There is a way to make yourself heard even by voting against ALL the canditates..
Author: shekhar
Lonely Planet
The Scottish Goverment have an annual competetion (and apperently there is huge demand) to invite people to live in the remote bleak and freezing island called Fair Isle. if you are ‘lucky’, you get to spend the rest of your life with a total population of 76 inhabitants, more or less cut off from civilization. The main reason that one American family has given is “that here you can walk into any neighbour’s house without having arrange it in advance”. Isn’t that a stunning statement on the lonliness of the Western societies ?
The Goa Film Festival
In light of this continuing dialogue over child trafficking in Goa…
Child sex abuse in Goa
While everyone is ga ga over India’s 10% pa economic growth, and cell phone companies are valued at $ 25 Billion, little children are killed for their organs while the parents are still searching for them a year later. And now a new report says that Goa is taking over from Cambodia and Thailand as the child prostitution capital of the world. What’s going wrong with our society ?
Shedding crocodile tears for Saddam
So Tony blair and other leaders in UK and the US now condemn the hanging of Saddam Hussien and the way the trial was handled. Hang on…
Staring at the Universe forever
I was about 9 years old. We lived in Delhi at a time when there was no pollution. In summer the nights were cool and the whole family slept on the ‘Kotha.’ The terrace of our little rented bungalow in Nizamuddin. I still remember the earthy taste of the water from the clay baked ‘Surahi’ that lay there in case you felt thirsty. The water was cooled through the natural physical laws of osmosis and evaporation. Plastic bottles were unknown and I still cannot get used to the taste of water that comes out of a plastic bottle ….
Oprah’s School
Sure, there is going to be a lot of critcism about the elitist nature of the enterprise, and about the immense amount of media coverage. But this one so obviously comes from Oprah’s heart. She is welcome to India anytime. Do read Nikita’s comment under “A Mother’s letter from Noida” where she sees Oprah’s actions as a mirrot to ourselves and asks if we are doing enough ourselves for the children in our communities. In India almost 50% of all children lack basic primary education. That is an awful figure for a country that aspires to be the next global power. I would like to share something my own driver told me ….
A mother’s letter from Noida
I was told that they found my daughter’s body. Not the whole body, just the legs, arms and severed head. The agony now ends. For a year I have been begging the police to help find her. They would humiliate us, and sneer. ” She must have run away with a boy” they laughed.
My daughter was 9 years old when she went missing….
A Riddle
I run towards a stationary man. I can measure the distance, my velocity and the time it takes for me to get to him. Conversely, the stationary man too, from his point of view percieves exactly the same time, velocity and passage of time as I do. We move in exactly the same space time in relations to each other. However that man is not stationary because the earth is revolving relative to both of us. The earth is also moving relative to the sun and therefore the sun and the earth have the same perception of each other.
Paani pictures
Sharing with all of you one of the pictures I took of the Dharavi slums in Mumbai slums during my visual research for Paani.