City: Bengaluru

In response to a public interest litigation, the High Court of Karnataka had directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) three months ago to constitute a special committee to monitor its road widening projects and the Metro works. But, the court's intervention has not impacted the 'free' uprooting of trees.  Trees impacted Kanakapura RoadBellary RoadRace Course RoadPalace RoadSarjapur RoadBBMP note constituting the committee The BBMP constituted the nine-member 'Sustainable Development Empowered Technical Advisory Committee' in July 2008, under the chairmanship of Yellapa Reddy, a retired officer of the Indian Forest Service (IFS. According to the court's order, the committee has…

As the weekend approached, the weather looked good on Friday evening as I left my office with the printout of a map of place called Hesarghatta. At 5 AM the next morning, we started on our journey to this famous lake. The idea was to have a enjoyable day out and capture some scenic photographs and lots of birds too, as promised by various websites on the place. The roads were empty and we hit the outer ring road by 5.30, but as we crossed the Hebbal flyover, we realised it was going to be almost a never ending journey.…

Most old time Bangaloreans will vouch that shopping in the noisy, congested lanes of Chickpete and Balepete is a unique experience and more importantly, easy on the wallet. Bangalore Pete (city), built in 1537 AD during Kempegowda reign, is now a thriving wholesale market. Though most people who visit here are retailers, who buy their supplies at wholesale prices, there is also a huge retail shopping populace who regularly visit for the economical prices and the sheer range on offer.It was a long time since I went shopping in this area; so when my aunt requested me to accompany her…

Once upon a time, buses were...boring. Not boring only because one had to wait endlessly for them, but also because the buses were uniformly coloured and so dull. All that has changed now, and I would like to share with you some of the rainbow bursts that ply through the city’s roads, some sporting pictures of nubile maidens and some messages laden with deep significance. I decided to take a ride on a couple of these buses just to talk to the conductors and the drivers. In some instances, the driver had been assigned recently to the bus, and was…

Arts and Culture Shivaji's story retold in exhibition For history lovers, stories about Chatrapathi Shivaji are fascinating, and there have been many attempts to highlight the heroic deeds of this great Maratha King. In one such attempt, Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism (FACT) has organised an exhibition of colour pictures along with historic records that trace the life of Shivaji. The exhibition is on in Mainy Sadana on Lavelle road till October 5. (Prajavani, Sunday, Sept 28) Business ITC push carts for vegetable vending may come to Bangalore After successfully trying their hand in supermarkets, big players like ITC have now…

I would not mind starting with a clichéd phrase for Bangalore - the city of lakes and tanks. But these days this lake city is making news because its lakes are drying up. Some because of waste dumping, some because of encroachments. One of these unfortunate lakes in Bangalore is Bellandur Lake, one of the oldest with 130 years of history and the main water provider or the city. The lake is two kms from the Koramanangla valley southwards of the city. It covers an area of 903 acres and is six meters deep at the center. The water storing…

If you have driven at night in Bangalore, you know what a pain it is. Even if you don't drive in Bangalore, you will know how much night traffic hurts. Your eyes that is.In good old Bharat, we had half blackened headlights. Because a high-beam was painful and it was deemed best to cover the top half of the light in black paint so that everyone's eyes were spared.But for whatever reason (if any of you know, please write in!) the half covered lights have gone! And what we are left with is a city, full of people driving around…

“You know you’re in Bangalore, you know you’re in the Silicon Valley of India, when you go to play golf and the caddy on the first tee says you can either aim at the Microsoft building or the IBM building. You know you’re in Bangalore when you see the Pizza Hut advertisement says ‘gigabytes of taste’,” famously said the US journalist Thomas Friedman in 2004. Ever since, reams have been written on outsourcing, the software boom and the rise of the uber-smart, uber-rich new technogeeks of Bangalore. But whatever happened to the other Bangalores, the ones that shun the arc…

I used to live in South Bangalore until a few years ago. The Gandhibazaar-Jayanagar-VV Puram area has always been a haven for lovers of South Indian snacks. It had been quite sometime since I visited this area and when I met an old friend, we struck upon this idea of rediscovering South Bangalore food. Not the hotels, but the eat-as-you-go type – the Indian version of the street cafes of Europe. Small Cafes and Darshinis Brahmin's Coffee Bar, Basavangudi. Pic: Poornima Dasarathi.The best way to start the day would be with the soft and fluffy idlis soaked in the watery…

Last week, the Election Commission announced that producing voter identity card is mandatory in all future elections. I talked to a revenue officer from BTM layout. He confirmed it would be mandatory to have photo identity card from next election onwards. Revenue offices in the respective areas have setup facility to get the photo identity cards. This is where one needs to get the cards. List of assembly constituencies and ward numbers are given in: http://www.bangalorevoterid.org/pdf/Delimited%20constituencies.pdfRevenue offices details are available in: http://www.bangalorevoterid.org/pdf/BMP-RV-E-AUG03-P-401.pdf.pdf In the past few elections, one could show any valid identity proof at the polling booth, as long…