City: Bengaluru

How many beggars are there is namma Bangalore ? No, not a few thousands, but the entire population of the city -- some six-odd million, at last count. Including you and me. Wondering if you read that right ? Yep. After following the latest media reports on the infamous beggars home and the responses from our city administrators, we all seem to have been reduced to the status of beggars -- begging for attention to our problems, begging to have our voices heard, begging for some accountability in public servants, and begging for some shred of ethical - moral considerations…

This is one question that arises in the mind of commuters travelling from BTM Layout via Maruti Nagar to Koramangala. For the last six months, BWSSB had made a mess of Thaverekere 1st Main Road. Now the vehicles coming from Forum to BTM Udupi garden are diverted via Maruti nagar. Due to this, traffic have increased during peak hours. Now commuters have to choose an alternate road to save time and avoid traffic in Maruti Nagar road.Recently Maruti Nagar Road had a traffic jam; adding more trouble to commuters were some private property owners who have left construction materials such…

BBMP demolished the disputed 400-metre-long compound wall of L&T South City in Mico-Arekere layout on Thursday morning (9 June) and threw open the 60-feet road going through the compound to the public, amidst protests from residents. This, even as cases are pending in the court between residents, builder L&T and original land owner Dinesh Ranka. Residents had alleged in the court cases that the builder and Ranka had relinquished the 60-feet road and area including the compound wall to the BDA, without their consent . BBMP had earlier made markings on the compound wall to acquire 30 feet of land…

Golden Jackal. Pic: kalyan Verma, courtesy: Nature Conservation Foundation. Nature Conservation Foundation has launched Jackals: Past and Present, a two-month, public, nationwide online survey to find out more about the golden jackal. Although jackals are distributed widely in India, very little is actually known about them. But at the same time, because they are also easily recognised, we hope to draw on what people already know about jackals to uncover trends in how widely or how often they are being seen, and learn about the threats they face across the country.To do this, we really need your participation. So, please…

In a shocking event, employers of M/s Electrosys Solutions India have cheated 90 BE and MCA graduates with crores of rupees by providing fake jobs. The employers collected money of Rs. 80,000 to 2,00,000/- per employee offering them a Rs. 17,000/- monthly emoluments for 2 months training period. This amount was collected by 5 - 6 consultants who were appointed by the company and shared amongst the company and the consultants. After regularization, the company had assured employees of Rs. 24,000/- emoluments per month. But little did these employees know that after one and half months later, the employers would…

Amidst the flurry of charitable trusts and non-governmental organizations - there is a rather strange breed of social initiatives thriving these days. These are not run by full time activists or social workers but by ordinary citizens like you and me- doing full time jobs and shouldering other family responsibilities. The couple behind the study centre: Jayaseelan and Lalitha. One such couple in Bangalore - Lalitha and Jayaseelan are running a students' study center in Cox Town in Bangalore for the wards of the slum dwellers nearby. They are normal people, with abnormal will. The journey began 25 years ago…

While most people in Bengaluru curled up in bed on Sunday morning, 22 thousand people put on their running shoes, plugged in their I-pods and ran for the TCS World 10k 2011. As one walked towards Kanteerava Stadium from the Halasuru gate bus stop, one could see a steady stream of people marching out of Cubbon Park- some walking, some jogging and some running at what seemed like the speed of light- happy to see the finish line. Kanteerava stadium was overflowing with people who were queuing up near the refreshment stalls. While on one side there was the constant…

Once upon a time there was a city called Bengaluru which was known as the Garden City with many magnificent trees dotting every road in the city. Then came along the ogre called Metro Rail (BMRCL) and took away all the splendour of the beautiful Garden City reducing it to a pathetic sight of dug roads, cranes that topple every other day and traffic jams. Namma Bengaluru, the city I remember as I moved in here 12 years ago, was a peaceful city with beautiful boulevards all around and huge raintrees spreading their canopies over the roads providing shade to…

Residents of Elita Promenade, an apartment complex in JP Nagar 7th phase, are a worried lot. Elita has a strange problem - a sewage pipeline runs within the apartment's compound, but it carries sewage not from the complex, but from other layouts. The raw sewage flows in to the pipeline located along the compound wall and finally joins Jaraganahalli (Sarakki) lake located behind the complex. The sewage is from Uma Sanjeevini apartment and Guru Raghavendra Layout located next to Elita complex, outside its compound wall. The apartment however has its own Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) to process its sewage. Sewage…

There are close to 841 BBMP parks in Bangalore (a 2009 statistic) but I had not been to one until last weekend. Although, I did not get to see much of the park I did see this board announcing that the park is shut between 10 am and 4 pm. Even if I used the park during open hours then I could not play, sit or walk on the lawn! This is the case with most public spaces; they are not open for the public! I spent a day laughing it off before I found out about an event being…