City: Bengaluru

Anil Kumar, 63 is an RTI activist. A former employee of Indian Telephone Industries in the marketing department, Kumar, today cracks open the government red tape for a better society.Kumar moved to Ejipura in 1994 when it had no roads, no drains and no proper electricity. He filed RTIs to find the reasons behind these pending works. The RTIs of this nature often result in work being completed, because officials were wary of explaining the reasons behind the delay. Anil Kumar, the RTI activist. Pic: Abhishek Angad Kumar believes that the thrust on Sec 4(1)(b) of the act i.e voluntary…

Sheikh Shariff is seven, Rukhsana is 10 and Sameera is all of 12. The siblings show up every morning outside Dhanwantri Park in JP Nagar, 2nd Phase to sell fresh vegetables. This is their summer job.They live in an asbestos roof house nearby. Their father Mehboob Basha, earns a meagre Rs 4000 a month, working as a gardener. Their mother Fatima Begum who also works as gardener in the nearby senior citizen's park earns Rs 3000 a month. School fees for all three children is a burden on the family. The children help out by selling vegetables during their summer…

Music lovers eagerly await the concerts by Sampagodu Vighnaraja, a disciple of his father Vidwan Sampagodu D Suryanarayana Bhat. Sampagodu Vighnaraja. Pic Sampagodu He is currently teaching music at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ananya Sabhangana, Malleswaram has arranged a vocal concert by him on 11th May at 6.30 pm. Ananya is organising SANGATI Music Festival from 9th of May wherein youth artists will be honoured with Ananya Puraskara. The highlights are: 9th May: Flute Recital by Vid. N Rajakamal 10th May: Vocal Recital Vidushi G Chandanabala Kalyan 11th May: Vocal Recital Vidwan Vighnaraja S Sampangodu 12th May: Veena Recital by Vidwan…

On April 30, Chief Minister D Sadananda Gowda laid the foundation stone for Bengaluru's much contested Agara-St John's signal free corridor. A few Koramangala residents assembled and protested at the event, but were appeased by Gowda who promised to hold a discussion with them on 5th May. In December, CM had held a meeting with residents and BDA, but there was no outcome except that work was suspended for a short while. Chief Minister laid foundation stone for the four Koramangala junction works on April 30th. Pic: Navya P K In the meanwhile, two major institutions in Koramangala - St…

In what may come as small relief to disgruntled Bangaloreans, BDA says it has issued notice to the contractor building the Kadubessanahalli underpass on the Outer Ring Road (ORR). The completed section of the underpass (south going) flooded due to overnight rains on Tuesday May 1st, throwing Wednesday morning's commute into a gridlock. The flooded Kadubeesanahalli underpass on May 2nd morning. This picture, taken by an as yet unnamed photographer made the rounds yesterday both on Facebook as well on email. R K Misra, ABIDe member and urban reforms campaigner posted on Facebook about the gridlock deploring the state of…

Three years after it’s launch, Bengaluru’s popular BIG-10 arterial route service is going upscale. Starting May 4th, BMTC is rolling out AC Volvo versions of BIG-10 along three routes, to complement the current non-AC services. Fourth of every month is observed as Bus Day in Bengaluru to encourage public transport. Starting May 4th, BIG-10 Volvo AC buses are going to run along Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road and HAL Airport Road/Whitefield Road.  G-3’s AC version, will run from Shivajinagar Bus Station to Electronic City and will be called AC-3.  Likewise, G-4’s AC version, running from Shivajinagar Bus Station to Bannerghatta National…

A lot has already been written about the virtues of barefoot running and with each passing day, more are being added. The sales of minimalist running shoes world over, had increased by more than 283% in the first half of 2011, the New York Times has reported. In the month of December 2011 alone, sales grew by 658%, a report by Leisure Trends Group, a speciality retail market intelligence provider. I see more and more people taking to barefoot running or with minimalist footwear with each passing race these days. In absolute numbers though, they are yet negligible compared to…

Early Sunday morning on April 8th, when most of the 'namma bangaloreans' were looking forward to savour their morning cuppa or catch up with their weekend sleep, a group of young IT professionals hit the city roads to cycle 25 km. All for a cause. Cycle rally. Pic courtesy: volunteers of Utthaan project This group of enthusiasts joined hands in an exercise named Project Utthaan - All India Music Album launch, a CARTMAN initiative which aims to fund the education of underprivileged children. CARTMAN, an NGO was founded in 1989, by the visionary Padma Bhushan Professor N S Ramaswamy, founding…

We volunteers from Ladies Circle India (LC India) help underprivileged children with education and healthcare; we donate school uniforms, computers and books, provide midday meals, build classrooms, build toilet blocks, run health camps and much more. Ladies Circle India (LC India) is a non political and non-sectarian organisation of young women, who are wives of members of Round Table (Round Table India is an organisation which aims at promoting service, fellowship and goodwill in national and international affairs) between the ages 18-40. We have the opportunity of serving the community, fostering and strengthening friendships between like-minded young women and help…

BBMP Council elected its Mayor and Deputy Mayor for 2012-13 on April 26th. Kathriguppe (ward number 163) Corporator D Venkatesh Murthy became Mayor while Padmanabha Nagar (182) Corporator L Srinivas became Deputy Mayor.These BJP corporators were the only ones who filed their nominations at the elections, and were hence elected directly. Home, Transport and Bangalore-in-charge Minister R Ashoka was present. The Mayor position is reserved for Backward class A category, while that of Deputy Mayor is for general category this year. Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy (R) with Minister R Ashoka and Deputy Mayor L Srinivas (L), after nomination. Pic: Navya…