VENKATESH GOVINDARAJAN October 31: UN World Cities Day. Cities are where the battle for sustainable development will be won, or lost. A clutch of sustainable cities makes a sustainable province; a clutch of sustainable provinces makes a sustainable country, and it follows that several sustainable countries learning and sharing and helping other countries, will make […]
Tag Archives: featured
01
Nov
Nov
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR No Indian ruler has aroused as much admiration and hatred as Tipu Sultan, the ‘Tiger of Mysore.’ His is a mixed legacy: a paradox of contrasts and a piebald reflection of our changing times. This piece does not take sides; it looks at the Tipu persona without sporting tinted glasses. First, things first. It was […]
01
Nov
Nov
GAYATRI PAGDI Remember Kiranjit Ahluwalia from Provoked? I was reminded of her story again, just the other day. One of the issues widely discussed in India today is domestic violence against women. Violence, as we know, need not always be physical – yet, the consequences are as deadly. The signs, however, aren’t obvious to an […]
01
Oct
Oct
VENKATESH GOVINDARAJAN I first heard about Hans Rosling, MD, PhD, from my colleague Maria Sandberg, PhD, at Karlstad University [Sweden], when I was assisting her in a first-year course in Environmental Technology. Rosling’s ‘baby’ — GapMinder — was to be introduced to students, the purpose being exactly the same which Rosling pursued for most of […]
01
Oct
Oct
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Earnestness, it is aptly said, is the font of authority or authenticity, where ‘auto’ means ‘self’ — your original instrument and ‘entea’ — or tool connotes communication. This explains why our credibility as a speaker or leader in any field of activity, for example, is directly correlated to the extent to which the audience […]
01
Oct
Oct
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR We live in an era of paradoxes — of sometimes pleasing, usually passable, and most often ear-splitting music, aside from the typecast ‘stamp,’ or raucous remix[ed] digressions, thanks to hi-tech glitz. This isn’t all. There seems to be a growing penchant for Punjabi-accentuated Bollywood songs in Hindi films today — rather than perceptible […]
01
Sep
Sep
GAYATRI PAGDI If there has been anything in common between Eskimo Shamans and early Aryans, or the Quechuas, and the African Bushmen, the Berbers and the Native American ancients, or the Mongolian spiritualists and Maoris, it is the belief in the sacred and the profane. Every culture in the world has defined what is sacred […]
01
Aug
Aug
GAYATRI PAGDI In the elaborately-carved, beautiful shrine my grandmother had for her idols was a shiny, smooth stone, resting in a case of gold. It was golden-yellow, with a definite red hue. I wondered what it was even as I saw it being anointed with sandalwood and vermillion every day. Flowers were offered to it […]
01
Jul
Jul
RYAN HARRISON Everyday your brain churns out between 12,000 and 50,000 thoughts. That’s as many as 18 million thoughts in a single year. Well, there you are. We often take our mental activity and acuity for granted… until it’s no longer something we can count on. And, then? You might find yourself turning to crossword […]
01
Jun
Jun
VENKATESH GOVINDARAJAN They call themselves fittingly as a ‘profit for good’ company — a mission backed by a non-profit foundation. Ducky.eco, formed in 2014, addresses the climate crises and threat to the environment. The company intends to slowly, surely and steadily, expand its influence-footprint globally — to motivate people to truncate their environmental footprints. “Ducky […]