The OPEN Magazine (to which I have taken quite a fancy owing to its insightful articles) carries this article by Hartosh Singh Bal titled Bhopal: The Other Story

On the forthcoming 25th anniversary of perhaps the biggest man-made tragedy of our country, Hartosh writes as to why the Bhopal victims are better off without the hordes of visitors who will fly in to commemorate this rather dark past.

An interesting excerpt:

If you want the truth, don’t pay attention to those who parachute in for a day or two or those who claim to understand Bhopal from London, don’t even take my word for any of this. Go to Bhopal armed with a knowledge of Hindi and see for yourself. Allow yourself a month or two in the city to see how the victims who cannot obtain the medicine they need are helped by a story on the front page of the New York Times or a book on the Booker shortlist.

Read the complete article here.

Amidst a lot of hue and cry over the delay in prosecuting Kasab, here is Amit Desai giving a sane view on Why Kasab deserves a fair trial.

Do read, especially the explanation on why Kasab is being tried under the Indian Penal Code and not under an anti-terrorism law.

Link obtained via Dilip D’Souza.

Forbes India carries this wonderful article on Dr. Devi Shetty and his Narayana Hrudyalaya Institute of Cardiac Sciences. While the world over cardiac surgeries are very expensive, Dr. Shetty has managed to bring down the costs significantly.
The article talks about his “Wal-mart approach to healthcare” which is essentially using scale to negotiate costs. The article says:

Scale helped Shetty shave off costs of medical tests too. Take blood gas analysis. At Rs. 350-400 per test, it forms the bulk of the cost for an ICU patient in India. At Narayana Hrudyalaya it costs merely Rs. 8.50 per test!

Read the complete article: The World’s Largest Heart Factory

Anil Kumble has called it quits. And Peter Roebuck, whom I had written about here, gives his tribute in this article:

Yesterday, Kumble declared India’s innings so that he could say a proper goodbye to his supporters. And then he declared his own innings closed, left as always with a determined look in his eyes and head held high. As far as tributes are concerned let us leave the last word to John Wright, his friend and sometime coach.

Walking with Wright years ago, I asked him why he had brought a bowler as aged and limited as Kumble to Australia. He said: “I need him in the rooms.” Next day, Kumble took five wickets and later India won the match.

Read the article here.

A perfect example of ridiculous writing. ToI is probably the only piece of paper that can patronize, or rather afford to patronize, this particular writer.