City: Bengaluru

Bengalureans celebrated World environment day by contributing towards tree planting and getting an eco-friendly cloth bag in return. Citizen Matters in association with Prakruthi, an NGO focusing on ‘eco centric infotainment’ held this event at Jayanagar shopping complex on 5 June 2012. Organisers and celebrity with the eco friendly bag. Meera k (from right) Co-founder of Citizen Matters, M S Prasad, co-founder of Prakruthi, Prakash Mendoth Jayanagar Trade Association President, Vasundhara das actress and singer. Pic: Sankar C G The green event got a touch of glamour with actor-singer Vasundhara Das, actor, Bhavna, actor - singer Sunil Raoh and actor…

June 2012 Of voter’s list, voting booths and preferential voting:  a guide to voting booths and how to find your name in the electoral rolls for the election on June 10th. Also a note on how the preferential system works. Sixteen candidates will battle it out in the Bangalore graduate constituency MLC election on June 10th. Campaigning in graduates MLC race intensifies, contrasts break through. Follow the progress of the Election campaignWho is running for office? Read the in-depth backgrounder on Ramachandra Gowda, Ramoji Gowda, A Deve Gowda, Ashwin Mahesh, Nagalaxmi Bai and K S Lakshmi. All about the MLC…

There are a three weeks to go for the Bangalore’s graduate constituency election - the one in which only graduates can vote. The candidate elected from this constituency will become a member in Legislative Council (MLC), the upper house of Karnataka's state legislature. With election scheduled for June 10th, candidates are campaigning intensely. In addition to the three mainstream political parties that usually participate in this election - BJP, Congress and JD(S) - the Andhra Pradesh-headquartered Lok Satta party has entered the fray this time. There are also independent candidates. An overview of the major candidates -Ramachandra Gowda, Ramoji Gowda,…

We have a lot of birds around us in the city. Some eat seeds, some fruits and some eat live prey. We’ve all seen sparrows pecking at the grain in the market areas, or seen parakeets pecking at ripe fruit...but some birds are predators.Even in the city, we have several predators; the most common, of course, is the crow, which will often raid the nests of other birds to eat up their eggs. But there are two common birds that actually help human beings in our city....and at least one does not deserve the bad reputation it has. Barn Owl.…

Today on 5th June, a team of around 20 youngsters will celebrate World Environment Day, at Narsipura lake, in Vidyaranyapura, Bangalore North. Children from local schools will join and sing Kannada songs on nature and biodiversity. They will also plant some saplings. Original five who grew into Pancharathna plus. Courtesy: Jayalakshmi Chatterjee The youngsters in the age group 7-17 yrs have been working since mid-April to preserve the biodiversity of Narsipura Kere.There were initially five children -  Viraja, Adityan, Anand, Akash and Boomika (thus Pancharatna or five gems in Sanskrit) who started to take an interest in the birds, this…

It takes you so long to write a 700 word story! Said the horrified editor friend of mine. I counted sheep in my head (helps me stay calm. Another good alternative is the in-your- head-grocery list) and waited for the one question that I hate hearing ever since I gave up working full time to be a stay at home mother: So what do you do all day? The days go by in a blur. Pic: Reshmi Chakraborthy Really, what was it that I did the entire day? And what was it that the other mothers did, staying in this…

Bal Krishna Birla, who hails from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, came to Bangalore in 1995 after passing out from IIT- Kanpur. He worked in various joined Infosys as a software engineer and worked for around nine years. Later, after couple of other stints he started his first entrepreneurial venture and co-founded Potluck Restaurant in BTM in July 2006.  He was also the co-founder of famous ‘AskLaila’- a local information online service in October 2006. M K Birla. Pic: Abhishek Angad His interest in old hindi songs paved the way for another venture”Bhoole Bisre Geet” where interested community assembles and sings. Continuing…

For the past one month, former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde has been campaigning for Ashwin Mahesh, Lok Satta party’s candidate for the graduate constituency MLC election. This is the first time Hegde is endorsing a candidate in any election. He also goes door-to-door appealing residents to vote for Mahesh. Justice Santhosh Hegde. File pic: Citizen Matters In this interview with Citizen Matters, Hegde talks about his decision to start engaging with elections.Why are you endorsing a candidate in this election?I was against anyone in Team Anna campaigning in elections, as it would almost be like taking sides. There are lot…

“Kissing a lot of frogs before I meet my prince charming.” She laughs when asked about her collection of around 150 frog figurines of all shapes and sizes. Shobhana Narasimhan, 48, is a professor and chairman at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research(JNCASR), Bangalore India. She has a PhD in Physics from Harvard University, Cambridge. Passionate for social work and development of women, in the field of physics. She travels the world for this. Shobhana Narasimhan – Physicist at JNC. Pic: Anisha Nair As a school student you had a phobia for Physics. How did you end up being…

A chance to get the bags autographed by Vasundhara Das, Malavika Avinash, Bhavana, Sunil Raoh and many more newsmakers and celebrities who will be there to support this initiative.Vasundara Das, the well known singer-actor, is excited to be part of the campaign and says, “The fact that we are creating this kind of awareness against the use of plastic is a very good initiative and we as people must stop taking the use of plastic for granted”. Adds Sunil Raoh, actor and musician,"it is a novel and a necessary initiative. It is the need of the hour to do as…