Society

Don't rush for credit, ask for cash too. Our birding group just got this pleading email: Hello,I am ___ , from ___ newspaper, I am looking for a photograph of Grey Hornbill, sighted in the City, supporting the news write up. If some one has one has one photograph, please do send with credentials. My deadline is 7pm. Please. My response to the egroup: This is going to be a very unpopular post in several circles, but I need to say it. Just a word to everyone that when I was getting articles published in your paper regularly, many years…

“Mahesh Sharma’s advisory for tourists: No short skirts, no travelling alone at night.” This headline has probably already made its way to your Facebook and Twitter feed and back again in the last 48 hours. It’s referring to comments made by Union Minister Mahesh Sharma during a press conference on Sunday at the popular tourist destination, Agra. Sharma warned female foreigners against wearing skirts or venturing “out alone at night in small cities” in India. His statement mimicked the existing sexist rhetoric rampant in international dialogues around crimes against women: It’s the woman’s fault. Her clothes were some sort of provocation. Why was…

“Mahesh Sharma’s advisory for tourists: No short skirts, no travelling alone at night.” This headline has probably already made its way to your Facebook and Twitter feed and back again in the last 48 hours. It’s referring to comments made by Union Minister Mahesh Sharma during a press conference on Sunday at the popular tourist destination, Agra. Sharma warned female foreigners against wearing skirts or venturing “out alone at night in small cities” in India. His statement mimicked the existing sexist rhetoric rampant in international dialogues around crimes against women: It’s the woman’s fault. Her clothes were some sort of provocation. Why was…

Sarjapura village/town, located in the south of Bangalore Urban District, has about 26 lakes in a radius of 7 km. Said to cover about 505 hectares, the largest lake is 271 acres big. If one looks at google maps though, one would find it difficult to find any water patches. Indeed, the lakes are currently bereft of water, but residents of the area have learnt, from local old-timers, that these lakes were full just a decade ago.       Inspired by the efforts of Bangaloreans to save their lakes, residents of Sarjapura, under Sarjapura Residents Welfare Association (Sarajapura.RWA), they have taken…

Sarjapura village/town, located in the south of Bangalore Urban District, has about 26 lakes in a radius of 7 km. Said to cover about 505 hectares, the largest lake is 271 acres big. If one looks at google maps though, one would find it difficult to find any water patches. Indeed, the lakes are currently bereft of water, but residents of the area have learnt, from local old-timers, that these lakes were full just a decade ago.       Inspired by the efforts of Bangaloreans to save their lakes, residents of Sarjapura, under Sarjapura Residents Welfare Association (Sarajapura.RWA), they have taken…

Recently, at my monthly quiz meet, I was intrigued by this "green" container for chai, from Chai Point.  The container seemed made of cardboard, an ecologically friendly material. But when I visited the website of Chai Point You can visit it here. I found that it was made of "food grade PET" - PET is polyethylene terephthalate, which is, in their own words, "use and throw".  Only  the outside cover is cardboard! Surely, using thermos flasks that were properly cleaned would have been a better solution, especially when we now have metal flasks which retain heat for a long time and are…

Recently, at my monthly quiz meet, I was intrigued by this "green" container for chai, from Chai Point.  The container seemed made of cardboard, an ecologically friendly material. But when I visited the website of Chai Point You can visit it here. I found that it was made of "food grade PET" - PET is polyethylene terephthalate, which is, in their own words, "use and throw".  Only  the outside cover is cardboard! Surely, using thermos flasks that were properly cleaned would have been a better solution, especially when we now have metal flasks which retain heat for a long time and are…

I am here to apologize to all the Indians, the Kannadigas I’ve met in the last three weeks. Immediately upon meeting you, you either spoke to me in English, with the assumption that of course I wouldn’t be familiar with your language. Or, you asked if I spoke Hindi, and when you learned I didn’t, you jumped right into English with no apparent judgement. India, I am grateful for your linguistic abilities and I am sorry for my linguistic limitations.   I studied French for several years, but I am only fluent in English. Meanwhile, every single person I’ve met…

I am here to apologize to all the Indians, the Kannadigas I’ve met in the last three weeks. Immediately upon meeting you, you either spoke to me in English, with the assumption that of course I wouldn’t be familiar with your language. Or, you asked if I spoke Hindi, and when you learned I didn’t, you jumped right into English with no apparent judgement. India, I am grateful for your linguistic abilities and I am sorry for my linguistic limitations.   I studied French for several years, but I am only fluent in English. Meanwhile, every single person I’ve met…

Once in a while, one is privileged to attend a concert that not many people seem to know about, Indian Institute of Managerment, Bangalore (IIMB) and The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY)  together organized a violin concert by Lalgudi Shri Krishnan,  accompanied on the mridangam by Shri K U Jayachandra Rau , and on the ghatam by Shri H Sivaramakrishnan. Opening with a varnam in Nalinakanti, followed by Dhenuka (Theliye ledu Rama) he went on to play Sri Rangapura Vihara in Brindavana Saranga,  Marukela Ra in Jayanthashri (Thyagagaja) followed.   The main…