Vikas redefined
We are in the Pathology practical hall in the medical college. It is a room with long green platforms, designated work stations and several stools. There are sinks to conduct your experiments with bunsen burners near some…
Their right of the way
Diwali, the festival of lights, has come and gone. One of the most memorable moments of this Diwali has been our encounter with the Hanuman langurs, who are an integral part of Sevagram. We had just finished…
Whose Gandhi is it anyway?
Once a year, the sleepy village of Sevagram shudders into wakefulness. On 2nd October. Gandhi Jayanti. When hundreds of politicians and their minions extract their white kurta-pyjamas from their cupboards, shake the dust off their Gandhi topis…
Anand Niketan: A school which prepares you for life
Schooling in India often strips students of the joy of learning. Children are pushed to be hyper-competitive. In a world where each school competes to market itself as the next assembly-line producer of academic toppers, I discovered a…
Wardha East ke famous vade
There is a serene calm about small railway stations. My favourite railway station is Sewagram. It is always clean, never cramped with crowds and has that open spacious feel to it. I love to wait there and…
The smell of books
My earliest memory of Bangalore is of life at Bangalore Military School, where my father worked as the Head of the Department of Zoology. The memories are faint and fuzzy as I wasn’t even 5 years of age.…
The raucous white-breasted waterhens
I had just returned from work and was parking my vehicle, when I heard some loud strange noises in the field beyond the boundary wall of my house. It was raining and I should have rushed into…
Morning yoga with a scaly breasted munia
Manna Dey immortalized these birds in Teesri Kasam, when he sang Chalat musafir moh liya re pinjre wali munia… I have always found scaly breasted munias very attractive specially for their designer waistcoats. One morning, as I was enjoying…
Indian silverbills or white-throated munias
Quite often these drab-looking tiny birds are overlooked in favour of their more colourful counterparts. The Indian silverbills are one such species which though ubiquitous, are often ignored. They usually forage in groups and are very gregarious.…
The Langurs of Sevagram
Sevagram is synonymous with Mahatma Gandhi. He spent a large part of his life here during India’s freedom struggle. And one of his prized possessions was a tiny figurine of three wise monkeys who embodied the principles…
