BOOKS

Where is the world's highest motorable road? And the nectar of seabuckthorn (better known as Leh berry)? In Leh, Ladakh, obviously! As many of us know, recently, terrible landslides and flash floods devastated this exotic part of India. Some of us have heard, seen and read heart rending accounts of the resulting death and destruction. And probably want to reach out to the people there. Feeling the same, a group of five friends in Bangalore, namely, Manjari Ranasaria, Christina Daniels,  Lakshmi Karanth, Swathi Chaturvedi and Mayur Jain pondered about various ways to do that. Not wanting to ask people for…

Where is the world's highest motorable road? And the nectar of seabuckthorn (better known as Leh berry)? In Leh, Ladakh, obviously! As many of us know, recently, terrible landslides and flash floods devastated this exotic part of India. Some of us have heard, seen and read heart rending accounts of the resulting death and destruction. And probably want to reach out to the people there. Feeling the same, a group of five friends in Bangalore, namely, Manjari Ranasaria, Christina Daniels,  Lakshmi Karanth, Swathi Chaturvedi and Mayur Jain pondered about various ways to do that. Not wanting to ask people for…

Lakhs of students, millions of books, thousands of trees! It’s that time of the year again. All parents are busy collecting books from schools and covering them in brown paper sheets. They are busy shopping for school supplies. New uniforms, new bags, new tiffin sets. Why? If last year’s set is in good shape, why buy again? The schools expect every student to buy books from them, often at a marked-up price. They also make it compulsory to buy brown paper sheets, often plastic coated and notebook labels. What’s the use of covering notebooks? If the idea is to reduce…

Lakhs of students, millions of books, thousands of trees! It’s that time of the year again. All parents are busy collecting books from schools and covering them in brown paper sheets. They are busy shopping for school supplies. New uniforms, new bags, new tiffin sets. Why? If last year’s set is in good shape, why buy again? The schools expect every student to buy books from them, often at a marked-up price. They also make it compulsory to buy brown paper sheets, often plastic coated and notebook labels. What’s the use of covering notebooks? If the idea is to reduce…