City: Bengaluru

ART AND CULTURE Youth classical music fest Ananya, a cultural association has organized Sangati Yuva Sangeetotsava from June 4- 8 in Sevasadan, Malleshwaram. This youth classical musical fest is likely to attract young talent from across the country. Several organizations like the BTM Cultural Academy and Rama Lalita Kala mandira have joined hands for this fest. Organizers are confident that the fest will quench the thirst of music lovers.[Tuesday, June 3 Udayavani] CIVIC Notice to building violators In the wake of incessant rain, the BBMP has issued notices to the residents of nine areas to vacate the place. Officials say…

When newspapers reported about a lower primary school being demolished for road widening in May 2007, it became one more in the list of offices that shift to sheds after demolition. The government lower primary school in Kasavanahalli near Kaikondarahalli on Sarjapur Road still operates out of a shed even after one whole year of relocation. The remnants of the demolished school building. "We were never ready for this demolition. But it happened very suddenly and we just helplessly saw the benches being removed and the building coming down. The education officers were there, we could not say anything" says…

This Monday, 2nd June, newly elected Jayanagar MLA, B N Vijaya Kumar interacted with residents in a meeting organised by the Jayanagar 5th Block Residents Welfare Association to felicitate him.In his first programme after the elections, he thanked voters for electing him with a large margin (his winning margin was 22594 votes, with a voter turnout of 48%) Vijaya Kumar told the residents that he will ensure all public department officials work towards solving citizens' issues. He also promised to arrange regular meetings where citizens can interact with officials to address the problems. He urged residents to be proactive and…

From its 18th century incarnation as a military town, Bangalore has morphed into a hotbed of the information technology revolution in the 21st first century. And the city has witnessed significant changes in its social and physical landscapes. Most contemporary reflections on the city are framed primarily through the lens of its collapsing infrastructure, and the paradoxical rise of glitzy commercial and residential spaces following the economic boom of the 1990s. The political, social and economic changes unleashed by this IT-led boom have been far reaching. New services, new social and occupational groups and a whole new philosophy of ‘living…

The media which prodded every Bangalorean to make a difference to the city’s future by simply voting in the just concluded assembly elections has done a great job. Sadly, the media does not know that it has done a great job. This is because, it has failed to read beyond the voting turnout number given by the Election Commission. Headlines like ‘middle class apathy’ to a meager turnout of 44 percent are plain wrong. In fact, the turnout may be as high as 80 percent. Ramesh Ramanathan, the urban affairs expert and founder of Janaagraha, notes in a column, that…

I love my morning walks. I enjoy the birds chirping, the greenery, the flowers and the crows cawing and flying. It is unfortunate that some times we are forced to come across some annoying and disgusting sights as well. For example, people talking loudly on their mobiles and men peeing on the road-side. I am always wary of any cyclist who goes past a little too close to me. Though I do not wear too many pieces of jewellery, I do hide the chain I wear within my dress and close it with a duppatta as well. The other day,…

Thursday, May 29 Prajavani • After the successful launch of the midday meal scheme Akshaya Patra by ISKCON, it is now the turn of the BBMP to extend such a scheme to the old aged. ISKCON has again been entrusted with this responsibility, which has already been offering food to the old and the underprivileged at its premises. ISKON has been rendering this yeoman service to schoolchildren and prisoners in Bangalore Central Prison as well, and has plans of extending such schemes to cover pregnant women too. Vijay Karnataka • It is said that nothing succeeds like success. This is…

Bangalore has a large number of NGOs doing enormous work in various fields like leprosy eradication, caring for schizophrenics or dyslexics, protesting against felling of trees and so on. But there's also a group of volunteers who prefer to remain just that, and quietly go about their work without evangelism. They belong to Clean and Green, an organisation instituted for the specific purpose of keeping Bangalore that way. One of the volunteers briefing the others about using the rakes and sacks. Pic: Author. Clean and Green was born in February 2006, when a group of six came together and decided…

Going by the good responses photography workshops elicit, most people, having invested in a good camera, seem to feel the need for learning the basics right to become better photographers. So when Kalyan Varma, a naturalist and wildlife photographer (www.kalyanvarma.net) advertised a two-day digital photography workshop on his blog kalyan.livejournal.com I decided to attend. This was Kalyan's first-ever photography workshop, and he held it on 10-11 May at hotel Nandana Grand in Koramangala. The content was broadly divided into four sections distributed over the two days. On day one, Kalyan had scheduled the basics of photography and composition, purchase and…

Throughout their election campaigning, two of the major political parties in Karnataka, the Congress and the BJP said they will review the Capital Value Scheme (CVS) for taxing properties in Bangalore. Their representatives said so in various meetings held with different citizens' groups. Screen shot of a section of the home page of the BBMP website's www.bmponline.org. A message on paying property taxes runs from right to left on top of the screen. "Most of the parties have come out against the scheme," says Col. Mathew Thomas, general secretary of Citizen Actions' Forum (CAF). However, "Only the BJP has made…