City: Bengaluru

Luxury apartments with world class facilities, half price sale at a clothes store, mobile phone with three-inch LCD, camera phones…just some of the advertisements on hoardings, serenading the consumer. But today as you drive through the city, more than advertisements for consumer products, you are likely to see advertisers calling for advertisements, their names and numbers given big and bold. Thanks to the economic downturn, say companies, they are taking it slow and cutting down on advertising expenses. But some in the advertising field say it has more to do with the mind than market conditions. Hoardings available on Koramangala…

Ajit Prakash drives from Iblur junction to his office in Koramangala everyday. The three kilometre drive generally takes him about 20 minutes. But on 12th February, Prakash took nearly two hours to get to his office; thanks to a traffic jam that extended from beyond Sarjapur Road all the way up to Agara junction and further. Manjunath R, also on his way to Koramangala, was caught in the jam for almost two and a half hours. B Lokesh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Adugodi, says the reason for the hold up was because of incomplete work by the Bangalore Development…

The garbage truck that visits the 5 blocks of JP Nagar’s Brigade Millennium community every morning usually leaves overflowing, and often with things that could be reused or recycled. Mayflower Block, 15 floors high, with about 220 families is a major contributor to this. Some of us were already aware of ITC's (paperboards) efforts at garbage segregation in Yelahanka, where their team goes door-to-door regularly to buy recyclable/reusable garbage. Taking a cue from that, and with the end objective of reducing the quantity of garbage that travels several kilometers to the landfill, the ‘Blue Drum Campaign’ was launched by the…

Meta-Culture, a Bangalore-based Relationship and Conflict Management consulting company, organised an event called Bengaluru Speaks on 21st February 2009 at the Ashirvad Community Centre on St. Mark’s Road. Bengaluru Speaks, a community conversation series is one of Meta-Culture’s community-focused initiatives, and had for its eighth theme: “Competing Cultures: Morals, Malls and Marriages”. The stated goal of the programme was to engage the people of Bengaluru in constructive conversation about critical issues so as to strengthen relationships across the city and create a more secure, cohesive and viable community. The event was organised to facilitate dialogue ‘in times of a rapid…

"Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists, principally, in dealing with men", said novelist Joseph Conrad, and for one who has been working for the welfare of women for the past 30 years, this is a reality. In a male-dominated society, Geeta Rao has been relentlessly working towards women empowerment, stalking the corridors of power, seeking justice, roaring like a lioness, and making a difference. "I have always been aggressive", says this compact bundle of energy, "nobody can take me for granted!" Geeta Rao felicitated at a function (pic courtesy: Geeta Rao) Forty-nine year old Geeta…

All our politicians in the state are now busy mustering POWER to rule us, with promises. On the contrary, there is untimely load shedding ( especially in the evenings between 6 PM to 11 PM and early mornings 5 AM to 7 AM).This has caused problems to exam going children. They have to revise the syllabus of the entire year. Although, the government provides mid-day meals,free books and other facilities, the students cannot revise in the last few hours before the exam. What would be the impact on the psychology of the children? We hope our government and energy department…

Between 9th and 11th February 2009, the Karnataka High Court dismissed 11 cases against land acquisition, filed by individuals regarding their residential and commercial properties, on Chinmaya Mission Hospital (CMH) Road. The court’s position was the acquisition were made for “public position” and hence cannot be challenged. This means that some of the tenant traders on CMH Road, who were part of the CMH Road Traders Association and had filed a PIL challenging the validity of the project, have also been asked to surrender their tenancy claims. The traders have time until 31st March this year to vacate their premises.…

Our ring roads have been functioning for quite a while. Why can't the service roads be made motorable too. A few places where it can be used is in a bad shape. I think our city fathers and authorities should ride these roads and see the inconvenience it causes to the public. The city buses are the terrorists of our city - why do the police not check them and book them for the offences which happen right in front of them. Are they scared of the bus drivers? Unless these public bus drivers follow the traffic rules, the chaos…

The BBMP has recently decided and communicated its method and metrics for property tax collection from Bangaloreans. The reclassification of tax zones has led to an increase of at least 33 per cent for all properties whose zonal classification has changed. And the new tax policy keeps revising once every 3 years, with a mandatory 15 per cent increase. The Citizens Action Forum of Bangalore is taking objection to the new scheme.BackgroundProperty Tax has been bothering the citizens of Bengaluru for more than a year now. And even after a year the confusion has not lessened. Probably what has changed…

Education Namma Bengaluru mispresented in ICSC text book How is Bangalore- it is a city of traffic jams; how does Kannada sound- it sounds like mix of Tamil and Telugu… You will find such startling revealations about Namma Bengaluru in the 4th standard Geography ICSC text book. There are many such derogatory comments about Kannada, Bangalore and Karnataka in this text book called 'New starting Geography'. The book is published by Oxford Publications, New Delhi. (Vijaya Karnataka, Monday, Mar 9) 9 quota seats in MBBS go 'missing' Nine MBBS seats reserved for talented poor students are found unaccounted for in…