VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

The Pushkarams Phenomena http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/The-Pushkarams-phenomenon/articleshow/48129734.cms The death of several devotees at a stampede at the Pushkar Ghat on the banks of the Godavari on the first day of the Pushkara earlier this week has left everyone shocked. There are two aspects to the disaster; (a) the failure of the administration to manage the crowds and (b) the way the crowd itself behaved leading up to the stampede. There is enough being said on how the administration did not anticipate the numbers of devotees, how standard crowd control systems were ignored and the role of VVIPs in this fiasco. It is never politically correct to speak ill of the victims but it is quite clear that the mindless surge of humanity intent on being at the precise place at the most auspicious time contributed to the tragedy. Is timing everything? Relevant to this issue is our belief in the notion of “most auspicious” moment. It is difficult to ...

Please click on this link to read about how we met Pinnai Dora. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/How-we-met-Pinnai-Dora/articleshow/47660558.cms Or read it here: It was the winter of 1972. Late that afternoon, on an impulse, four of us decided to jump on our two bikes and head up to Lambasinghi. The road was bad and we arrived at the Lambasinghi ghat foothills only by nightfall. It was too dark and bike lights were lousy those days so we decided to stop for the night. We parked our bikes in a field and fortified with swigs of dark stuff and ensconced in leather jackets and thick jeans, we snuggled into a haystack to spend the night. We slept deeply and early next morning we looked around to discover that we were near a hamlet with a few huts and a tiffin shack. There are certain duties that are to be performed in the morning, therefore we asked for a chambu of water and trundled off into yonder fields to fertilize the soil. Greatly refreshed after ou...

Read this as it appeared in the papers: Or simply read the word document here... A s it has over thousands of years, summer has come around again. As anyone interested in astronomy will know it happens because the earth’s axis is tilted. In summer the northern hemisphere is closer to the sun making it warmer. In winters the exact opposite happens making the southern hemisphere hot. This fortunate tilt is the engine that causes seasons that and is responsible for the diversity of our crops and much of life on earth. Not only does the earth change its trajectory around the sun going from elliptical to circular causing climate change but as the earth’s axis wobbles like a slow spinning top, the axis of the earth shifts back and forth changing our climate. In 11,000 years from now Vizag will be having winter in July and eating mangoes in December! Historical temperatures Though we all know it is going to be bad, we are always surprised by how terrible summer is when it visit...