Blogs

Those who looked up into the sky yesterday had a smile on their faces...because the night had a smile upon its face, too.  For those who want more details, click hereI was lucky to quickly get this image on my little Canon S3, but by the time we got our DSLR's and set up a tripod, the cloud cover ensured that there was no photograph possible! ⊕

I read this blog by pure chance while weaving through the thick maze of the internet. It set me thinking in the same lines about our city. Sure, Bangalore has its share of problems - traffic, bad roads, water and power shortage - to name a few. "But it's still my city", says an irrational inner voice. What is it about Bangalore anyway? I can hear a thousand voices shout "weather". I have my doubts on that. Well, Bangaloreans, what makes you like this city? I'm very curious to read your answers⊕

Sushila Rao is a fifth year student at The National Law School, Bangalore. She is one of the five Rhodes Scholars from India for the year 2009. En route to the prestigious scholarship, she has excelled in vocal music, street theater and in writing academic articles. When I sent in a request for an interview, a week after the scholarships were announced, she was busy battling assignments and exams. She tells me about the scholarship and, of course, about how even the country's best can't escape the rigors of academic grind. Tell us about yourself. Why did you choose to…

It was an unusual way to end a predominantly techie meet...the FOSS.in (Free and Open Source Software annual meet which happens at the J N Tata Auditorium) closed with a keynote address by Kalyan Varma, who is well-known in software,photography, and wildlife circles.The tagline for this year's meet was, "Talk is cheap. Show me the code"!After the "workouts" discussions and reports were over, the well-"connected" audience settled down for the keynote address:Kalyan, about whom I have written in Citizen Matters here and here , put the finishing touches to his presentation:He then talked about "Free World:Sharing and Caring".He started out…

I belong to a volunteer group called Clean and Green, which has been going out on trips to the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and cleaning up as much of the plastic trash as possible in the time available. On the last two occasions, Wipro has both sponsored the trip, as well as providing volunteers to help us with our task.I thought I would post about how a cleanup usually happens....this is probably the 16th or 17th such trip we are making. This time, the trash collected in two hours was 167 kg, and I am happy to say that the amount…

The ongoing siege of Mumbai's richest district is yet another terrorist attack to demoralise India and its people. This time the attacks have targeted the city's heritage buildings; including the CST railway terminal(also called VT by locals) which is a deemed World Heritage site by Unesco. The 1998 LTTE attack on Kandy's most revered Buddhist temple, the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas by Taliban in March 2001 and the recent ongoing Mumbai terror are just a few examples of terrorism wiping out or atleast damaging history. Just why do terrorists attack heritage sites? There are several reasons. The Kandy…

In Cooke Town, you'll see an unusual way to get the message across, to random dumpers of garbage. Especially those who miss the bus on the morning collection, when carts go down the road to collect your bag of disposables. The location here is Ashoka Road - a nice peaceful road, where you'd like to go for your morning walk, without turning up your nose and holding your breath. As a "pilot project" the Residents Welfare Association of Cooke Town has cordoned off this spot, which was a major landing point for random dumpers. Once a spot starts off as…

I regularly visit this lady cobbler in J P Nagar 3rd Phase:I am always impressed by her cheerful, smiling demeanour,and struck up a long conversation with her today. Her name is Mariamma, and she hails from a village near Tiruvannamalai.She says she has four  children. "They are all grown up, and are working," she says. Her husband passed away a few years ago. Though there is usually a stigma attached to the profession of a cobbler, she did not let this deter her, and plies her trade happily. She says her little stall keeps her occupied, and keeps her from…

Five hours in the car. Five hours without food, water. Five hours of incessant horns, weak phone signals, frustrated commuters, wailing ambulances, and broken down trucks. And if you look out of your car window to see if the traffic inches forward, you are most likely to spot several posters with JDS leaders smiling(smirking?) at you. For the JDS Rally, it was a huge success. It showed its iron fist and strangled Bangalore. I happen to live in north Bangalore. For years I gloated over the fact that I'm far from the madding crowd who suffer traffic jams in BTM, Koramangala or Indiranagar. But in…

I received the monthly update from Max Mueller Bhavan (Goethe Institut) and it was heartwarming to see this announcement:Inauguration of the new Solar Roof4.30 p.m. on November 20thWe are proud to announce a unique initiative - the installation of a photo-voltaic system on the roof of the Bhavan - one step forward in the movement towards conservation of scarce resources and utilisation of renewable energy. The implications of this project, executed by IBC Solar under the Solar Roof Project India of dena, the German Energy Agency (Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH), are expected to radiate far beyond the walls of the Institute!The…