City: Bengaluru

In 2011, I moved back to Bangalore from Seattle. I was conscious that I was not moving back to the city that I knew.For starters, I was moving to a part of the city that I needed getting used to. I had spent all my earlier Bangalore life around Chamarajpet and Srinagar, bang in the middle of the city. But now I had to negotiate Mallathahalli (which gets increasingly confused with the more famous Marathahalli), near Nagarabhavi. And it lay on the wrong side of Mysore Road and far off from anything and everything that mattered.Around 2005-2007 there was a…

With BMTC and KSRTC buses off the road, city commuters had a tough time today. Though BMTC said there will be adequate bus services, the scene on the ground was quite different. Nagaraj C, Chief Traffic Manager (Operations) BMTC, said, "The drivers are protesting to get their list of around 40 demands fulfilled including a hike in salary. The strike will be on for the whole day. But there are a few other drivers who are loyal and carrying on with their routine services so a few buses are functioning." Autos dominate the roads in absence of BMTC. Pic: Anisha…

Justice Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta and retired Supreme Court Judge, talked about the book - ‘Living in Bengaluru’ at the book release function. He said that though he has never endorsed any product so far, he will go ahead and recommend this book to every Bangalorean as it is a holistic book and every Bangalorean must have it. He was at the book release at Whitefield Club on 12th September, 2012. Living in Bengaluru book launch from left - Justice Santosh Hegde, Subbu Vincent and Sanjay Vijayaraghavan. Pic: Anisha Nair Sanjay Vijayaraghavan, a resident of Doddenakundi, has also written a…

The recent exodus of northeast citizens from Bangalore still remains fresh in the minds of Bangaloreans even as scores of those who left have started coming back. Everyone acknowledges that SMS messages with murder threats triggered the panic. Going deeper, several analyses have appeared in the media about underlying reasons for a distinctive minority community such as the NE citizens to flee. From a media standpoint, the exodus has resulted in a closer look at the power of people-to-people communications technologies like SMS, as well as social media such as Facebook. The nature of people-people communication with SMS and social…

I have been following rafiki, a theatre group, from the time when they used to stage the plays of Athol Fugard, South African playwright and novelist.They stage plays with ideological contexts and started working with children in the field of theatre, too. I have seen their struggles and their hard times, and so it was with even more satisfaction than usual that I noted that they collaborating with “Toto Funds the Arts” (TFA) to stage an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s work at Ranga Shankara, on September 6th and 7th, 2012. A scene from Rafiki's play. Pic: Nitye Sood At first,…

Two young professionals  from the city, Saikat Sarkar and Joanna Banerjee, used social media platform to vent their frustration about being allegedly humiliated and even manhandled by Bangalore Traffic Police a week ago. City's dailies, picked up the story when their ‘notes' went viral. The 26-year-old woman's note was extensively quoted in all the news reports, however she says none of the journalists contacted her to ask for permission or verify any of the facts. Nobody contacted 27-year-old Sarkar, either.Even the Bangalore Traffic Police, took cognisance of the two people's notes and promised action on its Facebook page. MA Saleem…

I am an illustrator and a comic book fiend and I am going to wax eloquent over Bangalore’s first ever Comic Con that happened on the 8th and 9th of September at the Koramangala indoor stadium. Why such excitement over an exhibition of books that are ‘meant for children’ you ask? Simple, it’s because people have realised its not only meant for children. Only here could u see the Tintin crew chillin with the Grim reaper and the dark knight! Pic courtesy: Varsha S Chakkera That’s the beauty of an event like the Comic Con, all misconceptions people have about…

BBMP spends hundreds of crores annually on projects like road widening and flyovers, while allocating very low amounts for education, health, welfare etc. Dalit Bahujan Movement (DBM), a city-based group for SC/ST welfare, has been demanding useful schemes and funds for the community. Venkatesh M, an activist formerly with  state-level Dalit organisations, formed DBM in 2007 with the specific aim of getting government funding and schemes for SC/STs. It was in late 1970s that the central government initiated separate funding for SC/STs. Government announced the Special Component Plan (SCP) for SCs and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) for STs. Under SCP/TSP,…

13 year old CMCA student stands up for his classmate’s Right to Education! CMCA students of class 8 demand that their Headmaster returns money wrongfully collected from students towards school books. Young CMCA student calls up BBMP helpline number to get garbage in her neighbourhood cleared.These are just few of the noteworthy actions of CMCA junior citizens that were celebrated during SPOORTI 2012 – CMCA’s annual government school launch programme. The programme was on Saturday, Sep 8th at St Joseph’s Indian High School Grounds. It was inaugurated with the unfurling of the 4th pillar of democracy – active citizenship. 2000…

On 8th September every year tens of thousands of people throng the St Mary's Church to celebrate St Mary's feast. This 130 year old church has been attracting devotees since its inception. History of the churchIt is said that christians from Tamil Nadu came down here during the 17th Century and built a small village, ‘Bili akki palli.' Thus named for the white rice they cultivated and also a number of white birds were found in those rice fields. The people, in order to practice their religion, built a hut and named it ‘Chapel of Kannakai Madha.' Eventually this became…