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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 ...

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 bird...