 April 2008

More on the Ugadi saplings

Was a bit worried when I saw some of the saplings shed off their leaves completely. But, today morning when I went to the place, I saw... many of the saplings which were looking dead had new leaf buds such as these in the picture. . .More. . .

The caste wall

The news was about a wall constructed in the Dare village in the Satara district of the western Indian state of Maharashtra. So what is so special about the wall? Well, it was constructed by the upper caste villagers to restrict the Dalits or lower caste villagers from accessing the community hall. . . .More. . .

The torn earlobe and the horse trader

Here my friends is another pearl from Malabar history – the story of how a scorned Malayali changed the course of history, starting from a lowly position as the son of a trader Chetty in Calicut, then to a lofty position as the Zamorin’s envoy to Lisbon,. . .More. . .

Wednesday 16 April 2008

Naren gets married....

It is customary to "see the girl" prior to getting married. This is actually an euphemism. You meet your prospective bride in the presence of so many senior citizens equipped with x-ray vision that about 90 percent of your attention is on what the hell have you missed? . . .More. . .

Trip to Mekedatu

When it comes to outings such as this, arguably the best guides are the bloggers' accounts. There are quite a few, and from them we got a fair idea of what awaited us. . .More. . .

Painted Storks at Kaggaladu

So last Sunday we left for Kaggaladu which is 130 kilometers from Bangalore. Getting out of Bangalore was difficult, the usual traffic jams. Once out of the Bangalore city limits the drive was smooth. It is a straight drive on NH-4 till Sira and then a diversion to Kaggaladu . . .More. . .

Verbal Slips...

Someone again has become a feed for an unfortunate verbal stumble. Barack Obama's name has been mauled many a times in the past, ever since he started his sprint for 2008 White House run. In 2007, CNN confuses Obama for Osama. ..More..

Lakshmi's favourites

What book are you reading?
Currently, it’s a 905 page ‘Complete guide to Karnataka CET and comed-K—Mathematics.” See? You’re swooning already.
Favorite board game?
Sequence.
Favorite magazine?
Don’t oogle…but it’s been Tinkle since 7 years.

How are Ugadi saplings doing ?

Those of us who share Anil-Ashwin’s concern for tree-plants would appreciate a feedback on a regular basis. Such connectivity, particularly for a green-delivery start-up that seeks public and government partnership, is good for business. . .More. . .

A Reddy Story

A leader whose loyalty was suspect got marginalized. This seems to have been the case with Mr Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. He was A P chief minister twice, AICC president, Lok Sabha Speaker, and the President. Yet Mr Reddy, in death, didn’t get the recognition he deserved from the ruling establishment of the day. . .More. . .

Tuesday 15 April 2008

Taming technology

Kudos to Shumeet Baluja, Research Scientist and their team at Google. They are taming the technology to work for humanity and not against it. I have always believed that every technology was developed with all good intentions until it got into the wrong hands. . .More. . .

Shenoy's favourite smell and sound


Smells: An omelet cooking, the wife (anyone else too, for that matter) wearing Nina Ricci, rain on hot mud.
Favorite sounds: Mom singing one of her Kannada Bhajans, younger son singing rap, elder son playing blues on the piano, missus calling out "Naren" angrily. . .More. . .

Road rage claims a life in Kasauli

An Indian Air Force pilot, who had dreamt of sacrificing his life in battle, had to lose his life as a result of shocking road rage, when he was fatally stabbed by a lawyer during an argument over a petty issue, parking of cars. . .More. . .

Of Light and Shade

When tea is grown in the plains, shade trees are planted to regulate temperatures to around 25 degrees C - the optimum temperature for the tea bush. A first time visitor to a tea garden always asks how trees managed to pop up in the middle of all the tea!. . .More. . .

Monday 14 April 2008

How she learnt to stay ahead

Bullies at that age, ripped off her hearing aid, put mud on it and threw it away. The child couldn’t learn much from her unhelpful teacher. Their class teacher often openly told ‘I will recommend you to a deaf and Dumb school.’...More...

Sunday 13 April 2008

Understanding rain gods

The Southwest Monsoon will be upon us next month. Delhi is baking-hot right now (88 °F / 31 °C), but the blessed rains will bring cheer to everyone, especially farmers and traders. The Southwest monsoon represents more than 80% of India's annual rainfall...More...

Gangamritham


This is the name of our music group. We are made up of a motley group of housewives, ages ranging 40 to 60 plus, and Ganga is our guru, hence the name.Yesterday we gave our second public performance . . .More. . .

Ammu aahia naan

The characters are so different from people one meets generally in real life, that one can't quite accept the story. Would this be how a girl would feel in these circumstances?Ammu is an orphan growing up in a brothel.Her emotional life evolves in stages. . .More. . .

The magic of hing

I still recall Rama Iyer from Thekke Gramam (South Village), the wizened old Ambi (Palghat Brahmin), no shirt, bent over from arthritis, wearing a discolored single dhoti floating high above his ankles, walking from his agraharam to the post office in Pallavur, umbrella in one hand and the yellow LG bag . . .More.. .

