In Dubai, we heard a rumour that people in power tamper with weather reports so that the temperature never goes over 50 degrees Celsius, because if it does, everyone gets to take the day off. We wish there was a similar caveat for Delhi too, because then we’d be egging on this heat wave instead of dying for it to stop. We even have something you can do with all your days off: language school Zabaan has recently started a set of classes on India, where you can make up for never having paid attention in school. Summer holiday, indeed.

 

Taking A Nation

We’ve written about Zabaan’s free Urdu script lessons before, and their Hindi classes have grown popular amongst expats. And now, founder Ali Taqi has decided to start the courses on India after several requests. Teachers include ICS exam-givers, former IIT students and an architect who conducts the Indian art and architecture program.

 

The best part about the classes is that they are completely customizable and can be tweaked depending upon your interests.  Unfortunately, this also means that there are no set batches, and so you have to either sign up for one-on-one lessons or wait for enough people to join to begin. Most courses last for 10 sessions and about 15 hours of your time, not including site visits.

 

Course Grind

We are particularly excited about a course in Indian polity and one on travel, around the country, which focuses on not-so-visited parts in UP and MP. There are also more standard lessons: Indian history and culture, art and architecture.

 

Zabaan has conducted Hindi and Urdu classes on Skype for a while now, and they’re offering the India lessons online too. Just remember to put on your pajamas before turning on the webcam, though.

 

Getting There: Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 9650122722 to know more and register for the classes, F12/A, ground floor Kailash Colony, Rs 1,000 per person per class for a group of 5 to 10 people.

 

It must be hard to be a pair of ears in Mumbai.  Two poor paisley-shaped souls, roaming the streets and malls and weekend halls, listening to incessant honking, cantankerous co-passengers and bands that try to be better.   

So when a sound that's new and different (not even entirely awesome) comes along, it makes those ears prick up. Introducing Karma 101 that claims to be India’s “first legitimate podcast network”, started by Jude D’souza of vinyl store Nova Audion (Hey Jude!) and friend Rishi Alwani about two months ago.  This, a project by friends, aims to be your choice of listening during morning and evening commutes.

Sound Check

Conversational, tongue-in-cheek and sometimes so, so random, Karma 101 discusses topics that range from technology and pop culture to politics and food. The podcasts are anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour long and feature food bloggers, stand up comics and what appears to be just friends of friends rambling on. Be prepared for cuss words, unfiltered opinions on Narendra Modi, conversations that go astray and bursts of laughter during the length of the program.

The podcast recently introduced posts dedicated solely to food during which Jude is joined by self-confessed food lovers and bloggers, Insia Lacewalla and Roxanne Bamboat. The girls introduce a fun angle to the podcasts with reviews about places around town, but they could be better edited and slightly more structured.  

Slicker and more professionally put together is the All India Bakchod podcast featuring stand-up comics Tanmay and Khamba, who do a funny bit about a conversation between Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt in jail.  

Fun for a bit and random to plug into, but we're waiting for Karma 2.0 that we're told will have better produced podcasts, a roster of interesting guests and  a video equivalent for people who would rather watch than just listen.

(Ear) drum roll, please!

Getting there: Karma 101, view the Soundcloud page here; Twitter page here, free!

When was the last time you went to a house party that was truly fun? This writer can’t remember, with all of them blurring into each other, soaked in a mixture of random, friend-bought wines, dips and wafers. Enter Anandi Paliwal, party planner extraordinaire and owner of Marigold Diary, who’ll source products for your next innovative, different and yes – fun! – soiree.

 Buyline

Formerly having worked with brands like Burberry and Gucci, Anandi is a woman of many interests including tarot and reiki. Her pet project however, is Marigold Diary, a blog where she posts about people providing cool lifestyle services, from a lighting consultant to skin products.  She’s been helping friends buy gifts for years, but last month decided to offer registries as a service on her blog, where you can ask her to source pretty much anything, according to your budget.

