Articles by Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya

Running as a sport has caught on in a big way in Indian cities with the creation of runners’ groups, sharing of resources and at least one eponymous race hosted by every big city. Now, with the temperatures having dropped in most parts of the country, running fever is at a high. Bengaluru just hosted the 10K intencity run and earlier in November, the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon saw a great response despite the initial uncertainty caused by the alarming levels of pollution in the capital region. In an earlier article, we discussed how air quality, though traditionally not a…

Rarely ever would runners anywhere have looked forward to rain as fervently as in the Indian capital over the second week of November. In fact, runners across the country preparing to run the popular Airtel Delhi Half Marathon at the end of the week knew that it was only rain that could save the marquee event that many consider among their most favourite races in the country. In the end the rain gods did oblige, so that on November 19th, thousands of runners participated in the half marathon on what was perhaps the least polluted day in the city in…

Indian cities are not altogether unfamiliar with marches. Over the past few years, an increasingly awakening civil society has publicly gathered for a variety of causes - from freedom of speech to women’s safety to economic equality. Come August 9th however, for the first time in the country, you can join fellow citizens across India in a march for the cause of science, demanding robust funding for science education and research and pressing for governmental policies guided by scientific evidence. Eminent scientists, researchers and teachers have come together to put out an appeal to citizens across the country to come…

There’s a new sound enlivening the streets of the busy, populous city of Mysuru in southern Karnataka, and it goes ‘Trin-Trin’. The city recently launched the country’s first city-wide public bicycle sharing system (PBS) under a project jointly funded by the World Bank, the Global Environmental Fund (GEF), the Mysuru City Corporation and the state directorate of urban land transport, better known as DULT. Branded ‘Trin-Trin - Pedal with Pride’, the initiative sports a dense network of hubs consisting of bicycles, which individuals can share on a short term easy-rental basis. The Mysuru City Corporation owns and maintains the bicycles,…

In our article on monetary compensation available to victims of road accidents, we had mentioned the Solatium Fund, constituted under the Solatium Scheme, under Section 163 (1) of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, for the payment of compensation to victims of hit and run motor accidents. This came into force with effect from July 1989. Below is a round-up of its most salient features, and the details of the procedure for claiming compensation under it. How is the Fund administered? Contributions to the Fund are made by the General Insurance Corporation according to an agreed formula and the latter nominates one…

The month was January and Chennai was reeling in the aftermath of Cyclone Vardah. In Royapuram, as in other areas, the extensive damage caused to tree cover left residents shocked and distressed. So, when a group of members of the Dawoodi Bohra community decided to celebrate the birthday of their late spiritual leader, His Holiness Dr Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb by doing something for society at large, reversing the destruction wrought by the storm was on top of their minds. “One of us took it upon himself to study tree planting in the city and that was how we all came…

‘No’ means ‘No’… ‘No’ in itself is a complete sentence, it does not need further explanation. This now-famous dialogue from the movie Pink has been resonating across Bangalore over the past weeks as citizens from all walks of life have come together, in various ways, to vociferously assert their objection to a steel flyover that will connect the heart of the city, Basaveshwara Circle, to Hebbal. The 8.5-km flyover will purportedly ease the commute to the airport in a city chronically besieged with traffic woes, a claim that not many seem to have bought into. The rejection has not entirely…

The Schizophrenia Research Foundation of India; the Southern Railway Ticket Reservation Centre at ICF South Colony, AnnaNagar; the Hitech Diagnostic Centre on Dr. Nair Road, T.Nagar, the Indian Bank ATM in Chetput opposite the KMC Hospital and Aavin Park, Adyar: this host of seemingly disparate landmarks in Chennai are unified by a single common attribute, which is the presence of a wheelchair ramp that makes these locations accessible even to the physically challenged. These and several other spots have been identified for compilation in a database on wheelchair accessible spots in the city, thanks to an innovative campaign launched by…

Parents protesting on Vibgyor High premises in Marathahalli on Thursday. Pic:Nikita Malusare Sending a child to school just isn’t the same any more. The latest incident that reinforces this unfortunate truth is what happened at the Marathahalli branch of Vibgyor High School, one of the more reputed private schools in the city, catering largely to educated upper middle class parents, many of them migrants to the city. On 2 July, a child studying in the first grade was punished with ‘isolation’ in another room of the same school, during which two men, at least one among them reportedly being a…

Even as I write this, the chaos marring the BPAC-organised debate among South Bangalore's high profile candidates and its eventual abandonment forms much of the social media discourse at least in Bangalore circles. I was not present at the venue and haven't had a chance to see the recordings either till now. However I did happen to be present for a brief while at another event, micro-level in comparison to the greater show of the day. It was at Shobha Daffodil, an apartment complex in HSR Layout where the BJP MP Ananth Kumar had come to "meet residents" to push…