City: Bengaluru

One may not expect a topic like borewell recharging or types of sewage treatment plant hold a 70+ strong audience engaged and animated over 7 hours of a Saturday. But last Saturday saw a bunch of residents mostly apartment owners, many of them representing over 50 apartments' management committees at a workshop on water. Ashwin Mahesh advocated creating water. Pic: Deepthi M S The session was organised by ApartmentAdda which provides apartment management solutions. Co-founder and director Venkat Kandaswamy, talked about bringing the relevant stakeholders and experts together on a single platform so residents can be empowered to tackle water…

"Yeaah!! St Louis, here we come," chorused the NXTremers - a team of 6th and 7th graders - thumping their fists, huge grins on their beaming faces, as they struggled to keep their feet on the ground. They had just been declared the national level champions in the First Lego League (FLL) 2011 competition. Their next step will be the FLL World Festival in St Louis, Missouri, USA on April 25-28, where they will represent India.The young champions are a group of six friends studying in National Public School, Indiranagar - Aditya S M, Anuj Tambwekar, Arnav Mhaske, Chaitanya Sindagi,…

Reeth Abraham is one of India's most well known athletes participating in the hurdles, long jump and heptathlon events, with a career that began in 1976. She has won various medals at several international competitions including at the Asian level. Her achievement stands out particularly since she won a medal at the Asian level less than a year after she became a mother. Reeth, at one of her practice sessions at Kanteerava Stadium. Pic: Deepthi M S Although she retired from competitive athletics in 1992, this 49-year-old has continued training over the years and is now active as a Masters…

Friday, 17 February, was witness to an eclectic blend of musicians, all converged on one stage to show their talents and win lots of hearts. Akashavani Habba, a week long festival by AIR was held to portray, showcase and promote talented musicians across all art forms and music streams. The AIR Rock Marathon was one such event that was held to bring out the talents in the city to perform in front of a 3-member judge panel. Pic: Satvik Kaushik 11 Bands registered for the event. Nine of them showed up and three won their respective prize money and a…

On 24 February, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) called for a hearing on the basis of the complaints given by the residents of the Brigade Palm Springs, JP Nagar 7th phase, against the noise caused by granite cutting and polishing units functioning in their neighbourhood. Residents of Brigade Palm Springs at KSPCB office. Pic: Deepthi M S. The residents had given a written complaint to Environment officer, South one on 6 February. JP Nagar, where these factories are situated comes under the jurisdiction of South One department.The complaint was against Ashwini Granites, Alankar Granites and Vijaya Granites, which…

He is leading a retired life but spends most of his time and energy in bringing necessary improvement to the community. He is affable, determined, disgruntled with the official apathy yet hopeful. He is the 'military man' of HSR Layout, meet Brigadier R S Murthy, 68, Vice President, Federation of Residents Welfare Associations in HSR layout. Brig Murthy with his wife Lalitha. Pic: Deepthi M S He lives with his wife Lalitha Murthy, 61, who is a teacher. Learning to use the Internet seems to be their latest pursuit. With Brigadier's transfers to various parts of the country, Lalitha says…

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…