Articles by Deepa Mohan

Smog over the city: view from Nandi Hills, 271114   I took this picture from Nandi Hills, The grey band in the lower part of the photo shows the skies over Bangalore. It was appalling to realize just how bad our air actually is. I have, several years ago, seen this kind of smog over Los Angeles...well, we can be proud that we have caught up with US cities in this awful respect!    

In May 2014, the residents of Casa Ansal, disgusted with the garbage piling up on their side walls, had called on the help of the Ugly Indian, and had this clean-up drive that I had written about: Garbage cleaning at Casa Ansal. The ditch was covered with granite slabs and the wall completely painted. Six months later, the wall continues to be clean, and the footpath walkable (except for the place behind the transformer at the Bannerghatta Road end where the autorickshaw wallahs insist on continuting to relieve themselves.)  So...I am posting this photo of the place as it is…

Me to BESCOM (Bangalore Power) employee: Can I have an ECS Mandate form, please, to enable me to have the monthly power bill amount deducted from my bank account automatically? (The forms are free, and it took me 3 visits because this gentleman, who is the ONLY one who can disburse these forms, was never in his seat. Today, Hallelujah, he is.) BESCOM employee: You will need two forms, one to be submitted to us, and one for the bank. Me; Can I have another form, then, please? BESCOM employee: (firmly closing the desk in which hundreds of forms are…

Email to the bngbirds egroup: It was very pleasant to be able to go to Kaikondrahalli Kere after a long time and find that, apart from the dumping and levelling going on down one side of it, the lake is generally still well-maintained. An ambling walk of a couple of hours was very productive from the birding point of view, and we watched the nesting behaviour of the Great Cormorants, and the fishing by almost all of the waterfowl. Several juvenile Brahminy Kites, swooping at the surface of the water now and then, provided the raptor touch. The flock of…

If you find an injured wild animal or bird, or even a domesticated pet such as a cat or dog: 1. Keep the creature as comfortable as possible, in an area lined with paper to facilitate cleaning. 2. Call People for Animals on 9900025370 or 9980339880, Landline - 080 28611986 / 28612767 / 22733350.  3. In south Bangalore, you can take it to Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (WRRC). You can visit their webiste here: http://www.wrrcbangalore.org.  With some wild creatures though, especially bird nestlings which have been thrown out of their nests, heartless as it may sound, nature's law of selection may be at work,…

Tipu Pasha of Book Bonanza. Pic: Amith Kumar A few days ago, Amith Kumar introduced me to a rather unusual bookshop in Jayanagar—Book Bonanza.  I have always been a lover of second-hand books, Somehow, these, to me, have the lustre of the previous owner, in addition to their contents, and so are greater treasures than usual. When I walked into the bookstore, I was quite thrilled to see books stacked up along all the walls, and piled up along bookshelves, too. All sorts of books, fiction and non-fiction, best-sellers as well as arcane treatises, jostled each other, and in front…

  This is my feedback to you on the matter of disconnection of the power supply to my home.   Ms. Surekha called me up from the J P Nagar office of BESCOM and informed me that my bank had dishonoured the ECS payment for August and September, and hence my electricity was cut. She told me that this was also the reason for the lineman demanding the deposit of Rs 1600, and that I should immediately pay  the amount due for electricity charges for  October by cash.    Fearing another disconnection, I went on Monday, 17th Nov and paid…

It was good to get back to Ranga Shankara and theatre after a long hiatus, and it so happened that it was a play from the land I had left behind! Poorna Jagannathan Productions was staging, as part of the Martin Moran India tour, his play, "The Tricky Part". The play, written and performed by Martin Moran, is the story of his life.  Between the ages of 12 and 15, he had a sexual relationship with a much older man, who was actually a counselor he met at a Catholic boys' camp. How he resolves the ancient conflicts, and his…

I emailed Mr Pandey, the MD of BESCOM, as follows: Dear Mr Pandey,  I am a very ordinary consumer, and here are the details about me.  Name: Mrs Deepa Mohan,  Address: xxxxx  Consumer no: xxxx For the past several years,  I  have been using the ECS facility to pay our power bills, and have never once been in arrears. Also, we took the ECS option to prevent our power supply being disconnected, since we travel a lot.  On the 25th of October,  when I was  abroad,  our power supply was disconnected, and five days later, a lineman appeared at our…

For the past three occasions that I have arrived at Bengaluru International Airport at 1 am, I have had a major problem, because the Vayu Vajra bus services now start only at 4 am, and the earler services have been withdrawn. Earlier, the withdrawal was not even showing up on the BMTC Vayu Vajra website, but now, here is the updated schedule for the bus that I take (which actually stops at my front gate on the way to the KuVemPu, or BTM Layout, Bus Terminal). BIAS-12: Kuvempunagara Btm Layout - Bangalore International Airport / Bengaluru International Airport  Departure from Kuvempunagara…