Tushar Mangl

When floods had ravaged Uttarakhand, a few years ago in 2013, the nation acted if it was shocked. The devastation that followed was largely man-made with a number of unauthorized, illegal buildings flowing down the river carrying along with them bodies, dead and alive, a huge number of them. Now Uttarakhand is in North India and Tamil Nadu in South India. Perhaps it was the distance. They  learned little from the Uttarakhand floods. When floods ravaged Chennai in 2015, the water had simply nowhere to go to. Water bodies were encroached by greed of the local population. Urban planning was like a boring essay no one had ever read about. The city is growing without any method or idea. Just on basis of greed and politics as is every other city or town in India is being planned. And this is costing everyone except the rich guys a lot of money and as in this case, lot of lives. So many are dead just because we don't feel like giving up on our dream of encroaching as much public lan

Delhi is and would always be a city close to my heart. It has the energy and heritage to make any city a great one. Established centuries ago, it has been a city held by great importance by rulers of ancient India. In fact it is due to this fact that When the British wanted complete control over India, they chose Delhi to be the capital of British India. When Qutab bin Aibak established Delhi as capital of his dynasty he built Qutab Minar, an iconic structure that till date is one of the most visited places of architectural importance. When you talk about design, the city has a number of places built since that time. Successive rulers since then raised and built structures, which added to their legacy and reminds us of their time. You can still see the times of the Tughalqs in the ruins of Tughlaqabad and the Red Fort still echoes times of the Mughals who reigned over the entire country from here. This city has seen so many rulers and each ruler has had left a distinct impression on

This time last year, BlogAdda was running the game of blogs competition. I was fortunate enough to be part of team Potliwale Baba, an amazing bunch of people. Our team was amongst the chosen three stories which were incorporated to the book Six Degrees and its out now. Our story Entangled Lives is the second one in the book. The other two stories are by Team By Lines and Team Tete - a -  Ten. I received the book recently, and need I say our story is the best? Of course the other two teams have done an excellent job. Our competition was tough for the writers so brilliant and creative. That's why its a privilege to be part of this book. The book, published by Leadstart is expected to hit the stores soon. 

Last month I was wondering on this point. Why do people celebrate their birthdays? What’s so happy about happy birthday? You are getting older. Lines under your eyes are only increasing. For obvious reasons your youth is gone or going. They say that you are getting wiser but chances are, you will make same mistakes you did last year.  Now that it is your happy birthday, it seems you are getting close to falling into the allopath rigmarole of medicines and diagnostic tests. It hardly seems the occasion to count achievements given your carbon footprint and the state of our planet. Seriously, there is hardly any reason to celebrate other than if you are a politician and people just need an excuse to party. Add in the stress of throwing treats and parties (wherein you are always wondering whom to invite whom not to invite). Communication has advanced and we are flooded with calls, texts, messages for our birthdays. But do those people really mean them or is it just an automated response

"You can ask anyone in Gurgaon. Everyone knows about me," informs Panditji, the owner and Chef at Pandjitji ka Dhaba.  It is just a small one room eatery divided into two halves, one where food is cooked, other to sit and eat. But it has that old world charm to it that makes it stand out to millions of other small time eateries. Founded more than 50 years ago, Pandjit ka Dhaba is situated at a corner of the Sadar Bazar in Gurgaon, one of the oldest markets in the city. There is no special hoarding, no headboards to point it out.Till date the food is cooked on fire lit by wood. Cooking food over wood is a gone trend now. No one does that in cities especially. But that is still alive and well at this place. It is one of the things that set them apart. Other than the special flavour it brings on to the food. I went there on a very hot and humid afternoon for lunch, all alone knowing well, the heat won't be tolerated by my friends. My generation has been air conditi

The hunt for a balanced nutritional diet is a fad these days. Each and every one of us, want to eat healthily but don’t know how? We can’t resist those ever delicious and oily and unhealthy food snacks. But we still want to somehow inculcate the discipline of healthy eating in ourselves. That’s the paradox in which we live in. Add to this the environment we live in. We exhale copious amounts of dirt, smoke, sand, airborne chemicals, which all go inside our body and cause a lot of harm. They affect our immune system and cause harm to us. Then look at the food we eat. Almost all food grown today is heavily loaded with insecticides, fungicides, fertilizer and urea that stick with the crops. We are actually consuming all that chemical load.  It goes into our system and creates an imbalance of chemicals already in our body, which causes so many diseases and problems. How can we remedy this? How can we control all this? It is difficult I agree, but not impossible. A healthy di

It was raining heavily Saturday morning and I wondered how would I reach Strikers, the venue for the WordUp! even organized by IndiBlogger, BigRock and ,me. But soon, the rain slowed down and I was able to reach the venue which was packed by the time I reached. I was late but just in time to listen to the first main speaker of the day, KV Sridhar a.k.a. Pops. His session was informative and highly intelligent. This one was followed by a session by Lakshnipathy Bhat on Blogs&Brands: A Love Hate Story.  Nandita Iyer, a food blogger from Bangalore came up with the session titled -  Blogging and Beyond Next was Rachit Hirani - Content is King. Rachit is into writing about automobiles and stuff.  Still the rules of content remain same across After which snacks and a light lunch was served along with beer and juice. This was a time to chat up and meet with blogger acquaintances new and old.  Next up was Kiran Manral  with Confessions of a Reformed Blogger. The references to Alice