Necessity is mother of all inventions and inventions did take place when the society most needed it. One such invention, the "Pragathi Bandhu" experiment started in a small village at Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada at a time when the taluk was in an impoverished state. Expanses of earable lands were left uncultivated due to lack of initiatives from the farmers, non availability of seed money and most of all the farmers basically belonging to the large families, their lands were fragmented into..

Ravi Shastri, ace cricketer and commentator par excellence, arrived in Oman on April 12th to be a part of the Olympic Torch relay to be held on April 14th in Muscat. Though bound by a tight schedule, Ravi Shastri was gracious enough to spend some time with Team Mangalorean at the Hyatt Regency, Muscat. Shastri was his usual svelte and confident self as he walked across the hotel foyer to meet us. It was not difficult to believe that at the height of his cricket career he had had a vast female fan following. He bowled us over with his charm, wit and most especially with his love for everything that