bangalore

Today is memorable for many of us! Friends of Lakes, in association with local corporators and residents have planted more than 200 saplings in Vidyaranyapura Lake. – Mr Gopala Krishna The event was so beautiful. I kept walking around the lake pinching myself to ensure that I was not in a dream! – xxx These were the sentiments expressed by residents from the Narasipura 2 Lake area, about the tree planting event held at Narasipura 2 Lake (Sri Venkata Swamy Temple Kere) on 15th June, 2014. From six in the morning, the place was abuzz with people – dads and…

Placemaking is an approach to the design and management of public spaces that draws upon the strengths and aspirations of the local community. Whereas ‘space’ is a physical entity, a ‘place’ is imbued with memories and evolves as people interact with each other socially and culturally in the public realm. It is a term that Architects and Urban Planners in the western countries began to use in the 1970s to describe the process of creating parks, plazas and streets that could attract people. In India, the street was already a vibrant place with a family celebrating a wedding; the temple deities…

Over the last ten days, there has been much excitement among the residents of the Lower Ambalipura Lake area. This 7-acre water body, off Sarjarpur Main Road, is home to several species of birds through the year, but Painted Storks, one of Bangalore's water birds, have been only ocassionally spotted here, singly or in pairs. A Painted Stork at Lower Ambalipura Lake, March 2014, Pic: Sacha Greenwood On 22nd May, five Painted Storks were spotted together. Five Painted Storks at Lower Ambalipura Lake, 22nd May 2014, Pic: Rajesh Rao It didn't take long for the good word to spread (regarding the…

Property tax rates are very low. Yes, I said low  I know it is not a popular thing to say, but it's the truth. In Bangalore, we pay about 0.06 per cent of the value of a residential property in annual taxes, slightly more in some cases. In Seattle, just to pick a random point of comparison, the tax rate is between 0.8 and 1.1 per cent per year. That's 14 to 19 times higher. Council tax in the UK is in the same range, maybe even higher. There's an old saying that if you pay less (peanuts) you'll get…

One thing led to another. I was looking for feedback on sketches of the street life at Russell market and that led to the suggestion: “Why don’t you try meeting Mr.Zaffar Sait? He has been an old resident of the neighbourhood” So, that’s what I did and then couldn’t help but turn it into a post just so that others would have the chance to listen to this story as well. So, here is the account of life in Bangalore in the 50’s as narrated by Mr.Zaffar Sait, who belongs to one of the most well-respected mercantile families of the…

Well - it’s time for some reflection on our part, while you are done with voting and busy with daily work. We trust you are the kind who will vote for a good candidate, not a traditional voter who will cling to a particular party all through your life. That’s why we put in hard work to compile a lot of data for you to decide which candidate is what. Let us confess: We are a small team. We don’t have the kind of manpower to chase each one of these candidates - still we feel we did our best.…

An INTACH walk took some of us to Avenue road last Saturday with Lathasshree KS, an archaeologist who unearthed for us the Avenue road of old times. We saw that morning a beautiful past that had been preserved for centuries, low-relief deities in the ground or a nandi that was partly submerged. One step at a time, we moved from the contemporary urban chaos to the ancient serene landscape of shrines, snake stones and peepul trees. The axial symmetry of Chikpete If we look at the map of the fort or Pettah area, there are two axes – the N-S…

I first visited Dr H Suresh's clinic in 4th T Bl ock in Jayanagar, in 1979, when my daughter was 6 months old. She'd been having severe diarrhoea for two weeks, and I was at my wits' end as I was staying with some friends and desperately worried about her health. Dr Suresh's clinic was called "Deepa Clinic", and that formed a further bond. I learnt that it was his daughter's name. He promptly treated my infant daughter, who recovered. When we moved to J P Nagar in 1997, my neighbour told me about a G P who ran his…

Today, March 20, is World Sparrow Day. During my childhood in Bangalore in the 1970s-80s, sparrows were a part of our everyday life, much the way rock pigeons just merge with the high-rise landscape today.  Scores of sparrows would be all over the backyard, chirping on the pomegranate and guava trees. Unafraid of humans, the sparrows hopped around on the ground whenever mom cleaned the rice, in expectation of falling grains. (Yes, the rice used to have stones that needed to be removed, and chaff that would blow away in the wind as the rice was tossed up and down on…

One of the major challenges encountered in the maintenance of Puttenahalli Lake, JP Nagar is water weeds. Some months ago, the blog post "Grappling with Water Weeds" described the experiences of PNLIT in managing the weeds at Puttenahalli Lake, along with thoughts for the future. Read the full post here.     Weed control at Puttenahalli Lake is generally done by manual removal of weeds, though Biological control has been tried as well. Weed removal, if not done regularly, is expensive. Regular weed removal needs a regular labour force, which is difficult to get. Labourers and contractors are not interested in…