City: Bengaluru

Some like it mapped For Design Engineer Ashok Vasudevan, using a mobile phone to tell you which route to take is a nuisance. Ashok prefers using a map. Yes, how can one forget the good ol' map? How many of us have even used a map apart from our geography classes in school? Ashok says, "I'm crazy about maps. I use the Eicher map. It's easy to use as it first provides a complete map of Bangalore in two pages which is then divided into several numbered parts. These parts are then magnified in subsequent pages. It's a handy tool…

A wonderful bird is the pelican,His mouth can hold more than his belly can,He can hold in his beak,Enough food for a week!I'm damned if I know how the hell he can!- Dixon Lanier MerrittIf you have visited the Lalbagh lately, you would have seen a lot of people standing around the lake, cheering the presence of huge white birds or excited lens men clicking them. These magnificent birds are pelicans, one of the largest flying aquatic birds on the planet. Pelican at Hebbal Lake (pic: Saurabh Mittal) The pelican is known for its huge wing span and massive frame.…

Is this how other government schools are? Kannada 'Model' Primary School- irony or euphemism? In my minimal exposure to such schools, I've seen worse. This one has sufficient functioning infrastructure like building, rooms, 'play'ground, furniture, teaching aids, washrooms and so on. But the lighting and/or ventilation in some of the classrooms is dangerously poor. And all have metallic furniture which is rusted and heavy. Near the playground. L to R: Bharat (class V), Ramesh, Venkatesh & Pushpalata (class VII) (pic: Pushpa Achanta) The computer lab which has 3-4 desktops, including one with a completely state-of-the-art flat screen, LCD monitor with…

Urban families are always on the lookout for a great bargain. Power bills account for a considerable percentage of the monthly household budget, and one such gadget that can cut down the same is the gas geyser. The gas geyser has a simple mechanism to heat water for bathing purposes - the LPG gas outlet is connected to an enclosed burner which heats the inlet water, giving hot water in few seconds. Gas Geyser, Chinese make (Pic: Divya Sharma) It takes just 3-5 minutes to fill a big bucket with hot water. However, this simple tool can turn a killer…

As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world - Virginia Woolf Meet Jyothi Ganesh, editor, publisher, writer, mother, wife, all rolled into one. From helping her maid get a recurring deposit in the nearby bank to sweetly coaxing her young neighbour to fit a silencer to his noisy bike, Jyothi believes in 'doing and giving'. Founder-editor of Frazer Times, a community newspaper of areas in and around Frazer Town in north Bangalore, this woman runs the show single-handedly. Soft-spoken, passionate, endearing, patient, these are but a few words to describe this dreamer.…

Business Labourers affected by global recession The Peenya Industrial Area employs about five lakh labourers. Out of them 5000 workers have alreadly lost their jobs, the reason being global recession. Most of the industrial units have no new orders to execute since three months. Many companies are asking workers to resign without giving them sufficient period of notice. The bogey of unemployment now haunts many workers. It is said that there will be 25- 30 per cent job cut soon. (Prajavani, Sunday, 11 Jan) Coffee to brew no more at Coffee House Sad news for coffee and Coffee House lovers-…

The most awaited park of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), the Freedom Park, opened to the public in November 2008, even as a number of facilities inside are still not functional. This, over-20 acre park, built on the former Central Jail premises on Seshadri Road is mainly constructed for arranging rallies, dharnas and protests and, therefore, not affecting the flow of traffic on such occasions. Garden area inside Freedom Park ( pic: Architects Mathew and Ghosh )The Freedom Park, now a vital green lung space in fast-concretising Bengaluru, has a long history to it. The plans for the park…

Bangalore, one the fastest growing cities in India, has been known as the Garden City. The city boasts of congenial climate that birds thrive in. Three hundred or more varieties of birds have been identified around Bangalore and its peripheries. With exponential growth of the IT hub of India, the city has seen rapid changes and this has affected its bird population. Some birds have shifted their nesting areas, some have become mere visitors and some have found a place on the endangered species list. In this series on 'Birds of Bangalore', we will talk about some of the birds…

Ever wondered why Bangalore has several firsts to its credit? Be it industrialisation, automation, machine-tools, aviation, aerospace-research, advanced studies, information technology, the city has been the Mecca for trying out developmental projects. It sure speaks of the progressive nature of its people and their innovative spirit. In a series of articles, Citizen Matters will try to cover the various innovations that the city has pioneered through recent history. Receiving Station, MG Road (pic: Gopal MS) Ask the citizens of Bangalore to name the city's biggest problem and they are sure to say either traffic and/or power cuts. They will surely…

Meet Prakash Michael. 56 years old, freelance graphic designer and an alumnus of the JJ School of Art. Prakash runs a graphic design studio in Bangalore and is one of the most resourceful art directors I have met or worked with. Prakash MichaelWay back, when there was no desktop publishing or Photoshop, Prakash did the layouts, assembled his artworks and somewhere down the line, nipped into his dark room to print bromides of b&w logos and images. A true one-stop shop in drawing board publishing.Over the years, the end-to-end responsibilities of freelance became a serious limiting factor. "I just didn't…