bangalore journal

“You see this fan, ma’am? When this turns, air is sent into a compression chamber. The compressed air is then mixed with fuel that is sent through the fuel injectors and the mixture is ignited. The resultant hot gas provides a thrust for the turbines to turn." Walrus Overhaul (Pic: HAL museum) I nodded my head eagerly as Ranjan, the guide at the HAL Aerospace museum, explained the mechanics of turbo fan engine which is used in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) built by HAL. We were standing in front of the engine model in the HAL museum and vague…

Anybody who has walked down Jayanagar’s 4th Main (Nanda Talkies) Road or any of Bangalore’s other avenues, would know that trees can significantly lower ambient temperatures. And that is just one of the many ecological, social and economic benefits of city trees. They help reduce pollution, runoff and the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And they contribute to the well-being of citizens, literally: a classic experiment in the US showed that hospital patients who had a view of a grove of trees recovered faster than those whose rooms faced a brick wall. But all this information on urban…

Buddha meditated under the Peepal tree for a full 49 days before enlightenment. For RV Quizcorp, the timeline is eleven years and counting. The exclusive quiz club of RV College of Engineering, one of the first of its kind, is all set to conduct the eleventh edition of its annual quiz fest- Under The Peepal Tree 2009. RV Quiz CorpStarted as a platform to explore the vast multitudes that quizzing had to offer in terms of depth and variety by well-known quizzers Avinash Mudaliar and Gopal Srinivasan, RV Quizcorp has built an indomitable reputation for churning out stellar quizzes and…

Luxury apartments with world class facilities, half price sale at a clothes store, mobile phone with three-inch LCD, camera phones…just some of the advertisements on hoardings, serenading the consumer. But today as you drive through the city, more than advertisements for consumer products, you are likely to see advertisers calling for advertisements, their names and numbers given big and bold. Thanks to the economic downturn, say companies, they are taking it slow and cutting down on advertising expenses. But some in the advertising field say it has more to do with the mind than market conditions. Hoardings available on Koramangala…

Dear Readers, As the fourth issue goes to press, we’d like bring to your attention some good tidings and some worrisome ones.At Citizen Matters, we have always believed in the power of editorial work that combines professional journalism with citizen journalism. In Supriya Khandekar and Vaishnavi Vittal, we have two staff journalists who are both talented and committed to bringing you interesting and insightful stories from around our city. Do look out for their ‘In focus’ pieces, as well their community writing and guides and primers.And equally, we have been very fortunate to continue to run into a stream of…

Ajit Prakash drives from Iblur junction to his office in Koramangala everyday. The three kilometre drive generally takes him about 20 minutes. But on 12th February, Prakash took nearly two hours to get to his office; thanks to a traffic jam that extended from beyond Sarjapur Road all the way up to Agara junction and further. Manjunath R, also on his way to Koramangala, was caught in the jam for almost two and a half hours. B Lokesh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Adugodi, says the reason for the hold up was because of incomplete work by the Bangalore Development…

The garbage truck that visits the 5 blocks of JP Nagar’s Brigade Millennium community every morning usually leaves overflowing, and often with things that could be reused or recycled. Mayflower Block, 15 floors high, with about 220 families is a major contributor to this. Some of us were already aware of ITC's (paperboards) efforts at garbage segregation in Yelahanka, where their team goes door-to-door regularly to buy recyclable/reusable garbage. Taking a cue from that, and with the end objective of reducing the quantity of garbage that travels several kilometers to the landfill, the ‘Blue Drum Campaign’ was launched by the…

Meta-Culture, a Bangalore-based Relationship and Conflict Management consulting company, organised an event called Bengaluru Speaks on 21st February 2009 at the Ashirvad Community Centre on St. Mark’s Road. Bengaluru Speaks, a community conversation series is one of Meta-Culture’s community-focused initiatives, and had for its eighth theme: “Competing Cultures: Morals, Malls and Marriages”. The stated goal of the programme was to engage the people of Bengaluru in constructive conversation about critical issues so as to strengthen relationships across the city and create a more secure, cohesive and viable community. The event was organised to facilitate dialogue ‘in times of a rapid…

"Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists, principally, in dealing with men", said novelist Joseph Conrad, and for one who has been working for the welfare of women for the past 30 years, this is a reality. In a male-dominated society, Geeta Rao has been relentlessly working towards women empowerment, stalking the corridors of power, seeking justice, roaring like a lioness, and making a difference. "I have always been aggressive", says this compact bundle of energy, "nobody can take me for granted!" Geeta Rao felicitated at a function (pic courtesy: Geeta Rao) Forty-nine year old Geeta…

All our politicians in the state are now busy mustering POWER to rule us, with promises. On the contrary, there is untimely load shedding ( especially in the evenings between 6 PM to 11 PM and early mornings 5 AM to 7 AM).This has caused problems to exam going children. They have to revise the syllabus of the entire year. Although, the government provides mid-day meals,free books and other facilities, the students cannot revise in the last few hours before the exam. What would be the impact on the psychology of the children? We hope our government and energy department…