Anagha Speaks

On Sunday, I attended a lecture by renowed theatre and film personality Girish Karnad. He was speaking on the subject of 'Colonial Influences on Art forms of India' as a part of a programme organized in the memory of Master composer and musician Bhaskar Chandavarkar on Sunday 25 July 2010 in Pune.As an Architect-Planner, I was thrilled to hear Girish Karnad make references to the formation of cities in India by the British, which in turn was a major turning point for all visual and performing arts in India. He brought out the fact that before the three British cities namely, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, were established, the Indian cities like Pune, Lucknow, Kolhapur and many others were more contiguous with its hinterlands. So while these urban pockets were primarily 'urban' in character, the lifestyles of people and economic wealth was closely linked and similar to those in the rural fringes and the hinterlands. When the three British cities were established, these we...

Since the past two days I have been interacting with people talking about the Copenhagen Conference to be held in December 2009. Its quite interesting, I thought, that the media has made the jargon accessible and I find words like Climate Change and even Kyoto Protocol being used everywhere. After hearing these words being mouthed by some most improbable people, I was motivated enough to look up the Copenhagen Conference. And here I am sharing a few snippets of information that I managed to garner. Here goes.... What is it that the world is looking forward to from the Copenhagen Conference? Though, quite ambitious in itself, this conference 'merely' aims to bring clarity on the action towards Climate Change that the major economies of the world will take up. This is what the UN Exec Secretary of (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mr Yvo de Boer aims to achieve at the least. He speaks about bringing clarity on four essentials for collective Interna...

A few days back, I and my students had a chance to interact with a Nuclear Physicist. The pertinent question that all of us had on our minds and came out in our discussions was Would Nuclear Power mean a boon or a curse for India? Nuclear Power is amazing! In a nutshell, it takes just a little radioactive substance to be 'processed' in a Nuclear Power reactor and the whole substance with its looooong half life, takes its own sweet time to divide itself into smaller and smaller particles, producing large amounts of heat and thereby power for India. Sounds simple, isn't it? However its not so! The underlying political, administrative and technical processes finally will define how the nuclear power gets generatedand used. The N-Deal that was publicized by the media and politically negotiated by our Prime Minister simply states that we can now import Nuclear fuel for power generation in our country. The technical negotiations will now begin to fire up existing nuclear reactors...

As I am now settling into the daily routine in CA, I am exploring various ways to move about the place (with two kids in row) using any means of transport than the car. I was very much excited initially, as the city here is offering me alternatives...the bus, the light rail and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train! The public transport infrastructure here is amazing. All the stations and stops are well designed, accessible within 1 mile walking from any point, with nice shelters where I could stand / sit with my kids. The websites gave excellent schedules and connections that I should take, properly indicated on a map of the city. I also have a hot line number which I can call to access transport related information at any point of time. The buses, the trains were amazingly clean, properly maintained and up and working! Despite all this and more, I found all the public transport EMPTY..of people! I rode with 2 other persons on the bus and the train stations were deserted to the poin...