City: Bengaluru

It isn’t everyday that a state’s draft transport policy is discussed in humour. Well, but that is exactly what happened at ‘Mobilicity – an unconference on sustainable transport’ on November 21st at the Indian Institute of Science. Organised by online community Praja.in and Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), the event was held to discuss issues on sustainable mobility for Bengaluru. (From left) Gaurav Gupta, Shankarlinge Gowda, Krishna Byregowda, Praveen Sood. Byataranapura MLA Krishna Byregowda says, "People ask me about BPL cards, drains and street lights. Nobody asks me about transport". The unconference, a participant-driven discussion with…

The Namma Bengaluru Awards, set up by the Namma Bengaluru Foundation, has received a whopping 3902 nominations from across the city. The nominees include a banana leaf-seller R V Badraiah, Sr Adeke Korah who counsels prisoners, police sub inspectors and a BBMP official. There are two categories for the awards - the Public Officials and Agencies category and the Private Citizens and Institutions category. Among the nominees R V Badraiah: A banana leaf seller, however have arranged drinking water facilities in all the neighborhood bus stops.Sister Adele Korah: A former school principal. After retirement she devoted her time to counseling…

A wall is a wall, whether it is plain, peeling or broken. But it is much more when it is painted with flowers, animals and mystical beings. It is street art. On Rest House Road, off St Marks Roads, one can see flowers, clouds and a man reading under a tree.Shilo Shiv Suleman, Siddharth Chadha and Ridhi D Cruz are the three young people who painted this wall. Ridhi is a Bangalorean, trained as a journalist, who freelances with independent media projects. Chadha who is from Delhi and Ridhi’s J-school classmate, is a film maker and researcher. Shilo is a…

One can get a peek into the Bharatratna and Oscar Award winner’s life at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) on Palace Road, where slew of photographs by Nemai Ghosh titled, “Satyajit Ray: From Script to Screen”, are on display. They are on display till November 27th of this month. One of Satyajit Ray's photographs displayed at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Pic: Deepa Vaishnavi It is said, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ This is indeed the case with these photographs which have been selected from over tens of thousands of photographs taken over a period…

Saturday, November 14th 2009 saw a different kind of Children's day event in Jayanagar. Kids were not dressed as Nehru or Indira Gandhi and were not singing or dancing. Instead, they all came out on their cycles and demanded safer roads for cycling to school.About 200 students from various schools in Jayanagar, including MES school, Good Shepherd school, JSS school, Vijaya school were joined by Transport Minister R Ashoka, Jayanagar, MLA B N Vijayakumar and film actor Pooja Gandhi in a cycle rally. Justice Saldanha also spoke on  rights of children in roads and urban spaces. On Children's day around…

In a previous article which appeared in Citizen Matters a month ago, I talked about the fact as to how Bangalore was becoming another Mumbai (a concrete jungle, without any open spaces and hardly any greenery ). And although I have moved to another city in another continent (Delft, Netherlands) to pursue a PhD in trying to understand the ‘institutional & governance side of urban transportation' (in which I will be studying four cities including Bangalore), I cannot help but read about the latest developments in Bangalore through news reports which seem to suggest that the administration (municipal and state)…

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…