City: Bengaluru

On August 10th, 2012, an elderly couple’s decomposed bodies were found in JP Nagar 1st phase, they were murdered three days earlier. 60-year-old Lakshmidevamma was bludgeoned to death at her house on July 4th in Prakash Nagar. In both cases, they were alone, at the time of the crime. Elderly People need security. Pic: Abhishek Angad National Crime Records Bureau’s data or the local police, do not have any specific reports on crimes against elderly. Physical abuse, robbery, stealing, harassment and sometimes murder come under this category. However, according to a study conducted by NGO Helpage India, in the year…

The September edition of SportsMeet witnessed talks by Arjuna awardee Reeth Abraham,  entrepreneur Gautam Mukherjee and student and hockey fan Manoj Mahala.SportsMeet is an informal monthly meet up for the sports professionals and enthusiasts.Winner of several medals in both national and international level, athlete Reeth Abraham, talked about - Giving back to sports. She said sports persons or people with sports background should occupy important positions in sports organisations; however this doesn’t happen much in India; Many Indian sportsmen came from poor or rural backgrounds as they saw sports as an opportunity to get a government job. Now due to…

Last year, state government got flak for promoting the teaching of Bhagavat Gita in schools. Activists and educationists had branded this as ‘saffronisation' of education. But, for decades, Hindu organisations have been promoting Hinduism in schools throughout the state. Prominent of these is Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an organisation that actively promotes Hindutva. VHP holds exams, competitions, sloka classes etc for schools in the city. Ramakrishna Mission in Ulsoor, and ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), are other organisations that have similar programmes. However, such work has continued without getting the ‘saffronisation' tag. Culture comes from religion VHP has been…

The book "Selected Poems" - poems of Subramania Bharati translated from Tamil into English by Usha Rajagopalan was released in Bangalore on September 14th. Usha Rajagopalan and Geetha Srikrishnan. Pic: Arathi Manay Yajaman Usha's relationship with writing began in her childhood. "I was always into reading and writing, and assumed that it was a part of every child's life. My grandfather would insist I write a review on every book I read, and would later go through the reviews, marking out phrases or words that he thought were well used in the context, as well as those that could be…

September 29th is observed as world Heart day. Cardiovascular diseases causes at least 17 million people deaths annually.Heart attack typically occurs when blood supply to heart is blocked. If the blockage is temporary, it results in chest pain or ‘Angina.’ If it is prolonged and irreversible, it leads to death of heart muscles, and is called heart attack. It can and does lead to death in a significant number of cases, if immediate treatment is not provided. It is estimated that 50 percent of all deaths due to heart attack occurs in first hour. Pic courtesy: Wikimedia commons It is…

Early in the morning one may notice people sweeping their front yard, and then accumulating the leaves and other waste on the pavement. Yes the houses are clean, but the roads are a mess because of us. In a society that has high regard for cleanliness, we have yet to understand that cleanliness is not just inside our homes, but on the road as well. Drive down any city road and every corner is littered with massive amounts of garbage. Unsegregated waste just put into plastic bags and chucked on the road. Garbage being piled up. Pic: Mark Rasquinha The…

The Joint Committee of the union supporting the strike, called it off yesterday late night after R Ashoka, along with other officials, announced to come to an amicable settlement. They included 86% dearness allowance in the salary. Also the trainees’ salaries were raised from Rs 7000 to Rs 8000 per month. BMTC, KSRTC call off strike. Pic: Anisha Nair The drivers were also unhappy about the training period. They believed that a period of four to four and a half years was too long for training purpose. They had demanded that the training period be only for six months. The…

Meet H Veeranna (30), who has now been working at “Park View”, a Darshini at J P Nagar III Phase (Mini Forest) for eight years out of the thirteen that this eatery has been in existence. He is certainly one of the reasons why this bustling eatery is thriving; he, and his colleagues, always deliver service with a smile, no matter how rushed it is. H Veeranna, who works in Park View Darshini, J P Nagar III Phase. Pic: Deepa Mohan Veeranna belongs to Kundapur, and came to Bangalore to make a living. “I am lucky and happy to be…

Recently BBMP, decided that it would put up an “adventure sports hub” on the hillocks of Turahalli forest on Kanakapura road. Nature lovers who regularly trek to the  forest decided it was time to protest.Old-timers of Bangalore will recollect Turahalli as a lovely forest, set with hillocks, where everyone could go, and did.Over a period of years, the pressure of population in Bangalore has meant that the once pristine forest has been “developed” into various layouts. All that remains is just a couple of hillocks. These are beloved to nature lovers, cyclists who organise downhill runs here, rock-climbers for whom…

After a long tussle with the state government, Rajvir P Sharma of BMTF (Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force) won, when his transfer order was revoked last week. State government had ordered his transfer on August 14th, after he chargesheeted many BBMP officers. Rajvir P Sharma won the case in CAT on September 7th. Pic Sankar C G Sharma had filed a case asking for his transfer to be revoked, at the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), a court that looks into service disputes of government officials. On September 7th, CAT ordered in favour of Sharma, saying that he could complete his tenure…