City: Bengaluru

To handle stress at his workplace, an IT professional recently attended a counselling session. He says, “The initial information was extremely useful and welcome. The service provided by the consultant was very beneficial.” He was referring to the session at NIMHANS (National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) Wellbeing Centre, a community centre for mental health promotion located at BTM Layout 1st Stage. NIMHANS urban wellness centre in BTM Layout. Pic: Abhishek Angad Stress can sneak in without a hint. Unchecked, this results in lack of sleep, depression and other stress related issues. To catch such mental health problems…

One of the three stone cutting units ordered to shut down in April is still functioning. While KSPCB says BESCOM has been asked to cut power supply, BESCOM officials say they haven’t received any written order in this regard. This stone cutting unit is located in the Bank of Baroda colony in JP Nagar 7th Phase. KSPCB had earlier ordered all the units to shut down by 30th April. Stone cutting unit. Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi Sadiq Ahmed, Senior Environmental Officer, KSPCB reiterates that the action has been taken. He says, “We have ordered the BESCOM officials to cut the…

Seema Vijay, 29, hardly goes out of her house alone after 7pm. Seema stays in the posh JP Nagar 2nd phase, next to JP Nagar Cultural Association. But after 7, the roads here are dark and isolated, and harassment is common. Women rarely walk around alone at night here.There is a playground near the club, which has only added to women’s woes. Though a ‘public’ place, only boys and men use the ground. In the evenings especially, women stay away from this area as they are harassed and commented on by men hanging around in the ground. There have been…

More often than not, talented children drop out of sports when they reach tenth standard; to perform well in board exams. But Ashritha Bharadwaj, is an exception. She continued to win medals even while studying for the all important, tenth standard exams. She also secured 90 percent. The medals she won, decorate a wall at her home. Ashritha Bharadwaj - Swimming athlete. Pic: Anisha Nair She has won 11 national level awards in swimming and aquatic championships so far. She lives with her parents Nagesh and Srividya Bharadwaj in JP Nagar. Her father is a businessman and mother a teacher…

Gender roles in our society is a much debated topic. How do other living beings handle this? Let’s take birds as an example.It seems to be the general rule (with a few exceptions, of course) that the female of the species is always duller, and less brightly coloured than the male. Here’s a beautiful bird that can often be seen in Lalbagh.... the male Asian Paradise Flycatcher. Male Asian Paradise Flycatcher. Pic: Deepa Mohan As you can see, this is a spectacular bird, and it definitely catches the attention of the observer as it flies around, flaunting that ribbon of…

Are you a sneaky mum? The type who cannot think of kneading atta without mashing dal or spinach into it? Or pasta sauce without pureeing carrots? If you do, chances are that like me you live with a fussy eater. Food in our house, at least for the brat, comes with hidden ingredients. Veggies and greens are boiled and mashed to get into the atta, parathas are stuffed with whatever can behave itself inside a paratha without peeking, pasta sauces (even store bought ones) are revved up with pureed veggies, the list goes on... Kids are fussy eaters. Pic courtesy:…

In 1967, Suresh Shah, a Gujarati by native, started Sapna Book house in Majestic, around 100 square feet. Today the same book store is set up in a multistoried building in Gandhinagar. It is claimed to be India’s largest book mall by Limca book of records as well as India book of records. Nitin Shah. Pic: Abhishek Angad And 45 years later, it opened its eighth book store in Karnataka and 6th in Bangalore. This is in the time when book stores like ‘crossword’ recently shut down one of the stores in Bangalore. This may be attributed to the age…

Ramakrishna B V, 75, is one of the 16 nominated councillors in BBMP now. In April, just before Mayor election, he was in news for alleging that the candidate (current Mayor) D Venkatesh Murthy had encroached Civic Amenity (CA) sites.Ramakrishna is Joint Secretary of Abhyudaya, a Federation of South Bangalore-based RWA. He had retired as Production Engineer in HAL, and is also President of Radha Krishna Layout RWA now. He, along with other nominated councillors - all BJP supporters - had taken oath on July 2nd and were part of the budget discussions. According to Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, state…

Achala Paani has come to be known as the angel that comes to the rescue of street dogs. 27-year-old Achala, runs ‘Let’s Live Together’ - an organisation providing a platform for puppy adoption. She strongly believes in adopting a puppy from the street and saving a life than buying one. Achala Paani. Pic courtesy: letslivetogether.org How did you come up with the idea of Let’s live Together?I have volunteered for a lot of organisations all these years. And as a final year project for my advertising course, I took up adoption of Indian dogs. That’s how it actually started. I…

Around 800 BBMP computer operators have not been getting their salaries on time and haven’t seen their pay cheques for the last few months. 400 employees from this sector have now formed a employees union and protested in front of the BBMP office on July 10th. They submitted a memorandum to N Jayaram, BBMP Additional Commissioner (Administration).Currently, this workers' union is trying to form zonal committees and take up more localised issues. The workforce which drives most of the BBMP’s computerised operations are the contract labourers, handled by government companies of the likes of KEONICS (Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation…