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It’s official! The modest Indian Rupee now has a symbol.
After delaying its verdict by many weeks, a five-man jury finally chose IIT post-graduate D.Udaya Kumar’s design as the symbol of the Indian currency from shortlisted entries in an all-India contest late on Wednesday. And on Thursday afternoon, a Union Cabinet meeting and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the design.
Kumar’s symbol is formed by the merger of the Hindi Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem. He wins a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakhs (about US$5400) for his design. He is a postgraduate from Indian Institute of Technology.
"The Devanagari is the only script which has a line on the top. I also put another horizontal line…. so that we get a tricolour," he said.
"I wanted the flag to be flying high and be represented in the symbol," added Kumar, who is joining IIT-Guwahati as an Asst. Professor this week.
I like this symbol. However, I am biased and selfish. Though my native tongue is not Hindi (it is Tamil), I grew up in North and North-East of India where I studied Hindi in schools. I am more comfortable reading and writing in Hindi and struggle when it comes to Tamil. Also the first letter of my name रवि is the Devanagari ‘Ra’. Its a silly and childish reason, but then aren’t we all child-like in our idiosyncrasies? 
On a different note, the value of Rupee is appreciating against the US Dollar, British Pound and the Euro. China has been keeping a tight leash on its currency but am not sure how long then can continue to keep it devalued. Pretty soon I expect prices of Chinese goods to go up. This would include the Apple iPhone, iPods and iPad, which are built in China. The craze for these gizmos continues to fail my understanding.
Pic: View at Sunrise from top of Rockfort Temple at Trichy, India.
I could never have imagined that cancer, especially breast cancer would touch my own life so closely, that too a few days after I ran the Virtual Breast Cancer half-marathon in New York City.
My parents had cancelled their visit to US this January due to my mother’s poor health. I was concerned and decided to go to India in February to see my mother. And I am glad I went.
I had no idea how bad her condition was and how rapidly her health had deteriorated. When I saw her, she was barely able to walk and had lost a lot of weight. She had had a hip surgery 2 years ago and is diabetic. She had also been diagnosed with post-menopausal osteoporosis. I had assumed she was unable to walk due to post-hip surgery complications, but as it turned out, I was terribly wrong.
She looked gaunt, frail, disheveled and depressed. Her immobility had meant fewer trips to the bathroom and infrequent baths. A few days into my stay at her house in Trichy, things got to a stage where she couldn’t even get up to walk and thus could no longer hobble to the toilet on her own. That’s when I realized how grave the situation was.
I took her to a well known Bone and Joint Hospital in Trichy. That’s how most orthopedic hospitals are called here for simplicity’s sake. The X-ray immediately confirmed her right femur (thigh) bone had fractured into two . No wonder she could not walk!
More was to come. A routine examination by a woman doctor also revealed a large tumor in her left breast. A complete scan the next day confirmed the presence of cancer in the breast, left shoulder and left arm. No one had taught her breast self-examination and though she had intuitively known something was seriously wrong with her, she had no idea what it could be. She had to be operated upon twice the same day, once to remove the breast and surrounding tissues and again to fix her thigh bone with a metal plate.
I spent two stressful but fruitful weeks at the hospital. My mother was in much pain after the surgery, but the color had returned to her face and she no longer looked sickly. Her cancer treatment is yet to start but she now knows she can hope to recover.
She is only 69 years old, but with her rapidly worsening condition, she may not have survived for long and so I am glad I went to India. I could see her alive and do what I could to help her. I wish I could have stayed with her longer, but I have work in NY that I cannot abandon. I need to earn a living and when possible, financially support her care.
My mother’s case proves how vital early detection is in the fight against breast cancer.
His reaction to the recent order by Supreme Court of India on staying 27% reservation for OBC’s (Other Backward Classes) in educational institutions like IIT, IIM’s etc., and his say on the recent bandh by the Tamil Nadu Government opposing the SC stay.
Cho Ramaswamy speaks well. He is known for his satire and no nonsense approach. Listen to him. Click on his picture or here for the video of his speech. Its worth watching.
source: indiainteracts.com
Though I notice it several times a day, today was different. I went jogging at the Marina today and noticed a young guy in a nice T-shirt, shorts & sneakers peeing at the wall nearer to Anna Square. Hardly 10-15 feet to his right was the public toilet. He probably did not want to pay a rupee or did it out of habit. He seemed educated, well-to-do and fit and healthy. Why did he do it ?
I was in Bangkok, Thailand recently and never noticed anyone peeing in the streets at Bangkok. I hardly noticed any beggars either. How did that country manage to clean up its image whilst we Indians still maintain our nauseating behavior? Women too do it in India, though they are more discreet and some sense of modesty prevents them from aping the men ! I feel, unless we have stricter laws to maintain public cleanliness, Indians will continue this behavior. There are free public toilets, shopping centers and other such places where you can easily find a toilet. I have always managed to find one. So why is it that people pee in public and even in such places as subway underpass where its closed and the stink makes it unbearable for people using it to cross the road ? I have no answers.
Most of our schools lack proper toilets and hence children are taught to use compound walls and open areas as toilets. I know since I studied in 12 different schools and most of them lacked a proper toilet. Parents too teach their children to relieve themselves in public. We are a nation with the most unhygienic habits.
I really admire Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak of Sulabh who started building public toilets across India. Most of them are clean and well maintained. However, many people ignore them as you need to pay Rs. 5 or less (which is less than 12 US Cents) to use it. Using their urinal is however free. Unless a major revolution in change of behavior comes about, we will continue portraying an image of backwardness and filth, no matter how swanky our cars and IT buildings appear. We immediately need stricter laws to upkeep public cleanliness.
What are your thoughts ?
