Blogs

  I answered the knock on my door and found two smiling ladies outside, who asked me if our names were already on the electoral rolls. "No," I said, explaining how we could not find our names either in our old locality or our present one. The ladies, Padma and Nagaratna, immediately gave me two forms to fill, and submit, along with passport photographs, for including our names in the electoral rolls.  It was good to see these ladies going to all the apartments and taking down details, meticulously. If only every government employee were as hard-working as this!  Three cheers for Padma and…

  Happy Deepavali! Pic by Ravi Kaushik ⊕

Yesterday, because of Smt. Saraswathi, who is a long-standing devotee and visitor of avery old temple in Vasanthapura...the Vasantha Vallabha Raaya Swami Devasthana, dedicated to Vishnu and Lakshmi, I happened to visit it, and I came away deeply impressed.Here's the temple....Another view:Here are the beautiful brass Dhwajasthambha (flagpole) and the pavilion behind it:Some more views of the decorations outside the top: As one enters, one sees haldi and kumkum bowls at the feet of the Dwara Palaka (Guardian of the entrance):Here's a view of one of the Dwara Palakas:  At the entrance is the Sannidhi of Garuda, Vishnu's vehicle:By sheer chance,…

  A curious pigeon peeks into a window at Old Chikpete.

Everywhere, now, roses are available at incredibly low rates....And...they seem to be roses of every hue too! Blue and green roses are made possible by tinting the water in which they are stored, or injecting dye into the stems, this vendor informed me.This was taken in BTM Layout.So...let's go and decorate our homes with roses! ⊕

In BTM Layout, I snapped this photograph late one afternoon:I was walking, thinking to myself that the BBMP had done a good job in renovating the children's playground and providing new equipment....But alas, it was sad to see that children seem so tired after school hours, that they'd rather sleep on the slide than play on it!Let's lessen the burden on our schoolchildren, and let them laugh and play like children should! ⊕

Every season when the avenue trees in Bangalore burst into bloom, I try to memorise how the flowers look. When I get home, I try to refer and identify them. Some recommend Pradeep Kishen’s book on trees of Delhi. But I much prefer this blog post from S Karthikeyan. Read more about him here. It lists the most common trees in Bangalore, has nice closeup pictures of the flowers and local names. It would have been useful to see a closeup picture of the leaves and an picture of the whole tree too. Karthikeyan has even created a pdf version…

On 1st November 2010, treesforfree will be celebrating the 5th Anniversary by planting 1000 saplings in 4 different places around Bangalore. We request all of you to take time off , come with your family and plant saplings in places convenient to you.The places kept ready are:1. MLA Layout, Kalena Agrahara on Bannergatta Road. Take left turn before Gottigere. Contact person Vinod Krishna 9945396345 and treesforfree Volunteers David 9986452888 and Usha 0620226202. This is a residential layout and 140 saplings will be planted at 9.00 am with tree guards.2. Ben Enclave, on Hennur Bande Road. Ben Enclave board come to…

 She prays to Lord Krishna, who provides her with an unending stream of saris to protect her modesty. An exhausted Duhsasana falls to the ground, wondering at the mystery. The Pandavas and Draupadi curse the Kauravas, vowing to kill them in war. Dritharashtra, the father of the Kauravas, realizes the seriousness of the situation and tries, in vain, to beg forgiveness, saying he will return everything that the Pandavas lost, to them.A blind Dhritarashta stumbles into his own court.Bhishma the patriarch, and Vidura, both acknowledge her divine nature, and enraged at this, Duryodhana orders Duhsasana to place her on his…

Among all the animals, snakes fascinate us the most. The very word ‘snake' causes a rush of emotions, unfortunately mostly negative. This is mostly because we do not know much about them and thus misunderstand and fear them. There are over 270 different species of snakes in India most of which are harmless to humans. However four species are venomous and one of them is the Cobra. A resting cobra. Pic: Vikram Nanjappa. The Cobra has made itself at home in Bengaluru. They are usually found in agricultural fields and fallow areas on the periphery of the city but with…