‘Fair’ aint all that is ‘Lovely’!

The thought for this post sprung to mind after a free-wheeling chat on India’s rapidly degenerating TV scene, with Arun and Darshan, two fellow AIDers. Arun brought up what I deem to be among the most deplorable ads to have ever been aired on TV – the one of Fair and Lovely wherein it is [...]

A dazzling date with tigers!

In all the cities I have stayed in, put together, there are only a handful of places I’d want to visit time and again. The Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), situated on the outskirts of Bangalore, is one of them. I wouldn’t call myself a wildlife buff, but I’ve been drawn towards certain animals since time [...]

One of the most misinterpreted words

I’ve been increasingly coming across not-so-favorable views for a word, which has traditionally been deemed virtuous: charity, as in donations. The most commonly leveled charge finds charity unsustainable. The fact that many practice it for religious reasons, as opposed to a belief in justice/equality of opportunities, seems to trigger this negative bent of mind. In [...]

Make mine green!

” Only after the last tree has been cut off,
And the last river poisoned,
Will we realize that we can’t eat money.”
Tips for an environment-friendly living:

Shopping:

Buy locally made food and goods (opting against imported stuff & malls), to avert the hefty greenhouse emissions due to transportation.
Exception: The locally sold stuff that ain’t energy-efficient
Avoid packaged items wherever [...]

A gem of a cartoon: as witty as thought-provoking

Related facts:

The new small cars may be more efficient than before, but they all consume way too much road space (> 10 times what buses occupy, per passenger) to be able to satisfy our transport needs without painfully long gridlocks. Enlightening slides on traffic: stats, snaps & solutions.
Road widening only provides tiny, short-lived relief, [...]

Personal encounters with regionalism & communalism

For quite a few months, I have been urging fellow travelers in the (govt) buses not to play music aloud i.e. without using ear phones. The argument is plain and obvious – You have a right to pleasure, but not at the cost of others’ peace. Of course, I don’t convey it in such an [...]

An orphanage in need

Update: Moved to a new place in Ejipura (not far off National Games Village, Koramangala) itself: Ambedkar Educational Trust, No. 7, 6th Cross, R.A Road, Ejipura, Viveknagar Post, Bangalore- 47 [direction map]. The contact numbers remain unchanged.

A visit to any orphanage tends to evoke contrasting emotions: the joy of being around innocent, playful kids [...]

To Spectate or To Act?

Many of you would recognize this heart-wrenching photo taken during the Sudan famine in 1994. It won South African photojournalist Kelvin Carter the Pulitzer prize, a prestigious award in photography. Captured in the photo are a child crawling towards a UN food camp few kms away and a vulture waiting for the [...]

It aint quite a reverse sweep, Kevin!

Minutes before I began writing this post, I read on Cricinfo that the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodians of cricket’s laws, have given a nod of approval to Kevin Peterson’s switch-hit shots. Peterson had earlier defended his strokes in his typically bombastic style. He nonchalantly brushed aside the critics’ concerns by saying that the [...]

A photo essay on slum dwellers

A commendable job done by Senthil (an active AID volunteer) and co. in summarizing the perpetual agony of millions of Indians who leave their villages in the hope of finding better employment and get entrapped into what some of us call the “garbage areas” of the city – the urban slums. The essay also contains [...]

A Tale of Tuition Centers!

Ahmedabad ‘Chali’ Tution Center (ACTC)
This project took off sooner than envisaged. A free-of-cost tuition center for the not-so-privileged kids in Maninagar, Ahmedabad has now been operational since Jan end. Currently, we help kids from standard 5-7 with their difficulties in Maths, Science and English, 8 hours a week. We intend to commence exercises on “critical [...]

Sreeshanth: Supremely Competitive or Simply Disgraceful?

I have always cherished watching expressive characters in the cricket field. Indeed, they play a critical part in making the game as thrilling a spectacle as it is. I, for one, used to watch Shane Warne bowl as much for his twirling skills as for his histrionics involving mostly the batsmen and sometimes even the [...]

My Wedding: How, Why, Photos!

New: As pointed out by a few friends, along with many good things (detailed below), simple marriages entail a couple of problems: A) Loss of jobs for the poor, if the money saved by avoiding a grand wedding stays locked up in the bank B) It may get spent on environmentally unfriendly things like big, [...]