Identity crisis

The underlying motive of many of our actions have some link to our perception of our identity. There is conflict when the perception -- of our own and that of others -- clash. . .More. . .

Friday 11 April 2008

MEG's Sapper caste

It is incredible how Hindu, Muslim and Christian Sappers worked and lived together eating food from the same cauldron. One instance mentioned in the book is how a Muslim, Abdul Karim, officiated as company pundit in the absence of Krishnaswamy, the regular one. . .More. . .

A Tryst with Coorg

Once you learn to ignore the heat and bad roads, Coorg unfolds it’s infinite splendor before your eyes. Stretches of untamed forests, wild elephants, silent water pools hidden behind a thick shield of trees…there is so much to discover, and it tempts you to brave an adventure. . .More. . .

Plants trees for a living

They ask me "How do you make a living by planting trees?". I say "No one really knows, so I am finding it out so that more people can make a living by planting trees and thereby plant more trees". What is more? The job involves business, engineering and a lot of science as well. . .More. .. .

Thursday 10 April 2008

To boycott or not ?

This question is being tossed around and every world leader and even local politicians are now forced to voice their opinion. Oh what a dilemma! Tibet has taken the right opportunity to voice their frustrations; no doubt. . .More. . .

Shani Shinganapur

The common belief is that all efforts to build a temple around it have been in vain. People who tried to build a structure around it got dreams and visions with messages like, ‘I don’t need shelter and do not want to live in any body’s insignia of royalty.”. . .More. . .

Shenoy on his crushes

H, 10th grade class mate. Modelled closely on the lines of an ironing board, H was crushed upon because of her fair skin and light eyes. My little crush was finished when I undertook to explain to her a sonnet (Shakespeare's Let me not to the marriage of true minds....) . . .More. . .

Cricket as mega-buck business

Cricket industry (zero-sportsmanship venture) has evidently stretched India’s economic liberalization to ludicrous lengths. We have DLF-IPL flogging 20/20 matches as entertainment product sold to cricket consumers by the seat – costing anything between Rs.200 to Rs.5,000 per fixture in Chennai. . .More. . .

Desi in US is the hyphen

The Kannada poet and academic at the University of Chicago, the late A K Ramanujan had said quite some time back that he saw himself as the hyphen between Indian-American. His life and values had been shaped by his Indian heritage; his skills and academic rigour had been enriched by his American training. He had benefited by both sides of the hyphen. . .More. . .

Wednesday 9 April 2008

A haunting movie

The idea of the appearance of the real ghost, in place of the person who was supposed to ‘act’ as the ghost of the murdered actress to frighten the villain, was lifted straight from that golden oldie ‘Madhumati’. . .More. . .

What makes her classy

Before I bring up some of the answers we found, I have to say I reserve the right to be politically incorrect and as biased as I want to be on my blog. We know that good taste shouldn't be defined by someone; people shouldn't be slotted into categories or classes,. . .More. . .

Tuesday 8 April 2008

A play on the 'common man'

The plot of the story would flow for a while and then it stops abruptly in the midway. Then the audience is asked to weave its viewpoints to end the chronicle. Opinions are then stitched to end the story, after which the actors complete the ending as given to them by the audience. . .More. . .

CEO, the youngest...

Meet the youngest CEO of the world as the media calls him.... Suhas Gopinath.. Born 1986) is an Indian enterprenuer. He is the founder, CEO, and President of Globals Inc, an IT company...More...

Snake Shyam talks tree-care

Snake Shyam buttonholed a bunch of neighbourhood boys on their way to play cricket at a Vijaynagar park to give them a pep talk on tree-care. He then asked each one of them to plant a sapling, all around their makeshift pitch. The boys who probably expected this guy to pull out a python from his bag might have been a bit disappointed seeing Shyam minus snake...More...

Monday 7 April 2008

Potato (mish)mash

Prices have crashed, and no one wants any of this year's crop. The problem is aggravated by the absence of sufficient storage facilities, or of organised agro-marketing. We saw this dismal looking group waiting for a pick-up truck.. .More. . .

Unaccustomed Earth

I had no idea about Jhumpa Lahiri's latest release until I got many of those promotional mails from Barnes and Noble, Borders and Amazon offering an attractive discount. It was a perfect way to start the month. . .More. . .

Gagan's take on Sapgreen inaugural

The speeches were over, and everyone was holding a sapling in their hands and heading towards the pit. I and my friend Karthik carried a neem sapling and headed towards and pit and planted it.. . .More . ..

Sunday 6 April 2008

Sapgreen sets up shop

Its founders – Anil Kumar and Ashwin Upadhyaya - are self-confessed greenhorns who have the backing and goodwill of the Friends of Roadside Trees (FORT), a bloggers group, and a bunch of green-minded college students. It is a club-up of a civic initiative of public-spirited residents with a local business venture, in an effort to green Mysore. . .More. . .

Jeeves and the Idiot Box

They say the world is flat, sir", said Jeeves, as I sipped the old Brandy and S. This remark was in response to my question as to where we should spend the winter. The rising euro had knocked a hole into the Wooster finances which, in a fit of misplaced enthusiasm I had transfered into dollars ...More....

