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Tuesday, Oct 30, 2007
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New Delhi

Inside delhi

Winter is here

Winter arrives in the Capital with barely perceptible changes -- a chill in the evening air, frost on the windowpane, vapour in your breath, the smell of naphthalene from the clothes -- and heralds a new routine in the minds and biological clocks of people.

Even as getting out of bed in the morning gets increasingly procrastinated, for a bunch of hobos on Parliament Street, winter holds no romanticised charms.

Ever since a bus stop that offered them partial shelter was razed to the ground, these migrant labourers have taken to sleeping on the pavement adjacent to the Reserve Bank of India. As the sun descends each evening and a shroud of darkness engulfs the city, these daily wagers from Bihar and West Bengal scurry about with bare essentials required for a nocturnal repose and struggle to mark their nightly spots on the pavement with newspapers and coarse sheets.

Acrid tobacco smoke hangs over their mini-settlement as the weary lot discuss the million intricacies that form the basis of every life irrespective of the class and caste status of an individual. Huddled together for warmth like the rejected offspring of a street-dwelling canine, the labourers know full well that in a month from now the relentless cold will not be outwitted with such ease. Blankets will be required and firewood will be mandatory.

What seems most ironic about this saga is that the seat of power in this country -- Parliament House -- is barely a few yards up the straight road from where this powerless lot hit the sack every night.

Kunal Diwan

Jack Kilby Quiz

There are a few men whose insights and professional accomplishments have changed the world. In memory of one such man, Jack Kilby, whose invention of the microchip laid the foundation for modern microelectronics, Texas Instruments India is organising its fifth annual quiz across the country.

Titled “National Texas Instruments Jack Kilby Science and Technology Quiz”, the regional round in Delhi will be held at Kamani Auditorium this Wednesday.

Open to schools from Class VIII to Class X, the quiz – on the lines of the one held in Chennai last week -- will allow a maximum of six teams per school, with two members in each team. The winners along with a teacher will be flown to Bangalore for the final rounds. The national rounds will take place in Bangalore on November 11.

Last year, the quiz attracted participation by more than 1,500 teams, making the event one of the largest science and technology quizzes for students in the country.

Madhur Tankha

For power’s sake

The Delhi Government’s Power Department has been going all out to promote energy-saving initiatives. To make consumers opt for energy-saving techniques, the department has been encouraging use of energy-efficient appliances like CFLs and tubes by throwing in freebies.

Taking the initiative further, the Capital’s power distribution companies and manufacturers of these energy-efficient system and appliances too have been wooing consumers with giveaways.

At the “Urja Haat” inaugurated by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday, manufacturers are trying to outdo each other by tapping on the consumers’ penchant for taking home free gifts.

Manufacturers of CFLs are wooing customers not just with the customary “buy one, get one” schemes; some of them have offers bordering on the ludicrous. One manufacturer, for instance, is offering a free soap on purchase of a CFL.

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

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