So far it’s been things like handmade toys of the sort you don’t get anymore (from Dastakaar) and children’s books for return presents (from Book Nook), but she claims she’s ready for anything. Sit with her for your thirtieth and your friends will know exactly what to get you. Happy birthday!

Getting There: Call 9873011304 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , prices start at Rs 500 per person.

Going through the list of Dolch words, we realize Norah Jones could have been singing to someone with a learning disability. “Come away with me in the night.” All on the list. A writing challenge after our own hearts, the Dolch Project is collecting stories for children (aged 6 to 14) with learning disabilities, but the trick is you have to stick to the 220 words on the list.

Dolch & Gabbana

Maybe you’re a bit confused. Dolch words are essentially another name for ‘sight words’. Learning disabled kids don’t learn phonetically like other children because they have a tough time with vocabulary and need words that can be understood on sight, or instantly. Like ‘school’ or ‘play’ or ‘yellow’. They learn to recognize these words in sentences, and when put into a context—like a story—they’d be able to have “more control” over the language, as an image on the Dolch Project Facebook page says.

That’s where you come in. Submit a story using the sight words we’ve linked to above (you can also use a few other words if you like, but it’s recommended to keep them short and easy to understand) and your story could be part of a collection used by schools to promote reading among learning disabled children. Word!

What: Voice lessons with Ashwati Parmeshwar, call 9873723356, Rs 800 an hour.

 

Why:  Professionally trained Ashwati Parmeshwar (who has a major in music and a certificate with distinction from Trinity College) is now doing voice and vocal lessons from her home, so get that inner Pavarotti out and about. She teaches a mix of theory and technique—apparently the breathing lessons are great for your abs!—which involve working with the student to see what they’d like to sing. Broadway, movies or Adele? She’s got sheet music, which she’ll teach you to read and work with you on a variety of vocal exercises so you can reach high notes. Requirements? A willingness to practice at home if you want to get good really fast, and keeping an open mind to some of the exercises which include, um, making funny faces in front of the mirror. Glee!

 

When: You want to stop (American) Idol worship.

Going through the list of Dolch words, we realize Norah Jones could have been singing to someone with a learning disability. “Come away with me in the night.” All on the list. A writing challenge after our own hearts, the Dolch Project is collecting stories for children (aged 6 to 14) with learning disabilities, but the trick is you have to stick to the 220 words on the list.

Dolch & Gabbana

Maybe you’re a bit confused. Dolch words are essentially another name for ‘sight words’. Learning disabled kids don’t learn phonetically like other children because they have a tough time with vocabulary and need words that can be understood on sight, or instantly. Like ‘school’ or ‘play’ or ‘yellow’. They learn to recognize these words in sentences, and when put into a context—like a story—they’d be able to have “more control” over the language, as an image on the Dolch Project Facebook page says.

That’s where you come in. Submit a story using the sight words we’ve linked to above (you can also use a few other words if you like, but it’s recommended to keep them short and easy to understand) and your story could be part of a collection used by schools to promote reading among learning disabled children. Word!

The idea for the Facebook page and project comes from 29-year-old Bodhisatwa Dasgupta, who lives up to his name by being a rather enlightened copywriter at an ad agency. A year ago, a friend approached him, asking if he could do something for some kids he knew with learning disabilities. Bodhisatwa says it took him a year to get back to his friend, because he was trying to figure out a way to make it work. Which is when it hit him—curating literature from other people using only the sight words, so that kids would have more reading options.

Up to now, the biggest user of Dolch words in kids literature is Dr Suess, but there’s only so much Cat In The Hat that one child can take. Bodhisatwa plans to use as many stories as he can—maybe even spread them out into volumes. Working title: Dolch Book Of Fantastic Tales.

No Kidding

It began with just the idea and the Facebook page, but now, just over three weeks later, the likes are pouring in, and Bodhisatwa has had some interest from publishers. New plans include selling book in stores, not just schools and developing a website with an app you can type directly into, which will highlight all the non-Dolch words in red.

