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On the 17th of August, 2017, I was walking along, musing on the fact that we are now in the eighth decade of our existence of an independent nation. Everywhere there had been an outburst of pride and patriotism. My thoughts broke off abruptly as I saw this: Are we really proud of our country? Do we really love her if, after our display of love, we are willing to make her ugly and dirty with our refuse and discards? Would it not be true patriotism to clean up the country, rather than add to the trash? Patriotism, surely, more…

I’ve gotten quite a bit of exposure to living with the time zone difference and dealing with Indian traffic. My hometown Harare, Zimbabwe is in Central Africa (CAT) time zone. Bengaluru, India is on India Standard Time (IST), currently 3½ hours ahead of CAT.When in Harare my complaint is that during the winter I have to get  out of the bed at 5:00 am for our work typically starts at 7:00 am. Here I have no problem as work starts at 9:00 am. Now I have ample time to get to the office. Indian Traffic Traffic in India is very…

On Saturday, Aug 19th, 2016, over 45 teams will participate in the second edition of the Soul Kere Science Fair - Vigyana Habba. The participating students are from grades 1 to 12 of various school and communities in the neighborhood of the lake. The event is organized by MAPSAS and supported by Genpact,(Platinum sponsor), Infosys Science Foundation (Gold sponsor), Biocon and United Way Bengaluru. Entry to the event is free and open to all. The teams will demonstrate live experiments that explore the topic ‘Science in everyday life’. The fair is aimed to encourage a scientific spirit among children that…

This is not a picture of Kaikondrahalli lake. But if we could represent the lake of our dreams, we certainly will select this picture of Niagra falls raising a cloud of mist which rains down a faint drizzle in the surrounding areas. Add a few million gallons of murky coloured raw sewage, tonnes of plastic waste, a half submerged buckling lake fence pushed in by the surrounding construction activity, and gushing waters raising a froth and a din among the resident birds, overflowing through the diversion pipes and you have the real picture. It is still beautiful, but not as…

It was a beautiful sight to behold the flag fluttering amongst the peepal leaves. Dedicated to all the "peepal" of India!

I’m currently on a six month Idex Fellowship in Bengaluru, India . I will be writing this blog as I go along and then periodically post my progress. This is my first trip to India, and my only other experience abroad was when I visited Mozambique back in 2013 for a day. Idex is partnered with several Indian social enterprises to provide placements for fellows. For the next six months, I’m working with Oorvani Foundation,a not for profit community media organization based in Bengaluru. It has different initiatives such as Citizen Matters (an online community news platform), Open City and…

Where did that banana peel go? Where does it go when it leaves my home? Where does it go when it leaves my street? Where does it go when it leaves my city? We throw away so much. But where does it all go? Bengaluru city generates approximately 4,000 tonnes of waste everyday but where does this all go? Nobody cares where it goes, we only want it to leave our houses, our streets, our neighborhoods and our city. While there are policies like the ‘2 Bin 1 Bag’, which has been directed by the  Karnataka High Court to Bengalureans…

I am no stranger to metro systems. I’ve up hiked the spiral staircases of Paris’ metro, impatiently waited in a dark tunnel when my line broke down while on the London Tube, poured buckets of sweat in the graffiti adorned underground train to Rome’s neighboring beach town, fervently watched street performers in the bowels of Washington D.C.’s network of underground metro tunnels and have spent much of my time riding my own city’s eccentrically named Seattle Link Light rail through canopies of tree cover and rain specked windows. I have traveled some of the biggest cities of the world on…

Invariably these days visitors to our Puttenahalli Lake in J.P. Nagar 7th Phase ask one question - what are those floating platforms in the water? Those of you who follow our updates on the lake would know that these are the Artificial Floating Islands we had first introduced in June last year. That was also when we signed an MoU with the BMS College of Engineering to test the lake water every month. Three prototype islands were joined by more. The plant species in the platforms increased and the water sampling points went up from four to seven. The BMS reports…

Citizen groups came together and organised the Bellanduru Lake festival with good participation from authorities and citizen stakeholders. The event was organised by citizen volunteers from Bellanduru. The event was sought to bring together all stakeholders and to raise awareness and participation from the general public and seek their ongoing support towards lake revival.  One of the core  organisers said “It is a great start to citizen engagement and ongoing involvement in the rejuvenation of the Lake.  Support and commitment from authorities was encouraging.  Citizens must engage more actively and own up our lakes”. The event was held at an…