bangalore journal

Children listen attentively as Aparna shows pictures of characters from popular culture For adults like me, unused to interacting with small children on a regular basis, walking into a primary school classroom is like stepping into another world. A chorus of goodmorningma'am, keen faces, eagerness to listen...in short, enthusiasm unbound. For people like Aparna D and Rajeshwari S however, these reactions are familiar territory. Aparna and Rajeshwari are not teachers in the formal sense. But they are educators. People with a sense of mission, who understand how important it is to get children to think about what they eat. As…

Bangalore Book festival, in its eighth edition, the second largest in the country, after Kolkata, kicked off last weekend at Palace Grounds. The festival is on till November 21st. As usual there are stalls of major book stores and publishers like Sapna, Navneet, and Higginbothams.  British library, Britannica encyclopedia, and Times Group too have their stalls. Engineering, medical, photography, architecture or interior designing, there is something for everyone. Bangalore Book Fair 2010. Pic: Usha Hariprasad. There are a few unusual stalls - take a look at some of these offbeat attractions. For lovers of history and philosophy The Center for…

So BESCOM wants us to pay 75 paise extra per unit of electricity consumed, as per its proposal. Some citizens are opposing this and registering their dissatisfaction, but the  majority of us apparently  can't be bothered or don't care, or  are not even aware of the proposal - the last, however, is no excuse because  the proposed hike has been in the news and the BESCOM authorities have also issued notices inviting reactions (and objections if any) from citizens. Three months ago, the Consumer Care Society of Banashankari bemoaned the fact that the initial announcement inviting citizens' comments, brought in…

It's been a busy week at the movies in Bangalore. Even as the much awaited The Social Network opened in theatres, the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy's International film festival opened at three different venues in the city, screening 85 films between November 8 and14, 2010. Besides its presence in the city, the festival also expected to move to Bidar, Dharwad, Mangalore and Shimoga.  Citizen Matters caught up with some of the festival's weekend fare. The Social Network (USA) This film on the making of Facebook runs with the tagline "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies".…

Taking possession of an apartment is so often fraught with its own challenges (late handover, defects within the apartment) for the individual apartment owner, that more often than not building-level issues tend to be ignored.  Further, during the Builder-provided warranty period, occupancy normally tends to be very low, making very few people available for handling building-level issues.  Caveat Emptor: Latin for 'Let the Buyer Beware'. While first-time associations do cover obvious issues (like major defects / incompletion in building construction, basic documentation, handover of maintenance corpus), many other issues are ignored, either due to a lack of awareness or resources…

Record and file everything.  It is essential that the MC (Management committee) formally document and file everything pertaining to the handover.  Many problems, which have their roots in ineffective handovers, crop up only after several years.  During the intervening period, people change - both in the MC / Association as well as the Builder.  Further, vendors' memories are notoriously short when it comes to delivering on promises made.  All important documents should be copied and filed properly - in a logical manner, which allows easy retrieval at a subsequent date.  Originals and copies should be stored separately - e.g. the…

Recently I took the Children's Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) civic club members of VET school, where I volunteer, to a plastic waste recycling factory, 'KK Plastic Waste Management' on Kanakapura Road.We are all aware that we should segregate garbage. Of course, we have all heard of separating kitchen waste, plastic, paper, metals etc. But when it has to be actually put into practice, people hesitate because (a) old lazy habits die hard, and (b) people are not sure how to dispose of each of these categories. However, there is a practical solution for each of these categories of waste.…

Much before the   much hyped BBMP elections early this year, regular write ups were penned down in the media by a number of residents of H S R Layout on "What are our expectations from the new Corporator?". This was followed up by discussing these very points during the campaigning. Later a copy of these were given to the Corporator when there was an interaction between prospective candidates and residents organised by the Federation at H S R club. Subsequently, after elections, a number of petitions have been given by Federation/ RWAs of HSR Layout. Also there have been discussions…

A good script is a rarity in Hindi cinema, and director Vipul Shah's Action Replayy - even when it hearkens back to Hollywood super hits like Back to the Future - is all of that and more. The film tells the story of a young boy (Aditya Roy Kapoor) who travels back in time to make his parents (Akshay Kumar & Aishwariya Rai) fall in love. The film will especially appeal to those who have an appetite for seventies nostalgia. The ‘retro' touch that permeates the film is well done, and one smiles as one re-lives a touch of the…

After Citizen Matters expose on BBMP quietly shutting down the Technical Vigilance Cell's (TVC) call centre last year, very little has happened to remedy the situation. The cell that earlier used to accept complaints from the public directly regarding building violations, now monitors only public works as directed by the Commissioner. But Commissioner Siddaiah told Citizen Matters that he has appointed Technical Advisor B T Mohan Krishna to look into building violations. Complaints that the commissioner receives from the public will be forwarded to Krishna, he says. "He will co-ordinate with the TVC also for this," Siddaiah said. Krishna took…