CITIZEN JOURNALISM

WE BELONG is a group of friends, mainly software engineers who are dedicated in bringing a sense of belonging to two of the most neglected communities- orphans and elders. Pic: AuthorIt is a shame that people who have lived their entire life for the sake of their children have been abandoned in old age, and children abandoned are devoid of love and security at an young age. They miss out on an environment of love and care, and thus have no idea of the value of relationships, and do not cherish their being. Old age homes tell another grim story.…

In 1995 when I first visited the Kathriguppe main road at Banashankari 3rd Stage, it reminded me of RK Narayan's description of a sleepy town. But today it boasts of everything that a city needs, including a retail store fresh@banashankari just 200 m from our residential complex with 72 apartments. I was informed the founder of Heritage Foods was none other than N. Chandrababu Naidu, former Andhra CM.I am a 65 year old who loves fruits. I used to be a regular customer at fresh@banashankari since it opened. I shifted my source of purchase from the road side fruit vendor…

I knew it - MNCs are no better, if not worse, than desi ones when it comes to after sales service. This painful truth was revealed to me when my Whirlpool Quick Chill became a hot case, so hot that even the company didn’t want to touch it with a barge pole. It happened last summer. I wanted to impress a client of my husband with a tall chilled glass of lime juice from my Whirlpool, just like the ads showed, and reached into the deep freeze for ice, and, what do you know, I felt water sloshing about in…

Thursday morning saw a subdued start to the wonderful & propitious day. The sun was tricky to sight through the thick drape of fog, and as the morning opened up, the visibility reduced further. As people decorated their Christmas trees with lights and snowflake decorations, to welcome Santa Claus with his goodies bag, nature had its own plan. It created its own Christmas trees for those who can not afford one. It decorated its trees across the periphery of the city, with frost.Frost over cobwebs and leaves (pic: Saurabh Mittal) The frost settled on all the roadside plants to create…

The December Music Season is considered to be a prestigious event much like its counterpart in the north, the "Saptak Music Festival'. A setting which boasts of the best of the performers to the best of the rasikas leaves no stone unturned to create the best of the ambience. The annual event held at the carnatic music capital of India, Chennai, draws huge crowds from the world over. Chennai, often considered as the elder cousin of Bangalore, brings in its elements to make a formidable pair with its younger tech city to entertain millions in a variety of spheres. The…

The Ambedkar Community Computer Centre is situated in a slum area in the New Guruppanapalya, off Bannerghatta road, Bengaluru. In this IT city of multinationals, it is only one of the many slums in the interiors of Bangalore that is not well known outside. On the 13th December, the slum had a unique visitor who is well known in every part of the world as the founder of the Free Software Foundation. Richard M Stallman's visit turned the attention of IT professionals and media persons to the otherwise not-so-well-known slum. The Ambedkar team with Stallman. Pic: Aravind.Ambedkar Community Computing Center…

"Bangalore's culture resides in the two great extensions of Malleshwaram and Basavanagudi" was the encomium heaped on Basavanagudi by no less a person than Dr. Vikram Sarabhai himself, the father of India's space programme, with whom I had the fortune of sharing a car ride in the mid 1960s, when I was a graduate student. Basavana-gudi means Bull Temple. Actually, the whole extension takes on the name of the temple which used to be very simple then. There was a water tank behind the temple where we used to go for immersion of Ganesha idol once a year. Today, the…

I had always wondered what life was like on the inside, at Karunashraya. If I had gone there as a copywriter on a project, I would go around with the team, look inside the wards, talk to some of the patients and ask for a 'brief' as we normally do, before we start a project.But then, all roads led to Karunashraya when my mother drifted into a terminal stage of cancer - far too gone even for a miracle cure. I would now get an insider's perspective on Karunashraya - as a caregiver to a patient.View from the walk-ways, around…

I've seen them at least in a couple of junctions. One at the Wind Tunnel road junction on Old Airport Road and, the other at the Intel junction on Outer Ring road. Small construction cones neatly lined up along one-car width from the meridian, indicating that if people should turn right, they ought to come in there. How do they enforce this? At Wind Tunnel road junction, they simply line the cones along the lane and then continue them all the way to the opposite side meridian. Something like this: Brilliant idea! Considering that just drawing the line and saying…

Ananya embarks upon a new series of dance programmes titled "Nritya Chilume" for talented budding artists , aged below 15 years. Kum.Kirti Ramgopal, a well known danseuse, will inaugurate the event on 13th December at Seva Sadana, Malleswaram. Nritya Chilume will be a regular feature in Ananya's calendar of events.Nritya Chilume aims to promote and motivate youngsters to further their learning, by providing them an opportunity to showcase their talents to a wider audience and interact with senior gurus and fellow performers.Nritya Chilume-1 features Bharatanatyam performances by Ananya M (Guru-Brunda), Sonali Belankar (Guru-Anuradha Vikranth), Gopalakrishna S V (Guru-Sanjay and Shama…