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Building a Giant Lie
February 5: The earthquake that struck Gujarat, one of India’s most prosperous states, will go down as among the worst since India gained independence. Both in terms of the numbers of people killed (about 50,000 are feared dead) and the scale of destruction wrought, it has few contemporary parallels. The images of prosperity in cities such as Ahmedabad have been reduced to the symbols of a wasteland – rubble, dust, twisted steel and wire. Building a Giant Lie [Illustration by Shinod A P] A real tragedy, say many of us, but follow it up with a resigned look and statement about the “fury of natural disasters”....
Riding into a Promising Future
October 28: In Gujarat last year, thousands of girls who passed out of primary school, were given unique gifts by the Gujarat government: bicycles to ride to secondary schools. The gifts are not meant to reward the girls for passing their examinations. They are recognised as the only way for these girls to pursue higher education in secondary school, usually situated far away from their homes. The scheme is the brainchild of the Minister of Other Backward Castes, Gabhaji Thakore....
Worming into the Olympics
The organisers of the 2000 Sydney Olympics are very serious about projecting the Olympics as an eco-friendly event. So the Olympics village in Sydney, where the athletes are living, is entirely solar-powered. But the organisers haven’t stopped at that. They’re ensuring that even the garbage generated by people at the Olympics is eco-friendly. For this, they’ve enlisted the help of the humble earthworm — three varieties of the earthworm, in fact. Thousands of these worms cluster behind eating areas at the Olympics....
The Long and Short of It
November 4: In a throwback to the age of British rule, constables of the Indian police force in a few districts of Andhra Pradesh, might go back to wearing knickers. No, it’s not nostalgia for the uniforms of the colonial period. Neither is it a matter of airing the legs in the intense Andhra heat. It appears that the state police force is short of uniform cloth to make trousers for the constables. The constables are not happy at this turn of events....
Hi-tech Schools
Where: Guizhou province, China July 15, 2000: This face appeared in the Wall Street Journal, a business newspaper in the US. What is so great about this face that it was written about in a newspaper. The face belongs to Bi-Jiangang, a 36-year-old man, who has brought about a huge change in the school system in China. He has started a school, called the Qiannan Computer School, which teaches computer skills to poor teenagers of the Guizhou province....
The Lake and the Birds
Where: Himachal Pradesh, India March 8, 2001: The picturesque Pong Dam lake region in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, is losing its lustre. A great deal of its charm has lain in the fact that it is north India’s largest refuge for migrating birds escaping harsh winters abroad. But not for long, if recent trends are any indication. A low water level in the lake this year has forced the migratory birds to fly away one month in advance, says a report in The Indian Express....
In Shakespearean Settings!
April 21: Nearly 400 years ago, the brilliant English dramatist William Shakespeare, wrote Macbeth, the story of a Scottish general who kills his monarch, King Duncan, and slowly becomes mad. The play is based on the life of a real 11th century general. It is universally accepted as a great tragedy, and is one of Shakespeare’s best plays. It appears that all the ingredients of another bloody Shakespearean tragedy are brewing among Macbeth’s modern-day descendents. The ingredients include an ancient castle in the Scottish Highlands, sinister curses and a family feud, writes a...
Truant Teachers
July 31: Think of a school or college where classes are not held everyday. Sounds like a dream school or college? But, a dream college like this is also a place where students don’t really learn much. The reason is very simple. Their teachers don’t have the time to teach them. The Delhi University is such a place. Where teachers make a habit of not attending classes. Naturally, their students also do the same. Truant Teachers [Illustration by Shiju George] But, it’s not only the teachers and their students who shirk work....
Killing them Surely
Where: Surat, Gujarat, India November 4, 2000: When a member of the Parsi community dies, according to their religion, the body is not buried or consigned to flames. It is placed in the “Tower of Silence” for the scavenger birds or vultures to feed on them so that even in death the body is of use. In Surat, Gujarat, till a few years ago, the body would be eaten up in no time in the Tower of Silence or the Dhokma as it is locally called....
The Famous Five
Meet the “Famous Five” — Arjun Bansal, Vijay Kumar, Shruti Chandrsekhar, Arvind Thiagarajan and Sundeep Venkataraman. These five teenagers have just got jobs in the Research & Development wing of the India branch of Lucent Technologies — the famous American company. The teenagers were handed offers of employment in the company recently. They can join the company as soon as they complete their graduation. The Famous Five [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] But first, they had to score the highest marks in a test done to discover the “best and brightest minds” in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad....