City: Bengaluru

Life throws pleasant surprises along the way when you least expect it. Until Friday afternoon I hadn’t really planned on attending the launch of Yt’angle (Yours Truly angle for children by the theatre group Yours Truly). But one thing led to another and me, a reluctant theatre enthusiast jumped at the chance of introducing my children to theatre. They were not entirely enthusiastic about this last minute Saturday program to go watch a play when they could be home with video games and television. The chock-a-bloc traffic and losing our way to JC Road didn’t help either. But we reached…

Meteor showers happen when masses of meteors fall into the earth's atmosphere in a shower, producing heavenly fireworks. They are named after the constellations in which they are seen. On October 24th, we had the Orionid showers, and on November 17th, we are about to witness the Leonid showers. Expected peak of the Leonid Showers over India Approximately midnight to 3.40 AM on the night of the 17th/early morning of the 18th of November, 2009. (Actual time may vary). The showers can be viewed with the naked eye and no telescope is required. For more info see here and here.…

Children of Government Kannada Lower Primary School, Kattigenahalli (Yelahanka Post) decided they had had enough. Potable drinking water at school had been a problem for them for a long time now. They approached their neighbours – Astra Zeneca. In a couple of days, they had a water filter donated and installed. On the other side of town, children from RV Public School, VV Puram Bangalore were bothered by the chronic shortage of blood for emergency procedures. They launched a door-to-door awareness campaign to explore popular myths, and misconceptions about blood donation. The children persevered even when professionals and educated citizens…

Journey across Bengaluru city on a whim is a thing of the past. Jammed roads have necessitated planning. What used to take 15 minutes can stretch to an hour on a bad day. A fallout of crowded streets that’s seldom discussed is the issue of nature’s call while you are on road for long periods. This especially gets trickier if you are a woman.Loo-breaks too need to be planned. City’s walls and trees are of little use if you are a woman. Yes, there are a little over hundred Nirmala pay and use toilets across the city. But most are…

Ever heard of a rock concert especially for inmates? In what may well rank as India’s first ever rock concert for prison inmates,  Raghu Dixit Project rocked Bangalore Central Jail on November 11th with their upbeat songs. "This is to celebrate life". Pic: Ganesh Raghunathan. Raghu Dixit Project, considered one of the country’s finest rock bands had a one hour concert for around 4500 inmates of Bangalore Central Jail, between 11.30 and 1PM. The jail is located at Parappana Agrahara, Hosa Road, Bengaluru.“This is to celebrate life,” says Dixit adding “No matter what you have done in the past there…

From avid book lovers to light readers, the Bangalore Book Fest is catering to all types of visitors. Children's books seemed to be the most popular genre and almost two thirds of the books displayed are meant for junior readers. Navya M Gowda, all of four and a half, seemed extremely thrilled with her copy of “Clifford’s Loose Tooth” from Scholastic. Pic: Deepti Sarma. The festival has been on full swing at Palace Grounds, from November 6th when it was inaugurated by Rastrakavi Shivarudrappa. With over 350 stalls, the festival is slated to end on Sunday November 15th. In 2008, 10…

For over 10 days, the power tussle between the Reddy brothers faction and the Yeddyurappa camp has virtually held the work of government hostage. How has the internal turmoil in the BJP government impacted the prospects for “fixing” a whole host of Bengaluru problems? The Government of Karnataka, on November 13th 2009, put out a state-level Urban Development draft policy for public comment. Minister of Law and Urban development S Suresh Kumar released the draft, which has been prepared by A Ravindra, Advisor to the Chief Minister on urban affairs. It mentions the setting up of a Metropolitan Planning Committee…

This year's Bangalore Book Festival was neither better nor worse than usual, which is to say that it mainly offered the advantages of visiting a number of more or less ordinary bookstores in a single venue. I am always on the look-out for translations of literature from different countries and regions into English, but if this was a focus area at the Festival, it was not evident to me in the few hours I spent there. By and large, apart from the special focus sections on Kannada literature, the exhibitors had the usual run of the mill fare you find…

Sixty-one-year-old Jagadhamba is almost in tears. Property that her late husband Vishwanath built in 1994 is now being razed down, all for the sake of road widening by BBMP. Jagadhamba lives on Karkere Main Road in Jayanthi Nagar (North Bengaluru) with her family of two sons and two daughters. “What justice is this? This is our property. We don’t know what to do”, says Jagadhamba, as her voice drowns in the noise of the bull dozer at work. Sixty-one-year-old Jagadhamba. 195 feet x 17 feet of her property, built in 1994, is being taken away for road widening. BBMP will…

If you overhear a group of middle class parents talking, you are likely to hear the topic of schools – especially so around the time of admissions. The emotions vary from excitement to speculation to worry to concern to resignation. Many parents consider choosing a school among well established private schools as one of the big decisions they will be taking for their child. Parents talk about the criteria for selecting schools and discuss schools' approach to teaching, wondering if a certain methodology will work best for their child. Parents queueing up at at National Public School, Koramangala for admission…