Blogs

This is a fortnightly newsletter shared by the citizen group bellandur-forum@googlegroups.comPurva Sunshine residents get Khata In 2010, few residents of Purva Sunshine (PSS) decided to submit their Khata applications together. It turned out to be a long journey of 3 years which ended in availing individual khata documents for 66 of them on March 1st 2014. Some key points and achievements:• This was the 'The Khata' certificate, not the temporary B-Khata.• Constant follow-ups in groups of 8-10 residents and ensuring Kannada speaking residents were actively involved.• Two press releases were made during initial stages to create awareness and get input from…

That was a typo. We are not here to save you! We are only saving ourselves. As you see, the hot air balloons have lifted off ;). Seriously, more balloons are rising, just hop on. As we celebrate one year since the day 50 of us first gathered, we have no time to reminisce. We are infact shocked to get a call from Namma Bengaluru Awards that we are a finalist. They had 71,000 entries. (Yeah all those zeroes are there). We are not even sure we should be compared with or win against others that are all doing good…

More than 500 residents of Yelahanka spent a few hours on Sunday 9th March 2014, learning how to grow vegetables and fruits at home, and in the process, manage their kitchen waste too. This was at the gardening and waste management training, organised by Yelahanka United Environment Association (YUVA) at Allasandra Lake park in Yelahanka New Town. The programme was conducted by the Department of Horticulture, Government of Karnataka under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana scheme. Dr K. Ramakrishnappa, Additional Director of Horticulture, Govt of Karnataka spoke about the benefits of kitchen and terrace gardening. In this age of pesticide-driven agriculture, he said that many of the…

My memories of Neralu, Bangalore's first crowd funded tree fiesta held in around Cubbon Park on 8th and February 9th 2014.   We walkedand talkedabout trees,birds and bees There were songs and dancesof green romancesplays, talesand tree inhalescrafts and artsseeds and plant partshugs galorefor our beloved trees of Bangalore So, let's say "1, 2, tree"And set ourselves free!

Classical music afficianados besides their love for music seem to share two other common interests. One is clearly food, given the roaring canteen business at many sabhas. The other seems to be the strong opinions that they seem to have on the state of classical music. There are several schools of thought such as "classical music is going to the dogs," and "there is a new renaissance with a breed of young musicians" to "fusion music is a cacophony". However all these schools agree on two things. That the audience for classical music, particularly Carnatic music needs to grow and…

When the country was formed after Independence we had a Central government, and the state governments were formed quickly after that. However, much of 'local' administration was not in a third tier, but simply controlled by the Centre and State itself. The 'collector' system that we have in the districts even today is a legacy of this start. It was only in the early 1990s that the Centre passed laws to devolve power and responsibility to the local bodies. First the panchayati raj amendment, and then the urban governance amendment (73 and 74) were passed.Broadly, the 74th Amendment mandates three…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUwxV7_pYyE&feature=youtu.be The film was taken in 2010 and the background music is a recording I made from the loudspeakers that played on Bull temple road during the Kadlekai Parishe (Groundnut fair) that same year. The purpose of the film had been a simple one - to record how people use space on an everyday basis. It was a time when the street vendors had not yet been evicted. That happened in Jan 2012. The reason cited by the government for the eviction was that the gandhi bazaar main road was becoming very congested. But, was this the only solution? In…

I met a lot of interesting people today. My friend Jayashree Govindarajan put me in touch with Nidhi Manoj and Reshmi Chakraborti, who have been, for the past two years, running an e-magazine called Silver Talkies , for those above 55 years of age, Today (7th March, 2014) Silver Talkies, along with Suchetadhama (run by Shanthini Dawson) and artist Paul Fernandes’ gallery of Curious Memories, held their maiden event, “Art, Coffee and Conversation”, at the gallery, with high tea at The French Loaf, situated in a heritage house across the road. The idea was to share thoughts and discussions, and…

A friend and I are at a local café, with her daughter (nearly 4) and my son (5). Now this café is one of those small, cosy places, where you're encouraged to sit close to your love and gaze into his or her eyes, and occasionally bite into your blueberry muffin. Or sip your cappucino. So yes, space is rather at a premium, inside. Naturally, it's also the kind of place hungry, active children love to go to. And are terrible to manage once within. Because either they burn themselves on the tall cauldrons of scalding soups (helpfully placed bang…

Even after the elections are notified, all the parties have kept their list of candidates in suspense. However, here is some gossip from the political corridors for you! Enjoy reading! What is Congress doing? Congress is experimenting in Bangalore North with ‘primaries’ where internal voting will be done by the party members and the winner will contest the elections. Primaries will be held between Rajeev Gowda, B L Shankar and others, on March 8. Rajeev Gowda is an ex-IIMB professor, who also headed IIMB’s Centre for Public Policy. B L Shankar is a veteran politician with relatively clean history and…