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

What do you get when you cross Australian beach culture with a desire to remain clothed in a way acceptable to Muslim women? If you’re designer Aheda Zanetti, you get what she says is the world’s first twopiece Islamic swimsuit, the burkini. While other Islamic swimsuits exist, Zanetti says her lightweight, head-to-ankle costumes are the first to be streamlined down to a two-piece suit incorporating a head covering. With Australian beaches full of girls in skimpy bikinis and revealing one-pieces, there was a “hole in the market that needed to be filled” for more modest beachwear, she said. “A lot of girls were missing out, a lot of women were missing out, on a lot of sporting activities, including swimming,” Ms Zanetti told AFP from the clutter of her south-western Sydney shopfront. “There was nothing really suitable for them to wear if they wanted to participate in sport. And if they did participate in sports with a veil, or whatever they wanted to wear, there really wasn’t something

Kite is believed to have originated in China. Initially, kites were used in the military as a communication tool. Different messages were communicated mainly via different coloured kites. Gradually, kites became a popular form of recreation as well as art. However today kites are mainly flown for recreation and art. Uses Kites have been used for delivery of messages and for observation, and by using kite aerial photography in the military. Kites have been used for scientific purposes, such as precursors to aircraft, and were instru mental in the development of early flying craft. Alexander Graham Bell experimented with very large man-lifting kites, as did the Wright brothers and Lawrence Hargrave. Kites can be used for radio technical purposes, either by kites carrying antennas. However captive balloons may be more convenient for such experiments, because kite carried antennas require sometimes running when there is no wind, which may be not always possible with the heavy equipment an

Jaisalmer: Sixteen-year-old M. Kalpesh suffers from a disorder which has led to paralysis of his limbs. His mother Rukmani Bai does not have the money to get him treated. Rukmani Bai lost her husband Mangilal, the sole breadearner of the family, in 1999. Mangilal worked in a factory on daily wages. After his death she has been literally left on the streets. She says her son has been suffering from the disorder since he was a child. For the last five years, she has tried to get her son some medical attention, but her poor financial condition has always come in the way. The mother and son live in a shack and come out on the streets every day to beg. “No doctor at the government hospitals in Jodhpur, Jaipur and Gujarat is kind enough to treat my son,” says Rukmani Bai. She gives her son a liquid diet because he is not able to consume anything else and survives on begging.

Dubai: South Asian workers coming to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will now be able to complete their visa formalities in their own countries. UAE’s labour ministry will soon set up offices in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to complete work permit formalities like medical tests, signing of e-contracts as well as for providing working mission visas instead of visit visas. The new initiative will virtually curb the practice of visit visas and will ensure all rights to the workers such as medical care, accommodation, and the right to complain at the ministry, the Khaleej Times reported. “The working mission visa will be valid for six months and will be renewable for another six months to ensure that the worker can change job if he desires,” a spokesperson of the labour ministry said. Last month, during the visit of UAE’s labour minister Dr Ali Bin Abdulla AlKa’abi, India and the UAE signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to safeguard the interests of the Indian workers in

Bajaj Auto Ltd re-entered the scooter market after an eight-year gap on Wednesday by launching its nongear scooter Kristal. The scooter market is estimated at 10 per cent of the two-wheeler market. Of this, the non-geared scooters count for 35,000 vehicles a month. Kristal demonstrated the technological superiority of Bajaj Auto and has 25 special features. The two-wheeler giant Bajaj would also co me up with another light sport scooter which is under advanced stages of development. The all-new 4-stroke Kristal comes with the patented DTS-i technology along with ExhuasTech for better pickup and mileage. The scooter priced at Rs 35,417 (ex-Chennai). The scooter would be initially available in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, and in other States after three months. The Krystal is kind of a disappointment. It’s smaller than the [Indian Honda Activa]. It has all sorts of funky angularity built into the design (crystal-like?) The scooter has lots of gadgets added to it, an underseat storage ligh

An Australian zoo is claiming a world first by putting humans on public display in one of its enclosures. Six humans took up residence in a disused Adelaide Zoo orangutang enclosure last week for a month-long experiment dubbed “the human zoo”. Groups of humans will spend week-long shifts locked in the enclosure during the zoo’s opening hours, with the public viewing them through large perspex windows and live webcams. Visitors are invited to vote for their favourite human, who will also be studied by animal behaviourists trying to work out ways of improving living conditions for captive great apes such as chimpanzees. University of South Australia animal psychology specialist Carla Litchfield is spending the entire month in the enclosure with the humans. “Part of what I do at the zoo is to come up with activities for great apes and other animals, to stimulate them behaviourally and keep their brains occupied,” she told ABC radio. “I never know what it feels like, so a month in there wi

With characteristic showmanship, Steven P. Jobs introduced Apple’s long-awaited entry into the cellphone world on Tuesday, pronouncing it an achievement on a par with the Macintosh and the iPod. The creation, the iPhone, priced at $499 or $599 (approx Rs 22,000 or Rs 26,500), will not be for everyone. It will be available with a single carrier, Cingular Wireless, at midyear in the United States. Its essential functions — music player, camera, Internet browser and email tool as well as phone — have become commonplace in handheld devices. But it was the ability to fuse those elements with a raft of innovations and Apple’s distinctive design sense that had the crowd here buzzing. Apple’s goal, Mr Jobs said, was to translate the Macintosh computer’s ease of operation into the phone realm. “We want to make it so easy to use that everyone can use it,” he said. And he was clearly betting on translating Apple’s success with the iPod music player to a hot category of multifunction devices. Unde