The book, written by Rina Mehta, was released at Crossword on Thursday. Divided into three sections, the book gives information on 400 schools in the city, along with details like the principal's name, phone numbers, addresses, facilities available and other details. There is also information on educational, music, sports, drama and spiritual classes, while the final section on parties covers party organisers and venues for birthday parties, among other things.

The book release was followed by a discussion on issues related to children, primarily education, coordinated by child specialist Dr R K Anand. Questions were immediate, with the interface starting off with a query as to the necessity of play schools. Maureen Sequeira, principal of Headstart nursery, felt that playschools were becoming a necessity for mums with hectic social lives. Suggestions then came up that play schools could be there with grand-parents of an area getting together, for instance. Another query related to interviews for admissions at the pre-primary level. Shroff, principal of Infant School of Cathedral and John Cannon school, stated:

``Ideally, there should be no interviews, but the situation we face is such that there are 90 seats, as against which there are 500 registrations. The only alternative would be a lottery system, but I don't know how parents will feel about their child being admitted on chance or luck.''

Questions were also raised about donations charged by schools. ``Money is needed to upgrade facilities, instal computers, set up gyms...so long as it is not linked to admissions,'' Maureen suggested. Coaching classes were another issue which figured in the discussion, with an audience member pointing out that students were sometimes failed if they did not attend the teacher'stuition classes as well. The only solution would be to have stronger parents' associations, Dr Anand pointed out.