City: Bengaluru

I have been working in a very reputed BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) firm in Bangalore for the last six years. Today, during our tea break, the question, "Why we work for a BPO?" was raised. Post break I came back to my work station with my thoughts lingering about what we had discussed. Most of us in my group joined because we were either graduates or post graduates and not every one of us could get into management (or) technical trade. In the beginning, all of us felt it’s a 'no other go' scenario and found it difficult to explain…

The residential hub of Jayanagar was once known for its nurseries. But where have all those nurseries gone today? Is the era of neighbourhood nursery over? Asha Nursery, Jayanagar 1st block (pic: Vaishnavi Vittal) As you take the one-odd kilometre walk from Siddapura all the way up to NIMHANS, you can see a number of nurseries on your way, interspersed with buildings and houses. But, if you were taking a stroll down that path five years ago, all you could see were nurseries. The nurseries took up more than 200 acres of land then. But today the number has dwindled…

Members of Sri Ram Sene got their share of limelight this fortnight. For beating women, tugging at their clothes, matrimonial threats... And Bangaloreans aren't taking this quietly. On 8th February, students of the Srishti School of Art and Design organised a peace march protesting against this moral policing. With the slogan 'I am an Indian, this is my culture', more than hundred people took to the streets with banners and placards. Students in a peace march against moral policing on Sunday, 8th of Feb (pic: Sastry Vadlamani) The march started from Rest House Road park, through Brigade Road, and ended…

It's not a great time to pick for an evening of theatre.... on a Wednesday evening. First, the traffic. Of all our theatre spaces, Chowdiah is the least well-connected by public transport. Leave alone not being close to any bus stop, it is not even convenient for auto-rickshaws. So, one decides to drive, battling the guilt of using the car for only two people. And one realises that the ‘evening of leisure’ will not begin until the wretched having-cars-autos-and-two-wheelers-squeezing-past drive is over, as also the eternal hunt for that elusive El Dorado, the Parking Space. It took us an hour…

Crime Tyre thieves strike Bangalore again They have returned to haunt vehicle owners in Bangalore. Tyre thieves were active once upon a time, stealing tyres of parked vehicles and make money out of it. The demand for used tyres dropped for while, and these theives looked for other spare parts to steal. Now with used tyres getting a get good price in market, vehicles have started losing their wheels again. Many such incidents have surfaced in Bangalore, and the police have urged owners to take care of their vehicles. ( Vijaya Karnataka , Tuesday, 2 Feb ) Education Schools gear…

It's usually people who quit regular jobs to follow their passion make news; but here is somebody who moved from a government organisation to the business sector to pursue, quite literally, matters of the heart! Prof. A V Ramani (pic: Deepa Mohan) Professor AV Ramani is unusual by any standards. Educated to be a chemical engineer with a wide knowledge of material sciences, he taught metallurgy at IIT, Madras. Also experienced with electrochemical technology, he put in 11 years, from 1968 to 1979, at National Aeronautical Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore, where he became conversant with non-conventional processes like spark erosion. What…

‘Prakruti' simply means ‘Nature'- unrefined, natural, as it is. This is the name of the organisation which was started by MS Prasad, an PR consultant and an event management professional, four years ago. Along with Praveen Rao, a well known figure in the field of music in India and abroad, particularly orchestrization and composing, Prasad started ‘Prakruti' and registered it as a Trust. Audience at a concert at Cubbon Park Bandstand (pic courtesy: Prakruthi) The purpose was to bring music and breathe life into the dead Cubbon Park bandstand. That was almost four months ago and there has been no…

  Now here is an Example Suppose you have a property in the city that fell into tax Zone E, your tenanted area is 450 sq ft and self occupied area is 950 sq ft then following will be your tax calculation: Gross Unit Area Value - Rs 22200.00 Depreciation Amount -  Rs 5328.00 (the depreciation is of 24 per cent) Net Unit Area Value - Rs 16872.00 Property Tax - Rs 3374.40 Cess (24 per cent) - Rs 809.86 Total Property Tax - Rs 4184.26 Rebate of 5 per cent - Rs 3975.00 (If paid in full on or…

The BMTC is launching the Kendriyasarige, a bus service that will serve Bengaluru's central business district, and the Big 10 service that will be a direct route connecting 10 major roads in the city to the outer ring roads. The BMTC has adopted some of the suggestions given in the ABIDe report on transport and has taken the initiative to apply them even before the government asks them to do so. "The new launches are definitely going to benefit public transport system, thus, the earlier we do it the better it is," says P S Sandhu, Director, BMTC. He thinks…

Our last article on Bangalore's history talked about its electrification, the first city in Asia to be electrified. Continuing with our series on Bangalore's development, we will now see how a sleepy town was transformed into a robust city by industrialisation. Mysore Lamps factory at Yeshwantpur (pic: Gopal MS) The medium and large scale industries started to appear in Bangalore in the mid 19th century. We owe much of the origin of the Government Press (operated in Wesleyan Mission Society), which was the first one to start the trend in Bangalore, to Rev. J Garret. Later, he not only set…