As Burns night draws closer, Scots everywhere are getting ready to lift a dram in honour of the bard. However, another literary great is also having an anniversary this year, as India marks the 150th anniversary of great poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Like Robert Burns, Tagore became an icon of his native culture. A poet, philosopher, musician, writer and educationalist he was explicitly inspired by Burns, and his own well-known song ‘Purano shei diner kotha’ (Memories Of The Good Old Days) was an Indian response to Auld Lang Syne.

In celebration of Scotland’s connections with India, award-winning Scottish Indian chef Tony Singh – known for his fresh and innovative approach to food – has created a fusion menu blending some of Scotland’s best produce with authentic Indian spices.

“As a Scot myself and a lover of all things food and drink, Burns Night is a date on the calendar I always look forward to,” says Tony. “As I also raise my glass to Rabindranath Tagore, it seemed appropriate to design a Burns menu which combines the two gastranomical traditions.”

Scots and Indians, he argues, have much in common. “We both love a tipple and a good laugh,” he says, “and haggis has always had a spice to it.”

Over the years, Robert and his bus have become symbiotic; he owns it, drives it, and stores it in a garage built into the ground floor of his home. It was built at the end of the Second World War by Robert’s father, who bought a cast-off Leyland truck from the British Army, stripped it to the chassis, and welded a hand-made body on top. The original chrome radiator and four domed headlamps are still in evidence, and the engine, which still runs well, is a testament to the old man’s mechanical ingenuity. The name of the bus, Marija, is hand-painted on the outside, as well as slogans such as ‘welcome aboard’ and ‘eat my dust’. The interior smells of petrol, and the seats do not seem to be fixed properly to the floor. ‘This bus is my baby,’ Robert says. ‘My good friend. My wife.’ He clears his throat, corrects himself. ‘My secondary wife.’

Robert and his vehicle are typical in Malta, where the average age of a bus is 35 years, and they are run as independent businesses by their drivers. The vehicles are required to be yellow, but are lovingly customised with hand-made parts. As we talk, buses rattle by that have been souped up with soft toys, turbo engines, even a cage of budgies. The locals call them the ‘xarabank’, a derivation of ‘charabanc’. The xarabank rule the highways in Malta as they have done for decades. The buses are always packed, even though they rarely run on time and are often driven at startling speed when they find room on the island’s appallingly congested roads. They are a hit with tourists, and attract a constant stream of bus enthusiasts from around the world.

But their time is up. ‘The xarabank are a nightmare to use,’ Emanuel Delia, the chief of staff for the Maltese ministry of transport, explains. ‘We can’t choose our transport system based on what is quaint. Otherwise we’d still be using donkey carts.’

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This is where For Women in Science comes in. This award, made by L’Oreal and Unesco every year since 1998, “recognises the achievements and contributions of exceptional female scientists” by offering a £15,000 grant to further their research, money that can be spent on anything from lab equipment to childcare. The latest winner will be announced this evening; among the eight finalists are Dr Antje Weisheimer, who is researching methods to predict extreme weather more accurately, and Dr Monika Gullerova, who is studying the sort of genetic mutation that leads to cancer.

Projects like this are helping to bring about change: Lord Rees says that 30 per cent of those receiving University Research Fellowships from the Royal Society are women. In 20 years, he says, this will be reflected in the higher echelons. “But more needs to be done,” he says.

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