Archive for 2007

With taps running dry for years, Vatva falls back on private borewells

Friday, December 21st, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, December 21 Sairaben Ahmed (name changed) glances furtively at the hosepipe snaking across the floor of the kitchen as she chops vegetables. In her ‘one room, kitchen, toilet’ tenement in Maqdum Nagar in Vatva, she is waiting for the evening supply of water. However, she is not the only person in Maqdum [...]

Where garbage, kids and cattle battle for space

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, December 13 With barely two days left for the second and final phase of the Assembly elections, the fanfare of campaigning is at its peak in Maninagar. Both the Congress and BJP workers rallying strong and loud for their candidates—Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel and Chief [...]

Slums razed for beautification, but none to look after the displaced

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, December 9 One fine morning in November 2005, Pathan Shamshad was getting ready to go to work, when he suddenly heard bulldozers thundering through the narrow lanes outside his house. Without any notice, the workforce of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Board (AUDA) had descended in the Bakra Mandi area of Ranip to [...]

At IIM-A food festival, organic foods make healthiest profits

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, December 4: The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is providing a platform to entrepreneurs to market and sell their traditional delicacies, which are made using organic ingredients. Dilip Patel is one such person who has been in the business of manufacturing pure jaggery, without using chemicals or acid, for the last [...]

Where primary teachers barely complete secondary education

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, November 30 The next time you enroll your child to a new school, please make sure the teacher knows his alphabets. According to data released by the state’s education department in reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by academician Deepak Patel, over 60 per cent of Ahmedabad’s primary school [...]

Blind and borderless – Tenberken shows the light

Friday, November 23rd, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, November 23 Sabriye Tenberken can read and write in the dark. She even teaches her students to do the same. No, Tenberken does not possess miraculous powers, nor does she belong to the world of wizardry. She is blind, but as she says, that doesn’t prevent her from being a visionary.Along with [...]

EC’s pick of party symbols: frock, half-eaten cake, road roller…

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, November 18 A snuffed-out candle, a half-eaten cake, a little girl’s frock, and a road roller. Strangely these are among the 69 symbols allotted to Independent candidates and unrecognised parties contesting the elections in the state by the returning officer. No wonder, the symbols have evoked murmurs of protest. “Symbols should be [...]

Junior cops wait for re-recognition of their Assn by HC

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Ahmedabad, November 14 Low ranking police personnel in Gujarat are now eagerly awaiting the re-recognition of their association by the Gujarat High Court, which was dismissed by the erstwhile director general of police of the state on grounds of low strength and attendance. The association of police sub-inspectors, head constables and constables was [...]

Colours on Camera

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha Captured on camera, the colours of his canvas are raking rave reviews in film festivals from art and cinema connoisseurs. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone V), Ahmedabad, Ajay Chaudhary’s abstract scratches and hatches in black, white and shades of grey have carved a niche for themselves in the world of colours. When filmmaker [...]