01 May 2006
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Yes, that is what experts suggest – children should sleep for at least nine hours each night. A good way to know that your kids are getting enough sleep is to check if they get up refreshed in the morning, with little or no cajoling. They however may not be getting enough sleep if they sleep in class, are irritable, display low energy through the day, avoid physical activity, and display lack of concentration. Of course these symptoms do not necessarily indicate lack of sleep, however lack of sleep ‘can’ cause these symptoms.
Continue reading →30 Mar 2006
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The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a suit against Kellogg and Viacom for marketing unhealthy foods to kids. [Read SpongeBob SquarePants, Health Risk in ‘The Nation’]
What about parents? Do they have a role to play in deciding what their children will consume, and how much of it? Or is it ok for them too be too busy providing for the family to worry about what is it that they are providing? How many kids do you know who eat mountains of chips, drink buckets of soda, and are married to their screens – TV, PC, PSP, Gameboy…
Continue reading →26 Mar 2006
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‘My father is a thief’ read the tattoo on the arm of a child in the 1980s hit Bollywood film Deewar. In genuine Bollywood tradition, the child grows up to become Big B and then the obvious happens.
Imagine tattooing that message for hundreds of years, generation after generation, on millions of children. No, this is not a Deewar sequel, nor is it a plot of some xenophobic fiction. Tens of millions of children have suffered this fate in India, starting sometime in 1871. Unfortunately, Big B never turns up in real life. Sure, there have been heroes who have made a difference – we’ll come to that in a moment – but first the background.
Continue reading →27 Feb 2006
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Google’s submission to Chinese censorship rules is perhaps more significant than Yahoo, or Microsoft’s submission, mainly because Google has, over the years, become ubiquitous to search. More importantly, Google’s submission invites concern because many people see Google to be this ultimate poster boy of free speech – irrespective of whether they are aware of Google’s official policy of ‘don’t be evil’.
Google has responded to large-scale media criticism by saying, that this move will eventually expand access. At their Official Blog they say “Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world’s population, however, does so far more severely.”
Continue reading →02 Feb 2006
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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…
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 →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.
Continue reading →27 Nov 1997
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The history and practise of the Indian martial art Kalarippayattu
Dawn. Outside, a cool “half-light” heralds the ritual of prayer, as temple bells wake a sleeping village. Inside, however, the flickers of light from a solitary oil lamp light up red earthen walls and the mud-packed floor under an ageing thatched roof — mute witnesses to the ritual of combat.
Surrounded by the silent aura of warm red earth, two glistening, oil-soaked bodies come forward slowly, like leopards about to attack. Bare, but for a tightly wrapped loin-cloth, their lithe bodies ripple like a coiled serpent waiting to unleash its power. As the two coils of energy meet in the centre of the room, they crouch down to give a low salute, slow and dance-like in its elegance, breathtaking in its beauty. With a gentle touching of arms, they return to their crouch; feet set firmly on the ground, thighs forming a rock-stable square with the earth, and hands clenched tight and drawn up together under the chin. As their arms circle their heads, one “sees” the centring of energy, the coiling of the serpent, as it were. The movement complete, the “serpent” stands coiled and ready, waiting to spring forward and unleash its deadly power.
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