Media watching and good news

Since there's been so much going on in the Indian blogosphere about blogging, journalism, etc., I thought I'd add some more ghee to the fire. Pure, unadulterated ghee that is.

The Hoot is a website that watches the media in India and is a good source of articles about the news and journalism. Hey, they even have an article on the current controversy.

Good News India is a website that I found a while back but never paid attention to it. On Click Online, the BBC show about IT, they were doing an India special and on Webscape (where they give you links of interesting websites) they mentioned this site. This site has some interesting articles and stories and they put it best when they say:

News from India : of positive action, steely endeavour and quiet triumphs ~ news that is little known.

Good stuff, worth checking out for sure.

A taste of Kerala

I was in Kerala a few days ago. I know it's called God's own country, but it should be called God's Green Country instead. Kerala is green, very green. There trees everywhere and even on the roads to everywhere there are trees.

Kerala is also humid. (Just to be clear, I was there for a whole two days, maybe 1.75 days.) When I was there it wasn't as bad as Chennai but it was humid enough that you'd notice.

It's against the law to smoke cigarettes in a public place, like on the road. You can apparently get hauled to the police station for this.

I saw one and a half Malayalam movies during the trip and I think I got the story in both of them. Of course, they weren't complex, psychological thrillers, so that helped.

I enjoyed the experience of eating authentic Kerala food. This is what I love about India is that there hasn't been a homogenisation of cuisine, though in the cities it's starting to happen. I had two fabulous lunches, one cooked by my friend's mother, and the other, a lunch at a wedding.

I learned that tapioca is a root that's a little bit like potato in taste but the texture is different. Boiled tapioca and fish curry is an interesting culinary combination, though it wouldn't seem like it would be.

A lot of coconut is used in Kerala cooking. This probably explains the numerous coconut trees, though it's probably the other way around.

Did I mention that Kerala is green?

Bangalore gets dunked

When I was returning from a trip to Kerala, the bus I was travelling in got stuck in a traffic jam on Hosur Road, which is the road that leads to Bangalore's famous Electronic City. I was stuck for three hours and only when we reached near the flyover did we see the problem. Water had overflowed from a nearby lake and the water was almost knee deep. It was Monday and the whole of Bangalore was affected by the rains that came on Saturday and Sunday.

Then, Tuesday we found out that more areas had problems with flooding and the respite from the rain does not appear to be near. The met department has warned of two more days of rain but thankfully there has been no rain so far, but as I write this, the day is getting darker and cloudier. It's about 1 pm in the afternoon.

Bangalore does have drains in some areas but most of the times the drains are filled with trash or mud and when the water gets a little high, it overflows on to the streets. Then, there are a few low-lying areas which are perpetually in trouble.

There has been a visible increase in the amount of people in Bangalore. I can make out the difference from two years ago. Two years, not 10 or 20. If you get so many people into any city, the city is bound to feel the pressure. And that's what's happening in Bangalore. Heck, it's happening to an extent in Hyderabad, and probably will happen in Pune as well.

You cannot grow at such a rapid pace and then expect that things will be perfect. There are consequences to rapid growth and that's what we're seeing in Bangalore.

I wonder if we'll learn from this.

TAAQ Interview

If you like TAAQ (Thermal and a Quarter) or just like reading about the band and their music, you can check out a nice two-part interview on the blog The Great Beyond.

Interview -- Part 1
Interview -- Part 2

One big (happy) family

Rahul Dravid is captain for two one-day series. Ganguly's not in the team because he's not fit. Laxman is not in the team because, well, he's Laxman. Tendulkar is back, recovered from the same injury that now Saurav has.

Greg Chappel says that Dravid has a good cricketing brain. I guess I have a good blogging brain. Okay, that was a reach.

Chappel alleged in an email that Ganguly faked injuries, and that he was unfit to lead the Indian cricket team. The email was leaked by someone to the media. Harbhajan defended Ganguly and said that Chappel was dividing the team. The BCCI issued a gag on the players speaking to the media. Before that, Sachin Tendulkar said that what is discussed in the dressing room, or whatever it's called, should be kept private.

In today's newspaper, it was alleged that Ganguly had called Tendulkar a tourist and that Tendulkar did not want to play under Ganguly.

In other words, it's a big, dysfunctional family. And yet, we persist with this one, big happy family metaphor.

Wouldn't it be much easier if everything was transparent? For instance, do you know why Tom Moody was not picked to be the Indian coach over Greg Chappel. Or, why Dravid was picked as captain instead of Virender Sehwag, who's much younger.

Then again, maybe this soap opera is what everyone wants, it's entertaining isn't it?