21 Jul 2006 · travel
A two and a half hour flight followed by a one hour helicopter ride, leading on to 17 hours in a taxi, is a long way off from Delhi. And here I am sitting by a mist-covered lake at an altitude of over 4,000 meters and talking to Ling Tung Tsiring who lives here and tends to ‘Chomus’. Click on any image to view an enlarged image gallery
Continue reading →08 Jul 2006 · media
I’ve spent the better part of this week wandering around in the alphabet-strewn, bits and bytes world of IT, software, hardware, all the stuff that techie geeks do sitting in front of a computer screen. It’s part of work, and I need to understand what’s happening in the Indian IT industry, what’s the buzz, or rather, where’s the buzz. So, here I am, low-tech, no-tech, floating around in blogs and websites, looking at mainstream news channels, obscure blog entries, babudom press releases, the works.
Continue reading →08 Jul 2006 · travel
It’s list time. School circulars are in, and we now know well and good that we can take off for another trek in September. So, I begin my lists. A list of people who can join us for the trek. A list of people who are likely to bum out. A list of clothes to be packed. A list of medicines. A list of books to be carried, and just to be safe, another list of books to be actually read. A list of cameras and stuff to be carried. A list of food to be packed. And finally, that mother of all lists, a list of lists to be made before we take even the first step out of the house.
Continue reading →08 Jul 2006 · comment
I like people, suspect technology. If I pick up the phone, I’d prefer talking to an inept operator than an efficient machine. Till a year ago, if I wanted a train ticket, I’d prefer wading through the mass of humanity straggling outside the booking counter than “outsourcing” the task to a travel agent. I’ve been accused of enjoying this particular form of torture. And it’s probably true. I mean, what can be so uplifting about standing around for two hours in a line of sweaty, irritable people all waiting for the booking clerk to get his act together?
Continue reading →06 Jul 2006 · comment
How do films get rated nowadays? The new and “improved” Superman is just out and everyone is making a beeline to see it. Especially kids. All hell broke loose when my six-year-old daughter Damini discovered that my son Siddharth had gone off to see the film with a friend of his. More importantly, without her. He sauntered back and informed me that I would be crazy to take her for the film. It is VIOLENT, he stressed, speaking out each syllable slowly as if I was some dim-witted creature. More tantrums. My daughter wailed, “He’s saying that because he doesn’t want me to go.”
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26 Jun 2006 · travel
It’s freezing cold when we leave Losar. The guest house chowkidar tells us the temperature at night is normally sub-zero. So, on that cheerful note, we leave behind Losar’s square white houses, their roofs trimmed with firewood, their windows framed in black paint or tar, and a satellite dish and a solar panel practically on every roof. Cut off from the rest of the world for six months of the year, when the passes freeze up, this dish is what links them to the outside world.
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21 Jun 2006 · travel
Spiti has been hovering in our travel consciousness for a while now. We’ve been hovering near Spiti too, but somehow we’ve never quite made it. Last year we reached as close as Kalpa, about 12 kilometres up from Rekong Peo in Kinnaur. Instead of heading further north, we had to turn back. A landslide in Malling, combined with my daughter’s clogged nose pretty much put an end to that trip. So, we came back to hot and dry Delhi, and to make up went on a quick-zip trip to Chopta, recommended by some friends who make an annual pilgrimage to the place.
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19 Jun 2006 · travel
Seven adults, five kids take a trek to Beas Kund, moving away from the trodden path and opting instead for a route that is spectacular, challenging, and at times, downright tricky. The oldest beyond 40; the youngest a little over 6. On our trekking holiday in Manali, we were joined by our friends, their friends, and two trekking titans. The result: a life-changing, mind-bending, muscle-opening experience that every one is just waiting to revisit.
Continue reading →04 May 2006 · comment
“So now we are outsourcing the jobs of lab animals to India? I shudder to think what the ‘No Indian testing’ label will be in Europe…" reads a post by nizo at [] at slashdot. An anonymous post at the same site reads, “Are you kidding? The unemployment rate for lab rats will skyrocket! How are the poor rats supposed to feed their kids? Won’t somebody think of the rat children?” Given the poor regulation systems, low levels of literacy, proclivity to accept free medicines (rather than buying them) and an almost blind and unquestioning faith in doctor ‘sahib’, this new industry poses some very tricky ‘challenges’ for the regulators, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, hospitals and research organizations. It is not difficult to replace the word ‘challenges’ with ‘opportunities’ if you are part of those organizations or ‘disasters waiting to happen’ if you are part of the thinking civil society.
Continue reading →03 May 2006 · comment
Beautiful women, designer clothes, opulent settings, flashy cars and celebrity film stars come together to make a very heady cocktail. Way more seductive than the story of some poor cotton farmer. For the producers as well as the consumers of media, sex and money always triumphs over almost everything else. Karan Johar, Shobha De and TOI rule! Is it any surprise, then, that skimpily clad women walking the ramps of the Lakme India Fashion Week were all over the media - in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and on the internet. You could not have missed, nor the Sensex hitting 11,000 mark. However, you were very likely to have missed the news of the 400th farmer committing suicide in Vidarbha (in the western Indian state of Maharashtra) which happened during the same week as these other two events. According to the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, there have been more than 450 suicides among farmers since June 2005.
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