Blogs

When we have a party at home, we take good care to clean up every trace of it afterwards, to return to a spic-and-span home...so why do we not take the same responsibility in our city?Here is a photo taken by Girish S V, in HSR Layout, of an open area, the day after Deepavali:We blithely assume that "someone" will come and clean up the mess that we've made, in the process of enjoying ourselves. All it would take is a little effort, to clean it up ourselves...but we seem to lack the civic sense, the sense of pride that…

  We got out of the train after a birdwatching trip to Dandeli, and as we were lugging our bags out, I looked up into the Eucalyptus tree in the City Station parking lot...and ....there were CHESTNUT-TAILED STARLINGS in the tree! (Click on the name for the Wiki entry.)Chestnut-tailed Starlings are local migrants and I usually enjoy seeing them feasting on the Silk-cotton flowers on that gigantic tree in Lalbagh.But who expected to see them at City Station? Not me!I promptly pulled out my MLC (Mary's Lamb Camera...my Canon SX10) and took two quick shots. Now that is a very satisfactory…

Hobitute Art Foundation is conducting a series of art workshops focusing ancient fine-art forms of India at its Center for Art Education, No. 109, 2nd Floor, ADA Rangamandira Building, JC Road, Opp. Ravindra Kalakshetra, Bangalore 560002.First in the workshop series is Madhubani Painting which is from 25th to 30th November 2010, excluding Sunday. This workshop should be attended by Interior designers, fine-art students, housewives with painting interests, and art lovers with some touch in painting or taken painting as hobby. For registration and details, pl call at 96631 03600 or 9611543543 or email at contactus@hobitute.comAlso, there will soon be weekend…

Granite is the one of the most commonly used stones in Bangalore. You find it everywhere and you walk on it every time you step on to a sidewalk in Bangalore. But beware! There is a ghost lurking in the granite, not only a ghost but a dragon to boot! It's true! Female dragonfly. Vikram Nanjappa. Did you know? The British, as usual, were the first to document this diversity in the famous work - The Fauna of British India - Odonata (1933 - 1936). It runs into three volumes and records a total of 536 species and sub species!…

Love Across Boundaries, the first event of Bengaluru Pride and Karnataka Queer Habba 2010 provided space for people from diverse backgrounds to express their interpretation of love. Around 40 people from across Bangalore gathered at the Indian Social Institute in the afternoon of 18th November to exchange personal stories, poems and thoughts on romance, relationships and related themes.   The event began with dramatized accounts (in Kannada and English) of the pain that bias towards caste, gender, sexual orientation and religion have caused to people in love, by Kaveri Rajaraman (ecology researcher and activist), Gayatri Geetha (working with Sangama) and Sumathi Murthy…

I had been to visit Kalanjali, a music school in J P Nagar, to talk to people for an article I am writing; and while I was there, I was privileged to see two ladies who are coming there for music lesssons: The lady on the left is Malathi, who is 76 years old; she comes to learn Carnatic music. Her husband brings her over, holding her carefully by the hand, and comes back to pick her up when the hour's class is over.The lady on the right is Sudha; she holds a doctorate in Physics, was working at IISc…

An Act that entrusts commoners with the authority to question the government and its actions. The only legislation that stipulates a response time of 30 days (48 hours in the case of human rights violations). A fairly inclusive law that was created with the involvement of social workers, ordinary people, non-governmental, community based and grassroots organizations.We learnt this and more during an invigorating session on the "Introduction to Right to Information Act" that lasted three hours and a half (an hour longer than originally planned) and left us hungry for more. Organized by the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) in…

 We had taken some schoolchildren to Shivansamudra Falls, (about 120 km from Bangalore)  and were in a hired bus. At both the entrance from the main road, and at the Shivansamudra Police Station, we were asked to pay up money. When we refused to pay money without a receipt being issued for the amount, and we said that we were a school group, we were allowed to go without being charged. What a greasy culture we have! Tourists are always people to be fleeced as much as possible. I wonder how many people give in to the pressure and pay?⊕

  All our IT companies spout about "corporate and social responsibiility" but don't seem to practice what they preach. Along 1st Main Road, J P Nagar 3rd Phase, all the IT companies have built offices that offer very little, or no parking. They all use the public road as a kind of free parking lot. At night, residents in this area are put to great disadvantage by all the call-centre vans and cabs parked along the road, with the drivers often ganging up to pass comments on passers-by.  Residents of the area have been complaining to the IT companies with no effect at…

Almost as if in response to rising Bangaloreans' concern against the BBMP and BDA's permissions for commercial buildings in residential areas and large format apartments on narrow roads, a zoning review committee of the state government had acted last month. On Oct 15th, the committee, headed by former chief secretary and ABIDe member Dr A Ravindra sent to the government a major set of revisions to the CDP's zoning rules. If the government accepts it, it will become harder for the most blatant of illegal buildings to crop up around the city, and easier for citizens to monitor. The redrafted…