Articles by Rahul Ravi

footpath noun A path for pedestrians in a built-up area; a pavement. A path for people to walk along. Source: www.oxforddictionaries.com If Bengaluru’s footpaths could talk, they’d have many a tale to tell. Perhaps about the mounds of garbage that are dumped on them… Or about people pitching camp to sell their wares, or sometimes even build their homes. While some could claim that they have sent people to the hospital with injuries, some others would state that they have claimed lives! Even today, when there is so much conversation about road safety, and despite pedestrians being at the fore…

There was once a time in Bengaluru when one could see only a few buildings and a handful of people from right where they were standing. These days however, you should consider yourself lucky if you can see more than the bumper of the vehicle in front of you. From being referred to as Garden City, it has now been tagged as Garbage City. Independent bungalows and vataaras have given way to high-rise apartments. Empty streets are now jam-packed with vehicles.   Here is a comparison between the Bengaluru of yore, when it went by several flattering sobriquets, and the…

If you are a frequent visitor to Lalbagh, you may have seen the various animals and birds that have made it home. Along with an abundance of dogs, squirrels and birds, you’ll also find monkeys! And if you happen to take a stroll on the trail that leads to the lake from the main gate, in all likelihood, as you near the staircase, you will bump into some of the simians, and a gentleman named Shivshankar. For the past year and a half, he has been feeding the monkeys at Lalbagh. A Maharashtrian by birth and a resident of Andhra…

Madiwala Kere played host to the third Lake Day celebrations on Saturday April 11th. It was organised by Namma Bengaluru Foundation in association with Snehadhara Foundation, BB76 and United Way. The event encouraged people to connect with their surroundings, explore and participate in preserving it, and become a stakeholder in keeping it alive. With talks on biodiversity and sustainable living, demos on organic gardening and water testing, bird watching, sketching, cycling, music and dance, it truly was a day to celebrate the abundance in nature. Here's a glimpse of the Lake Day celebrations at Madiwala in pictures.  My3leaves on their…

It was the summer of 2014 when my family had planned a 3-day trip out of Bengaluru. Everyone was almost done with packing when we realised that we needed to find somebody to water the plants. Unfortunately, we could not find anybody who was free to pitch in. It was then that a bulb lit up over my father’s head and it was decided that we would set up a simple drip irrigation system that would water our plants. In less than four hours, the required materials were bought and we took off for our holiday, confident that our plants…