Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Friday, 18 May , 2007 Hyderabad: Five persons were killed and eight others, including two children, were injured when a powerful bomb exploded during Friday prayers at the historic Mecca mosque in the Charminar area of the old city in Hyderabad. Two live bombs were also detected from the spot soon after the explosions and were defused. The bomb exploded when thousands of people were gathered in the mosque for Friday prayers, DCP, South Zone, Kanta Rao, said. The injured, some of them bleeding profusely, were rushed to Osmania and other hospitals by the worshippers in whatever modes of transport they could arrange. The explosion created such a panic that those gathered for the prayers started running towards the exit gate of the mosque, said to be over 400 years old and considered sacred by Muslims in and outside the state. A large posse of police personnel, who arrived on the scene, faced an angry crowd, who pelted stones at them and the shops in the vicinity. Police resorted to lath...

Legend has it that the 16th century Rajput ruler Maharana Pratap had survived in exile by eating rotis made of grass. In 2007, Gangaram Gautam , a daily wage labourer in Kanpur , seems so inspired by Maharana Pratap’s example that he eats 2 kg of grass every day, and thrives. “I was around 7 years old when I first ate grass. I liked the taste and gradually increased my intake without letting my family members know about this habit. I had heard about Maharana Pratap eating ghaas ki roti and I thought I would eat it too,” he says. Now, at 41, Gangaram feels “incomplete” unless he has eaten his staple diet of 2 kg of grass. “Initially I would eat normal food along with the grass, but for the past four or five years I have been eating only grass. After eating grass, I walk at a speed of 15 km per hour in order to digest the food,” he explains. Every day, when he feels hungry, Gangaram goes to nearby parks and gardens and “grazes” till he has had his fill. “In the beginning the gardeners ...