City: Bengaluru

"Consuming this product, especially early in the morning, may be injurious to your health" - we don't have this warning printed at the top of the front page of our daily newspaper. But they should. Because reading newspaper does make one's blood pressure shoot up. This scam or that rip of, all accusing or implicating VIPs who are supposed to be our leaders, administrators and adjudicators. Involving not just lakhs but hundreds of crores, even lakhs of crores. A day care centre's roof collapse  killing children, a substandard construction causing death, contaminated water causing illness, a woeful, criminal  lack of…

It has taken just about 2 months to flood National Games Village (NGV) after the initial protest on 25th February from the residents for opening up the storm water drains. The trauma has just started with the first few summer showers. We had water overflow from the drains reach areas near the centre court in Tungabhadra, NGV on 22 April. Water overflowing from open drains into the residential area. Pic: Meera Rajesh There was no way to cross between the towers without stepping into the dirty water from the drain! BBMP had earlier taken an on the spot decision to…

The latest fad in Bangalore is motorbikes racing down pavements to get to the top of the line of traffic halted at a traffic signal. Woe betide if you are a pedestrian on Richmond Road or Residency Road or any of the large arterial roads in the heart of the city.  Vehicles plying on pavements pose danger to pedestrians. Pic: Marianne De Nazareth Very often you will get a motorbike rider or scooterist, provoking your annoyance by honking at you to get out of his way - on the pavement! It's a dangerous bane that is spreading and it is because…

Jayanthi Venkatachalam, a homemaker in her late 40s, resident of Jeevanbheema Nagar got the roof of her house painted white recently.  Her husband, S V Venkatachalam, a scientist at ISRO, heard of painting roofs white as a method to keep buildings cool from a friend and decided to try it. She says, the rising mercury made life unbearable for her family as a fan was just not enough to provide relief.  Jayanthi says they did not go for air-conditioners or air-coolers because of the cost in terms of buying one and also monthly electricity bills incurred in running them. Although…

India Against Corruption's Bengaluru campaign announced today that Anna Hazare will be visiting Bangalore in the first week of May. Prithvi Reddy, one of the co-ordinators said this at an IAC-organised solidarity gathering outside LokAyukta Justice Santosh Hegde's home. Hegde is a member of the central government's Lokpal bill drafting committee. Around 160 people attended, the IAC said. Gathering of support for Justice Santosh Hegde outside his home on April 22nd morning. Pic: India Against Corruption, Bengaluru. Justice Santosh Hegde had started considering quitting the committee, TV reports broadcast late last night had said. IAC volunteers responded quickly through SMS,…

Mobile phones are handy and small. While this makes them very easy to carry around, they are also susceptible to thefts or misplacement. With the help of technology and better law enforcement, it is becoming easier track lost or stolen mobile phones. However, recovering a mobile phone is still a matter of luck. Handy and easy to lose. Can technology help track down a lost phone? Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi Software to the rescue Suman H M, a nineteen-year-old undergraduate student of Mount Carmel College lost her cell phone while shopping, which had cost her almost 10 thousand rupees. While she…

To take this survey Click here to start. For more details, write to survey@3pundits.com or visit www.3pundits.com and leave a message. 3pundits.com, an education startup focused on school admissions has just launched Bangalore's first-ever independent survey of international schools. The goal of the survey is to produce a report that will help parents select the right international school for their children.  3pundits aims to take away the pain of parents going through a lot of hassle towards research required to selecting a good international school. Citizen Matters is media partner for this survey. 25 international schools will be covered in…

An inconspicuous building on Church Street, Blossom Book House or Blossoms, as book lovers fondly call it, is one of the few surviving second hand book stores in Bangalore. Started in 2000 by Mayi Gowda, Blossoms has grown a few floors in the last ten years without losing its inherent ability to be welcoming and accommodating. Mayi Gowda: Passion for books fueled the entrepreneurship. Pic: Ranjani Krishnakumar "In 2000, when I started Blossoms, I was hardly 23", began a shy, yet highly energetic young entrepreneur arranging a shelf of books smiling tirelessly at every customer who walks in. Hailing from…

In the last ten years, Bangalore (urban) district's population density has increased by about 147%, according to provisional data from the Census 2011. While the population density - number of people per sq km for the district - was 2,985 in 2001, now it is 4,378. Compare this with Dakshin Kannada, the second most densely populated district. DK's population density is only 457, about one-tenth that of Bangalore. Though population density has increased to a small extent in almost all districts, the average population density for the state itself is only 319. Kodagu has the lowest population density at 135.…

The recent series of popular films starring heroes who are more than fifty years old, desperately trying to appear half their age and paired with heroines old enough to be their granddaughters, has surprised discerning film buffs for its mass acceptance. Robot (Rajani), Manmadhan Ambu (Kamal), Shankar Dada Zindabad (Chiranjeevi), Aptharakshaka (Vishnuvardhan) are some examples. If young Akshay Kumar's antics in Raveena Tandon starring 'Cheez badi hai' song was bad enough, his 43-year old smitten self, prancing around a younger Katrina Kaif in Sheela ki jawani (made 16 years later) is even worse. Such films with old heroes have been…