Chennai Times

ReStore (restore.org.in) is perhaps the best known organic food shop in chennai. it is run by an amazing bunch of volunteers with deep commitment to the organic farming movement. organic food marketing in urban india has two significant problems - 1. how do you supply a basket of products to an urban kitchen through the year when these produce arrive at your shop only during specific agricultural seasons 2. how do you do that consistently through the years with shifting farmer base, changing consumer behaviour and ever present operational problems of staff, infrastructure, transportation cost going up and other issues The scale of operation has to be significant for any organic food shop to break even in a urban centre as the overhead costs are high. ReStore by adopting a part volunteer network to manage the shop has tried to address the issues above in its own. I have no knowledge of how it is managed in the day to day basis, but, the fact a volunteer driven initiative has ma...

THE MONSTER CALLED THE SCHOOL BUS... the speeding school bus to me often represents the first monster that the child encounters in the system of education, the angry and speeding driver is a representative of the system itself, intolerant, insensitive to the child's need, adhering to its own demands of pace and not at all in the interest of the child.  in my morning walk with my daughter, i often see these monsters cruise past at break-neck speed, splashing the overnight rains that have become road-side slush on one and all, honking their multi-lingual, polyphonic horns in complete impatience, steering in and out of narrow lanes to pick up children, reversing into some, rushing into others, climbing narrow walkways to make tight turns so as to quickly pick-up that one child unwilling to go, but brought to the slaughter station of pick-up points by the faithful parents and grand parents - those who have faith in the system of education, that it will eliminate some unknown...

did anyone notice that there are far too many mosquitoes this year around? summer has started and still we are infested with the menace of these little disease carriers...and there is a larger presence of the rats around??? and much of this is to do with the non-clearance of garbage on time. garbage, the only product the city dwellers produce is currently replacing our smaller streets as street top ornament, it has already replaced foot path and foot path vendors as the major holder of raodside space....saw the other day IT professionals trudging over a pile of garbage from their shanties around velachery to earn the daily dollar for their masters in odd hours and contribute to the Indian economy...the chennai economy will soon be dictated by doctor bills...we are heading for an epidemic if we don't deal with this one is my feeling...i hope i am proved wrong.

The 108 Free Ambulance Service has been one of the farsighted initiatives for which many poor Indians will be forever thankful to Ramalinga Raju, regardless of his corruption charges. It has been the one social intervention that has resulted in literally saving lives by attending to accident / ailment victims in the 'golden hour' when safe and knowledgeable transportation is critical.  Chennai now has 2 specialized 108 vehicles (2 more to be added shortly)  that are meant to transport newborn infants in cases of emergency with all facilities to the nearest government hospital free of cost. This adds a definite advantage to the neo-natal care in the city. The staff who man the neo-natal ambulance are trained in handling such cases for emergency and in these ambulances (if what I heard is correct), two people are employed instead of the regular one to ensure that the new born is attended to without any difficulty. People can call the regular 108 service number i...

மாணவனை கொலைவெறிக்கு தூண்டும் கல்விதன்னை நிறுத்துவோம்!  ஒன்பதாம் வகுப்பு படிக்கும் மாணவர்க்கு வயது பதினைந்து தான் இருக்கும், அந்த வயதில், ஒரு மாணவனை கொலை செய்ய தூண்டும் அளவிற்கு கொடூரமாக நமது சமூகம் கல்விமுறையை அமைத்துள்ளது நாம் அனைவரும் வெட்கப்படவேண்டிய விஷயம். எப்படி இதை செய்கின்றோம்? - போட்டி நல்லது , போட்டியில் வெற்றி பெற்றால், பிற்காலத்தில் வாழ்க்கையில் வெற்றிபெறுவார், என்று அறிவுகெட்ட பெற்றோர்கள் - "உங்கள் பிள்ளையை நாங்கள் போட்டிக்கு தயார் செய்வோம்" , என்று இறைவன் முதல், புட்டியில் அடைத்த தவிட்டு கசண்டு வரை எல்லாவற்றையும் விற்கும், வியாபார ஓநாய் கூட்டம் - நூற்றிற்கு நூறு, எங்கள் பள்ளியில் எல்லோரும் நூறு, மிக அதிகமாக நூறு, என்று மாணவர்களின் வாழ்க்கையை கேடுத்தேனும் தங்கள் வியாபாரத்தை பெருக்கிக்கொள்ளும் பள்ளிகள் - இப்படிப்பட்ட பள்ளிகளும், வியாபார கூட்டமும், பெற்றோரும் ஒன்றிணைந்து நடத்தும் நாடகங்களில், தமக்கு வாய்ப்பு கிடைத்ததே என்று, கொஞ்சமும் கூச்சமில்லாமல், கலந்துகொண்டும், ஆதரித்தும், பெருமை பேசியும், தங்கள் சிறுமையை வெளிக்காட்டும் ஆன்மிகவாதிகள், புத...