CITIZEN JOURNALISM

With consumption demands growing like never before, industries are rising in every corner of the world to meet our ever-growing wants. Of course, it is nice to be able to afford and enjoy everything we desire. All seems good till we cast a glance at the enormous amounts of waste generated by the intensive consumerist process. In India, many of the socio-cultural and religious practices we follow often result in a lot of waste and mess. As we leave the January festival season behind, we find spring fast approaching. Colours and joy Holi, the festival of colour, is one of…

As students of biology and sustainability, we believe that the government was right in abandoning plans of converting a natural forest into a constructed tree park. The following article details our thoughts on the same. The Turahalli forest that encompasses close to 600 acres of dry decidious forests off Kanakapura road, is a critical ecological space for Bengaluru.  In late 2020, the Chief Minister of Karnataka unveiled the Bengaluru Mission 2022, which aims to improve the city’s infrastructure to support the growing population and also restore Bengaluru’s former glory as the “Garden City”. As part of this mission, the government…

In consolidation of what is an established and flourishing trend in the Chennai art arena, more than 2000 memes were released on social media, to coincide with the recent release of the Vijay-starrer Master. Indeed, the release of any star-studded, big-budget film in Tamil Nadu is now inevitably accompanied by the creation and promotion of hundreds of creative memes. But did you know that the creators of these memes slog at it for at least two months before each release? Memes are hugely popular today and Chennai has pretty much established itself as the meme capital of Tamil Nadu. Evolution…

The swanky new Sir M Visveswaraya railway terminal at Baiyappanahalli is due to be opened towards the end of this month. The butterfly-shaped terminal, built at around Rs 350 crore, is bound to be a transportation hub on the eastern end of the city. When operational, this terminal could take the load off the two other major railway terminals in the city: the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Railway station in Majestic and Yeshwanthpur railway station. While the terminal itself promises to be a state-of-the-art facility, its usability has many hurdles. Access and connectivity to this terminal is the main issue. For…

The Western Express Highway in Kandivali East, North Mumbai is expectedly, one of the busiest arterial roads of the city, but those living on the side of it often spend an hour from the highway to reach their homes, about a kilometre away. Residents of Hanuman Nagar, Lokhandwala Township, Damu Nagar and Kranti Nagar are the worst affected. At the place where the highway crosses Akurli Road (the road that begins at the Kandivali East station and extends right upto the hills), we have a flyover, a traffic-cum-pedestrian subway and service roads crisscrossing, with vehicles moving in different directions. There…

The Mumbai Birdrace, supported by HSBC, has been organized since 2005, with Sunjoy Monga as the chief organiser. Many teams, each comprising of 4-5 people take part, and the one with the highest number of species of birds wins. The team that spots the rarest bird also gets a prize. Every year a dinner is usually organized for the participants at the end of the day. This year due to COVID, team size was restricted to 3, and every team was compensated for their travel and meals (in lieu of the dinner). The bird watching timings were from sunrise to…

According to some accounts such as this, every year over 200 pedestrians are killed on Hyderabad’s roads on average. This number might seem like a lot, but as someone who walks very often, I was actually expecting it to be quite higher considering the absolute lack of apathy from our civic authorities and even fellow citizens to pedestrian safety.  It is said that everyone is a pedestrian at some point. I don’t know how true that is, because it fails to explain the life-threatening situations our city forces pedestrians to be in almost everywhere. Issues with infrastructure A big part…

For long, I was intrigued by this derelict locomotive lying in the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park opposite the Jawahar Lal Nehru Planetarium. I would have a fleeting glance of it while passing the gate. I had once seen it from up close and did not see any markings on it. Truly, it was a mystery locomotive. A few years back I went to the park to do a detailed documentation of the locomotive. The more I looked at it, the prettier it seemed. The first thing that one usually does when confronted with locomotives that don't bear any markings,…

Wearing a loose khaki shirt over a polyester saree, Shanthi D starts her auto on what promises to be yet another challenging day. She has been an auto driver for almost 16 years now. Shanthi started her career at a time when very few women had the courage to choose this path. Years have gone by, and while the number of women colleagues in the profession has increased, even now, she is greeted with amusement or shock by many. Strong and determined Women auto drivers in Chennai are a growing tribe. While their choices do reflect a degree of empowerment,…

Historically, civilizations grew around rivers in their valleys (i.e. Nile and Indus valleys). It is relatively very recent in human history that we now dwell and thrive in spaces that are far away from rivers or other water bodies. I (Deepak) have read earlier that the city of Mumbai, with its population of 20 million people, draws its water requirement from large reservoirs and rivers that are more than a 100 km away from downtown city. Ironically, the native population living around these reservoirs have been restricted access to these bodies of water that are present in their communities. The…