02 Feb 2006
· comment
My sympathies to all the big shot designers who lost there outlets and their high-profile 1MG Road address. Really, I know it hurts to loose something that you have paid for – even if you buy Liz Claiborne rip-off and get a good deal on it… a loss is a loss. Similarly…
My sympathies go out to all the villagers who have land adjacent to radial roads like the MG Road. The plan for making fancy air-conditioned malls will have to be shelved. Perhaps the rental and sale market will tank…
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07 Jan 2006
· travel
“So you were in Goa for New Year!” is the question I have been asked repeatedly over the last week or so. I guess it must be important to be there at that time, though I did not notice any change in the water, sand or sun – all of it was as pleasant as ever. To us that was all that really mattered.
I must mention, though, that the quality of service and food at the hotel we stayed in was not as good as it was on our previous visit (which was not on the ‘New Year’). This is, perhaps, attributable to the 100% occupancy the hotel witnesses at this time of the year – the extra 10 percentage point occupancy must make a much greater difference on quality than what a layperson like me believes. Or perhaps the hotel is more established now and doesn’t need to worry about quality any more! Either way, two days later, as the occupancy dropped to 93 per cent (according to hotel sources), the food quality gallopped upwards and waiters and attendants were always within whistling distance.
Continue reading →05 Dec 2005
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‘You can have any color Model T you want, as long as it is black’ is a famous Henry Ford quote from a long time ago. Or is it? No, no, it is still a Ford quote, but I am not sure if it is from a long time ago. That’s the way I felt when I was recently at a car dealer’s showroom. It not only felt like a million years away from the 21st century buzz word called ‘mass customization’ but I came back feeling that the company was out to make a sucker of me.
Continue reading →30 Nov 2005
· media
The ICT4All (Information and Communication Technologies) exhibition that accompanied the World Summit of Information Societies in Tunis, Tunisia was, in real terms, for all. From 15-19 November, 2005, exhibitors of all shades displaying a range of technologies and solutions that could be called ‘liberating’. Consider telemedicine, community radio, playground computers etc. And then there were the usual suspects like Microsoft, Intel, and CISCO occupying center-stage with space commensurate with their financial muscle. The visitors too displayed the spirit of ICT4All, ranging from ministers and heads of states, to opinion leaders and NGOs from across the world, all the way to pure brochure hunters. (I have always wondered what they do with all the brochures they collect. Though one mystery has been solved, they put the visiting cards to good use. Ever since I have returned from Tunisia I have started receiving endless email offers to work with some relative of a deposed dictator to collect untold millions. They believe we will still fall for it.)The ‘digital divide’ has not yet been bridged: ‘empowerment’, ‘liberation’, ‘education’, ‘health’ for all, and ‘gender equality’ are issues, to name just some, that still haunt civil society. But it appears that a concerted effort is being made. Being at the Summit and the exhibition, I was left with no doubt that this is so. This is perhaps the first time in the history of the world that the buzz words have a ring of equality, development and empowerment around them – from open source, to blogs, to the digital divide…
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25 Nov 2005
· travel
A good traveler has an open mind. And if not, then good travel jolts him or her out of the habit of falling in for the stereotype and see things as they really are and not as locals in either country would have one believe.
My recent trip to Tunisia made me into a bit better traveler, or so I’d like to believe. I went in with an image of ‘Arab Africa’ accompanied with a baggage of stereotype. Not that I have any problem with an Arab Africa (if there is such a thing) it is just that the phrase conjures up images which may or may not exist. They certainly did not exist in Tunisia.
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24 Nov 2005
· travel
Some more pictures from my Tunisia trip.
Old houses in Tunis, Tunisia Click on any image to view an enlarged image gallery
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29 Sep 2005
· travel
M iddle-age has its symptoms. In my case, I sense an old flame flaring up. My passion for travel, especially to the mountains, is getting a fresh supply of oxygen with each passing year. Every experience leaves me craving for more: a more exotic and a more adventurous fix. Best of all, instead of threatening my marital life, mountains help us spend time together away from the constantly ringing phones, endless homework, and the relentless tube.
Continue reading →08 Aug 2005
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Who will teach the teachers to see the hunger for learning in these bright sparks?
“I am not sure, what is it that I want to do when I grow up… I don’t know… maybe I’ll get a job of some sort… or may be I will drive the camel cart, like my father… I am not sure at all, but I am not thinking about it…” As his voice died out, 10-year-old Ratan turned his spectacularly bright eyes to the ground. It hurt to hear the despair in his voice. I guess I’d be equally worried if he had said that he wanted to grow up and be an astronaut. But that would have been a worry mixed with hope rather than despair. Ratan lives in a small village called Sankhda, about 80 kilometers from the small touristy town of Jaisalmer, in Rajasthan. Here, people have lived for generations with very little water, surrounded as they are with sand dunes, and miles of barren land punctuated by occasional patches of fields irrigated by ground water.
Continue reading →21 Sep 2002
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I was born a Hindu, and had no choice in the matter. As an adult I have had no doubt in my mind that to me, personally, god, idols,temples or pilgrimages have no meaning at all. Yet, I have never refused to go to a temple or participate in a ‘puja’ along with my family, mainly because I believe that religion serves a purpose, it gives meaning, hope and direction to the lives of a lot of people and I should not do anything to take this away from them.
Continue reading →06 Nov 1998
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A review of “Impressions of Bhima”
Directed by Veenapani Chawla At British Council Division
It’s been almost ten years since Veenapani Chawla attended Eugenio Barba’s theatre laboratory. Ten years, two substantial productions and a few small pieces for local audiences in Pondicherry, where she now lives. Not much, one could assume, for the quiet girl whose passion for theatre first began while doing backstage work in college productions in Delhi’s Miranda House.
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