City: Bengaluru

Last week, former Deputy CM and opposition leader KS Eshwarappa said Chief Minister Siddaramiah's statements have hurt the sentiments of a community. Dear Mr Eshwarappa, you are right about sentiments hurt, but it's not related to food or culture. Our sentiments are boiling - over the craters on the road that threaten our lives every single day, over the water stagnating in drains that's creating colonies of dengue everyday, over the unbelievable mess of traffic that keeps us all immobile on the roads for several hours in a day, over the highly polluted air that never lets us breathe easy,…

A couple of weeks ago, towards the end of October 2015, many concerned residents started observing raw sewage entering Ibbluru park at Sarjapura Road - ORR Ibbluru junction. It was not clear what was driving this. There had been unseasonal rains prior to this too, but it had not led to any adverse effects on the park. What triggered this destructive course of events? To understand it better, it is necessary to understand the chain of events that took place in the last five years. Local residents fondly recollect, seeing a beautiful quiet lake at Ibbluru up until 2009 -…

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time - Thomas Merton Bengaluru is teeming with artists of every kind. For the visual arts, there are several great places that showcase diverse works by artists - featuring both Bengalureans and out-of-towners! National Gallery of Modern Art The National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru was opened to the public in February 2009 at the Manikyavelu Mansion at 49 Palace Road, Bengaluru. The gracious heritage building, previously a residence, transformed into an art gallery with plenty of space for displays  - both for its permanent collection and the periodic…

I had been on the fence with menstrual cups for a few months and felt like a failure every time the time of the month arrived. But at last, I’ve been able to make the switch. And I’m so proud. :) Menstrual cups: an eco-friendly alternative for sustainable mentruation. Pic: Frank Krueger, Wikimedia Commons* There’s a growing mountain of menstrual waste, which is toxic for our environment. It was something I was contributing to every month in a major way and I hated that. It didn't help that none of the people I know use reusable cloth pads or menstrual…

There was, on the opposite side of our street, a depression about four feet deep that ran parallel to the street. In this depression, were small individual cottages (I BHK, in modern terminology). Eight or nine of them, as I recall. These even had a kind of front veranda/porch kind of space.  The cottages were, I recall being told as a kid, built to house refugees coming from the partition woes of 1947. However, when we moved to the street in 1965, these buildings were police quarters – pronounced PO-līs kōtrassu. In the first of these lived M and fly.…

For part 1 of the series, click here: How C V Raman came to Bangalore. For part 2, click here: The Raman effect on IISc C V Raman with his Nobel prize. Pic courtesy: Raman Research Institute While still serving as a professor at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Raman had planned for a private institute where he could carry out research work on subjects that interested him personally, without having to go through a long and tedious procedure of getting approvals from a complex bureaucratic system at IISc. He had saved a considerable amount of money for this purpose…

Ramakrishnaiah H N owns a medium scale industry in Kamakshipalya that supplies electronic items to government agencies as well as to MNCs. In the last three months, his industry’s production has gone down by 30 per cent, courtesy, the load shedding. A visibly upset Ramakrishnaiah, who is also the President of Kamakshipalya Industrial Association, forecasts the shutdown of small and medium scale industries if the situation continues for another two months. While the industries located in industrial estates have heaved a sigh of relief with the BESCOM’s staggered power holiday announcement (no power for one industrial area for a day…

  Bengaluru this week November 6th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     By this time, you will have received a mail announcing Oorvani Foundation’s second fundraiser campaign for Citizen Matters. If you are a regular reader, you know the kind of stories that we publish. To help us continue in the same vein, we hope that you will support our work by making a contribution. For more information on our #EnableChange campaign, click here. In this edition, read about Bengaluru’s many illegal coaching centres, the scams that have plagued BBMP in…

We, Natalie Sridhar who has completed her bachelors in psychology from the US, Mohammed Fazil an ex-Cisco employee, and Deepa Mahesh, an ex-Target employee are currently Teach for India fellows, teaching Grades three and four at the Kadugodi Govternment School.  We have been in this system for the last four months and realise there are many things that the school needs support with.  Infrastructure needs Drinking Water: Water supply is an issue because the pump for the borewell keeps going out of order. The school also needs a water purifying system to make the water drinkable for the kids. Toilets: We have…

Heap of plastic burnt at one of the illegal garbage burning sites in Seegehalli. Pic: BWRCA's FB page The State Ministry of Forest, Environment and Ecology has invited objections / suggestions from public on the draft notification for plastic ban in the State. The government issued draft notifications on October 28 that seeks to ban various plastic based products. The draft notification proposes to prohibit the manufacture, supply, store, transport, sale and distribution of plastic carry bags, banners, buntings, flex, plastic plates, plastic cups and plastic sheets, irrespective of thickness. However, the draft notification gives exemption to manufacturing plastic carry…