City: Bengaluru

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…

Most of us at some point or other in our lives have looked up at the sky and wondered, what is that bright star? What are those light streaks in the sky? At the Bangalore Astronomical Society (BAS), we want people to get answers to these questions and learn more about our universe.BAS, a registered non-profit organisation, started in 2006 by a group of seven astronomy enthusiasts, has now 70 paid members and hundreds more, part of the e-group. We want to nurture people’s interest in astronomy, one of the few areas of studies that is ancient and yet modern.…

Most of the times, injuries while bursting crackers occur because of no supervision, misuse of crackers, device failure and so on. Injuries may also result from being too close to fireworks when they explode. For example, when you lean over to look more closely if a firework has been lit or if a bottle rocket hits a nearby person. The types of fireworks that generally cause injuries are flower pots or fountains, sparklers, bombs, rockets and sky shots. Precautions and safety measuresBuy fireworks from licensed and reputed manufacturers only. Ask the shopkeeper for his license given by the city police.…

If you happened to be near Brigade Road, Church Street or Mosque Road (Frazer Town) on the evening of September 9th and saw a colourful truck it may have well been the Bangalore Bachao wagon. The brainchild of some students from the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, it is an art intervention about some of the critical environmental issues affecting Bangalore presently. The eight participants loaded the “float on wheels” truck with art material in its open back and drove through the city. Pic credit: Bangalore Bachao group. It highlights the efforts of Hasiru Usiru and its associated…