City: Bengaluru

You must be having a ‘special' tree in your life. Or at least a memory of - a mango tree you grew up climbing; the neighbour's Jamun tree that stained your compound wall purple; Ajji's house Jackfruit tree and its profuse yield; the Pipal tree by the river in your ‘native' village; the ‘haunted' Tamarind tree on the edge of the school compound... Tulika publishers' latest - ‘Let's plant trees' by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer, is a book for parents as much as children. It gets directly to the point - action, not theoretical discussions. It comes with real Pongam…

The blame game is one of the easiest to play -- and Facebook turns out to be an unlikely source to drive home this point.  Take a look at the Bangalore Traffic Police's (BTP) Facebook page. The city's traffic is chaotic,  the number of rule breakers is horrendous, and the number of  offenders pulled up or punished is a small fraction of those who deserve to be penalised.True. But how many of us try to put ourselves in the shoes of the BTP, to  see  whether the blame is all  to be laid solely at their doors, for this state…

A visit to the slums in RT Nagar with Indulekha Vijayasarathy, an active member of ‘Ashvasan' a volunteer organisation was an eye opener. The residents of these slums are taught to make paper bags. "I deliver newspapers and glue. Also help them sell their finished paper bags to the drug stores who pay them. They need help with the marketing and paper supply," says Indulekha, pulling out bundles of newspaper from her car. Ashvasan reaches out to a thousand senior citizens and people in five slums around Bangalore. They provide newspapers to the women in the slums who in turn…

Almost every working professional dreams of finishing up work early to catch up with friends, family or do something for oneself. Tata Teleservices (TTS),  a telecommunications company ran campaign last week to get people to encourage more people to leave office early. June 24 was chosen as the day to observe the initiative. "Many a time, we have heard from employees the good times they spent with friends and family when they left the workplace early, and how these activities actually led to them being better and happier professionals in the longer run-that's one of the triggers of the Leave…

As I stood in a queue in the town centre in Swansea, Wales (UK) waiting for my bus to arrive, I over heard two women in front of me grumbling angrily about having to speak to some person in Bangalore who actually knew nothing about her TV  complaint and she was not sure if anything would finally get done over the weekend. Ooh, typical white metality I thought till I got slammed by the same problem by Airtel.Well I have been ‘Bangalored’ by the Airtel  Broadband service in the so called silicon valley of India. I suddenly woke up yesterday…

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will introduce feeder services under the name of 'Big Connect'. The service is based on the directive issued by the High Court of Karnataka and will be effective on 19 routes across Bengaluru from 26th June 2011. Services for two more routes will be announced after BWSSB has finished laying of pipelines. The service hopes to improve bus connectivity in outer areas of Bangalore. 'Big Connect' Feeder routes. Source: BMTC. (Click to enlarge) The press release issued by BMTC says that the department will assess the performance of all the routes for a period…

Two months after Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) started its page in Facebook, it has about 3,800 'likes'. In this interview with Citizen Matters, Praveen Sood, ACP, Bangalore Traffic, talks about the idea behind the initiative, how it has turned out and further expectations.What was the original idea behind starting the BTP page?Our main intention is to educate and sensitise public about traffic rules and create a forum for discussion. We also get lot of feedback which we would not get otherwise - like, when a signal is not working. This forum is not just a shoulder to cry on or…

It was a delightful evening for music and dance patrons with the talented and versatile artist Dr. Vyjayanthimala Bali taking center stage, at the lecture-demonstration organized by MES Kalavedi, Malleswaram on June 18th. Vyjayanthimala Bali with Saroja Devi (right), Bharathi Vishnuvardhan (left). Pic: Suja Sukumaran. Vyjayanthimala kept her audience captivated with her amazing performance, vocals and commentary on the various dance segments. Her lec-dem had song compositions (like Ella arumaighalum and Arivenayya) with abhinaya and a brief explanation of the abhinaya padams. She was accompanied by Anahita Ravindran on vocal, Gayathri Sashidharan on natuvanga, Shaktivel Muruganandam on mridangam and Chaitanya…

For art enthusiasts, Art Bengaluru, a contemporary art festival, currently organized by UB City along with Artchutney.com and Sublime is a feast for the eye. Over 19 galleries from all over India are represented here with artists of all genres and style exhibiting their art at the nine day festival. Buddha by Amit Bhar. Pic: Suja Sukumaran. The festival of arts in its second year saw the bringing together of art collectors, remarkable artists from all over India, galleries, art enthusiasts and general public at one common venue. What better place to have it than at the beautiful UB City;…

The South Bangalore food walk and research commenced unexpectedly over a cup of tea with a friend - Mohan Narayan, foodie and Basavanagudiphile (I'm pretty sure he made up that word). We were talking food, one thing led to another and I had roped him in to do a food walk taking in South Bangalore's legendary food joints. Not that he needed much convincing. So we undertook a few reconnaissance visits to joints like Vidyarthi Bhavan, Mahalakshmi Tiffin Rooms, et al, planned our route (MTR had to be dropped purely because of logistics) and the walk was ready. During this…