Feast for Thought

The Hindu : Opinion / Cartoon : Cartoonscape, December 5, 2011

The debate rages on. This is one area where ringing in the new may not be quite what the nation needs.... Instead of the friendly neighbourhood, dhoti-clad grocer selling you rice, atta and dal, you will be piling up all sorts of mostly superfluous items on to your shopping trolley and get checked out of store by young, suited and booted, extra-polite MBA degree holders. Among the many pros and cons of the issue of FDI in retail, I am concerned that the aspects of consumerism and environmental burden receive no mention at all. We already have plenty of supermarket chains chock-a-block. In the race to offer items at cheaper rates, supermarkets outdo each other with very alluring offers. Those who can afford it, will continue to make use of these offers, even if they do not need the item! All these chains most likely include CSR departments, whose most evident job is to put out notices of reduced plastic / polythene use, even as more items are packaged attractively in plastic. Why ...

"Mahatma Gandhi - A different type" aptly sums up the design of a font inspired by the Mahatma. You can download the font from gandhijifont.com. Let's strive to keep everything simple!

Pic courtesy - The Hindu In Indian boardrooms, we hardly see any colour and some sense of national identity. Why do we don dresses that are appropriate in some other climate, and also use extra energy to cool. Big Paradox!

'The riches belong to nobody, certainly not to our family&#39 If this has been reproduced verbatim, Hail MArthAnda Varma!

The Lord's abode is in the news, because material treasures have been found in secret vaults under the temple precincts. I can't help contrasting this event with the other incidents where treasure taken away from India have been merrily auctioned away. If kings and chieftains elsewhere in India had also reposited / donated similarly, Indian history and civics and perhaps even geopgraphy would have been very, very different! View this slideshow from a recent visit to Sree Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple, this April. " It is sad to see intricate jewellery and artefacts displayed in innumerable museums in the West when they should rightly be displayed at where they belong — our temples. How these treasures disappeared from India is narrated in Peter Watson's “Sotheby's: The Inside Story.” Let's hope that ruthless elements do not devour the treasures discovered in the vaults of the Padmanabhaswamy temple. We need to study the history of our country in its real glo...

Arrived here night of 6 Apr 2011. Just trying to record the days of Hartal / Strike / Bandh 29 April 2011 - Anti-endosulfan strike, by the State Government 20 May 2011 - Anti-petrol-price-hike strike, by the Transport workers To be contd....!

A lot happened in a neighbouring country on MayDay. Here are three relevant articles that bring out the crux of the entire situation. It's a pity... The author, Professor Richard Jackson who is Secretary, British International Studies Association and Editor, Critical Studies on Terrorism, writes - ..."And it's a pity that so many are celebrating using violent means to fight a violent group, and that it will most likely lead to a continuing, maybe even intensifying, cycle of violence. It's sad that so few today recognise or understand that the use of violence rarely leads to any long-term solutions, but instead, most often creates ever more violence and suffering in the long run. This event and the response to it are an opportune moment to reflect on our addiction to political violence and our belief that conflict can best be solved by killing…" ...."It's a pity that this event will do nothing to end the sheer stupidity and shameful waste of ten years of...

That's nothing new, of course, and this move is as welcome as any other. It will suffice to say - we moved from an overgrown metropolis to an overgrown village!

Wordsmith, the home of A.Word.A.Day newsletter, celebrates 17 years, and featured five 17-letter words this week. To further mark the milestone, subscribers were invited to take part in a haiku contest - send in a haiku to define or illustrate each of these 17 letter words. ( What is a haiku? ) My entries - predestinarianism My will or your will Have no doubt - it is His will that has the last word! triskaidekaphobia Did thirteen say Boo? Will you fear an extra loaf in a baker’s doz contradistinguish At either end of V I B G Y O R reside Black and white laryngopharyngeal Out comes noise or sound while air water and food go their ways - up or down! perspicaciousness See, observe details read not only ‘tween the lines - but also letters That exercise was enjoyable. And I continue to look forward Wordsmith's daily doses sent to a million+ linguaphiles.

What You Can Do « The Story of Citizens United v. FEC | THE STORY OF STUFF PROJECT: SEASON 2 Here's Annie Leonard with yet another story. I wish her all success in her efforts. The sooner they - the US citizens - succeed in their efforts at reclaiming democracy from the corporates and put the people in charge, the sooner can other democracies get back to being truly of, by and for the people.

Kalpana Sharma has written so eloquently on the woes of India's weaver community. See Disappearing warp and weft . It made me wonder - All our celebrities could easily take up this cause. For example - they could sport the decent sari, or a suitable Indian handloom garment, in international forums, instead of aping the West in the kind of clothes they choose to wear. (Yes, like Aishwarya Rai and her ilk at the Ocsars )

I have always felt that Delhi looks drab in winter, the leaves in the trees looking grey and blending with the lifeless concrete around. However you can discover pockets of plant life in Lutyen's Delhi and within parks and well-maintained campuses. The Garden of Five Senses is a park that you can escape into, bang in the middle of the city, near the Qutub Minar . We were lucky to catch glimpses of the Garden Tourism Festival (3rd weekend of Feb every year). Any idea of the names of the flowers above? Visit more worlds