| Soft News |
It's show time again -
Boria Majumdar, Times of India
It is IPL time once more — seven weeks of drama that will make for compulsive viewing across the country and the cricket-playing world at large. The question that we are likely to grapple with at the start of the tournament is: Does the IPL retain the same charm? With tournaments like the Big Bash and the Bangladesh Premier League popping up and occupying significant chunks of the cricket calendar... |
36 hours in Bangalore, India -
Erica Westly, NYT
Many tourists who find themselves in Bangalore, India’s third-largest city, are merely on their way to somewhere else: Goa, for instance, or Kerala. But there is reason to linger in this lively city of some nine and a half million people. As the capital of the State of Karnataka and India’s information technology hub, Bangalore has lots to offer: lush parks and gardens, a remarkably diverse restaurant scene... |
Once upon a time in Madurai -
K Latha, Indian Express
It is heartening to see a sustained interest in English translations of Tamil classical poetry, when the readership of poetry itself is claimed to be dwindling. In the last two or three years alone, there have been at least four to five major translations. They have triggered discussions, even heated arguments about their relative merits, in literary and academic circles. One wonders, then, what in these poems... |
Raja without a crown -
Krishnadas Rajagopal, Hindu
“Do you have a crown?” a boy asked Puthiya Kovilakathu Sree Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut, during an interview in 2011 for a school magazine. “No. My ancestors had a crown. I’m a Raja without a crown,” he replied. That reply defined Kunhianiyan, as he was lovingly referred to. He died on Wednesday in a hospital here, barely a week after completing 100 years on March 22. |
Taking Indian music to US classrooms -
Hindu
When more than 1,000 school students at the Middleton School District in the United States perform hardcore Carnatic ragas such as Bangala and Nattai with ease, you know Indian classical music has gone truly global. The performance was part of a recent initiative by Chennai-based Chitravina maestro N. Ravikiran, now touring the U.S. The artiste... |
Thalaivar Dhoni and Namma Virat -
Bharat Sundaresan, Indian Express
Laxmipathy Balaji is an out-and-out Chennai boy. From having grown up watching first-day- first-shows of Rajinikanth movies to swearing by traditional Tamil meals served on a plantain leaf, Balaji has always worn his city's pride on his sleeve. And for the first three editions of the Indian Premier League, Balaji donned the Super Kings' canary jersey too with great passion. |
The touch-screen generation -
Hanna Rosin, Atlantic
On a chilly day last spring, a few dozen developers of children’s apps for phones and tablets gathered at an old beach resort in Monterey, California, to show off their games. One developer, a self-described “visionary for puzzles” who looked like a skateboarder-recently-turned-dad, displayed a jacked-up, interactive game called Puzzingo, intended for toddlers and inspired by his own son’s desire to build... |
When the Pope is the problem -
NewIndianExpress
Religion and power beget scandal. The papacy is no exception. Much before the black smoke over the Sistine Chapel kept informing the world about the status of the new pope’s election, Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was clouded with controversy. Ever since Benedict XVI—who once belonged to Nazi youth brigade—took over as the pope, he had to deal with troubles. His views on contraception... |
The Indian-origin noodle seller who became a billionaire -
NDTV
Run by Maoist revolutionaries and plagued by poverty, Nepal is not the most obvious place to make big bucks. But Binod Chaudhary, the country's first billionaire, sees no reason why his breakthrough shouldn't inspire other success stories. "I am proof to the younger generation that you can accomplish things here," Chaudhary told AFP as he surveyed... |
Dark days in Tamil Nadu -
S Bridget Leena & Arundhati Ramanathan, Mint
Bangalore-based finance professional Lakshminarayana KR was scrambling to book a flight to Coimbatore for his family to attend the funeral of his maternal uncle, who died at the age of 72. As it turned out, the family didn’t need to catch that flight. The final rites of his uncle, who lived alone and died suddenly at 8:30am on one January day, had to be performed in a hurry before the scheduled power cut... |
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