City: Bengaluru

In the classic Alice in Wonderland, one day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat on a tree. "Which road do I take?", she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I do not know", Alice answered. "Then", said the cat, "It doesn't matter". I travel by the same route everyday to my bus stop and from there, board a bus to my college, which again goes on the same discovered path. While riding till my stop, I always think how similar our life is to a road trip. We keep…

For LATEST FAQ on 2014 Elections, click here. To know the procedure for online voter registration, click here. The Election Commission has announced a special summary revision of photo electoral rolls. This will help enrol first time voters, voters whose names are not in the rolls, voters who have shifted residences and already enrolled voters who need to correct their details. All citizens who will be 18 years or above, as on January 1st 2013, are eligible. [This article, published in Dec 2012 has been updated 4 Apr 2013]  How to check your name on the voter roll How to…

So the hot topic of discussion in my seven-year-old's PTM recently was about bad words. One parent explained that his son had been using few unsuitable words off late and discussed the approach that he was taking. Soon all of us were talking of the same thing - the S word, the I word, the F word - that seemed to have made their presence felt in our children's lives, despite all our best intentions. Chiding children always is not the solution. File pic. Where do our children, mostly between 6 to 8 years old, pick these words up? Television…

It is that time of year when we have to pay the property tax for the current year. There are two different types - White (Form IV) in bilingual, and Blue (Form V) For the properties, where there is no change in any field - either in category (residential / non-residential), dimensions (any addition / deletion to the structure) or usage (tenanted / self-occupied) one has to use the white form (Form.IV). Unlike previous years, the Form IV has already reached all the help centres this time. Pic: Shreyas B K The block period for this term came to an…

Last September, after a long delay, the BBMP had invited new tenders for garbage collection and transportation in 91 packages. The 198 wards of the city are covered by these 91 packages. But the new tenders have come to effect in not even half of these; only 43 packages have new contractors now. In the remaining 48 packages, work is still being done by old contractors by extending their previous contracts.But a bunch of new tenders - 12 of them - were approved by the state government on March 20, 2013. The government's approval came on the day when the…

After crowdfunding his Kannada film Lucia’s production by raising Rs.51 lakhs through Facebook fans and others, Pawan Kumar of Lifeu Ishtene fame has finished the production and released the trailer as well as songs. What about the film’s release? Kumar, 30, launched an even more ambitious crowd fundraising campaign this year. He is now raising money to distribute the film in the mass market - theatres and multiplexes  - and is trying to reach between Rs.50L and several crores.   “We raised Rs.51 lakhs in February 2012 for shooting and production. 70% of the money came in as investment and…

I thank God for small mercies. I still hear tiny birds chirping, crows cawing and squirrels screeching early in the morning when I wake up. I look through the window and see a squirrel gnawing at an unripe pomegranate in the garden. I smile to myself and feel happy that we are still left with a few pleasant things in the mornings. I enter the kitchen, pick up the bin with the "wet garbage" and leave it outside the gate.I pick up the morning newspaper and glance at the headlines. No, I shall not go deep into the text. It…

When we watch birds, one of the fun things to do is to observe them and trying to figure out what they are likely to eat. How, you may ask, can one find out what a bird is likely to eat, by looking at it? The answer is, look at the bird's beak!Bird's beaks come in different shapes and sizes, and each is designed to help the bird get the kind of food that it is used to.All predatory birds (raptors) have sharp hooked beaks that help them tear up the flesh of their prey, which could be other birds,…

Owners of an apartment complex in Sarjapur woke up one morning to find that their builder had claim to a large portion of the premises inside the complex which he was planning to turn into a commercial enterprise. Even worse, the builder was telling the court that they were not qualified to even contest the claim, as the owners' association had been registered wrongly. Instances such as these are not altogether too rare in Bengaluru, as highlighted in an earlier article in Citizen Matters. Prevailing ignorance about existing laws and the deliberate flouting of rules by builders and developers have…

The final exams for the academic year are coming to an end at last, and there is a palpable sense of excitement in the air. The summer vacation is tantalisingly close, beckoning with the prospect of long, homework-free hours for the children. Trek through forests in Sharavati valley. Pic: Meera K Over the years, summer holidays have lost their impromptu simplicity. Even as children gear up for the vacation, parents are at their wits’ end. Thanks to their busy schedules, working parents barely get to take some time off to visit their ancestral towns or even for a quick touristy…