July 28, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

This is a very interesting YouTube interview with the author, Dinya Patel (himself a Parsee) who achieved his doctorate with this work and is Assistant Professor of History, South Carolina University.

A fascinating book on the life of the extraordinary ‘Grand Old Man of India’ – Sir Dadabhai Naroji, our most famous Parsee

His book – ‘Naoroji, Pioneer of Indian Nationalism’ is published by the Harvard University Press and distributed by Harper Collins.

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July 26, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle, News  No comments

Since the brutal murder of George Floyd, much of the debate has focused on police brutality and reforming the police. Yet systemic prejudice still exists in the US. And there’s no getting away from it – every day in the US, an unarmed citizen killed by American police forces are disproportionately black.

As the Economist newspaper recently reported in its briefing on ‘Race in America’ (July 11-17, 2020): ‘That most brutal of injustices explains much of the power, the extent and the focus of the protests spurred by the killing of George Floyd, protests that have drawn a level of attention to race relations unseen since the 1970s.’

Clayborne Carson, a historian at S...

July 5, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

This is a love story of two people born almost a generation apart, in two different continents and how the wheels of fortune brought them together.

Ratan D. Tata (nephew of Jamshedji Tata), was in Paris hoping to trade in pearls and silk. He wanted to learn French, so his uncle Jamsetji recommended a teacher to him – Madame Briere.

It was here that he met and fell in love with the teacher’s beautiful daughter Susaune, slim and tall with beautiful golden hair. She was twenty years old.

Ratan informed his uncle Jamsetji about his affection for Susaune and his desire to marry her...

July 5, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

A poem by Murzban F. Shroff

This is the winter of our confinement

This is the spring of our unease

This is the summer of our expectations

The fall of our species

This is the weakness of our senses

This is the outcome of our greed

This is the collapse of our intellect

The negation of our needs

This is the night of our darkness

This is the prison of our morrows

This is the cumulus of our burden

The song of our sorrows

This is what we brought our world to

Conquering land and sea and sky

Not for a moment did we pause

Thinking where our limits lie

We robbed the earth of its beauty

And we drained the soil of...

July 5, 2020,  News  No comments

This is an article by historian Dinyar Patel that was posted on the BBC News website on Sunday 5 July 2020.

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) is an unfamiliar name these days.

Yet, aside from being the first Asian to sit in the House of Commons, he was also the most important leader in India before Mahatma Gandhi, as well as being an anti-racist and anti-imperialist of global significance.

Now, more than ever, amidst various global crises, he deserves to be remembered.

His life is a stirring testament to the pow...

July 3, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

As England gets ready for pubs and restaurants to re-open from tomorrow (Sat 4 July) will they be compliant with the Data Protection Act 2018?

Under UK Government instructions, all establishments – irrespective of their size – are under a legal obligation to keep a record of their customers in order to assist the NHS Test and Trace programme to detect Covid-19 outbreaks.

These records are expected to be kept for three weeks, and customers are likely to have to fill out a card and hand this to the bar /restaurant staff at the time they pay the bill. In some cases, online booking will require this info in order to make a reservation.

So not only must the custome...

June 27, 2020,  EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Data Protection Board, Guru in a Bottle  No comments

Described as a ‘treasure chest’ of decisions, it will help DPOs and Data Controllers understand what’s happening on the ground.

Unsurprisingly, most decisions on the lead SA pivot on the protection of data subject rights and the legal basis for processing.

Where action by the Lead SA has been taken in the wake of multiple-jurisdiction infringements, this has been more about compliance orders and a ‘slap on the wrist’ for the data controller rather than imposing headline catching fines, trying to find a consensual approach to remedy data privacy breaches.

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June 3, 2020,  News  No comments

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May 29, 2020,  News  No comments

When I was working in BBC News & Current Affairs in the late 80s/early 90s, the internet was in its infancy and there wasn’t Facebook or YouTube or Twitter.

Also, we had the BBC Guidelines, under DG John Birt, that provided guidance on balance, impartiality and how certain news items were to be reported, particularly during election times, etc.  These days, with 24-hour rolling news and the fragmentation of media and audiences, it’s that much harder to be heard, so journalists use social media as another channel to engage with the audience.

It will be interesting to see what former-BBC boss Richard Sambrook advises in how the BBC continues to steer a path of neutrality i...

May 29, 2020,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

A brilliant example of Jugaad Innovation for PPE Facemasks for those who need to lip read.

For more on this news story, click here 

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