GENRE: Features

What you see in the picture above is not just a classroom. This houses an entire school from first grade to seventh grade with 27 students right in the heart of Mysuru city. A few years back this government school had over 300 students. Since 2005 Pratham’s Annual Survey of Education reports (ASER) have been showing dreadful learning performance of our future generation every year. Every one knows that the emperor has no clothes, but we are not ready to implement the needed reforms. India's education sector, for all practical purposes, has collapsed. Ironically, at a time when we want…

Are incinerators and waste to energy plants the solution to the city's mounting landfills? How are tenders for solid waste management issued by the Corporation? Can informal waste workers be integrated into the waste ecosystem? These were some of the pressing concerns at the centre of deliberations at a public meeting for solid waste management and the way forward, organised by city-based think tank Citizen, consumer and civic Action Group (CAG). Harsh realities on ground Speakers at the meeting highlighted the invisible ground realities of waste management that the general public are oblivious to. M Radhakrishnan of social service organization…

The scenic Pallikaranai Main Road with patches of greenery and occasional glimpses of migratory birds in winter would have been a treat for the passer by, but for the unbearable stench. The smell of rotten biodegradable waste and  noxious fumes from burning of plastic waste assail your senses every time you hit the road. A few metres from the marshland, a Chennai Corporation maintained earth mover dumps the mixed waste on to it. The wetlands of Pallikaranai were brought under the reserved region by the state government 10 years ago and are now under the jurisdiction of the forest department.…

“If these machines had been brought in before, my children’s papa would not have left them. Now they are not of any use to me, but they will at least be useful for other women. Their men will not die in the sewers. No one should have to suffer the way I do.” So saying, a visibly distressed Rani Kumari became silent. When I first met Rani late last year, she was sitting on the steps at a conference venue in Delhi, where she had come for an event organised by the Safai Karamchari Andolan, a nationwide movement to eradicate…

“When a 70 year old person is able to fill a pothole in hours, why is the government failing, especially when they spend hundreds of crores of rupees on other issues?” asks Gangadhara Tilak Katnam. “How is the helmet going to help when there is a pothole,” he wonders. It has been nine years and counting since January 2011. At the last count on January 3 2019, 1359 potholes have been filled. “I used to keep a tally in my diary, but then my son helped me feed it on to social media, and that recording continues,” he says. Clearly,…

The safety helmet for two-wheeler drivers has become a bone of contention between resistant citizens and firm authorities in two cities this year - Puducherry and Pune. It is compulsory for two-wheeler riders to wear safety helmets under Section 129 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. The rule also says that a helmet should have a thickness of 20-25 mm, with quality foam. It should also have an ISI mark and follow the Bureau of Indian Standards. Yet, the resistance against safety headgear has always been high. Gangotri from Save Life Foundation clarifies that the rule for pillion riders varies from state to…

After having lived in Delhi through the seventies for over a decade, every short trip I make to Delhi is one of a sense of loss. I do not recognize the Delhi that I grew up in anymore. With the exploding boundaries, the flyovers that dwarf the city, the mindboggling traffic and the crowds, and of course the smog, the pollution, I have stopped relating to the city that I loved so much. As I made a brief two-day visit to the city, I decided to recapture the magic, the stunning royal walk from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Much…

There appears to be a temporary calm in the north-eastern states, now that the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 has lapsed with the Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die on February 13th. Yet, tension in these states go deeper than the reported protests and violence that occurred over the proposed amendments in the above law. In fact, while the Citizenship Amendment Bill brought the fault lines in the focus of national attention, there are other deep-rooted issues, other laws that are still fuelling ethnic conflict in the region. Whatever motivated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Prime…

The plastic ban that has been in the news since its implementation on January 1, is now losing steam in Tamil Nadu. Retailers and vendors across the city have been using plastic secretly, in fear of losing regular customers. Several bars maintained by the state government (TASMAC) are openly allowing plastic. “If I don’t give out a plastic cover, customers don’t buy flowers. Who would spend Rs 3 on a cloth bag for wrapping up flowers worth Rs 10 or Rs 15?” asks Vanavani, a flower vendor at Mambalam market. There is little awareness about the ban in rural parts…

Hamlet. Angada. One an immortal character from the tragedies of William Shakespeare, and another from Valmiki’s Ramayana. Hamlet sought revenge upon his uncle Claudius, but Angada, son of Vali, was a loyal nephew to Sugriva. Imagine both characters on the same stage, conversing about their experiences. The essence of the characters does not change, even though the plot does. The play Hamlet & Angad, scripted by Thomas Manuel and produced by the group Crea-Shakthi, epitomises the changing times in Chennai’s theatre setting. Mythology has been used in theatre since time immemorial. Epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata, and historical novels…