Articles by Sakuntala Narasimhan

Senior citizens are more vulnerable and face specific challenges during the COVID-19 lockdown. In this series, some seniors discuss how they’ve been dealing with the situation. In the first part of the series, a senior citizen describes the new challenges that have descended on her. While the media has focused on the woes of migrant workers trekking hundreds of kilometres to return to their native villages after their earnings dried up in the wake of the virus pandemic, not much has been written or said about the hassles that middle-class families have had to face, especially the elderly. Take me.…

Nowhere around the world do residents pay to get killed - not even in the worst mafia or terrorist-infested city. Correction - there is one city. Known earlier as pensioners’ paradise, garden city, and then IT city, it is now ‘garbage city’. Residents here fall ill and die because the taxes they pay for ‘services’ like garbage removal deliver nothing in return. A news report in Deccan Herald this August 15th said, '563 new dengue cases in four days', and 5006 cases overall since January. This translates to over 600 cases per month, or 20 per day. The dengue-causing Aedes…

Today is observed as National Consumers Day. If you are reading this, you are a literate, educated citizen with internet connection for accessing  information via Google. But does ‘educated’ always mean ‘aware’? Check this. In Bengaluru, there are several medical shops and pharmacies that offer a discount for senior citizens. A comprehensive list of such shops, clinics and hospitals around the city, listed area-wise, is available at Nightingales Elders Enrichment Centre (NEEC) in Malleswaram, Bengaluru. Many elders know about this centre, they even attend regular events there, but some don’t know that there exists such a list of discounts available.…

It works! It works! All ye skeptics, listen to this story. I am sure there are many more similar initiatives around the city, but this one I have personal experience of, having watched at close quarters, the week long-effort to bring a little smile to the face of namma ooru. On Saturday, February 3, the Ugly Indian, a group of volunteers trying to clean up Bengaluru’s streets, gathered at what used to be a long stretch of five vacant sites across the road from ISRO head office’s east side wall in Sanjay Nagar, and set to work. This used to…

On the fourth of every month I need to commute from north to south Bengaluru, to unlock my gate for the BESCOM meter reader and collect my monthly bill. The fourth of each month also happens to be designated as bus day by BMTC to encourage citizens to take to public transport to ease traffic snarls on our jam-packed roads. Although I know the rationale underlying the bus day initiative, this is why we commuters abhor bus rides. 1) We waste time, lots of it, and today time is precious. Just covering 14 km, from Sanjaynagar in the north to…

This true story is typical of the experience of thousands of residents of Bengaluru who are at the mercy of ‘service’ providers like the municipal corporation (BBMP) and water supply (BWSSB). In the first week of December, BBMP’s contractors began re-laying pavement stones in Jayanagar. Gangs of workers piled the dug up mud, concrete chunks, broken stone slabs and bricks all along the pavement, blocking my entrance. How do I get in and out of my home? I protested. The labourers suggested I step into the two feet deep drain and access my entrance. As a 75-year-old senior citizen with…

Pic: Sameer Shisodia The vehicle-free street initiative being tried out at HSR layout as an experiment is a good idea, for reclaiming common spaces. Its success and viability, however, depends on ‘we, the people’, who are responsible for making it workable. It can be done, and I have seen it working elsewhere. In Cambridge (UK), car owners park their vehicles on the periphery of the city and take feeder buses so that the city centre doesn’t get clogged. No one grumbles; no one seeks exemption; no one tries to break the rules. No fare concessions are offered, either. Around Harvard…

Nandini curd and milk packets bought on the same day. Both show different dates, with no clarity on whether it is use-by date or date of manufacture. Pic: Shree DN Milk has benign associations – of innocence, goodness and wholesomeness, unlike other (invigorating) drinks. But Nandini milk, marketed by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF which boasts of being one of the largest in south India) is calling those images of wholesomeness into question with tactics that flout statutory guidelines. KMF issues clarification, agrees to put 'Use By' on stamping Additional Director, Quality Control Division, KMF, has issued the following clarification…

Illustration: Narasimha Vedala On April 10th the Jayanagar police station in association with  Bengaluru  traffic police held an awareness programme called Pehle Aap (after you), to emphasise the need for vehicle drivers to heed the safety of others on the road, especially pedestrians, especially elderly pedestrians. Ironically, less than 24 hours later, I had occasion to visit the Jayanagar police station to file a complaint. I and another elderly pedestrian (male), were waiting  to cross the road at the busy intersection facing the shopping complex at 4th block, at 11 am  on Saturday April 11th.The signal turned  red for traffic flowing …

After attending six meetings of a Federation of RWAs over, I thought I’d scream if I heard  the word “segregate” one more time. Nonetheless, I decided to attend their  monthly meeting  in February. And I did end up screaming—even before I got to this meeting at Sanjaynagar’s RMV Club where residents of ward nos. 18, 19 and 100 meet regularly. On the way, I passed by the road along ISRO’s east wall (where Ramesh Dutt, secretary of the Federation, and Kala Sunder, an active  member, live) and saw two pourakarmikas pushing their garbage carts and converging on an eyesore-of-a-dump, and…