GENRE: Features

In a city that suffers a relentless monsoon with lightless damp days followed by a fleeting winter which is now marked by grey smog, spring is precious. And spring too is fleeting.  Avenue trees all across the city begin to jewel themselves in a new flush of leaves; coppers, maroons and fluorescent greens. And soon after, the flowers follow;  yellows, reds and purples. With bees buzzing on the crowns of flowering trees and birdsong cutting through the ever present traffic soundscape of the city. Spring in Mumbai is an act of resistance. Overworked, under-rested and always in a hurry, the…

“Trams still run on 40 routes in Melbourne with millions of users,” says former tram conductor Roberto D'Andrea, who along with his fellow conductor Tony Graham travelled from Melbourne to Calcutta in February to promote the five-day Tramjatra festival. “It is not merely a heritage ride but used daily by commuters as part of the public transit system”. Calcutta is no Melbourne. But it can boast of two firsts: The first Indian city to build a metro line. And the only city to still have functional tram lines. The Calcutta metro of course gets all the attention and money. The…

Can you plan a trip to Iceland for me? Can you plan a vegetarian meal for a dinner party at my house tonight? How can I productively engage my six-year-old who likes art and craft. Can you explain to me Einstein’s theory of relativity? In the real world, no one person can answer such a diverse set of questions? But in the cyberworld, there is a new entity which can. It goes by the unusual name of Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer or ChatGPT with its unique ability to generate human like responses in record time. This new entity, unveiled in…

Sarani, The Whitefield Dance Collective, is made up of dancers (both professional and amateur) as well as people who believe that the arts are a great way to bring communities and their commonalities together. Since its inception in 2017, Sarani has steadily worked towards promoting the knowledge, appreciation, practice and performance of dance in the Greater Whitefield area. The movement had its roots in a fundraiser Samanvita, held in 2017, for the betterment of Government schools in Whitefield. When dancer Dipanjali Bedi was approached to perform for the event, she responded: “I look at this event as an opportunity to…

When her relationship began to disintegrate, Sara 38, withdrew from the world and began to suffer from backaches and vertigo. “Now, I tend to cry onto my pillow,” says Sara. “There is no point in sharing anything with the person who will merely blame me for everything.” In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of young and older adults knocking at the doors of psychologists and Happiness Coaches. And it is not just a big-city phenomenon. “I belong to Jaunpur, a small city in Uttar Pradesh, where I see people living in their shells,” says…

Citizens in Bengaluru are taking to the circular economy with thrifting, buying used or second hand goods instead of brand new ones. The underlying principle is to reuse and recycle what already exists rather than producing new products with more resources. Thrift stores are common in western countries, where they are seen as good sources of unique, vintage, and sometimes even valuable items no longer available in mainstream markets. The concept of thrifting or buying second-hand or pre-loved products is not entirely unheard of in India. Second hand book stores, for example, are quite common and often well loved in…

It is our social responsibility to build a community in which every individual plays an independent role in society. To achieve this, the focus should be on transformative and innovative solutions for inclusive development. Inclusivity is a major concern for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) all over the world, as well as in India. According to recent data, nearly 2.21% of the Indian population has some form of disability. However, there is a general lack of awareness about disability. The lack of accessibility infrastructure results in most PWDs in India struggling to live an independent life, unable to do things as…

The weekly used clothes market at Marol is perhaps one of Mumbai’s best hidden treasures. Tucked inside Andheri’s Marol dry fish market, old, used clothes arrive here from across the city, especially western suburbs. These are brought by vendors who go door-to-door collecting clothes and exchanging them for vessels. They are traditional recyclers - people carrying baskets of vessels on their heads and a bagful of clothes dangling down their shoulders. What’s on sale The mainstay of the market is used clothes, but now it has expanded to a wide range of paraphernalia including used shoes, bags and suitcases, electronic…

"I stay near Kapurbawdi, but travel to Kalyan, Bhiwandi or even Badlapur or Karjat for work", says Anil, a construction worker from Gulbarga, Karnataka. He's been a painter for the last 22 years. Anil is among hundreds of construction workers who gather at 7 am every morning at the labour naka (a stand or intersection of roads) at Kapurbawdi junction in Thane seeking work. The unskilled and semiskilled workers include masons, painters, plumbers, carpenters, tile polishers and loaders, among others. Mostly temporary or seasonal migrants from Maharashtra and surrounding states, they're informal workers who receive wages in exchange for short…

The lion safari in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) was always a major attraction since its inception in 1975. However, it was discontinued earlier this year due to old, ailing animals. Now, things are about to change. With the arrival of two lions from Gujarat, through an exchange programme, the safari is all set to reopen. After the death of 17-year-old Ravindra on October 17th and of 12-year-old Jespa recently due to old age ailments, there were no lions left at SGNP. Jespa breathed his last on 27th November 2022 within two days after the arrival of the new pair…