After Christian Studies, what ?

What kind of jobs can we get if we attend a course in Christian Studies?This is a question Fr. Patrick has to respond to when young people pose it when he talks to them about his department.This priest is one of the lecturers at the Department for Christian Studies. . .More. . .

Saturday 5 April 2008

April love

Mithoo, the Mali, scattered some of these seeds around, and behold, what emerged was this striking flower, almost a Tudor Rose of a lily, combining red and white so perfectly !...More...

The Staffie Oatie

Apparently some Colonel (now why is it that Colonel’s always end up with the recipes? Like our KFC Chicken colonel?...)from the Staffordshire regiment based in Madras in 19th century brought home the idea. His blokes liked Dosa very much and came back to try out all the combinations...More...

Italians prefer soccer to sex, really ?

The problem is that all these surveys and studies sound very conclusive, there is a ring of certainty at least for a casual reader - very much like the astrological predictions column...More...

Friday 4 April 2008

Compelled to blog, a compelling read

...a word about my pathological need for chipping in with anecdotes....I feel compelled, every now and then, to narrate an incident from my past...It is usually boring, often pointless and almost always jazzed up. After I've said it or posted it, I feel like an ass, but the next minuteI'm ready with another one...More...

Nomophobia

Actually this article: Nomophobia is the latest stress: Study amused me. Nomophobia: the fear of being out of mobile contact. NO MObile PHOBIA is termed as NOMOPHOBIA. This new phobia is sweeping across the continents of the world like plague. . .More. . .

Lakshmi hits 50

My blog keeps reminding me of all the fun I had in second PU and the way I was thinking at that point of time. My brain tends to be volatile, sometimes immature, sometimes strangely vague and clouded, I cannot define it. My blogs help me to go back and see the way I am growing up as they mirror my thoughts...More...

A Jalpaiguri peepul


More pictures...

Of club dance/dinner in Pondy

Though neither of us danced, Babuji and I used to go regularly to listen to the music and watch the others dance. One couple used to do the rock and roll so well that all the other dancers would move back and give them the whole floor.. . .More. . .

Thursday 3 April 2008

Krishna Vattam's Mission Karanji

I went to the zoo the other day on a search mission; to locate a mango I had planted by the Karanji Lake some 22 years back... While the others planted whatever sapling that was handed down to them by zoo officials, I was choosy about mango...More...

Raji's schoolday Olympics

Despite the very Thamizh name, the monument looks rather like a Greek edifice. She selected students to play a high priestess and satellite priestesses, all dressed in white robes. The high priestess had to light the lamp and hand it over to one of the athletes, after singing a song which went,...More...

Indrani, chasing butterfly

I spotted this beautiful butterfly while waiting outside my daughters’ drawing class. It was flying on one side of the road one minute and the next minute it was on the other side of the road. ..More...

Fight for water...

I hear that there are MNC’s buying lakes so that they can use it for bottling water. I don’t know if lakes and rivers can be owned. But all I know is that we are not giving water its due respect.. .More...

Wednesday 2 April 2008

Raji's three-hour eternity, off-Net

No luck. And after what I consider a great patient wait of three hours, I call the toll free number again. This time it is another fresh voiced person, and we go through the same rigmarole till we come to the how-may-he-help-me part... More...

Do we have any answer to this?

People who dig up pavement don’t realize they have a civic obligation to clean up the mess they create. This applies to government departments, private contractors, and even residents.. .The land, left unused for long, presumably, because of a dispute, has become a soft spot for use as public landfill. .More. . .

Kalyani's stray thoughts

People of all ages and classes make contact with babies and little children, whatever may be the background of their families, rich or poor, North or South Indian. Why do the barriers grow as we age? What do we fear when we see another human being?. . .More. . .

Abraham's mango recipe

Thera is produced by spreading (by hand) several layers of mango pulp thinly on mats made from kaitha (pandanus or screw pine) leaves, and then sun drying it. This can also be done on muram, an almost flat grain winnowing pallet woven from bamboo strips, or panampu (bamboo mat). . .More.. .

Tuesday 1 April 2008

SJCE, through Gagan's view finder


A convocation trip

Sometimes a long trip can leave you feeling jaded more than refreshed. When its not just a holiday. This was a landmark journey. For Darshini's convocation.Though, as she is quick to point out I ended up taking more pics of her friend whose parents hadn't come and only a couple of her's. . .More. . .

'Happy Ugadi’; Say it with saplings

A Vijaynagar park, euphemism for an open space that doubles up as makeshift pitch for our budding Javagal Srinaths, would see some saplings planted this Ugadi (April 7). That is how Anil and Ashwin plan to mark the opening of their tree-plant company. . .More....

A. N. Chaturvedi - In Memoriam

He was too unwell to read it and the book is still with me. It will remain with me for ever. Whenever I read it, I will remember you, uncle. And I will wish I could have discussed it with you. Rest in peace. You were one of a kind and it is my good fortune that I knew you...More...