Articles by Kate Clark

  A red high heel, a tomato, a snake, a burger. Each of these emojis has a distinct meaning for the 'TrainSpotters,' a group of commuters who use instant messenger application, Telegram, to help each other pin down the location of Bengaluru-Hosur trains. Here's how it works: one among the 1,900 plus members types a symbol—the turtle emoji if they are waiting for the Kurla Express, for example— and sends it to the TrainSpotters group chat on Telegram. Either a bot fetches the information from the government-run rail website and posts it to the group, or another person who is…

When Bengaluru-based photographer Mahesh Shantaram started working on what became 'Racism in Africa:The African Portraits,' he was only trying to educate himself about the African migrant population living in his country. “I got into this project due to my own ignorance and curiosity,” Shantaram said. “This sort of curiosity and ignorance is a shared experience. This project is a way for me to bridge those gaps.” His portraits of African migrants living in India are on display at the Tasveer Gallery in Bengaluru until September 23rd. Tasveer Art Gallery is the first stop of the exhibition’s five city tour. Wandoh and his…

Ten weeks have flown by and my internship with Citizen Matters has come to a quick end. Tomorrow, I will board a flight, but I will not be leaving India just yet. I am looking forward to three weeks of travel around the subcontinent to see what else this country has to offer. The author on the beach in Goa. Pic: Kate Clark But soon enough, I will be struggling to nap on 16-hour flight back to Dallas, Texas. When I picture exiting the Dallas Fort-Worth airport, driving a few miles toward my parent’s house in suburban Texas, I can…

Nishanth Dugar in his factory. Pic: Kate Clark Piles of white cloth carry bags cover every inch of the floor in 23-year-old Nishant Dugar’s small Peenya factory. Six women are hard at work; a chorus of sewing machines pound, punch and hammer ceaselessly. Dugar has been making the trek from the Indiranagar office of his company, A S N Entreprises, to his two factories in Peenya since the total ban on plastic in Karnataka meant an end to his former business: manufacturing and selling plastic bags. The plastic ban was first announced in January 2015 and was made official in…

Today marks my 12th day in Bengaluru and I am proud to say my desire to take pictures of every single passing cow has subsided. Since arriving the weekend before last, I filled my phone’s camera roll with photos of cattle, likely confusing many passersby who have shared the roads with these guys their whole lives. I laughed out loud on several occasions, like when a large group of them walked right past my gate one evening, or when I moved out of the way of one only to have it move the same way putting me right back in…

Shivany Dowlat, a 7th grader at GEAR Innovation International School, concluded the presentation of her project on miscible and immiscible liquids with a trick question. “Do you keep our lakes clean?” If the answer was yes, she would quickly point to the lake directly behind her, Soul Kere off Sarjapur Road, and rebut. Soul Kere looks cleaner than many of Bengaluru’s lakes, but it still had small trails of trash visible from where Dowlat was standing. Pic: Kate Clark “Look at the plastic,” she said. “People come in and throw it, why? There’s a dustbin right there… You don’t keep…

“Mahesh Sharma’s advisory for tourists: No short skirts, no travelling alone at night.” This headline has probably already made its way to your Facebook and Twitter feed and back again in the last 48 hours. It’s referring to comments made by Union Minister Mahesh Sharma during a press conference on Sunday at the popular tourist destination, Agra. Sharma warned female foreigners against wearing skirts or venturing “out alone at night in small cities” in India. His statement mimicked the existing sexist rhetoric rampant in international dialogues around crimes against women: It’s the woman’s fault. Her clothes were some sort of provocation. Why was…

“Why do I need to be eating a California apple?” asks Laxminarayan Srinivasaiah, co-founder of Jivabhumi, a new platform that connects local farmers to “conscious consumers” in Bengaluru. Srinivasaiah and his two co-founders, left behind corporate stability earlier this year to fully commit to their growing business, which now feeds 600 Bengalureans. Their goal is twofold: to provide healthier, chemical-free, and locally-sourced food and to support farmers. Customers select the chemical-free local foods online, Jivabhumi works with local farmers and ships the food to local pick-up points. For now, Jivabhumi is targeting the conscious consumers, or those already aware of the…

Initially, this piece had nothing to do with Donald Trump. It had nothing to with American politics whatsoever. I set out to write about my experience visiting an office and a local university in Bengaluru. I thought, maybe I will discuss outsourcing or the importance of community journalism. But once I started writing, what I needed to say became clear. I needed to write about Donald Trump. Last week I visited an American company whose Indian staff generates lecture and homework content for American universities. I talked with a group of employees. They asked how I was adjusting to life…

A view from the street in Kodichikkanahalli, Bengaluru. Only the front side of this property was demolished. Another view of the same property. Properties on the Raj Kaluve are technically government-owned and can be demolished at any time. In Kodichikkanahalli, and in other Bengaluru neighborhoods, residents are claiming BBMP has given them no notice before coming in and demolishing their homes. A clear view of the Raj Kaluve seeping into a residential area in Kodichikkanahalli where several demolitions have occurred over the past month. These demolitions are of properties encroaching on the Raj Kaluve. Rubble can be seen strewn about…