Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 20 August 2018 | Page 22

IN & AROUND
THE SUBCONTINENTAL MENU
IT IS A
WOOFDERFUL LIFE
Homo sapiens persuasion. “They
had a vet on call, a budget for their
upkeep and regular medical check­
ups, and were habituated to sleep­
ing on mats,” a staffer said. Last
year, this privileged class of eight
canines was briefly disco­m­f­ited
when the building was ren­­ovated,
but the luxury has returned, with
plush new facilities, including toys,
mattres­ses, and “lots of hiding
places,” says a delighted Abodh
Aras of Welfare of Stray Dogs.
A
dog’s house is his castle—alm­
ost literally. Bombay House,
the 94-year-old building that
ser­­ves as the Tata Group’s global
HQ, has been a comfortable den
for stray dogs for decades. When
Ratan Tata became chairman of
Tata Sons in 1991, he regularised
his tenants, furnishing amenities
that were the equal of anything
available to employees of the
ORIGAMI OF RAEBARELI
TEMPLE OF LEARNING
P
UTTING pen to paper can be a
daunting task when you’re over­
come by inertia—but what about
when the pen is the paper? No, this
isn’t some Zen koan or Heraclitean
riddle. The Khandeshwari Ashram,
located in Dalmau in Uttar Pradesh’s
Raebareli district, has launched an
eco-friendly initiative to get its dev­
otees to make pens from discarded
newspapers rather than plastic. The
ashram’s head, Mahant Krishna
Bihari, explained the process to
reporters thus: “We cut out a long
strip from the newspaper and apply
glue on the strip of paper. Slowly and
carefully, we pull the paper up from
the tip of the refiller to get a pen-like
look. Finally, we secure the paper
with glue and allow it to dry.” The
pens are reportedly being distribu­
ted free of cost to students, although
some voluntarily pay in order to
support the initiative.
A
BEAT THAT!
W
E’VE all heard of rain
dances (associated with
the other kind of Indian), but
cucumber prayers? A Sikh
priest in Derby, England, has
grown what might be the
world’s longest cucumber,
measuring a reported 51
inc­hes—and still growing.
Raghbir Singh Sanghera, 75,
who officiates at a local gurd-
wara and is a keen gardener,
prays over the plant every day.
He was quoted as saying, “I
have made a seat to sit next
to it. I pray that it grows, that
it keeps us all healthy and
that everybody stays well and
happy.” He plans to submit
it to the Guinness Book of
Records, but the world record,
42.13 inches, is restricted to
standard cucumbers, whereas
Sanghera’s specimen appears
to be an Armenian cucumber
(for which there is no estab-
lished record). So, he may
have to apply for a new title.
school inside a temple is nothing
unusual. A school with Muslim
teachers and Hindu pupils—where a
teacher’s greeting of ‘Salam Aleikum’
can prompt replies of ‘Jai Shri Ram’
from the class—inside a Hindu tem­
ple in an Islamic republic? Perhaps a
little out of the ordinary. The mainly
scheduled-caste Hindu commun­
ity of the shanty town of Rehman
Colony in Jamshed Town, Karachi,
had struggled in vain to set up a
school for their 300 children, with
a previous attempt being thwarted
by the bribe-hungry police. So, they
offered their own temple as a site to
the Initiator Human Development
Foundation, a NGO. A school was set
up inside, and Muslim teachers were
recruited last year. Teachers and
students celebrated Holi and Diwali
together at the temple.
Illustrations by SAJITH KUMAR
22 OUTLOOK 20 August 2018