Blog Posts by Suma Nagaraj

As of yesterday, Bangalore has joined the ranks of those cities with the metro rail. The fond epithet given to the city's Metro, Namma Metro (Our Metro), became the talk of the town as well as a trending topic on Twitter, where the predominant sentiment was awe and delight.

The first phase of Namma Metro, running from MG Road to Byappanahalli, a gargantuan 5-years-in-the-making exercise, was made open to the public at around 4 pm, but the anticipation started building up from early morning, when it was inaugurated with dignitaries and the first run was exclusive to journalists and photographers. Freelance journalist @drvivekm captured the mood of the day with his photostream.

Bangalore's jubilant nature knew no bounds with @praxprasanna tweeting 'antu intu Metro bantu' - roughly translates to 'finally, the Metro arrives' in Kannada rhyme. A highly charged @KiranKS attributed the launch to BJP's relentlessness and also put up Namma Metro's route map. @Iamvinays fondly reminisced his

The title's a bit of a misnomer, actually. Beauty queens, by definition, are false in the strictest sense of the word, for the most part. There's not much under that gown, or indeed, under the bikini, that's au naturel, let alone the award-winning answers of noble aspirations of feeding the poor and the hungry.

So why the big hue and cry about Miss Universe's crown princess of this year? Allegedly, this year's Miss Universe Leila Lopes used falsified documents to gain entry (Gasp! Who woulda thunk?) and win the contest (Double gasp! Sacrilege!) To be precise, she obtained documents that suggested she was a student of a British business school, even though she's never lived outside her home country, Angola, to enable her to participate in the beauty contest.

Beauty pageants, even those that have garnered a loyal following over decades now find themselves mired in scandals and controversies, thanks to overambitious aspirants who will not let a small thing like their citizenship, risque

If Omar Abdullah isn't in the news for his tweets on current affairs, he's in the news for his tweets on his, well, current affairs.

Sorry about that.

J&K's flamboyant chief minister has had to quell rabid rumours about his personal life via his chosen mode of communication, Twitter, as breathless speculation continues unabated, as is its wont, in the media, given to Page 3-ness, as is its wont, about his remarriage to someone who, well, might not really exist.

Meteoric rise of stupidity, one would think.

I guess it's pointless to ask what gives us the right to sit in judgement on the personal lives of public figures. Because, you know, the time-tested argument of 'the moment people choose to be in the public sphere, their personal affairs become issues of national importance' continues to hold sway, sometimes taking precedence over all other issues that continue to plague the nation. Right?

Speculation and theorising are not new to media houses, honour-bound that they are to

"Racial profiling refers to the use of an individual's race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement (e.g. make a traffic stop or arrest)" is how Wiki defines the term. I haven't travelled much, so I cannot speak for all those who've been subjected to intrusive interrogation and security checks, but I do wonder sometimes - why does the term invoke a violently negative connotation whenever it's mentioned?

Loathe as I am to cite the example of overbearing film stars like Shah Rukh Khan who kicked up his trademark fuss when he was detained at Newark airport in 2009 while on a promotional run for My Name is Khan, that is the most identifiable instance that comes to mind. The fact that it seemed more like a rather staged attempt at garnering publicity for the film aside, (I still don't believe his name/profile could turn up in an alert list - for hamming, maybe) that is when we actually sat up and took notice of the practice of

Another day, another blast, many more lives lost, another day of constant bickering on TV, another day for indignation and hopelessness. Where exactly are we going wrong in our war against terror?

For starters, I'd like it if we didn't have to hear the platitudes that our politicos insist on mouthing ad nauseum, thank you very much. Here's what we hear every time a bomb rips apart a place, a family, a city - and here's what I'd like to hear instead.

What we hear #1: We strongly condemn the attacks.

Substitute with: We're tired of condemning attacks; if we don't come back to you with the justice that you, as citizens of this country, deserve after trusting us to protect you, we'll add another amendment to our constitution that makes it legally possible for you to remove the expensive security that we're granted with your hard-earned money every time we use the word 'condemn' after an attack.

What we hear #2: It is a cowardly act.

Substitute with: How do we know it's a cowardly attack?

USA and the world reeled in shock as two planes flew straight into the twin towers, destroying not just the twin symbols of success, but leaving tens of thousands of bereaved families in its wake and the nation and its economy reeling in the aftershocks of the attacks even today. As with any other incident of irrevocable loss, 9/11 saw itself becoming inspiration to artistes of all kinds. Writers particularly wove the attack into various narratives as a coping mechanism, something that has attracted its fair share of criticism.

It wouldn't be amiss to state that no other event has inspired literary catharsis in recent history as 9/11 has. Some of the most noteworthy (not necessarily great) fiction in the last decade have used (arguably) the worst ever terror attack in the world's history as the backdrop, some to good effect, with others falling prey to ill-conceived or over-ambitious plot lines.

Jonathan Safran Foer, praised and panned alike for his novel, Extremely Loud and

Mumbai's bloody spiritTerror struck Mumbai again last night, and as is its wont, its much-touted 'spirit' is refusing to cower.

Yes, even before 24 hours are up after another dastardly act on India's financial, cultural and entertainment capital, blanket banalities of 'spirit' and 'resilience' are pouring in. What chokes me is this need to resort to such platitudes, when the souls of the bloodied corpses haven't yet moved on from their earthly bodies, when those bereaved haven't even had the time to deal with the loss of a loved one, when the pain of those injured isn't even close to being abated with pills and care and when many survivors of the carnage are caught inside a claustrophobic, agonising reality of being alive in their own private hell.

Mumbai, in all its preparedness and the oft-hailed never-say-die spirit, wasn't ready for another bloodbath. Who is? But it must serve its ignominious honour of being terror's favourite city, given the number of such attacks it has had to face since 1993. So,

Gul PanagGul Panag is the sole leading lady of Bollywood who can be credited with breaking the beauty queen stereotype - after winning the Miss India title fair and square in 1999, she carved a niche for herself in Bollywood essaying roles of the strong woman protagonist and the insecure thirty-something urban female with equal panache. She professes her love for adventure, nature, biking and sports and endorses healthy living via her chosen platform, Twitter, to communicate with her fans and the world. Twitterverse's most loved Indian celebrity, Gul also actively engages with her scores of fans and followers on and off it.

Anyone who follows her on Twitter can see her passion for two things -  youth and community. Lending her voice to causes that make a difference is nothing new to this outspoken actress, activist and humanitarian. She's now on a one-of-a-kind crusade in bringing together all these elements together to give back to society and mobilise people young and old to bringing this