Society

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…

 Women at the Dodda Maramma temple, waiting to see the other car processions. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan No celebration is complete without fireworks. Pic: Perumal VenkatesanA lady cooks sweet pongal (made using new rice and jaggery) inside the temple campus, to offer to the goddess. This is a common practise across amman (Mariamma) temples in Tamil Nadu too. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan The gully where processions carrying the four idols meet. From here they proceed to the Dodda Maramma temple for the Agni Kunda Puja. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan Young lads dance to the beat of the tamte vaathya. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan Karagattam…

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…

I’ve always enjoyed playing outdoors as far back as I can remember. The first sport I got truly hooked to was football when I was in class five. Other interests, whether I took them on seriously for a while or not, came and went; but my football shoes journeyed alongside me all the way through to high school, and through my BA Degree years. Wait! Did I say all my BA degree years? My attention was slightly diverted when I was halfway through my degree course, and by what? A plastic disc. Little did I know then, that what we…

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…

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…

The temple at Belur. Pic: Niveadha Nanjundeswaran Do you enjoy travelling? Are you a history buff? Here's a holiday that offers the best of both. A four-hour drive from Bengaluru on NH 48 will take you to Hassan. This district in Karnataka comes with its own bag of historical charms, waiting to be discovered. Pay a visit to the hamlets of Belur, Halebid and Shravanabelagola and take a step back in time. Belur Belur is home to one of South India’s most beautiful temple complexes, making it an ideal weekend getaway for history lovers. The cradle of the Hoysala Empire,…

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…

A key challenge to inclusion of disabled people into the mainstream is the basic lack of access. Accessibility is not limited to physical spaces alone, but also includes transport infrastructure, information and technology, aids and appliances etc. Access is therefore an issue that cuts across disabilities, sectors, abilities and age groups and forms the very basis of empowerment of disabled people. 'Universal Design', i.e. a design that is usable by all therefore becomes intrinsic to any kind of access. It was to recognise innovative work that improved accessibility and promoted the principles of Universal Design that NCPEDP with the support…

In April 2015, news portal thenewsminute.com reported that a Kerala couple had shut down a Facebook page, titled "Kochu Sundarikal” (little beauties), after it was found to be a platform for paedophiles. The page creators had shrewdly circumvented Facebook's nudity clause by posting pictures of young girls and actresses fully clothed. However, comments revealed the nature of the page and the intention behind it. Subsequently, news of another Tamil Facebook page was unveiled by the same portal. This one, titled “Chinna ponnu veriyargal” (Crazy about small girls), used the same tactic of posting fully clothed pictures of young girls, and…