Our marriage celebrations

Every couple tying the knot wants their marriage to be memorable. This typically gives rise to ostentatious celebrations and towering expenses. Our way of making it special was a shade uncommon. It did involve money but for a different purpose. Our marriage celebrations consisted of a handful of donations. Nothing more, nothing less. [More on [...]

T20 Final: India against the Muslims of the World?!

After last year’s enthralling Twenty-20 cricket world cup finale, Ravi Shastri, the anchor at the presentation ceremony, asked the Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik to reflect on the game. Malik’s response began with a disgustingly ridiculous remark which I would go to the extent of describing as communal or even racist, given the context in which [...]

Turning today’s beggars into tomorrow’s bigshots

Not so long ago, you could have spotted some of the kids in this photo begging on the streets of Chennai. Now, they are found engrossed in shaping their self-reliant tomorrows, through Sirugu Montessori School. Sirugu is a free, residential school, started with the aim of imparting quality education to underprivileged kids (street children, children [...]

AID on the front page of newspaper Bangalore Mirror

[Click on the image to zoom.]
Excerpts from the article (Date: Nov 3, Newspaper: Bangalore Mirror):

Hefty pay packets, posh lifestyle, foreign projects, stylish flat, swanky cars…. Such goodies no longer attract these software geeks. What has caught their attention is the mounting agrarian crisis in the state.

AID Bangalore chapter is not an NGO. It is mainly [...]

This Diwali, let’s Measure the true Cost of Celebration!

Me and Dowry? Of Course Not… Unless Offered!

I and a couple of friends were engaged in what was intended to be nothing more than a chitchat when things stirred up. We were wondering away at some imminent wed locks when we digressed a shade onto the contentious dowry issue. We were ridiculing the outrageous amounts that some of our batch mates would [...]

A pain in the … back!

With this post, I am kicking off a new series (category) of posts in the blog, called health awareness. The posts in this category will be less in number and small in size. The idea is to share my (modest) experience/knowledge on some of the unheard or less-heard medical issues.
The motivation for the current post [...]

An interesting duo of geometric problems

Problem 1: Given a set of 2D points, find an efficient way of computing the least area rectangle that encloses them.
One (probably good) way of approaching this to stamp down on the data size by first showing that the least area enclosing rectangle of these points is the same as that of the convex [...]

Rewind to the biggest ever industrial disaster

Yes, I am referring to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (The image is of the morning after the dreaded gas leak), considered as the Hiroshima of chemical disasters, having taken about 20,000 lives till date and left more than 1,20,000 people with chronic ailments.
“But didn’t it happen 23 long years ago?” Yes.
“So, aren’t you a pessimist [...]

There is more to life than earning money!

It’s not been that long since I got involved with AID (Association for India’s Development)’s B’lore chapter but it’s already been an inspiring association for me. I have met a couple of people whose kind I had heard and read about (that too, once in a long while), but never got the privilege to see [...]

Curbing corruption: Can I do something?

I have been traveling to work in local government buses for the past few days. There is something that caught my attention. More than once, I got offered by the conductor/driver to travel by giving less than the amount stipulated by the government. The gain for the conductor/driver lied in the other side of the [...]

Sachin’s mirror says what a billion Indians never could!

Three years ago,
Sachin to an “honest” mirror: Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the best batsman of all?
Mirror: Brian Charles Lara
Now,
Sachin to the same mirror: Mirror mirror on the wall, should I retire?
Mirror: Yes!
Bemused as to what’s going on? Well, this is Ian Chappell’s way of showing Sachin Tendulkar the exit route from cricket. [...]

An under-used cricketing weapon

Any (Indian) kid in the street will tell you what length to bowl at the fag end of a one day innings. Full. Preferably, yorker length.
Yorkers, however, are not every bowler’s cup of tea. If you under pitch, you end up delivering a half volley which is easy meat for one and all. If you [...]

May be, the world’s not as sinister as we take it to be…

“He’s gotta be a scammer” is the first thought that crosses most human minds when they process “I lost all my money and luggage this morning at the railway station, please give me the money to buy the return tickets to my home town.” and mine was not entirely different. However, what transpired afterwards probably [...]