ANOU’S BLOG
not at any price
A journalist from a leading western newspaper dropped by last week. She was researching an article on the impact of globalisation on the other side of India. She had visited some of the slum resettlement sites and expressed her indignation at the state of these...
a fallen hero
One will spend life in jail, the other is waiting for the gallows. They both thought that their political connections could give them licence to kill and get away with murder. But they did not. Public opinion ensured that and Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Matoo got...
bye bye hot samosas..
Many years back, when the first fast food outlet opened in Delhi - I think it was a pizza something - I told many friends that they would never be able to compete with our own desi brand of fast foods: the zingy chats, piping hot samosas, delectable and sinful poories...
muted musings..
I cannot remember when I last stepped off the whirling world to take a breath and muse over days gone by. Life went on at a frenzied pace and there never seemed to be time to take a pause and cast the much needed critical look.One may wonder what set off these...
a bed and a class
I have always hoped that some day we will have lots of little primary extensions so that more and more children remain in school. And it has been my dream to do this by drawing all resources from the community.Our little Nehru Nagar class is a step in that direction...
Where the mind is without fear
Yesterday I dropped by my Lohar (gypsy)friends. My conditioned being expected to be greeted by long and sad faces as their homes had been raised to the ground just a few hours before that.My heart did miss a beat as I alighted from my three wheeler and saw them all...
a samosa and a jig…
In today's world many of us have mastered the art of living according to rules and regulations, our lives carefully divided into little boxes and our reactions dictated by directives that are proved and tested by scientific means.So when in this world a doctor and a...
helter shelter
A class is in progress in the Lohar camp. The camp has over 40 shanties along a main road. It has been in existence for over 25 years and even has a name and postal address. Most of its 250 odd inhabitants, all gadiya lohars - iron smith gypsies - have voter ID cards....
morning after…
This is a picture of the morning after a wedding party in our street. Yesterday as is customary in our city, tents came up, the street was blocked and the paraphernalia needed, set in place.This morning we saw the aftermath: large quantities of wasted food, and mounds...
Looking ahead from ground zero..
One is often so engrossed in the now, that one forgets to delve into the realm of the after. Yet unless we take time to do that, we may remain frozen in time.Spiritual masters often ask us to visualise the future if we want to see it realised. I guess there is some...
one more tale of two Indias
A short news item aired yesterday showed relatives of children killed in Noida by serial killers blocking a road and protesting the slow pace of the probe.My mind travels back to the week where the whole nation watched the nightmare of NOIDA unfold. Rewind to a few...
The return of the buddy!
Nanhe is back. And the smile too!Everyone was stunned as he entered the class in Sitaram's arms. Moments later a palpable excitement prevailed in the classroom as his little buddies set about to greet their long lost pal.All else was forgotten: Anurag stopped jumping,...