Lockdown Diaries: Bamboo House India supports waste pickers, daily wage earners with continued livelihood and aid

'My Waste, My Responsibility' is the mantra followed by Hyderabad-based social enterprise Bamboo House, India. Prashant Lingam, who co-founded the initiative along with his wife Aruna Kappagantula in 2006, moved from making eco-friendly bamboo homes to recycled eco-friendly plastic homes, plastic paver titles and kiosks for street vendors, using tonnes of used plastic garbage that would otherwise end up...

Open Oven: Baking it Even!

With the world witnessing a paradigm shift, food still holds fort as a constant source of relief. Entrepreneurial ventures stocking on comfort and utility food has become the need of the hour. One such immensely popular bakery in Kolkata, India is the Open Oven Bakery. Instituted by Reshma Sengupta, Open Oven has been supplying tasty and healthy baked food...

Lockdown Diaries: Reflections of an Oxford shut-in

Something lockdown has given us all, in perhaps more quantities than we know how to deal with, is time. And as I find myself currently living alone, with my housemates having returned to their family homes, I have had all that time to myself. I had expected this to attract some sympathy - but the more sympathy I received,...

Celebrating excellence of Bengal across the world in the UK

20 July, 2022 will mark the third year of the Bengal Pride Awards at the House of Commons, London, dedicated to celebrating the achievements of the Bengali ethnic community from India and Bangladesh. The Bengali community has been, for decades, contributing to growth not just across South Asia but right across the globe. This is nowhere more evident than in...

KASHISH 2023: special presentation of Maja Ma featuring cast and crew Q&A

Madhuri Dixit-starrer Maja Ma, directed by Anand Tiwari will be screened as a special presentation at the 14th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia's biggest LGBTQ+ film festival which will be held June 7-11, 2023 at Liberty Cinema, and June 8 - 10, 2023 at Alliance Française de Bombay; and also online from June 16-25,...

Yoga helping refugees and immigrants to a better quality of life

It might feel like a tired cliché but the New Year is often a good time to find the inspiration and try new things, in particular hobbies or habits that improve your quality of life. Yoga is a popular way to stay fit and flexible at any age, and Mona Flynn, an award-winning and local yoga teacher, has been...

Yoga: Towards a Healthier and Happier Life

All of us want to lead a happy and peaceful life. But concentrating on only money and fulfilment of materialistic desires cannot give uninterrupted peace and happiness. We need very good health for both body and mind to reach the goal. The point is, how can we get good health? I am happy to report that many ladies and...

Creativity unlocked: an inspiring story from India in the times of the pandemic

While the pandemic has been challenging for us in different ways, Pulkit Datta shows us how he used the lockdown to unlock his dormant creativity “When an admirer offered to pay for one of my sketches, my 10-year-old daughter, standing beside me, literally jumped in joy. I clenched my fists instead. The moment had arrived,” says Pulkit Datta, a mechanical engineer by trade, and an...

Lockdown Diaries: Arya Taware of FutureBricks shares her hands-on attitude to success

I love to start my day properly by making sure I’m awake at 6am. I’ll either go for a morning walk or run everyday before I sit at my desk. I find that routine is everything right now and can help everyone mentally separate the very thin line between personal and professional life. Remaining positive As an entrepreneur and founder, it’s...

Sheer coincidence or a repeated trend of Delhi riots during US Presidential visits

This story is a personal opinion piece by our contributing writer, inspired by the Delhi riots. It was first published in AltMedia News on the 29th February 2020. There is a stark, almost eerie, sense of déjà vu between the sequence of events leading to then US president Bill Clinton’s 2000 visit to India and the recently concluded President Trump’s...