Anuradha Sridharan

One of my favourite hobbies is to analyze search trends of popular topics using Google Trends . Since we rely on Google so much for our informational needs, the search trends give a good indication of various issues pertaining to lifestyle, health, nutrition, shopping etc.  Given that food and nutrition is my passion, I looked at the search trends pertaining to the following diet patterns in India over the last 2 years (Jul 2015 - Jul 2017): 1. Millets (not really a diet per se) 2. Keto diet 3. Paleo diet 4. Vegan diet 5. Gluten free diet     Source: Google Trends Overall, as you can see, interest towards Keto diet is the highest, followed by Paleo and millets. Surprisingly, vegan and gluten free diet aren't as popular as compared to the other diets.   Other observations: 1. Interest towards millets started increasing sometime in the middle of 2016. Karnataka, Telengana and Tamilnadu are the top 3 states where people seem to be really...

Over the past few days, news about plastic rice went viral all over social media. If we stopped for a minute and thought whether the news made any sense before sharing, we could have stopped it from going viral. Do take a few minutes and watch this well-explained video on  - why plastic rice is not an economically viable option, even if it was a reason to sell adulterated rice - why a ball of cooked rice will bounce Our farmers are already facing issues of drought, selling below MSP and what not….Do we have to burden them more by spreading such illogical rumours and curbing the demand for rice? Is this a conspiracy of Western corporations who are behind these rumours, in their grand plans of controlling India’s food market? Maybe, I’m not sure. But from our side, let’s be responsible citizens and stop spreading rumours about plastic rice in social media.  Even before this rumour started, rice has been blamed for the rise of diabetes and obesity rela...

This statement is to all those selfish, complaining, irresponsible people in the country, cribbing about the country's state of affairs, corruption, poverty, bad infrastructure, poor performance in sports etc etc. All these morons know is to complain and do nothing else. I know their typical characteristics :- They eat a chewing gum and throw the wrapper on the road. They throw the garbage bags wherever they want. They complain about how things are better in other countries. They keep talking only about those countries and their leaders. They have no respect for traffic rules. They don't care about other unprivileged people living in the same city as they live. Their ultimate aim in life is to settle abroad and crib about India from wherever they are. They bash at all the sports personalities, especially Indian cricketers on their poor performance. Oh yeah, they think given a chance, they can perform better than those non-performing cricketers, hitting sixers every ball and tak...

One strange act I keep observing among the bus conductors these days is adding a few coins everyday to their pockets (Yes, I mean it). My home is very close to my office and I use the public transportation to travel this short distance. Many a times, the bus conductor asks for 3 or 4 rupees and never gives a ticket. When I ask him/her (there is no gender bias here !) to give me a ticket, they claim that the ticket price is 6 rupees. Initially I didn't understand this (I'm a tuby, isn't it?). Then when I thought about it for a while, I understood what was happening. If you are going to get down within a couple of bus stops, there is no need of a ticket and the conductor pockets the few coins. That's what he claims. Given the crowd of local bus transportation in Bangalore and the absence of ticket checkers (I haven't seen one in the past four years here ! I had seen many ticket checkers in metro trains in Chennai) , I wonder what would be the total amount these con...

Have you ever met a doctor who is patient (not the noun but the adjective), friendly, humorous and down-to-earth? I had the opportunity to meet one such doctor in Mallya hospital last Saturday. I had taken my father for a health checkup and happened to meet this lovely lady, Dr.Sharada. As we entered her consultation room, handing over the reports, she said "Tell me my dear beautiful sir, explain your problem". I started explaining in English and she interrupted me, asking in Tamil whether my father will not speak. I was taken aback. Then she explained slowly that the person who had come to meet the doctor should explain and not the one who has accompanied him. She gives a valid reason that the elder person will not be able to understand his health problem if the doctor and the person's relative have a conversation, neglecting the patient. She perused through the reports and asked my father if he will be able to understand what she is going to explain. I was wondering how...