PEOPLE

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam October 15th 1931 - July 27th 2015 Pic: Wikimedia Commons Yesterday, India lost a kindred soul, scientist and former President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. News reports say that he suffered a massive cardiac arrest, when he was addressing students during a lecture at IIM Shillong, on the evening of July 27th. Referred to as the ‘People’s President’, Dr Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Born and brought up in Rameswaram in Tamilnadu, he went on to do his aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology. He spearheaded India's…

The ever-busy Silk Board junction. Pic: Abhishek Chandel The clock chimed seven on a balmy Wednesday evening, as I peered out of the dusty window of my motionless office bus. A cacophony of voices, the humdrum of engines, snatches of conversation and a curse word or two greeted my eardrums. The scene in front of my eyes appeared as dull and despondent as my day had turned out. A middle-aged lady driving back home from office killed her car's engine, and got busy yelling instructions to the domestic help about that evening's repast over her phone. A bored taxi driver…

Of whom are you? Who are you? Whence have you come?                                                                                                                 - Śamkara bhagavatpāda, “Moha-mudgarah” The roots of people are not always clear. Sometimes, it is quite all right for things to be that way. Nothing much is gained by knowing the facts as they seem…

On the morning of May 27th 2015, Benedict Jebakumar found himself caught in traffic on the flyover that connects Silk Board to Bellandur Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru, en route to his office at Eco Space. While one might say that is expected on Bangalore roads, there was one more factor that contributed to the traffic. Spread on the road were nails, many of them, the kind that one would typically find in a cobbler’s shop. Small, black and oh so troublesome! While most commuters waited in their vehicles for the jam to clear up, Benny got off his bike…

PNLIT is delighted to be one of the recipients of 94.3 Radio One's #BangaloreAtItsBest awards, given away at a function in Bangalore on 31st May 2015. There were about 27 individuals/groups/businesses that were recognised for "outstanding service to the city of Bangalore and working towards keeping #BangaloreAtItsBest". I was happy to collect the certificate from the Chief Guest Justice Santosh Hegde, on behalf of PNLIT.Thanks to all our supporters for helping PNLIT make a positive difference! Justice Santosh Hegde speaks    A view of the "heroes" on display at the function   Some of the awardees

My primary schooling was at Sri Kamala Nehru Makkala Mandira. The school was housed in old houses, some of them bungalows, others not, dotted about the Yediyur circle area and even in Tata Silk Farm. This was a lower-middle-class kind of school. However, that characterisation belies the nutrimentum spiritus (food for the soul) that was dispensed there. By luck or by design, the school had some amazing teachers. I certainly was lucky they were in my life. Classrooms were held in the patio (suitably partitioned with a plywood “wall”), in the bedrooms, under staircases, on balconies, in “servants’ quarters”.  In…

What do you think of when you interact with one of the conductors on a Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus? Do you view them merely as people who issue tickets on the bus? Many commuters who travel often by bus probably think of them as people they need to haggle with to get their change back; because of course, our conductors are change making machines! How many of us bother to look at these people as humans like us? Not many of us do - so believes Jayalakshmi, a BMTC bus conductor. A bus ride from Hessarghatta to Kalyanagar,…

Saturday December 4th 1971. Morning classes had just begun. Schools had “morning class” on Saturdays – an awkward arrangement with classes starting at 7:30 or some such hour and ending around noon. The previous night, Friday December 3rd 1971, the nightly All India Radio (AIR) newscast had announced the outbreak of war between India and Pakistan. I missed that. Saturday morning, the newspapers carried tall big headlines announcing the events, with details. I merely glanced at these. The second period was Social Studies class by Sri B Narasanna (BN, as he was called at school). We pulled out our extremely…

Prema, a resident Richmond town, who feeds street dogs everyday. Pic : Albert Arul Prakash Rajendran Murderers, rapists, racists, eve-teasers, corrupt traffic police, misbehaving auto-drivers and obnoxious bus-conductors of Bengaluru are all well-documented by the media. Media chooses to chase only a few faces of the society, leaving people in a crisis of faith about the humanity and hospitality left in the city. However there are hundred unseen faces in the society which need exposure. Working as a Senior Engineering manager in a multinational company during weekdays, 34-year-old Albert Arul Prakash Rajendran is a passionate photographer, roaming the city streets…

Her story is of grit and determination. The tag of physical disability did not deter her from reaching her goals. She was often at the receiving end when the society suppressed and discriminated her for being a dwarf. However, nothing could hamper her spirit and the dream to achieve big. It is the life story of Lakshmipradha Srinivasan, a doctor who hails from Palakkad in Kerala and a resident of Bengaluru. She was a victim of Achondroplasia which has resulted in dwarfness. Today, at the age of 34, Lakshmipradha’s height is 3’9 ft, which is considered as an abnormal growth…