Any Time Milk: Pune to get milk-dispensing machines

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Coming soon in Pune: ATMs with a difference — instead of money, they will dispense milk. Brainchild of Katraj Dairy, these ATMs (Any Time Milk machines) will serve milk and milk products 24 hours a day, at a price slightly lower than the market rate (NDTV.com, 21 March 2011). The […]

Northeast festival explores the role of literature in promoting peace

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Can literature and culture mend rifts to put an end to age-old violence? Organisers of the recently held Culture of Peace: A Festival of the Northeast in New Delhi seem to think it’s possible. The event was organised by Zubaan, a publishing company focusing on writers from the Northeast and other violence-torn […]

One World Night helps Mumbai’s expats connect

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING The expatriate crowd in Mumbai now has a cure for its homesickness. Shiro, a tony midtown nightclub, has launched its One World Expat Evenings. (MissMalini.com, 20 December 2010) Hosted on the first Thursday of every month, the evenings serve as a common ground for the city’s foreign residents to network […]

Wordplay goes vernacular with a Hindi version of Scrabble

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Scrabble in Hindi? It’s possible. MadRat Games, a company started by three IIT graduates, has launched Aksharit, an Indian-language version of Scrabble. While the basic rules mirror Scrabble, some gameplay mechanisms have been adapted to deal with the complexities of Indian languages like matras (vowels) and half letters. To get […]

3-D party: A new dimension to Mumbai’s clubbing scene

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Trilogy, the nightclub at Hotel Sea Princess in Mumbai, recently hosted what was touted as India’s first 3-D party (MissMalini.com, 2 December 2010). Referred to as the Tron 3-D party, the event celebrated the release of the American sci-fi film, Tron: Legacy. Those on the dance floor sported cardboard 3-D […]

Passport to a green, green world: The e-way to reduce carbon footprints

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Indian consumers can calculate — to the last detail — the size of the carbon footprint they are leaving on Mother Earth. All they need is an Enviro Passport or E-Passport, part of a programme launched by the Rotary Club of Bombay. This facility helps users calculate, and manage, their carbon footprints through the […]

Indian allopaths see traditional medicine in new light

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING An increasing number of Indian doctors are successfully blending allopathic cures and traditional remedies like ayurveda, siddha, acupuncture and even yoga. For these ‘converts’, the proof lies in the pudding. Claiming to have witnessed for themselves the results in their patients, they see a clear role for ancient healing systems in […]

Mumbai’s slum kids train to be bal doctors

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Mumbai’s bal doctor programme is training slum children to administer first aid and handle medical crises. The initiative is run by Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), and has trained 676 bal doctors across 34 slums since 2000 (Hindustan Times, 15 November 2010). The kids can identify symptoms of […]

Bhojpuri channels grab eyeballs in the Hindi heartland

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Viewership of Bhojpuri TV channels is on the upswing. (Bhojpuri is a local dialect spoken in eastern Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar.) Mahuaa TV — India’s first exclusive 24-hour Bhojpuri channel — was launched in 2008 and its viewership in the region equals second-rung Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) (Afaqs.com, […]

Kerala’s KDHP tea plantations brew a worker participatory management model

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING The Tatas’ exit from the Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company (KDHP), Kerala, in 2005, heralded a new era and a new work culture for its employees. Instead of selling out to another corporate, which is generally how exits go, the workers decided to pick up a majority 69% stake. What […]

Film festivals introduce small-town youth to world cinema

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Bollywood is not enough for young mass-communication students in small-town India! Thanks to a number of film festivals held across the Hindi heartland, more students are getting a taste of arthouse cinema. The festival fare consists of a mix of foreign films and regional cinema from Indian states. The Haryana […]

Room to Read is rooting for a well-read young India

by Rohini Haldea WHAT’S HAPPENING Room to Read, an international programme focused on children’s education, wants to make bookworms out of India’s underprivileged kids. The organisation has already set up 3,200 libraries across eight Indian states, and plans to hit 6,000 by 2015 (Knowledge.Wharton.UPenn.edu, 20 May 2010). Room to Read has also printed 6,20,000 books in […]