bangalore journal

Bangalore South Parliamentary Constituency is one of the most prestigious constituencies in the country and comprises mostly of educated/elite voters. It is known as the educational and cultural capital of Karnataka.For the coming elections, all the major political parties have fielded their best and most educated candidates.BJP has fielded its National General Secretary Ananth Kumar, a post-graduate in Political Science with a law degree and expected to play a major role if the NDA gets a majority. The Congress has given a ticket to US educated, two-term MLA Krishna Byre Gowda, supposedly close to Rahul Gandhi. The JD-S has fielded…

Our Theatre presents its debut production, Beyond the Land of Hattamala, a play written by Badal Sircar. Founded by Sandeep Shikar, an actor, writer and director and Vivek Vijayakumaran, a theatre artist, Our Theatre was originally born out of a need to have a banner for Beyond the Land of Hattamala . However, the connection between Vivek and Sandeep and their belief about theatre ran deeper and so Our Theatre has become more a way of working, a way of doing theatre. "For me, Our Theatre is our thought, our belief, our language, our culture, our complexity, our simplicity, our…

Citizen Matters Magazine - Vol 1 Issue 5Dear Readers, Happy Ugadi to you all! Elections are around. Well they’ve always been around you might say. After all our democracy is over 60-years-old now. What’s different this time? No, not really, it’s not the politics. It’s not the policy promises either. It’s the interest in voting amongst the middle and upper classes -- the groups who are usually scorned by politicians and NGOs as too aloof to dirty their hands with ‘running to file a form’ or ‘going to the booth to stand in line to vote’. Scores of hitherto non-voters…

Water | Health Summer’s here, and so is crisis season. Every year, officials say power cuts and water issues will not plague Bengaluru but each summer the situation remains the same. And if all this were not enough, the heat and humidity of summer bring with it its own problems. Citizen Matters spoke to government officials to find out what people can expect on the power-water front and also to some doctors on how to combat seasonal ailments. Uninterrupted power…what’s that? "I have to depend on the generator as there are untimely power cuts. My business is getting affected. This…

11th May 2008. Heaps of mud, broken dividers with mud all over, main road dug up, traffic badly hit and people anxiously waiting to see things change. This was the intersection of J P Nagar's 15th Cross Ring Road, a critical artery in south Bangalore, and the 24th Main Road, and the scene of a magic underpass construction. The notice board put up by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) mentioned that the construction will finish by February 2009. Eight months later, the scene looks exactly the same. 15th cross-ring road intersection dug up (Pic: Supriya Khandekar) The magic seems to…

Business India's first urban bank celebrates102nd anniversary The first ever urban bank of India is the Bangalore City Cooperative Bank. It is now celebrating its 102nd anniversary. In these days when cooperative banks are going bankrupt, this bank's achievement sounds incredible. It works more for the welfare of its members and customers rather than for profit. The bank has its head office in Chamarajpet and has 12 branches in different parts of Bangalore. It intends to open branches in rural areas as well. (Prajavani, Saturday, Mar 21) Court Retired judge in Bangarappa soup Retired district judge and present member of…

Expecting a big crowd on an early Sunday morning to discuss plans to clean up a lake may seem a bit far-fetched. But for those of us who did attend the event at Madiwala Lake on 22nd March, it was a learning experience. The event was organised by Arghyam, a public charitable foundation working in the water sector, in association with RideACycle Foundation (RAC-F), a Bangalore-based, non-profit organisation that encourages and promotes sustainable transport and Sampada, an online Kannada community. Marking World Water Day, this event was held to raise awareness about the state of this 280 acre lake, by…

Years ago, summer holidays used to be marked by visits to grandparents and long hours of playing – everything under the sun – with cousins and friends. The holidays are still as long for today's children but, these days, the time tend to be a bit more structured. There are summer camps or activity classes meant to teach children something new and keep them happily engaged, at least for a couple of hours a day. Gerry Martin's outdoor activity (Pic courtesy: Gerry Martin) Small wonder then that come summer and most parents are on the lookout for the right activities…

We recently  concluded a successful property tax drive at our apartment complex, Rohan Vasantha in Marathahalli. Initially, we had contacted the BBMP helpline and got guidance on how to fill the form. However, certain points like zone classifications were not clear. So we contacted the BBMP officials, Assistant Commissioner Vasanth Rao and Deputy Commisioner Heera Naik. My neighbours Avinash Kalmani, Vasanth Kelkar, Nitin Kabra & I (Keshav Prabhu) met them. They helped us fill one form. We sent the reference form to all residents in our community of 540 houses. We got 300 forms and kept it in the club house.…

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of fresh water and advocating for the sustainable management of fresh water resources. An international day to celebrate fresh water was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day. Infrequent BWSSB water supply. (Illustration: Madhu Ramaswamy) It is an irony that in Bangalore, water gets significantly more expensive the poorer you get. Water is a subsidized commodity for those who…