I always like stuff in a nice mixture. Other than my hatred for day-to-daay publications I usually love reading stuff like JAM, JLT, Tehelka and Frontline.
Frontline brings the mixture of serious stuff. A sample can be taken from the May 4, 2007 issue of Frontline.
The Assembly elections at UP is this times cover story. Not something I like to read about too much but the first page in the article gives me one more reason for why politicians are despised in this country. Their arrival at any place leads to that place coming to a stand still. In the picture, Mulayam Singh Yadav is said to be arriving in a helicopter.
Then an interview with Avinash Chander, Director of the Advanced Systems Labarotary, the people behind the construction of the 3000 km range Agni III. Agni III was a beauty to watch. He also talks about their next mission: developing a missile with the 5000 kms range. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which is developing these systems has been blamed several times for not meeting project timeline etc. But everyone’s happy when they deliver the goods, I guess.
Then a pleothara of issues ranging from the SEZ controversy, the police reorganisation debate, the problem of begging and an article on GM cotton all find place.
Next we come to the section that I particularily love. The spotlight on Kerala and the special on the occassion of BARC’s 50 year milestone. A paragraph from the text:
“The BARC campus, spread over 2800 acres and ringed by the Arabian Sea and Trombay Hills. houses the 600 metre long Modular Laboratories and several critical facilities – the New Super Computer Centre, Dhruva, CIRUS and Apsara research reactors, a crystal technology labarotary, a desalination complex, central workshops, a 40 metre tall integral test loop for conducting safety experiments connected with the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor and a robotics complex and so on. A workforce of 13000, including 4200 engineers and scientists, is engaged in a bewildering variety of activities, nuclear and non-nuclear”
BARC – Bhaba Atomic Research Centre has its roots in TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) which began on June 1, 1945 on the campuses of the Indian Institute of Science. This was then relocated to Bombay in September, 1949. BARC was formerly called the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay. It was renamed BARC in 1967 in the memory of Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhaba.
The story on Kerala revolves around the commercial exploitation of elephants in Kerala. Almost every festival in Kerala revolves around elephants. Initially they used to be brought out only for certain festivals. This has led to commercial exploitation of these animals.
All in all, this issue of Frontline is worth a read. You might find these articles online on their website.
Parallel Spirals 