GENRE: Features

At the end of the Gandhi Mandapam road in Chennai, at the point where the road meets the Kotturpuram bridge over the Adyar river, is the Vinayaka temple. Locals say this was one of Amma’s favourites in the city. Her motorcade would often stop on its way back from Raj Bhavan or the airport towards Poes Garden at the exact point where Amma, seated in the passenger seat of her SUV, could get a glimpse of the deity. The temple was closed on Tuesday, and on the notice that talks of the closure, someone drew a pair of eyes with…

For most of us, typical cleaning sessions start with discarding our old and unwanted products from home. But what if you could convert old glass bottles to beautiful chandeliers or flower pots and jeans to bracelets? Would you still let go of it as easily? And what if I told you that by doing so, you would not only be honing your creative instincts but also doing a significant bit for the planet? This, in fact, is the very seed of what is one of the most eco-friendly trends in the city today, called Upcycling. In simplest terms, upcycling is…

  A red high heel, a tomato, a snake, a burger. Each of these emojis has a distinct meaning for the 'TrainSpotters,' a group of commuters who use instant messenger application, Telegram, to help each other pin down the location of Bengaluru-Hosur trains. Here's how it works: one among the 1,900 plus members types a symbol—the turtle emoji if they are waiting for the Kurla Express, for example— and sends it to the TrainSpotters group chat on Telegram. Either a bot fetches the information from the government-run rail website and posts it to the group, or another person who is…

We have almost grown used to it now: serpentine queues before ATMs, chaos in banks, the hapless senior citizen waiting on the pavement and praying that the bank dispenses some 100-rupee notes today, and even the strident urban supporter who thinks all the pain is for greater gain in the end. It has been two weeks since the decision to ban currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 in a purported drive against black money in the economy, but the implementation of the policy so far has left the ordinary citizen grappling with serious liquidity crunch. As problems due…

At Sabari Terrace, an apartment community with 56 flats off the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) in Sholinganallur, we took the first steps towards segregation around five years ago. It started with the creation of a few humble compost pits within our premises - cement rings resting on the ground - where we would dump all our garden waste to begin with. We approached the guru of vermicomposting, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Ismail, and under his guidance started the process of composting our garden waste. Gradually over the next few weeks, months and years, we started approaching the families in the community,…

Did you ever own small, bright coloured wooden toys?  Every child in Karnataka might have owned the toy once in their life, be it a wooden horse or little wooden figurines. Ever wondered what they are called? These dolls are called Channapatna toys that are manufactured in the town of Channapatna in the Bangalore Rural district of Karnataka state. These toys are made from organic colours. Listen to Narayanappa, who was branch manager of Cauvery emporium in MG Road, a local artisan, who talks about the making of the toys. The tree known as Hale mara (tinctoris tree) is used for…

Even as society struggles to break gender stereotypes and end physical and mental abuse of women, movies continue to be made with regressive plots involving the male lead winning over the female lead, through various forms of coercion including stalking. Remo, a movie that has hit the screens recently follows the same template where male lead Sivakarthikeyan stalks and wins over the female character played by Keerthi Suresh. The movie was boycotted by many people across the state for glorifying the act of stalking. While the Tamil film industry continues to produce movies such as Polladhavan, Padikkadhavan etc., that redeem…

Can government schools beat private schools in facilities? Yes, if there are people willing to lead a school in that direction. Head teachers in the schools are those who have such capacity. Here's a case of a school near Devanahalli's Kempegowda International Airport - Government Higher Primary School,  Hunasamaranahalli, Bangalore North - that got State Government's Model School Award in 2015. The head teacher got national award for best teacher in 2012. Padma Priya, a Radio Jockey at Radio Active 90.4 MHz, shares her memories of the school that she studied in, that has become a model now for other…

The Tree Lady, Nature Lover, Tree Evangelist... titles of eulogy sit lightly on Shobha Menon's shoulders. At first sight she gives away none of the tenacity and grit that has stood her in good stead in her determined fight to protect and increase the city's tree cover. The soft spoken Shobha chose to put the brakes on a long and successful stint in writing, to set up Nizhal (meaning shade in Tamil) in 2005. After a long (and often lonely) battle, she and her band of faithfuls can look back in happiness at the lovely Kotturpuram Tree Park, a 5-acre…

As a child growing up in the northern part of the country, Deepavali was a bit of a strange festival. We had to wake up at 4 am, have a bath (an oil bath!), wear our new clothes and burst crackers - at least one, said my grandmother - before the crack of dawn. And before we knew it, our Deepavali was over! And then the rest of the world started celebrating Diwali, and it went on and on and on. I clearly remember that our grandmother never let us go overboard with the crackers - she believed it was…