Submissions should be between 600 to 1000 words long and submitted through Facebook or email. One day, yours could be the first story some lucky kid gets to read in its entirety, so make it good.

Getting there: Email submissions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or submit via Facebook message here, use words on the list from here.

We've all been there. The silence of the conference room. The pointless power point. The endless brainstorming session. The loud rumble of the tummy.

It's way past lunch time and through the all-glass conference room, a shiny steel dabba on your desk wears a gleaming smile, mocking almost. But duty calls and lunch might have to be skipped. Suddenly that pie chart seems edible.

While this writer can't count the number of times her dabba has been ignored at her previous TV channel job, she's always felt a strong pang of guilt about letting her food go to waste. Which is why Share My Dabba seems like such a super concept. An organic campaign by the Happy Life Welfare Society and the Dabbawala foundation, Share My Dabba aims to kill two birds with one dabba – food wastage and the hunger crisis in Mumbai.

Read more to find out how you can be a part of the process:

So what is Share My Dabba?
Share My Dabba is an initiative to get uneaten food left behind in dabbas to hungry children on the street.

Why should I Share My Dabba?

Everyday, two hundred thousand children in Mumbai go hungry, with two starving to death. In the dabbawala system, of the 120 tons of food transported, approximately 16 tons goes to waste. Need another reason?

How Does It Work?

If you have any food left in in your dabba, all you need to do is put a Share sticker on it. The sticker allows the dabbawalas to identify these from the empty ones. These are in turn passed on to volunteers that distribute the food amongst the children.

Intrigued by the concept, we asked some of Mumbai's coolest chefs and dabba put-togethers what they would make, if they had to share their dabbas.

Chef Gresham Fernandes, Executive Chef at Impresario and Co-Founder of Gypsy Kitchen
If I had to share my dabba with street children, I would concentrate on making it healthy, wholesome and nutritious. A meal packed with starch, fibre and protein, while still being comfort food. I would recommend a potato cauliflower bhaji, dal khichdi with mutton or chicken stock and salad.

Shilarna Vaze, Le Cordon Bleu Chef and Founder at Gaia Home Chef

I would pack Mexican chicken, mango jalapeno salsa, refried beans and soft tortillas as these are easy to eat as much as you want and share the rest. Plus, it’s a treat!

Sai Gundewar, CEO, Foodizm

If you’re looking for something healthy and economical, I would suggest a tossed fig salad made with fresh iceberg lettuce and figs, nuts of your choice, cottage cheese or feta cheese, olive oil, fresh lemon juice and pepper. Chop up the ingredients and mix together for a wholesome meal.

Shonali Sabherwal , Macrobiotic counselor and Chef

I would recommend a moong salad and here’s a quick recipe: cook the moong and set aside. Once cooled add carrot, apple, bell pepper, lemon juice and ginger. Heat oil and add mustard seeds, green chili to the green moong mixture. Add in coriander leaves and salt.

Getting there: Share My Dabba, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject Share My Dabba for more details, view the Facebook page here, view the video here.

In this weekly column, filmmaker Danish Aslam will be your purveyor of the finest quality random facts, useless trivia and other esoterica from the world wide web. He lives mostly behind a keyboard and may or may not be a wizened old green man who speaks in grammatically incorrect aphorisms. You can find more on his home page http://pictually.me/dontpanic

First off, apologues in advance as there will be no column next week. But I'll be back the week after. So, see you on the other side....

A Boy And His Atom

Stop-motion movies seem to be the rage these days. So when IBM decides to venture into the field for an ad, you know it's going to be special. And 'A Boy & His Atom' can definitely be called that. It's been certified by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the smallest movie ever made. And the reason for that is that the entire movie has been made by moving actual atoms, frame by frame. Yup, you heard me: atoms. Created using technology developed by scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Lab, this ad shows atoms magnified to about 100 million times their original size and manipulated using needles that would draw within one nanometer of individual atoms to move them into place for the next frame. Apparently, this is IBM's way of predicting a future where an individual bit of data can be stored on no more than 12 atoms (compared to a million now). Which means that every movie in the world can be carried around on your iPhone. Show me where to sign up!

