City: Bengaluru

How often have we not heard non-vegetarians crib about the lack of variety in the vegetarian cuisine - constantly branding it as "Ghas-poos"? Well, after a meal at the South Indies, even the most intractable of "pure" non-vegetarians would be forced to lick their fingers and then, eat some humble pie.South Indies is a part of a very small club of genuinely authentic restaurants in Bangalore and this is largely due to the entrepreneurial excellence of Managing Director, Vijay Abhimanyu  and the culinary expertise of Master Chef and CEO, Venkatesh Bhat. In fact, barring the beverages and the usual spread…

A Pune school has said ‘no' to processed food at school and has involved parents in choices of food for the children. A number of other private schools, include many in Bengaluru are considering similar positions. The idea of schools intervening in what is traditionally the domain of parents was the topic of a panel discussion recently in Bengaluru. The conference was held to spread awareness about the dangers of processed foods, genetically modified foods, chemical agriculture, factory farming and how our food system impacts climate change. Pic credit: Basavaraj Biradar The discussion was held at a Conference on Food,…

This is my response to Citizen Matters' article on 'Junctions where grade separators are to come up'. The thought of having the prolonged construction of yet another set of grade separators foisted on us is really scary. As everyone knows, the underpass on 24th Main, 15th Cross, J P Nagar is way behind schedule as was the case with Jayadeva circle flyover. When the Jayadeva flyover construction was going on between the years 2003-06, traffic was diverted through Bilekahalli Dollar Layout adjacent to Bannerghatta Road, where I live, for years on end.The decision to divert traffic through our layout, was…

A science exhibition on a 16 coach AC train! Yes, “The Science express”, a science exhibition on a train that is travelling all over the country is now in Bangalore. The exhibits have been developed by the Max Planck Society, Germany, in collaboration with the Department of Science and technology (DST), the Government of India and the Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VASCSC).The train is in Bangalore, stationed at the Cantonment station, from the 10th to the 14th of this month. So far the train has visited over 100 cities covering a distance of 32000 kms. An exhibit at…

Past Saturday, December 5th saw a bunch of metal heads from the garden city of Bengaluru become a part of history by default. History because they witnessed India’s first ever international metal festival for climate change; default for the simple reason that there was absolutely no talk about climate change on stage. However, NGO heavyweights like Green Peace, Indian Youth Climate Network and Life did their bit by setting up stalls and signing petitions about climate change. These petitions will eventually be sent to a United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2010. At last count, a total of fifteen hundred…

The long overdue city (BBMP) council elections have finally been announced by the State Election Commission (SEC). After a gap of three years with no council, Bengaluru will elect a council on February 21st 2010. The last elections to the BBMP took place way back in 2001. New dates for BBMP council elections. The SEC announced the calendar of events wherein election code of conduct will come into force on January 15th. The notification will be issued on February 1st and last date for filing nomination papers is February 8th. The nominations will be reviewed the next day, February 9th.…

During the second half this year – July-October in particular - as well during the previous two years, BBMP notified various roads in Bengaluru and outskirts for widening. BBMP’s notifications have appeared in Kannada and English dailies.The widening is being under BBMP’s transfer of development rights (TDR) scheme. If you are slated to loose property on the road because of widening, you are entitled to 1.5 times the square footage lost through a development rights certificate (DRC), which the BBMP says it will issue. For more on this, see our articles BBMP’s TDR scheme has few takers, many left clueless,…

It was a pleasant Sunday morning and it was unbelievable that garbage issue brought more than 200 Bangaloreans together at a day-long Zero Waste Management workshop in Malleswaram on December 6th. It was held at Rotary West Hall of Government Girl's High School.The workshop was workshop was organised by ECO Manage Group. MLA of Malleswaram, Dr Ashwath Narayan who co-sponsored the programme was also present. A skit by a group of enthusiastic employees from BOSCH explained with humour the apathy of the citizens towards garbage. Pic: Lavanya Keshavamurthy. The meeting commenced with Dr Meenakshi Bharath, who plans to run for…

We all appreciate the planned approach and systematic execution of any project. Many companies do it and among government establishments, the railways, perhaps because it was a British company earlier. For example, if they have to bridge a river of 50 feet and lay the track, they just refer to ready made designs and drawings for bridge girders, fabricate them while the piers are being built, and finish the project in record time. Civic amenities site in Kalyan Nagar is lying vacant for over two decades and is in continuous danger of being encroached upon. Pic: Lina Vincent. We also…

With Christmas round the corner, if thoughts of plum cake, fudge and wine have been invading your mind and you’re wondering how to get your hands on home made treats, here are a couple of names for festive goodies.Lorraine Correa, who has been in the business for a while and makes a variety of sweets for the season, changes her product list annually to suit customer demands. However, the two things you will always find at Lorraine’s is Christmas Cake priced at Rs 350 per kg and Kulkuls at Rs 250 per kg. This Christmas there’s also Shell Cream –…