Blogs

How about starting 2014 with a walk for gender minorities? Praja Rajakiya Vedike along with other organizations is conducting "Freedom Walk – ​​E​​nd Violence on Sexual Minorities" tomorrow (Wednesday, Jan-1-2014). This is an effort to facilitate interaction between sexual minorities and the society at large, in the context of the December 2013 Supreme Court judgment on IPC Section 377. ​The Freedom Walks are an initiative to make the public understand the issues of disadvantaged sections of our society.​ Participants will gather at 5:00 PM near the Radhakrishna Theatre (in Matadahalli) and start walking at 5:30 PM. They will pass through…

In my last blog, I wrote about how dogs are survivors. Ever so often I am reminded of this by remarkable stories around me. One such story is of Raja and Vasudev. Vasudev meets Raja...for the first time When we all first saw a picture of Raja on the internet it was hard to watch the picture. When I heard of someone adopting him I reached out to that man and thanked him. Thus started a friendship with a unique man and a very unique dog. Both have made a huge impression on me. The love they share is one…

A few months ago when I started writing this blog, I wanted to call it Everyday City and had tried to put down as simple a blog description as I could. I had said it was about ‘observing how the everyday life of the city influences its urban spaces’. Today, I want to go a bit further on this. To begin with, what is meant by ‘everyday life’? In a workshop on Urban Studies that I attended last week, we were told that to think deeper about a research question, one could explore it in terms of ‘contrast’. So, if…

Harish Bhat writes:   I travel to Silk Board almost every other day via Bus and then take an auto to Koramangala. There are at least 4-5 autos parked below the flyover almost all the time. And, I've to haggle with 2 of them (they ask for INR 40-50 for an INR 30 fare distance), before one good guy decides to charge meter fare.   But today was not most of those days. Today, at 1:20 PM I decided to do something about it. There were 7 of them and I went ahead and asked each of them. 4 of them…

I’m sure many of us never think of waste and rewards in the same breath :). When something is useless in our eyes, it just goes into the waste bin and then who cares what happens next. Well, I did start caring at some point and it was one of the most enlightening journeys of my life, in fact I credit it to be the beginning of my gardening journey as well! Once I started consciously thinking about the amount of waste generated by my household, it has never been a question of “Why we should manage our waste” but…

Gubbi Labs as Part of Path Of Mahanadhi River Exploration Initiative Brings in the Cycle Exploration Tour to Kaveri River       Visit the Battle Field of Anglo Mysore WarsThe British achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Sri Rangapatna and storming the citadel killing Tippu Sultan in Action. We will explore history and visit the places of all important historical places – Sri Ranganatha Temple , Jumma Masjid and the Daria Daulat Gardens, Captain Baey’s Dungeon.   Cycle to Visit the Birds of Ranganathittu Cycle Ride will enable you to see the avian life…

Bangalore is supposedly a bin-free city. An unofficial garbage dump, across Jagriti Theatre in Whitefield, with a slum behind and shops in the neighbourhood. A wine shop next door. At night, the lighting for the spot was non-existent making the place easier to dump in. A few weeks back the black spots at .Ramagondanahalli dump on the sidewalk had got spruced up, and so this one saw even heavier use. This spot fix took 2 days. 2 communities and The Ugly Indians with the Whitefield Rising team. This fix required some homework. The slum behind was polled on what went…

God knows Whitefield needs help. Therefore it may have been a wise move to have the next spot fix outside the historic Memorial Church. Dell brought an enthusiastic team out while Brigade sponsored the civil work. BESCOM ensured folks were safe and powered down the transformer(sorry if you were affected) while BBMP and BTP did their bit. Whitefield Club opened their gates for the transit area and the team got cracking. As always, magic happens when the atmosphere is charged with such positivity and energy. People get creative, work hard in a team and get the job done. Of special…

It's been two months now since my husband and I started using jaggery (bella in Kannada) in our tea and coffee. This traditional sweetener, known by different terms in different languages, from gud in many parts of North India to chakkara or sarkkara in Malayalam and vellam in Tamil, lends a subtle and deeply flavourful taste to everyday beverages. Coffee sweetened with bella for instance, has a lovely aroma and tastes wonderful, especially in this chilly weather! Many friends of ours have also made the switch. Of course, some of them only use organic powdered jaggery (available in speciality stores…