City: Bengaluru

Pawan Kumar the director of the successful film Lifeu Ishtene might just show ‘Gandhinagar' that pedigree and stars don't matter. He plans to produce his second film Lucia using crowd funding. He had earlier expressed his frustration about no takers for his second film. His fans and friends on Facebook and reacted to it and many suggestions started coming his way. In his own words "was bombarded with emails, smses, pings, chat posts etc etc. Everyone coming together to pour in ideas and solutions. Majority of them have suggested to open a public funding and produce the film with the…

For most of us, the first thoughts on Japan would be fast cars, sushi and karate. These facets are complemented by the elaborate culture of the country. The Japan Habba 2012 showcased many such cultural and popular features of Japan. Over one thousand visitors attended the Indo- Japan cultural exchange programme at the  Jnana Jyoti Auditorium, Central College. Aptly named "Kizuna" which means camaraderie, this festival aims for Japanese in Bangalore to learn about India and similarly for Bangaloreans to get a better glimpse of Japanese culture.Toward late afternoon, the auditorium reverberated with popular Indian songs, only difference was that…

Everybody has been talking about Ms. Meena. Every time the play comes to Bangalore, somebody is always telling someone else why they should not miss Ms. Meena (pun unintended). Why, even Citizen Matters has already reviewed the play! At long last, I stood in line, and a long line it was, to watch our darling Ms. Meena. A scene from the play. Pic courtesy: Perch CDs of the play were being sold, and anywhere you looked, all that you could see was a Tamil Maami straight out of a 70s edition of Ananda Vikatan (a magazine). The poster also said…

Apartment Complexes broadly face two major issues when it comes to Water Management. One, sustainable water supply to individual flats - entirely driven by borewells or tankers. And two, cost effective waste water treatment - under-capacity Sewage treatment plants and unclear regulations of Pollution Control Board stress out the Management Committee. Where do you get your water from? How many tankers does your apartment complex have to buy everyday? Fill this Water Survey! The survey results and learnings will be discussed in a session during the water workshop. On 25th February, ApartmentAdda is organising a Water Workshop for apartment communities…

By writing this post, I am going to make loads of enemies! I did contemplate for a long time whether I should write this or not, and now I have made up my mind to say this publicly, so that I can move on and find a solution!At least five times a day, I have someone asking me - What happened to Lucia? When is it starting? Who is it starring? I feel like I am being stabbed whenever someone asks this question. The update is that Lucia is a completed script. It has come out beautifully and I don't…

Third Saturday of the month is the time to talk traffic trouble with BTP. People from Koramangala, Silk Board, BTM layout, HSR Layout, Bommanahalli, Bellandur and Sarjapur turn up at the Madivala police station to discuss the various problems dogging pedestrians, motorists and road users in general. Madiwala traffic police public meeting. Pic: Meera K On February 18, members of Spandana Nagarika Vedike from BTM layout and a few other residents brought the list of their problems. Bommanahalli auto stand should be removed. It is causing more nuisance than helping.Request for a road hump on Gandhi Road.Usage of the flyover…

The long pending request of Jayanagar residents to remove transformers on footpaths has materialised. BESCOM is converting multi-pole transformers here to single pole transformers. (Single pole transformers occupy lesser space on footpaths.) Work started on the transformer on the busy 7th Main road, 36th Cross in Jayanagar 4th block, on February 13th. The old transformer used to obstruct traffic on the road, and the footpath was unusable. This transformer in Jayanagar 4th block is being replaced by a single pole transformer now. Pic: Keshava Kumar N Persuation by Jayanagar MLA B N Vijaya Kumar and the team work by BESCOM…

The Concerned for Working Children (CWC), a Bangalore-based NGO, has been nominated for this year's Nobel Peace prize by Norwegian Parliamentarians. Nandana Reddy, founder and Director of Development at CWC. Pic: CWC video still. CWC is known for its pioneering efforts that led to the Karnataka state government making children's grama sabhas mandatory in rural local governments. The nomination is for CWC's work in promoting child rights, emphasising on children's right to participate in decision-making.CWC was nominated by three members of Norwegian parliament - Linda Hofstad Helleland, Gunn Karin Gjul and Andre Oktay Dahlt. They have also nominated two other…

Did you know your city was a rocky, barren plateau 250 years ago? Since then, starting with the Tigers of Mysore, followed by botanists and horticulture authorities, Bengaluru managed to become home to one of the greatest collection of trees from around the world. Vijay Thiruvady. Pic: Rajeev Rajagopalan This is the foreword in a new book, Heritage Trees, in and around Bangalore, by Vijay Thiruvady, 70, Koramangala-resident and Trustee at the Bangalore Environment Trust (BET). BET is also the book's publisher. Thiruvady is an engineer-turned naturalist better known in recent years for leading the Lalbagh Green Heritage Walks.No less…

An analysis of a mere 169 city property tax returns between 2008-10 by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) found that Bengaluru had lost over Rs.200 crores in revenues. 25 software companies alone accounted for Rs.90 crores of this. The fault: BBMP officials had not done any cross-verification on the self-assessment based tax filings.   Further, CAG's audit of BBMP balances in over 600 bank accounts found out that it had left hundreds of crores of rupees lying in temporary accounts during 2008-10 without transferring the money to the main bank branches. Without this, the funds could be…