DIARY

During my summer holidays, I visited Mysore, a lovely place with exceptionally amazing monuments, enormous palaces.  Mysore is a major tourist attraction in Karnataka and when my cousin visited from Delhi, we decided to go see this historic city.  I love going on such trips; so with my heart pounding with great excitement and anticipation, we began our trip and it turned out to be one of the most glorious and action-packed ones that I have had so far.The first place we visited in Mysore was the beautiful Mysore Palace, belonging to the Wodeyar Dynasty. We were astounded by its…

A gust of wind blew over my sleeping body, and promptly and quickly, I jerked up from my lying position and stared at the whirling fan in my room. That was what surprised me as I normally wake up at 7.45 am during summer vacations and don’t budge from my bed till that time, but now it was only 6.00 am and I was awake. And then, it struck me that it wasn’t vacation anymore; school had started and my waking-up-in-the-morning senses were just beginning to develop again. Glad, excited and a little mournful, I headed back to school.The school…

By mid-April I was becoming allergic to the calendar. “Don’t look at the date”, I told myself. The April 30th deadline for paying property tax was approaching. "There are no forms available at the Sanjaynagar centre yet", said a friend.  "I downloaded the form but they refused to accept it because it doesn’t have the acknowledgement form," said another (Why doesn’t it have an acknowledgement form? Good question.)With just a week left, I decided to pay up, and “be done with it”. That morning’s newspapers said some Assistant Revenue Officers (ARO’s) were being authorised to collect property tax. So I…

I met Rahul on my way to the milk booth. He held a half-peeled banana in his hand as he hurried down, his mother close behind him with what looked like a badminton kit. Though the summer vacation had commenced,  Rahul had not visited us for a fortnight, not even for the regular chess competitions the two of us (Rahul and I) have at my home.I saw them again the next day, huffing and puffing their way to the main gate of ourpremises. As the boy boarded a waiting van and Neetu, Rahul's mother, waved at him, I got curious…

Bangalore has a spanking new set of councillors. We citizens have cast our votes and are hoping, it will pay at least this time. What is interesting is that we have 74 women councillors compared to the 17 in the previous election. Will that make a difference? Of the 74 seats 67 come from reserved constituencies.In the light of the hoopla around Women's Reservation Bill in the Parliament, Bangalore's future administration might become the test case. It is true that most women candidates fielded were political novices and wives or relatives of politicians or political aspirants. And all along, media…

On a hot Saturday in April, BBMP demonstrated its responsive side. Earlier that morning when my husband told me about a dead ox body opposite our building at Benson Town, I thought he was joking. A little later, I was shocked when I actually noticed the ox lying along the roadside. Brushing aside questions of "Who, why, when and how", I presumed that one of our proactive neighbours would have reported the issue. But when I rang the BBMP's 24 hour helpline (22221188 and 22660000) around 10.15 am to check, I realised that no complaint had been lodged. Curious children…

On April 21st late afternoon, there was a very heavy downpour with hailstorm and very gusty winds. On my way home at Vijayanagar at about 5.30 pm, while it was still raining, I found the skyline near my home looking different I looked up to see a few trees were broken in the middle and fallen over houses.Right in front of my house, two trees had fallen. On the main road behind, I found eight electric poles and three trees had fallen on 11 KVA power lines. This caused the complete stretch of electric poles and trees fall flat on…

It is not uncommon that money is doled out in thousands or even lakhs during an election. The BBMP council elections are no different. Just as voters are wooed by candidates, the media aren't spared either. Citizen Matters experienced this first-hand during the last few days with candidates from three mainstream political parties offering money to be written about.At the time of interviewing a candidate, one of the first questions you are asked as a reporter is, "How much do you charge?" or "Do we have to pay for this interview?" When one replies in the negative, it would be…

It was a much awaited event for all the climbers in and around Bengaluru. Some participants even travelled from other cities to attend the Rock Climbing fest organised at Turahalli on February 21st, 2010.Turahalli hillock is a place with lot of boulders and wildlife just off Kanakapura road and around 8 kilo-meters from Banashankari Temple in Bangalore South. I had visited Turahalli couple of times before along with my climber friends, but I had not tried much of the climbing at Turahalli. The whole effort was to promote the sport and make more number of people joining the climbing community.…

Slide show The market waking up to a busy day. Pic: Chitra Aiyer. A little boy making idlis for selling at his family's shack in the market. Pic: Chitra Aiyer. Fresh vegetables arrive in little tempos. Pic: Chitra Aiyer. Vendors often engage you in conversation if you have the time. Pic: Chitra Aiyer Market transactions. Pic: Chitra Aiyer. Waiting for his customers. Pic: Chitra Aiyer. A charming girl I ran into. Pic: Chitra Aiyer Kanji for breakfast - from a cart that sells breakfast nearby. Pic: Chitra Aiyer. A happy little kid minding his dad's produce. Pic: Chitra Aiyer A…