Blogs

Volunteers who attended last weekend's deweeding sessions at Puttenahalli Lake admit it was hard, but satisfying work. Though we had dissuaded children from "working", there were several who accompanied their parents and finally joined in.Here is what some of the volunteers had to say, after putting in a good few hours last Sat/ Sun morning.  Shankar Iyer It was a great feeling to get down to the surface of the lake and  "de-weed." I had a feeling that Mother Nature was asking for a small assistance  from our side to help her bloom and extend "her healing effects of calmness" on us for the…

Saturday, 9th March 2013With some 20 volunteers responding to our call to remove the drying aquatic weed from the lake bed, it was a most satisfying morning today! Their enthusiasm was infectious and several people stopped jogging/walking to see what they were doing, then joined them to remove the drying Salvinia Molesta. Working with a rake, a spade or simply scooping up the weed with bare hands, they filled plastic bags, formed a line on the slope, handed each bag over the grill where others waited to cart them away. The dry Salvinia can be used for mulching or composting.…

The enchanting sight of infinite pink spots on the marshy Sewri mudflats is enough justification for a ride into this dusty, smoky industrial part of south Mumbai. Located along the Arabian Sea, on the eastern coast of the island city, the Sewri (pronounced Shivdi) Jetty is where the Mumbai Port Trust, Tata Electricals, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the refineries of ONGC, BPCL and HP are located. Dominated by mangroves, it is also the place where 15,000-17,000 migratory flamingos spend a few months every year (generally October-March). Infinite pinks spots with the backdrop of oil refineries Of the five flamingo…

Every year, the 8th of March is celebrated as ‘International Women's Day' the world over and apart from a couple of award functions acknowledging successful women, some "feel-good" articles lauding the contribution of women, a few advertisements in the newspapers and wishes from friends and colleagues, there isn't anything special about this day for most women! Pic: wikimedia commons Women today manage to do a balancing act between their professional lives and being a mother, wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law. This definitely fills us with pride that we are able to handle home and work so smoothly-a pat on our well…

We at PNLIT feel blessed and privileged to get an opportunity to see the revival of a lake at such close quarters. We cherish the experience and want to share it with everybody. After all, how many people get such a fantastic opportunity to save a lake?  Yesterday morning the workers began laying the pipes to complete the diversion channel. Using a JCB to dig the trenches and a crane to lift the 45 in dia pipe and keep it in place in the trench was quite a sight!  By late afternoon, the sky darkened. Out of 18 pipes only three…

All of us have problems with our banks from time to time. But when the problem lasts, unresolved, beyond 30 days, many of us are not aware that we can turn to the Banking Ombudsman at the Reserve Bank of India.Please click here to go to the Reserve Bank Ombudsman's website, and file your complaint. One of my techie friends was very impressed by the quality of the site...there's a provision to send the whole mail trail of your correspondence with the Bank as a pdf, too, or send a screenshot. click here for the list of Ombudsmen.Hope this helps…

Work on the Diversion Channel is proceeding well and with a reasonably good monsoon this year we hope to divert lots more rain water into our Puttenahalli Lake. We may even see our wish fulfilled finally - the lake bed covered with water and not a bit of ground to be seen! Diversion channel work in progress, Feb 2013 (Pics: Usha Rajagopalan)Now, when the water level is at its lowest, is the right time to remove the invasive weed Salvinia Molesta from the lakebed. Will you help us get the lake ready for the monsoon? Help us get rid of the…

Click here for the website of an NGO called Sarvodaya. They help Bangalore citizens with issues regarding stray dogs, and implement the ABC (Animal Birth Control) process instead of killing the dogs.The mobile no. is 91 98801 19900The landline is 080- 65340127Email: info@strays.in There is no political will in Bangalore to permanently solve the issue of stray dogs; though every now and then, there are instances of feral dogs attacking, and sometimes killing, children, BBMP has not taken a single step to curb this menace. Hence, citizens have to look towards NGO's like this for help.    ⊕

Bird watchers know that all Flycatchers catch bees, wasps, dragonflies, butterflies and other insects as part of their diet. (Indeed, so do many other birds.)So...you'd expect the personnel manning the Butterfly Park in the Bannerghatta Zoo area to know that as well. And, when they see a bird catching a butterfly, they would just catch it with a net and release it elsewhere, wouldn't you?You'd be...'dead' wrong.That's the right word to use in the circumstances.Srikant VK writes:"The employers of the butterfly park saw the flycatcher catching some butterflies,the only crime this innocent little bird did was to fill its belly…

At first glance, the store called "Himalayan Dowry An Anti-Dowry Store" seems like any other place dealing in Kashmiri handicrafts, except for its name. Only on enquiring, would one realize that there is more to this outlet situated on M. G. Road. Incidentally, it is in the basement of a building near the office of the Printers (Mysore) Pvt. Ltd. (publishing Deccan Herald, Prajavani, et al). According to the website of the store, it traces its origins to an establishment in Kashmir in the year 1809. This was founded by a great Sufi and healer, Kh. Naqi Ali Shawl from…