Our real heroes

What is lacking is the initiative of citizens to improve the greenary in the City.'Salumarada Thimmakka' showed what one person could do to bring an awarenes which created a revolution of sorts...There have been individuals who have planted saplings on roadside in their area and devote time to take care of them.They are our real heroes; they need to be saluted...More...

Deepa at Kinari Bazar

I am constantly amazed by the Indian fondness for kitschy, shiny stuff. There is not a single part of India where your senses are not overwhelmed by colour and tinsel...More.

FORT-Mysore - a green blog

FORT stands for Friends Of Roadside Trees. This is about taking care of trees in our neighbourhood; about celebrating life by planting on vacant public space...View blog...

Fascination for the radio

My earliest memories record a Made-in-England 8-band Bush radio, a gift from a family friend. Almost fifty years later it remains a working model...More...

Reflections

I have been inculcated with the typical Indian middle class values, so it is not easy to lose track of the fact that one wrong move can hurt you and everyone around you. So, people around you look upon you to make the decisions, let alone the right ones...More...

High heeled shoes to up women’s libido!

Read an interesting (read nonsensical) piece of Research result, in New Indian express, Bangalore Edition(Feb 7), found out by the Italian scientists. I call it ‘junk research’ as the results of such researches do more harm than good to woman-kind!...More...

Marina Beach: How do we make it ours?

Elliots Beach and the Marina should be a hot spot of activities for children this summer. You need to pop up ideas and let them fly on the sands for children. Games, sand works, sculptures and snacks!...More...

Mona Lisa smile

Julia Roberts becomes a lecturer in Wellesley college, a college for girls which follows a lot of traditions - the main one being that it prepares them for marriage...More...

Frozen in Mumbai

I'm a great believer in intuition and personal insight. My intuition and personal insight is that the temperature in Mumbai is -27 degrees. I know, I know, the thermometer says 9.6 Celsius but I think it is a great imperialist plot to lull the Indian public into a false sense of security...More...

Britney Spears, Bipolar Disorder

We all experience mood swings on and off. More so the teenagers with the onset of puberty and hormonal changes and changing expectations from parents, teachers, peer group etc. But these swings become a psychological disorder when the moods swing on and off...More...

Mahesh Yogi and the Beatles

Several reporters, including many representing the British media, descended on Rishikesh, a sleepy pilgrim town in North India peopled by saintly souls and yogis on a renunciation mode...More...

A Place in the Sun

Poet Adil Jussawalla's tribute to his father...More...

Vattam's encounter with the collector

One day as I was settling down behind some shrubs the district collector, returning home after morning stroll, along with his wife, spotted me . He stopped, picked up a stone, and flung it at me...More...

AIR's signature tune

I have no doubts that some of you, once upon a long time ago, listening to the radio at the break of dawn, have heard this tune. It was a time when the lady of the house would be up, starting up the activities at home...More...

Papaya, the health fruit

This tropical fruit combines great taste and several medicinal properties. Christopher Columbus is said to have called it ‘fruit of the angels’...More...

Leander Paes, the Indian Hero

It is difficult to say where Leander Adrian Paes would stand if one tries to rank all the top Indian tennis players in history. But one thing is certain – Indian tennis never had an icon like him. He is the hero...More...

I wish...

Let me believe in re-birth. Only this will comfort me at the moment. What else can I say after reading the headlines of today's newspapers..Saudi woman strip-searched for having coffee with a man...Read...

Celebrate life; sponsor a sapling

The idea is to encourage people to celebrate special events in their lives by sponsoring a sapling to be planted at the open space near P K Sanatorium. I nicked the sponsorship idea from Mrs Janet Yegneswaran who runs the Tree-for-free trust in Bangalore...More...

ERR on his smoking doc.

Once I went to him with heavy cold and sour throat, he said, between puffs: ‘Salt water gargle thrice a day with this medicine and no smoking till this stops!’ I asked him, ‘How come you are smoking doctor?! ’Quick came the repartee, ‘Who is having problem? You or me?’...More...

A Thousand Splendid Suns

The scenario is so bleak and the story so sad that you wonder where the thousand suns are shining. The miserable lives, women in Afghanistan have been forced to lead during the political turmoil of the last 50 years...More...

Big game hunting

The pre-Independence issues of The Illustrated Weekly of India invariably carried photographs like the one here. Usually the hunter would wait on a machan (a high platform on a tree) with a small animal tied below to entice tigers. Or a team of drummers would ‘beat the forest’ to drive the target animal towards the hunter...More...

British Council library, Trivandrum

Since no one is ready to let the library go, the idea now is for the Kerala government to take over its management. The BL has agreed to hand over the books and other facilities to the government...More...

Baghdad bombings and the Down's Syndrome

The two suicide bombers were girls with Down’s syndrome! and a person with Down’s syndrome does not have normal intellectual capacity and he/she is a mentally challenged person. How can such a person willingly give consent to be a suicide bomber? Surely, the girls here must have been tricked into it!...More...

At the Lalbagh lake

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Spit and be fined

Shortly, our Conservancy Inspectors will be busy looking at street corners too. Once the city Corporation gives them the authority to fine people for spitting, answering Nature's call and dumping waste.They are going to have fun locating offenders...More...

Best moment of the day

Mothers - some in their nighties, some in crumpled sarees, some in old salwars - a bag in one hand, a little hand in the other, stand at the bus stop and breathe fully.
It is a look of satisfaction on their faces...More...

20/20: A clueless Dhoni

Dhoni was clueless from the beginning of the match to its miserable end for India. At least when early wickets fell he should have stepped in and taken charge. Instead he went in at No.6 and slipped into Test match opening mode...More...

Shenoy's take on b-school education

The purpose behind going to a B-school is not to land a high paying job. It is to land a high paying job with no duties and responsibilities. Alas, there are not enough of these around, and the competition for them can be intense. One of the major factors that employers consider when making such preferments is which B-school you went to...More...

The kidney that traveled…

...demand for kidneys is far outrunning supply around the world. If people could legally sell, economists argue, more people with kidney disease might be saved, and the poor people willing to sell would have a chance to get badly needed funds...More...

Krishna Vattam on the stir over a book

If only they (protestors) had gone through the book , they would have seen that their Leader, whom, they feel, was being pilloried by Mr Viswanath, was, in fact, glorified...We act impulsively, not realising that all of us are endowed with thinking faculties...More...