Mumbaiwale: A bestseller in Bandra

Hill Road gem: An underground library with 10,500 books, run by a chemist who ought to be in a book too

MUMBAI Updated: Apr 14, 2018 00:51 IST

Rachel Lopez 
Hindustan Times

Gharda libarary at Bandra in Mumbai.(Satish Bate/HT Photo)

I almost missed it. Walking down Hill Road, Bandra, where you can spend more in a restaurant than at the fashion stalls outside it, there are enough distractions. I nearly glossed over a billboard advertising a lecture that took place the day before.

But the venue seemed interesting – a library right on Hill Road, a few steps from Elco Arcade. You’re forgiven if you didn’t know about it either. The Bai Ratanbai Gharda Memorial Library is in the basement of Gharda House, a glass-fronted, nondescript building obscured by hawkers and kiosks.

THE PLACE

Walk in and you’ll realise it’s a treat for book lovers. The 10-year-old library is air-conditioned, spotless (none of the dustiness you’d associate with book collections), and contains more than 10,500 titles. Bharati Banerjee, the librarian, says between 600 and 800 new books are added annually.

There are thrillers, bestsellers, literary classics and the usual get-smart, grow-rich, expand-business books. But if you want to let your mind wander, this is the place. I found art and linguistics books (finally!), huge sections on medicine and world history (more than World Wars!), the complete Lonely Planet series (hurrah!), volumes of poetry and hard-to-find guides to world religion. There are biographies of everyone from Bill Clinton, Richard Wagner and Mao to Kiran Bedi, Nehru and Tilak.

THE MAN

The library has been set up by a man whose own story would make great reading. Dr Keki Gharda, 88-year-old scientist and Padma Shri, grew up in Bandra, attended St Stanislaus school down the street and is one of India’s brightest minds in chemistry.

He started off humbly, creating chemical reagents at home and supplying them to Elphinstone College, where he studied. His first job was manufacturing blue dyes in his 2,000 square-foot rented shed in Vakola in 1964. But something about an imported dye, phthalogen brilliant blue, popularly called German Blue, and used in school uniforms, gave him an idea. Gharda realised it was possible not only recreate the dye, but make it stronger. The new version came to be called Gharda Blue, and, if you’ll pardon the pun, fast caught on.

His company moved to agrochemicals in the 1970s, developing a faster, safer and cheaper way to produce a herbicide than a Swiss company. The method is now called the Indian Process – and the company is one of the largest producers of the chemical.

Think of him when you look at an Apple product. Gharda developed a polymer that keeps iPhones from overheating. Rare for a chemicals manufacturer, he’s not patented any of his unique processes, sharing it with the world.

The library honours his mother, who loved reading. It has 250 members, which is good news for you. The books you want will likely be available, you can browse in peace, and it’s a good reason to be distracted on Hill Road.

CHECK IT OUT

WHERE: Bai Ratanbai Gharda Memorial Library, Gharda House, Hill Road, near Elco Arcade, Bandra (W)

TIMINGS: Monday-Saturday 10 am to 8 pm.

MEMBERSHIP: Rs 1,000 annually (plus a refundable deposit of Rs 500). There are discounts for students and senior citizens.

Source: Hindustan Times dated April 14, 2018

Link: https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/mumbaiwale-a-bestseller-in-bandra/story-WG6Lumfhn8nDsjeueQi7MM.html (accessed on April 14, 2018)

Cuckoo Clocked: Can an app make you a better birder?

Cornell Lab’s Merlin app is coming to India. They’re crowdsourcing images from local birdwatchers, and everyone’s aflutter.

The Merlin Bird ID app has changed birding in North America in the four years since its launch, helping novices identify species in seconds, from a single photo.(Image Courtesy Cornell Lab)

In theory, it sounds perfect. You spot a bird in the wild (or on the windowsill of your concrete jungle), take a quick shot with your smartphone, and an app identifies the species in seconds with 90% accuracy.

For those who’ve used it, four-year-old Merlin Bird ID has revolutionised birdwatching. But the app, developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Caltech, using crowdsourced photographs, is perhaps better known for how academia, machine learning and crowdsourced data can collaborate towards conservation. In North America, where it was launched, it’s allowed ordinary folks to identify birds without bulky field guides or long-drawn-out Google searches. Among established birdwatching groups, it’s cut down endless debates on which bird was spotted. Naturalists the world over have been using the data to understand migratory patterns, habitat changes and other avian issues.

In January, the Cornell Lab announced plans to extend the app for birds in India – a decision that is as exciting as it is daunting. India ranks among the world’s 12 megadiversity nations, with 1,266 or 13% of the world’s bird species. But for Merlin to identify Indian birds, it needs more than 500 reference photos for every species. Local birders have been urged to contribute their pictures to build the database.

Some birds like the bright blue verditer flycatcher are easy enough – contributions have already crossed 750. Others like the blue-yellow Banasura Laughingthrush are so rare, there are only seven pictures uploaded.

India’s birdwatching community is divided over the use of tech-driven tools like bird-identification apps. Some say it will popularise the hobby. Others fear it will become a distraction, reducing the activity to almost a game. (Pramod Thakur / HT File Photo)

SPREADING WINGS

Mohit Aggarwal, 31, a bank executive who has lived in several cities and is now based in Mumbai, has contributed over 100 images, most of rare species. “I’ve focused on filling the gaps left by other contributors,” says the birder.

He hopes the app will soothe the ruffled feathers of India’s birding community. “A unique sighting usually causes controversy,” he says. Older birdwatchers, who’ve been bird-spotting before digital cameras, tend to be dismissive, even disbelieving, of younger enthusiasts’ pictures, he says. “Photos offer proof that a certain bird has been in an unlikely region. When a picture is up for identification, you’re typically up against someone’s ego. Machine learning may be able to answer without bias.”

For Albin Jacob, 36, a software engineer from Bengaluru, contributing more than 3,000 pictures was a breeze. He’s photographed more than 800 species across India and is a reviewer for the India portal of Ebird, Cornell Lab’s massive crowdsourced database of bird observations.

“I’m excited that the app will be available for India,” he says.

Source: Hindustan Times dated April 15, 2018

Link: https://www.hindustantimes.com/more-lifestyle/cuckoo-clocked-can-an-app-make-you-a-better-birder/story-x3SBztqDR1WgQel37iNiYN.html (accessed on April 16, 2018)