Blogs

ook release of "The Song of the Magpie Robin. The autobiography of Zafar Futehally" by Dr K Ullas Karanth.    Wednesday 10, December 2014. 6.30    BIC Auditorium, TERI complex 4th Main, 2nd Cross Domlur II Stage, Bangalore 560071   RSVP 98865 99675

The song Chaiyya Chaiyya plays on the lawns of the Mehboob studios in Bandra, Mumbai. After the first few lines of the song, the music is switched off. I ask the kids in the audience if any of them want to sing the song. There is a show of hands and two girls sing together. There's a confident smile on one face while the other shows signs of nervousness. Yet both girls sing the song effortlessly. As I sing along with them and later a snippet of the classical raga behind the song, there's a look of dawning comprehension on…

Bellandur Buzz Issue # 24 Dec 5th 2014 This fornightly newsletter is published by the citizen group bellandur-forum@googlegroups.com Highlights from the city… -      On December 4th BBMP's Environment engineer Mamtha and Health Inspector Bhargava did a check on apartments on Kasavanahalli road. Astro Silverwood and Wamma Ibbanee were fined for non-segregation of waste. Confident Phonenix was given notice to start resident training by this weekend. SJR verity was found to be a role model apartment managing their waste very responsibly, producing only 45kgs of reject waste for 320 odd apartments. Total Mall and HM Symphony have also been fined as they were…

We are delighted to report the sighting of our winter visitor, the Garganey Duck. On 3rd Dec. when we went to the Puttenahalli lake at 3 p.m. we saw four of them. Typical of its highly territorial nature, the Eurasian Coot, one of our resident species  was busy chasing the ducks away. The quartet merely flew a short distance and made themselves comfortable once again. We hope they are joined by more of their ilk. To know more about this migratory species, see here.   The Garganey was sighted at Puttenahalli Lake for the first time in 2011, an event which was…

  Ammu Joseph, veteran journalist based in Bangalore, highlights one of several contradictions in Bengaluru, on Facebook: "These photos were clicked and shared by a friend, who questioned the manager of the mall about this "public installation" outside, and was told that Marilyn is the fashion icon of New York City! So much for his knowledge of movie stars and fashion icons. But, even if she is/was, what has that got to do with a mall in Bengaluru? Not only the moral police, but the actual police and various other worthies in the city, have been waxing eloquent about "obscenity"…

It's too early to say that Swachh Bharat is failing. But it's getting late to say what it will take to make it work, and so far there is no sign of those things. 1. Get rid of the broom, and replace it with a pair of buckets—one for wet waste and the other for dry waste. Segregation at source is key to any garbage management plan. The PM's symbolic efforts with the broom did help signal an important focus that India needs, but getting the imagery right going forward will help even more. 2. Pass the Dumping Saaku law.…

The cast and some of the crew taking a bow after the show. It's always a challenge to go to a play after it's done several shows. This happened to me on 28th November, 2014, when I attended the staging of "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT), at MLM Convention Hall, J P Nagar. The play, the fourth of a series, was staged by BLR in partnership with the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC), is the dramatization-adaption of the book, "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Professor John Kotter. The play came about after Priya Venkatesh, long…

Smog over the city: view from Nandi Hills, 271114   I took this picture from Nandi Hills, The grey band in the lower part of the photo shows the skies over Bangalore. It was appalling to realize just how bad our air actually is. I have, several years ago, seen this kind of smog over Los Angeles...well, we can be proud that we have caught up with US cities in this awful respect!    

In May 2014, the residents of Casa Ansal, disgusted with the garbage piling up on their side walls, had called on the help of the Ugly Indian, and had this clean-up drive that I had written about: Garbage cleaning at Casa Ansal. The ditch was covered with granite slabs and the wall completely painted. Six months later, the wall continues to be clean, and the footpath walkable (except for the place behind the transformer at the Bannerghatta Road end where the autorickshaw wallahs insist on continuting to relieve themselves.)  So...I am posting this photo of the place as it is…

The City authorities have decided to redesign and redevelop some of the historic markets in Bangalore. In an article in the Bangalore Mirror, 'Is this the end of the road for the city's iconic markets?', we read that the government believes that a joint venture model will give the markets a facelift and help get higher revenues. I can't help thinking about who has been "designing" our Bazaars? I'm thinking of 'bazaars' as not just the market buildings, but the cluster of push cart vendors at the street corner, the street bazaars, the market precincts that sometimes spread over much…