PEOPLE

Chennai is fighting the worst rain in a hundred years and the floods are causing unimaginable devastation and tragedy. Many are watching the tragedy and the fightback live on television and internet and wondering how they can help. The Centre has sent the army and naval forces for rescue work. All modes of travel to the city have been shut down. Event as the Met Department has warned of more rains for next four days, reservoirs are overflowing and the deluge is likely to increase. This tragedy has brought out most unlikely scenes, thus proving once again that humanity is…

Pic courtesy: Facebook page of Akkai Padmashali Akkai Padmashali is a male-to-female trans-woman and gender activist. Her journey is one of courage and determination. In November 2015, Akkai became the first transgender to be awarded the Rajyotsava Award, the second highest civilian honor presented by the Karnataka State government for her work. Here are the edited excerpts of her interview with Radio Active CR 90.4 MHz. So, Akkai, can you tell us something about yourself? Akkai is just a normal simple human being. I was born a boy, but at the age of seven or eight, I felt a transformation…

The wise woman at Lalbagh. Pic: Ashok Kumar S This happened one sunny Saturday afternoon in Lalbagh. It was all green everywhere. Trees swayed all around me, a gentle breeze blew, birds chirped, squirrels ran down trees and grasshoppers hopped on the green grass. I saw an old woman squatting down on a less-walked road in the park, plastic cover in hand, looking down at something. At first, I thought she was picking up tamarind, as there are a number of tamarind trees in the garden. I tilted my head and looked above to check if there was a tamarind…

For part 1 of the series, click here: How C V Raman came to Bangalore. For part 2, click here: The Raman effect on IISc C V Raman with his Nobel prize. Pic courtesy: Raman Research Institute While still serving as a professor at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Raman had planned for a private institute where he could carry out research work on subjects that interested him personally, without having to go through a long and tedious procedure of getting approvals from a complex bureaucratic system at IISc. He had saved a considerable amount of money for this purpose…

In late September, a young woman from Bengaluru woke up in the wee hours of the night with a rumbling stomach. As she munched away to fill her stomach, she thought of the many people in the city who probably went to sleep on an empty stomach. Thus began Feed Your Neighbour (FYN), a campaign started by Mahita Fernandez, a young entrepreneur, to eradicate Bengaluru’s hunger. For those who are still in the dark about the initiative, here’s a quick introduction. FYN calls for Bengalureans to cook five additional meals at their home between October 12th and 22nd, and drop…

What will it take to accept people for who they are? Image Courtesy: www.facebook.com/TRRAIN Have you ever noticed how we Indians tend to accuse everyone else of being racist while conveniently ignoring our very own narrow-mindedness? As a true-blue Kannadiga, the most obvious form of racism that I see, is in the insult, “Ay, AK nan magane!”, where AK is short for 'Adi-Kannadiga'. Adi-Kannadigas, for those of you not in the know, are the original inhabitants of this state. Thanks to the urbanisation of the other castes, they are considered less sophisticated. Hence, the insult. We begin with the TV…

Jörn Rhode, German Consul General, Anne-Katrin Fenk, MOD Institute, Rachel Lee, MOD Institute, Habitat Unit @ TU Berlin and Madhavi Desai, CEPT University, Ahmedabad at the launch of OK India. Pic: MOD Institute In early September 2015, MOD Institute, an urban action and research institute based in Berlin and Bengaluru, and the German Consulate General Bengaluru, released the book, Otto Koenigsberger: Architecture and Urban Visions in INDIA. The books traces German architect Otto Koenigsberger’s time in India, and how his planning and design concepts continue to be relevant for urban development in India even today. Koenigsberger in India Story has…

“This Dusshera, my aim is to try and ease Bangalore’s hunger problem.” So begins Mahita Fernandez’ post on the Facebook group “Feed Your Neighbour”. Pic: facebook.com/groups/421419554714295 The idea for the initiative, Feed Your Neighbour (FYN), came to Mahita in the wee hours of a night when she woke up hungry. She says, “I woke up with a rumbling stomach around 3 am and felt thankful that I had food to eat. I then thought about the thousands in the city who are probably hungry and have nothing to eat. The very next morning, I put down the idea on paper…

Dr Rupa Chanda, Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, has been nominated to the WHO’s International Health Regulations (IHR) 2016 Review Committee, which has been set up by the Director General of the WHO, Geneva. The Committee has been appointed with the task of reviewing the International Health Regulations (2005) with a view towards strengthening global health security. The Committee will provide its inputs and recommendations to the World Health Assembly in May 2016.  About Professor Rupa Chanda Professor Rupa Chanda. Pic courtesy: Apoorva.N, Gutenberg Communications Professor Rupa Chanda has been with IIMB since 1997. Prior to joining…

It was camp-fire time at Naamadachilume, near Tumkur, Karnataka, school year 1972-73. All manner of sharing, singing, joking, and so on was going on. The Scout Master said, “I know students call me Dappa Ravay (V)unday. I think it is because I am a very sweet person.” In those few seconds, we realized that famous “fortune” line that would appear, decades later, on my Unix terminal: “Remember that secret you had? It isn’t!” DR Vijayendra Rao aka DRV, from a family photograph. Pic: DV Prahlad Generations of students (about 5 or 6 only, at the time) had called him that.…