Vijee Venkatraman

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Casteless Collective & Modi Mastan

Stars twinkled overhead; sparks flew from the embers of corn sellers’ coal stoves at Besant Nagar Beach. It was a typical Sunday evening crowd—families, couples and vendors. But at the far end, in the Urur Olcott fishing village, something interesting was underway: the Chennai Kalai...

Eyes of Madras 2.0

The last article I filed with my beloved editor. An autorickshaw moving barge-like through a flooded street. Drenched boys dancing in the wake of a scooter splash. A dutiful mailman wading through the knee-deep water to deliver letters. There was nary a cloud in the...

AI and Breast Cancer

Machine intelligence takes a big step into the clinic, with a technology that helps identify patients with an elevated risk of breast cancer. In 2014, Regina Barzilay learned that she had breast cancer. As a professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,...

The Best Little Bird Sanctuary in India

If you went to school in Chennai, chances are you have visited the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, some fifty miles south of the city. As an eighth grader, I went there on a school excursion for the first time. Oblivious to the birds in the distance,...

Eat, Sleep, and Move Right

Our obsession with digital screens is depriving us of sleep and hurting our health. Study after study shows that we are staying up till late, glued to our gadgets, which in turn leads to another unhealthy habit: night-time snacking. “Even healthy food eaten at this...

Flat lay conceptual colourful various uncooked vegan food and hand holding frying pan on rustic wooden background. Healthy eating food concept still life.

Make Home Cooking a Habit — It’s good for you

Physician-chef Rani Polak explains why clinicians should learn cooking skills—and teach them to patients. Midway through medical school in Jerusalem, Rani Polak had doubts about his chosen path. He decided to quit and pursue a different passion, cooking, at Le Cordon Bleu academy in Sydney....