City: Bengaluru

Pic: Facebook Community - Siddaramaiah: Save the Historic Balabrooie Guest House The Karnataka state government is reported to have decided on demolishing portions of Balabrooie Guest House, which currently houses the Justice Vaidyanathan Committee. It plans to build a clubhouse and quarters for legislators. Architect and heritage enthusiast Naresh Narasimhan points out how many illustrious people have stayed there over the years, from Mark Cubbon to Rabindranath Tagore to Jawaharlal Nehru. Bangalore Mirror reports that a group of artists and intellectuals, including SG Vasudev, B Suresh, Sreenivas Kappanna, and Jagadish and Arundhati Raja, plan to submit a memorandum to the…

If you are an average person travelling in Bangalore, whichever mode of transport you opt for, can be a daunting task. If you choose to travel by your own personal vehicle, haphazard traffic and the moon-craters called pot-holes only make sure your stress levels rise meteorically. Recently, the menace of auto-drivers over-charging, arguing and misbehaving with passengers has been highlighted by many leading papers, citizen forums and on social-media. This has led to various endeavours to curb the problem such as the setting up of help-lines to report auto-drivers, Bangalore Traffic Police conducting an auto-raid in July and the Peace…

Editor's note:  On October 19th, Bangalore witnessed what was touted to be the city’s first world class annual marathon - the Bengaluru Marathon 2014. Over 8,000 folks participated across several categories in the race. Any event of this magnitude typically generates a lot of waste - paper cups, plastic, running bibs and the like, and it is indeed a task to collect and dispose of it responsibly.   The team handling the event however ensured that waste was disposed of in a responsible manner. This is indeed an example of responsible racing, one that other large scale events should emulate.…

Bangalore will be witness to pomp and celebration in the next couple of days on account of Deepavali, the festival of lights. While it is certainly a time to come together with family and friends, it is also important that we give a thought to how we celebrate. If bursting crackers, lighting up your house and exchanging sweets is the norm, then consider making a few changes that could very well make the entire affair more eco-friendly. Here are a couple of tips to celebrate Deepavali in a safe and eco-friendly manner. Avoid bursting crackers Crackers are probably the first…

Eco-friendly birthday parties are possible if you can plan a little. Pic courtesy: Sindhu Rao So, the little tyke is turning a year older. As a parent who is expected to throw a stellar birthday party, you are perhaps neck deep in planning. Should you throw a party at home or at the clubhouse? Should you take the little one with his friends for an outing to an amusement park or to his favourite fast food restaurant? What should be on the menu? Should you keep it a small gathering of close friends or throw a big bash? So many…

  HSR Sector 2 Residents Welfare Association (Regd) had organised a special meeting on October 18th at the Cambridge School premises with the Joint Commissioner, BBMP, Bommanhalli Zone and his engineers to discuss the various infrastructural issues affecting the residents of the area.  The Corporator of the ward, Lata Narasimhamurthy was also present at the meeting. It was for the first time in six to seven years that a Joint Commissioner along with his engineers, in the presence of the Corporator, was interacting with the members/residents within the sector premises. In his opening remarks, the President of the RWA, Brigadier R…

Beyond Carlton has launched India’s first mobile app on fire safety. The app encourages citizen participation in identifying fire safety violations and reporting the same for effective action by the Fire Department. The app aims to: • To help identify more violations that can be addressed by the authorities• To sensitize and co-­opt citizens to play a more dominant role in fire safety Fire Champ, the mobile application, launched by Beyond Carlton along with technical support from IChangeMyCity.com and involvement of Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services enables you to report any fire-­related measures not adhered to in a building around…

Bangalore has everything at your service; local goods, imported commodities, native touch, embedded culture and what not! From Yoga to Kung-fu, from Desi to Gucci, Bangalore prides over having everything to offer to its residents. We have international and interstate exotic dishes available throughout the city. But wait, is there any recipe that is rarely available in Bangalore? Yes, we found many. There are our own Karnataka recipes that most of our restaurants don’t serve. We have listed ten of them here. So, for all the foodies out there, here is a list of ten such delicacies found not so…

  Bengaluru this week October 16th 2014     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!    It is celebration time next week again - the festival of lights, Diwali is here. How are you celebrating Diwali this year?  Pic courtesy: This Diwali, let’s go Green Here are some tips for a environment-friendly Diwali. Go the traditional way and light diyas, instead of opting for electrical lighting. Say no to firecrackers. If at all you want to buy crackers, buy it from licensed vendors, and ensure you make arrangements to clear up the mess. Flooded with…

In many functions, food becomes excess and remains unused. Instead of wasting it, donate it to the needy! Pic courtesy: Lakshmi Partha “Urgent: A friend just called me to say that food (Bisibelebhath & curd rice/pickle) that could serve 200 people is left over from a big event... Tasty and good in condition, I have been trying to reach any organisation that they can go and give the food to someone... Any leads/contacts of people who may find this useful?” When Vasanti Hariprakash, Radio journalist and anchor from Bangalore posted this on her Facebook wall, there was a flood of…