City: Bengaluru

Temperature is dipping down to 16 degrees. Gone are the days when the sun scorched at 40 degrees - 22 degree is the hottest part of the day now. The weather almost makes it feel like old-time Bangalore. Gloomy sky. Drizzles throughout the day and night. Heavy downpour by the time you leave office. Water logs, traffic jams. This is the typical rainy season in Bengaluru, though rains gave us a miss during the South West monsoon in May - June. This November, the incessant rain that soaked Bengalureans has broken the all-time record. As on November 19th morning, the…

Plastic waste from across the city is collected at Jolly Mohalla, before it undergoes recycling process. Pic: Akshatha M Abdul Khader, a middle-aged man, owns a modest plastic waste collection centre in the narrow lanes of Jolly Mohalla. Amidst the bunch of scrap dealers spread across this famous location close to K R Market in Bengaluru, Khader established his shop 25 years ago. For him and his three employees, the day starts at 4 am. Kabadiwalas and ragpickers throng his shop early in the morning carrying plastic waste from across the city. “I buy these plastic cups and plates for…

The wise woman at Lalbagh. Pic: Ashok Kumar S This happened one sunny Saturday afternoon in Lalbagh. It was all green everywhere. Trees swayed all around me, a gentle breeze blew, birds chirped, squirrels ran down trees and grasshoppers hopped on the green grass. I saw an old woman squatting down on a less-walked road in the park, plastic cover in hand, looking down at something. At first, I thought she was picking up tamarind, as there are a number of tamarind trees in the garden. I tilted my head and looked above to check if there was a tamarind…

  Bengaluru this week November 16th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     As you may be aware, Oorvani Foundation has rolled out its second fundraiser campaign for Citizen Matters. You know that we depend on your support to continue doing the in-depth, unbiased reporting that we do. Your contribution will go a long way in ensuring that we continue to cover the stories that really matter to Bengaluru and the community at large. Do consider making a donation. Any amount, big or small, will help catalyse change in the city. To…

File pic. Pic: Kedar Nadella Over the last year several Indian cities have witnessed rapid growth of app-based, on-demand cab services such as Uber, Ola, TaxiForSure etc. These services have prompted debate among policy makers, users and other stakeholders on their efficacy, reliability, sustainability and impact on environment, and on black and yellow taxi/regular cabs/public transport. This can be seen in the recent launch of the City Taxi Scheme 2015.   EMBARQ India is conducting a detailed research study to understand the impact of such services. This research can guide regulators/government to frame policies for the sustainability of aggregator models…

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.…