Articles by Deepa Mohan

I went to M G Road on work for Clean and Green today, and decided to visit India Coffee House as well....This part of Bangalore heritage seems doomed to go into the history pages soon. Here's a waiter in the familiar uniform, that I have seen in both Kolkata and here:Several of the waiters have been working in this co-operative for many years, and the chances of their finding another job seem bleak. Bangalore will be the poorer for losing out such parts of what it has been, in the name of commercial development. I still see the demolished top…

We were participating the Bangalore Bird Race, and had gone to Madivala Lake right at the end to see what water birds we could spot; but a "kite" (not a Black or Brahminy Kite!) caught my eye....The backlit kite, soaring above everyday cares, while yet tethered to the ground, against the liquid gold of the evening sky, seemed a metaphor for all of us in this city...we are tied down to our commitments and our various problems, but once in a while, we can fly above them and enjoy our place in the sun....And it was lovely to see that…

A friend of mine called up this morning and said that as he was passing Tilak Nagar, he saw a sign which said, "Tipu's Secular Army". That tickled me as much as it did him! Is this new secular army a new political party? Or are we finding secularism in unexpected places now? Can anyone shed any light on this army? ⊕

Here's the first beauty which you can spot, if you are lucky, just inside the West Gate of Lalbagh:That's the Asian Paradise Flycatcher, one of the more spectacular birds to be found in the city! You can see the wiki entry about it here .The other beauty is something that is blooming right now near the Bandstand, near the Deputy Directorate of Horticulture building. It is the Philippine Jade Vine:That is the true, and unusually beautiful, colour of the flowers!Here's the board giving the scientific name:Do try and catch them now! ⊕

I am normally not out in the evenings, but this evening, I was able to watch how, at least in one respect, the truckers' strike is impacting our city.  Many of the petrol pumps were closed, and where petrol was available, the chaos was unimaginable. Long queues of vehicles snaked back across the roads, and sometimes down side roads as well. Two wheelers kept jumping the queue trying to get their chance ahead of others, and added to the mess. Can the government do nothing right? If it saw the transporters' strike coming, could they not make sure that there were…

Sometimes misspellings have a kind of weird association that make you wonder if, after all, the mistake was one after all...How fitting that Bangalore which, these days, seems to have a seamless transition from the summer to the winter monsoon, should have, not a mega, but a Megha (cloud) sale! ⊕

It's unusual to find an art gallery that isn’t just that, and named after its own address. 1, Shanthi Road was once a building that was not initially an art space; it was built up into a multi-use space to include an art gallery, living spaces for the artists to work in, and domestic spaces as well. This unusual journey was undertaken by artist and auteur Suresh Jayaram. Suresh Jairam (Pic: Deepa Moham) "The ideology" says Suresh Jayaram, sitting at his ‘office’ table in the open quadrangle of the art gallery, "was to have a living space that would also…

The morning sun shone through the trees as we entered Lalbagh today...The trees and the light together gave the effect of a painting!The light shone on these flowers...this little squirrel:this lady with her morning newspaper:It turned the sky blue as a backdrop for this magnificient Brahminy Kite:and in spite of this white Asian Paradise Flycatcher trying to hide in the foliage, shone enough for me to take a photograph!Truly, Lalbagh is a magical place of light and life....It was a wonderful Christmas; we might not have celebrated the birth of the Son, but we certainly enjoyed the birth of the…

The 919 km cycling trip across the Nilgiris, the Tour Of Nilgiris event got off to a flying start early this morning.In the mist, some of the organizers held the flag aloft:And then that flag was used to start off the trip:The cyclists set off to cheering and applause from the gathered crowd...Here's Sukhdev, the youngest rider (he is riding under medical supervision), with his family:The message these riders are carrying is that cycling is a great way to get from A to B, no matter what the distance between A and B may be!For more pictures click here Let's…

As long as things go smoothly, our system works. But let there be a problem and one is up against the most people-unfriendly scenario possible.Our mobile bill (my mobile phone is an add-on to KM's) was vastly over what's normal, and we have given complaints twice, and both complaints have been registered on the Airtel site.Now every day, several times, honey-voiced "customer care executives" call up on either phone, asking why we have not paid the bill. Increasingly, we are irritated by having to repeat our complaint, which the Airtel people say is not showing up on their system, so…