Blogs

Disney Bakery in BTM Layout is one of the many immensely popular "Bun" joints...where one can get an inexpensive bun with a variety of stuffings, along with coffee or tea, for a filling and quite wholesome meal-on-the-go.Here's one of the staff, giving me a friendly wave:Here are the two parts of the eatery: the beverages part:and the edibles part:Here's their most popular bun...bun-butter-congress (peanuts are called congress here!), along with a lemon tea and a chai:Masala sandwiches and other items are brought in by vans:Rules about smoking and disposal of waste are clearly posted...Instead of the old, slowly-burning coir rope,…

The Salvinia Molesta covering the surface of our little Puttenahalli Lake has not deterred all the birds! Our regulars, the Purple Swamphens, Purple Heron, Pond Herons among others had refused to leave the lake even though the invasive aquatic fern was spreading on the water. They have now been joined by a Grey Heron, a couple of Cormorants and Kingfishers! The Kingfisher especially is good news. It means that the water below the Salvinia is still fresh and alive. These were just a few of the birds we spotted in the midst of what seems like a 1001 tasks we…

Clickhere for the FB group.Here's my report on a monthly quiz group that I joined in 1992, and which is still going strong....Hi Everyone!I must say, the one word that is most misused in QuizFamilies (afterthe word "Basically", which we use while we grope for answers thatmay, by some random chance, be correct) is..."sitter".When any quizmaster, mistress, King, Queen or Knave tells you, "Thisis a sitter" ...whether he or she is talking about the question or thequiz....DO NOT believe the words. It takes quite a while for the reallollipops to start appearing, and then, ofkose, they always go toOther Teams…

Playwright: Mahesh DattaniDirector: Lillete DubeyActors: Lillete Dubey (old Nazia), Soni Razdan (Zarine and Ruby), Neha Dubey (Young Nazia, Shakuntala, and Nikhat), Sid Makkar ( King Dushyant, Suhel, and Vinay), and Priyanka Karunakaran (an aspiring stage actress)Pic: DMWell, those facts start off my review of the play; the rest of the unit...the all-important crew....their names were announced rapidly at the beginning of the play, and I could not take them down in the dark; nor was any brochure given, where I could refer to the names...an oversight I hope will be rectified in further productions of the play.Pic: DMThe play opened…

I watched when this palatial house in BTM Layout was coming up. and some friends exclaimed at the lavishness of the construction.But then, I saw that several Honge (Pongaemia) saplings had been planted in front of the house. This must have been five or six years ago, I think.Today I was walking by...and those trees provide welcome shade to cars and pedestrians. I know some home owners who have cut down trees during the construction of their houses; so it is a welcome change to see a scene like this. ⊕

The residents of Casa Ansal, J P Nagar 3rd Phase, Bannerghatta Road, have resorted to many steps to remove the illegal waste-dumping at their compound wall.The Corporator came and met them and promised action.But today, the refuse heap is as bad as ever (though the BBMP does clear it daily)..and now, cownferences are happening...Residents have taken to referring to their building as "kasa (garbage) Ansal" in frustration.When will the Corporator actually do something for this unfortunate building, which is well-maintained inside?  ⊕

We've all read the "Utterly butterly delicious" slogan of Amul butter; now it seems to be "udderly butterly delicious, as cows line up for bun-butter-jam at Sri Manjunatha Condiments, Jayanagar, Bangalore...The shop specializes in buns, spread with butter and all kinds of fillings. A quick, filling, and tasty lunch for a lot of office-goers in the area. Even the cattle love it! ⊕

We may be in the twenty-first century, indeed, in the second decade of it...but we still cling to the past in many ways.In a bustling city, this is a common sight...It may be a cheap and eco-friendly form of transportation...if only it didn't choke up traffic!⊕

"Please, please, mera change vaapas keejiye, please sir." She was in her thirties, nicely dressed in a blue churidhar with a gold-ish lining, spectacled, and worried.Furiously issuing tickets, the uniformed BMTC person she was pleading with was in the far upper corner of my favourite red monster 500 C. The bus had already stopped at  Marathahalli and departed. She panicked that she had not gotten her change back and had missed her stop.This conductor, middle-aged, spectacled, unusually chubby-cheeked, had not even heard a word of her plea. One of us fellow passengers called out to him. In the meantime he…

Background- According to our estimates (made through actual door-to-door surveys) there is no more than 3200 tonnes of waste collected in the city each day. Of this, about 1000 tonnes at the most is wet waste, and the remainder is dry. A small portion (5-10%) is electronic and bio waste.- Current technologies permit most, if not all, of the wet waste to be converted into compost or energy. Composting can be done at different scales - in the home, in neighbourhoods, and in large zones.- A very large chunk of the dry waste can be recycled, even profitably. The recycling…