Dateline Bombay

Here I Come..

Can a masters degree in bio-nanotechnology at a reputed college in London University help you pursue a career at the UNICEF as a research scientist ? Does a masters in economics from the London School of Economics allow you to better tackle the problem of `solid waste management’ in urban India, a subject you say you are passionate about ?

As panelist for the prestigious and rather generous HSBC Scholarships last week, these were some of the issues we wrestled with in debating our final choice of candidates. Looking back, the tougher it got to sift between the candidates (these were indeed the brightest), the more merciless the process got. For, that is the way it must be, in any selection of the best. These scholarships, incidentally, are for for students who have typically secured admissions to Oxford, Cambridge & The London School of Economics.

While the direction of the final interview cannot be predicted, facing as you are a considerably diverse panel, ranging from…

(Pic Courtesy: Rediff)

Our car has not moved for roughly 30 minutes and there is no sign it will in the next 30. The young driver at the wheel seems quite frustrated himself and jabs the horn intermittently, as if the sound would cause vehicles ahead to miraculously make way. His frustration adds to your own. Its past 8 pm and I’m already running late for a dinner appointment in central Bangalore.

Earlier, on emerging from the airport terminal building, for a moment, the weather actually felt like a Bangalore your correspondent once knew. Once we turned off the airport driveway and hit the main road going into the city one was reminded, once again, that this is not the same city. No way.

We are stuck, jammed solid. A mess like this in Bombay, no stranger to traffic jams, would qualify as a big one. At the end of it, as you finally reached the point where the problem appeared to originate, you would expect to find an overturned car with glass strewn all over, a burning bus or cops with bu…

An Image From The Past


The Future of Freedom
(An architectural rendering, Skidmore,Owings & Merrill LLP)

A new tower, replacing the felled, twin World Trade Centre towers will soon rise from downtown Manhattan. Freedom Tower will be 70 stories, 1,776 feet tall and will culminate in a spire which in turn will shoot a beam of light into the sky. The decision to freeze on the Tower marks the end of much debate on what and whether anything should substitute the WTC twin towers.

This writer, for one, has strongly felt that America should have rebuilt the two towers or created something that was close to the original. Symbolism apart, there is nothing on earth that can possibly replace the sheer majesty that the 110-storey towers represented, the raw power and might that New York radiated thanks to these monuments. Perhaps its the force of the first impression which makes one feel this way.

It was a biting cold, windy day. And pouring sheets of rain. For a first time visitor to New York,…