City: Bengaluru

On October 15th evening, residents of HRBR Layout were shocked to see trees being cut by BBMP workers in yet another park developed by BBMP's Horticulture Department. These were fully grown trees and the park is located at 9th G Main Road, HRBR Layout, 1st block in Kalyannagar (Ward 88).On enquiry, we were told that the workers have the permission from Range Officer of BBMP. When we asked them to show the permission they did not show this, telling us that it is with one Purushotam, who was not there. The reason they gave for the cutting the trees was…

It's nearing end of October; it is that time of the year when the school admission process is in full swing in Bengaluru and many parents are trying to find schools that will work best for their children. This article provides a checklist of criteria to look for before narrowing down on schools. This guide is primarily aimed at parents looking at Montessori and Kindergarten admissions. How does one go about figuring out the “right” school? Your precious 4-year-old probably gives you very little clue about his or her preference. The logical way of going about school-hunting is to consider…

When was the last time you saw at least 70 different characters (could be more if one actually counted!), not to mention other things like vehicles, tables, houses and more  on one sheet of paper, with each character minutely detailed with suitable clothes, accessories, postures & expressions?  Not to mention having you in splits at the same time! If you are a resident of Bangalore and your answer is ‘in the past couple of weeks’, I am sure that you are one of those lucky to have visited the exhibition of Mario de Miranda’s works that is currently on at…

In my locality, Sadashivnagar, BBMP has suddenly started concreting of pavements. This would normally be a laudable activity, but  for these problems:1. The pavements are not used by pedestrians at all. The streets in the locality have sparse vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Pedestrians walk on the edge of the road comfortably. The picture below shows one such street at peak traffic time of 5:30 PM. So concreted pavements are unnecessary in this locality.2. Concrete pavements are not only unnecessary, they are actively harmful. Concrete and tar are the chief causes of a phenomenon called Urban Heat Island - the city…

A contest for rock bands judged by Lounge Piranha, workshops on martial art, movie spoofs, mascots and lots of glam-- IIM Bangalore’s recently concluded Unmaad 09 had all the trappings of a major college fest. There were events for the sober and the cerebral, and then there were the artsy dos with pretty people and related regalia; rounding it all off was the standard issue high profile pro-show by the trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Making things interesting, however, was IIMB itself. And one means this literally. Anybody who has ever tried to navigate their way through the labyrinthine corridors of IIMB…

I've been reading queries on various mailing lists I belong to, about joint expeditions to Hosur to buy fireworks for the approaching festival of Deepavali. Some of the members ask, since the tax differential is large enough to make a difference, why not share a car and go to buy fireworks?Indeed, there will be a price difference between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (Hosur and Bangalore) for fireworks, as for many other things.However, I  remember that one year everyone was up in arms about  child labour being utilised in making fireworks and we all boycotted fireworks. Have things changed at all,…

As part of the controversial project to lay a 9.2 kms road through the Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) of the University of Agricultural Sciences’ forestland, BBMP has cut down 680 trees, some of which were part of the university’s germplasm collections according to a survey undertaken by the Conservator of Forests, Bangalore Urban Circle. Germplasm collections are wild varieties of various crops that are collected and planted in different parts of the GKVK campus. The wild varieties are then crossed with conventional ones to create a hybrid. Sources within the university as well as the Forest Department have confirmed…

With Diwali just round the corner, cracker vendors in Bangalore have set up shop at 35 open grounds across the city. These are temporary stalls set up on the allotment of the Bangalore city police commissioner’s office and are allowed to sell firecrackers till October 21st using their temporary license. List of grounds designated for sale of crackers – Diwali 2009(Numbers in brackets are number of shops/licenses awarded for that ground) 1. Deepak playground (15)2. JP Nagar playground (17)3. Udayabhanu playground (10)4. HMT playground (9)5. Jayanagar Telephone Exchange (18)6. Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Shankarnag playground (18)7. Rama mandira playground (28)8. Malleshwaram playground…

Be it Sachin Tendulkar fainting in his hotel room after dinner or Harbhajan Singh slapping his team mate, a huge furrow over cheer leaders or TV channels discussing T20 over one day matches, cricket finds its way to the top stories of the day anyhow. The second in league should be Tennis with talks about Sania Mirza's engagement party or rift between two senior players. But rarely do we hear about certain karate championship or find these champions during the prestigious Rajeev Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards. “We mostly stay in places (government schools, temple compounds, etc) where there are no…

The man with a red nose greets you politely and hands you a flower. You put your hand out and the red plastic flower shrinks away from you. Meet Dr Boing, a.k.a Sanjay Balsavar. Dr Boing says, medicines take time to cure patients, but I give instant cure – a smile. Pic: Meera K Balsavar, 37, is a magician and a clown by choice and a graphic designer by profession.  At the age of 8, fascinated by magic tricks he used to collect pocket money to buy magic books which were costly then. Building his repertoire of tricks, he has…