Society

In 1802, Alexander von Humboldt climbed towards the crater of Mount Chimbarazo in Ecuador, 20,480 ft. above sea level. It was believed then that this was the highest point any man had climbed; Mt Chimbarazo was then considered the highest (volcanic) mountain in the world. It was many decades later that the height of the peaks of the Himalayas were established. Mt. Everest (in 1852) at 29,002 ft. was the highest mountain in the world - nearly two miles above the spot at Chimbarazo where Humboldt stopped his ascent at 19,286 ft. Humboldt, between 1799 and 1805, explored Central America…

"Immorality does not consist in being different. It consists in not allowing others to be so. It is not the individual whose sexual relations depart from the social custom who is immoral - but those are immoral who would penalize him for being different. A law-abiding citizen who respects the rights and dignities of others, if he is made to suffer merely for deviating from the conventional norm, is not the offender - he is the victim".This is a quote from the rare book 'The World of Homosexuals' written by Shakuntala Devi, the mathematical wizard of India who passed away…

This Sunday, ‘Jaaga', a social meet up space for tech groups, artists and social organisations, saw a unique event. The première of the documentary 'Good Girls Don't Dance' by Padmalatha Ravi was packed with audience, while a few had to stand in order to watch the show. The show began after a small introduction by Padmalatha Ravi, the director of the documentary. The documentary started with a flurry of clips where bemused people at different places in and around Bangalore, pondered on how to answer the question, ‘What do you mean by a good girl?' The terms traditional, docile, decent,…

The south Indian state of Karnataka has over 29,000 villages spread across a 190,000 square kilometres. Anyone who travels a little in the state quickly realises that there are common village names that keep recurring. In Bangalore in particular, lakhs of people from all over India have  settled down and many travel from Bommanahali to Kodihalli or Marathhalli everyday. There is a story here.  Here’s a comprehensive look at the most common village names in Karnataka, prepared using the Census 2011 village directory for the state. Click on image to enlarge It turns out that the most common village name…

Do you love salads but are bored with the regular slices of tomatoes or cucumber? Well, try something different for a change- a Salsa fresca! Watermelon salsa and Pineapple salsa Not to be confused with the Latin-American dance form, a salsa is a kind of spicy sauce popular in Mexican cuisine. The basic ingredients consist of chopped fresh tomatoes, green chilies, coriander, onions, lime juice and sometimes even capsicum. Mango Salsa Ideal for the Indian palate, salsas are now a popular dish at most parties and can be served as dips for chips or as a salad. The most popular…

Post-Delhi gang rape, there have been many attempts at various levels, to understand the phenomenon of sexual violence on women, and the norm the traditional Indian society has set on Indian women. Many outspoken traditionalists have openly declared that women need to cover themselves, should not go out after evening, should be a ‘good girl’ and obey other moral bindings. Padmalatha Ravi, a Bangalore-based journalist, formerly associated with Citizen Matters as Associate Editor, has made an attempt to explore the mindset of society. The result is the documentary - Good Girls Don't Dance. Stills from 'Good Girls Don't Dance' Stills…

The Supreme Court guidelines for school bus safety will come into effect from May 1, 2013. But it is no consolation for the family of the three-year-old who was knocked down by his school bus in June last year, or for the six-year-old girl from Chennai who fell to death through a hole in the floor of the bus.School bus accidents are so common in India that they often don't make more than a single column in newspapers. Yet parents are surprisingly silent about safety issues and reluctant to take on schools on this issue. Almost all parents I spoke…

The recent ‘World Giving Index' published by the Charities Aid Foundation surveyed about 195,000 people living in 153 nations. According to the data, India ranked at 134 with only 14% known to have donated to a charity in the past 12 months, while 12% had offered to volunteer for a cause and 30% had helped strangers. The World Giving Index score of India only counted to 19. This is very poor considering the highest score on the index is 57 and the lowest is 12.How can India overcome this dismal status and move up the ranking? One answer can be…

In the classic Alice in Wonderland, one day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat on a tree. "Which road do I take?", she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I do not know", Alice answered. "Then", said the cat, "It doesn't matter". I travel by the same route everyday to my bus stop and from there, board a bus to my college, which again goes on the same discovered path. While riding till my stop, I always think how similar our life is to a road trip. We keep…

So the hot topic of discussion in my seven-year-old's PTM recently was about bad words. One parent explained that his son had been using few unsuitable words off late and discussed the approach that he was taking. Soon all of us were talking of the same thing - the S word, the I word, the F word - that seemed to have made their presence felt in our children's lives, despite all our best intentions. Chiding children always is not the solution. File pic. Where do our children, mostly between 6 to 8 years old, pick these words up? Television…