Spock vs Spock

And since we are on the topic of great ads and all things science, here's my nerdgasm pick of the week. The new ad for the 2013 Audi S7 is every Star Trek fan’s dream come true. All I want to tell you is this: 2 Spocks in a brutal race to the finish, 3D chess and Vulcan Neck Pinches. Live long….and prosper!

City Of Anarchy

The Kowloon Walled City - probably one of the most famous slums in the world. And not to take anything away from the 'slumdogs' and guided tours of Dharavi, but this Chinese oddity wins simply on the strength of its architecture alone. Surrounded by a stone wall (duh!), the alleys in this 6.5 acre plot were around 6 feet wide on average and the dense network of interconnected staircases and passageways meant that you could apparently go from the north end to the south without ever touching the ground. Think Hogwarts without the magic. Or space. Or big-budget movie adaptations. With very poor lighting. It was finally demolished in 1993 and a park now occupies the spot. But on the 20th anniversary of this event, the South China Morning Post has created an interesting infographic that shows you a cross-section of life inside the Walled City.

The last time we saw a butterfly was as a tramp stamp in the line for the loo, the wings above a coccyx little bit worse for wear and age. Not a pleasant sight, but it made us want to invite the real deal back into our lives. Luckily, a new report says Delhi now has 90 species of butterflies so we got JNU professor, biodiversity expert and lepidopterist Dr Surya Prakash to give us tips on the best way to get them into our homes.

Plants To Get:

Butterflies are host specific, which means each chooses a certain plant to lay their eggs on.

Citrus or orange for the lime butterfly.

Karipatta or citrus for the Common Jay or Common Mormon.

Kalanchoe for the Red Pierrot.

Milkweed for the Plain Tiger.

Also the castor oil plant or the lantana is visited by almost every butterfly.

bpb tip: use our gardening guide to source the plants and build your own balcony garden.

Common Butterflies In Delhi:

Keep an eye out for these winged beauties—Pioneer, Common Gull, Yellow, Peacock and Pansy. 

How To Watch And Photograph Butterflies:

Dr Prakash’s tip is simple: just keep an adequate distance. Butterflies don’t like to be crowded, apparently.

The Best Places to Butterfly Watch:

Don’t have space for pots or just a really terrible gardener? Go here instead.

Sanjay Van, Vasant Kunj.

Jawarhal Nehru University, JNU Ring Road.

Aravali Biodiversity Park, Gurgaon.

Yamuna Biodiversity Park, Milan Vihar.

Okhla Bird Park, Greater Noida.

Lodhi Gardens, Lodhi Road.

Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, Tughlaqabad.

Read:

The Book Of Indian Butterflies by Isaac Kehimkar.

Butterflies Of Peninsular India by Krushnamegh Kunte.

Getting there: Email Dr Prakash at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or join the Facebook group Indian Butterflies & Insects for more help and tips on identifying butterflies.

What: UEA International Non-Fiction Writing Course, ICCR, Kolkota, mail  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or send sample to School of Literature, Drama & Creative Writing, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom, Rs 25,000 per person for 8 days, accommodation not included.

Why: The University of East Anglia—which has one of the top writingprogrammes in the world—has just announced its second international creative writing workshop in non-fiction led by Amit Chaudhuri and Patrick French. To participate, you need to send in a 2,000 word sample with your CV and reference.  This is a good course for people interested in “biography, essay, travel writing, popular history writing, psychogeography and the urban experience.” Plus you get to meet and hang out with talented aspiring writers from around the world, and receive a certificate of completion at the end. Shake(speare) and bake!

When: Last date for applications is 7 June, 2013. Course starts on July 16.