CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Swacha Graha is a citizen-driven campaign initiated by the Solid Waste Management Round Table Bangalore to address Bengaluru’s garbage woes. The campaign challenges you to make you look at the waste you generate as a resource, just by starting three green spots. What are the three green spots? Green Spot 1: Your composting spotGreen Spot 2: Your garden where you use your compostGreen Spot 3: Your kitchen, where you cook with vegetables and greens from your garden How is Green Spot 1 beneficial? Composting is a smell-free, non-messy process which will reduce your carbon foot print. 60% of the waste…

Trailblazer. Screen-scorcher. Essayer of powerful roles. Padma Shri and national award recipient who mesmerised the world in a short but brilliant career. Say 'Smita Patil' and there is that special glint in the eye of movie enthusiasts who had the privilege of watching this charismatic actor on screen. Whether it was Bhumika, Manthan, Gaman, Arth or Mirch Masala, movie after movie Smita breathed magic into every role, transforming effortlessly into the character she played on screen. Achiever and performer extraordinaire, Smita would have been 60 if she were alive today. Join us, a group of Bangaloreans, as we celebrate her…

Venkatappa Art Gallery off Kasturba Road, Bengaluru. Pic: Shree D N Some people are a little confused why Karnataka artists are against the adoption of the state Venkatappa Art Gallery (VAG) by Tasveer Foundation to build MAP - Museum of Art and Photography, to house Abhishek Poddar's art collection. Artists have formed Vagforum (Venkatappa Art Gallery Forum) to oppose this move. MAP in VAG is being projected as god's gift to the Bengaluru's public. Let me explain our stand: Artists are not against the Museum of Art and Photography or MAP coming up in the city. But it should be…

Growing up in Bengaluru for me has always revolved around the Cantonment - early morning walks under the tree-lined avenues towards Richards Park, eating Ritchies mutton biryani on MM road (back in the day when a plate was a meagre Rs 40), or buying weekly groceries from Thoms after Sunday mass. Historically, the Cantonment of Bengaluru dates back to the 18th century, specifically 1807, when the British defeated Tipu Sultan’s army and established themselves around the Ulsoor kere. The British established various typologies from large parks and shopping centres to parade grounds and schools, the most important being the colonial bungalow…

  Being a proponent for the Government of Karnataka’s (GoK) decision to ‘Adopt a Destination’ under CSR, one is saddened to see some artists put out misleading and wrong information to ensure that the Venkatappa Art Gallery (VAG) adoption MoU signed between the Government agencies and Tasveer Foundation is cancelled. Terms like ‘brutal, undemocratic takeover’, ‘surreptitious MoU’, ‘usurp public resources’, ‘prime real estate capture’ are being bandied about giving the impression that some of us (who believe that VAG adoption is good for Bengaluru citizens) are descendants of Darth Vader! Bengaluru citizens will gain with this adoption program. We might…

Repair Café is organising its 5th workshop on March 19th 2016. It is being hosted by The Green Path situated at Seshadripuram, from 11.30 am to 4 pm. Apart from repairing and upcycling, other highlights of the workshop include Talk show on Water Conservation by Aditi Hastak from Biome Workshop on basics of Kitchen Gardening Screening of a documentary film, Economics Of Happiness So what is Repair Café?  Repair Café is a community gathering where repairers, volunteers, visitors come together for the purpose of repairing household articles. A repair man busy at work. Pic: Purna Sarkar Since our first Repair…

Some years ago, a majestic tree stood just outside our house, not far from the heart of Bangalore. It was home to a squadron of monkeys, numerous squirrels and many varieties of birds. There were probably many snakes around, too. In those days, there was ample wildlife where we lived. That was probably how it was in most other Indian cities then, too. But that’s a story from a bygone age. The three-striped palm squirrel is one of the most commonly found 'wild' creatures in Bengaluru. Pic: Vikram Nanjappa Today, a mammoth-sized school occupies the space which that sprawling tree…

Bengaluru's street vendors, under the banner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Beedhi Vyaapaari Sanghatanegala Okkuta (Federation of Street Vendor Unions of Bangalore), had organised a protest on March 10th 2016 at the BBMP Head Office. Street vendors protest at the BBMP premises. Pic: Beedi Vyaapari Okkuta Soon after, the protest began, the BBMP Mayor, Manjunath Reddy, promised to meet with members of the Federation after the Council Sessions were done.  Demands of the protesters 1) A joint meeting should be convened with the Mayor, Commissioner and respective coporators, comprising Kaverinagar, Koramangala, Shivajinagar and Jayanagar 9th Block street vendors. 2) 1% funds…

Residents of Koramangala and users of the Koramangala 3rd Block playground participated in a Walk/Run event conducted on March 6th. The event had two twin objectives – to raise funds for charitable purposes and to focus attention on the need to save the Koramangala 3rd Block Playground. More than 300 men women and children of all ages participated. Walk and run events were held two distance categories – 2.5 km and 5 km. Over 300 residents showed up for the Save our Playground walk/run event. Pic: Nitin Seshadri A civic amenity site located contiguous to the BBMP Playground in Koramangala 3rd…