EDITORS' PICK

The balcony in Cultured, a cafe in Humayunpur, Delhi, gives a good vantage point of the daily happenings in the streets -- women walking the streets in their chic winter coats, men in trendy hairstyles going to office in their formal attire and people coming out to buy their daily groceries. On the same street one can see the local men of the village sitting in front of their houses with a hookah and a bonfire. Most of the young tenants in this urban village in Delhi are from the North Eastern states. As I sat in the cafe with…

Four months after the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) initiated serious action on waste reduction and management in the city, the civic body is beginning to see the results. According to statistics obtained from Chennai Corporation, the daily average of garbage collected in Chennai has fallen from 5098 Metric Tonnes (MT) in March to 4493 MT in June, a reduction of 605 MT. In other words, Chennai Corporation is stopping an average of 18000 MT of waste from reaching the already burdened landfills of Perungudi and Kodungaiyur every month. Roadmap to reduction Here are the five steps being followed by Chennai Corporation…

In 2006, Pune became the second city after Ahmedabad to introduce the BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) project, an ambitious scheme that envisaged the implementation of a high-quality public transport system to offset the rising vehicular traffic and the subsequent congestion within city limits. To provide its citizens with a reliable medium of public transport, the scheme promised the construction and layout of dedicated bus corridors along with new air-conditioned buses and high-end terminals and stations. In its pilot phase, the project partly operationalised a high capacity bus system on two corridors, the Swargate–Hadapsar (East‐West) Corridor of 10.2 km, and…

If you are a parent, you’d know how challenging it is to keep a young child still for more than a few minutes. From constant requests for loo breaks and a gazillion questions about everything, to (god forbid) fights if there is another child, it is not for nothing parents learn referring skills early on. A child’s development is a fluid, dynamic process. Nature, nurture and culture/arts are among the factors that help a child grow to be a well-rounded individual. The first two accommodate, and even encourage, a child’s need to explore and be restless. But how do you…

Alia, 15, cannot move or talk. “She is totally dependent on me,” said her father Mohammad Asad, an electrician. “Her mother passed away almost nine years back. I have to remain with her most of the time”. Even 35 years after the world’s worst industrial disaster that claimed 3787 lives in one night (unofficial estimates, however, put the number of deaths at over 20,000 till date, including those who died from gas related illnesses since) and left 500,000 permanently ill, victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy continue to suffer the effects of the deadly gas leak from the Union Carbide plant.…

Mumbai, July 2005. Surat, August 2006. Chennai, December 2015. All these cities have shown us the costs of disregarding and abusing our urban commons and wetlands, which used to be referred to in Taamizh language with respect, using a special term: Poromboke. The question is, are we willing to see and learn? Every instance of heavy rainfall in a city reminds us what happens when our urban development authorities and administration ignore the rivers and wetlands in our cities. Rivers Remember: #ChennaiRains and the Shocking Truth of a Manmade Flood by Krupa Ge is one more stark pointer. The book…

It is almost as tall as the Qutb Minar and growing in height every day, threatening to grow taller than the Taj Mahal. It spews deadly methane gas into the atmosphere and pollutes ground water. It provides a risky and toxic living for ragpickers and is a major health hazard for all those living around it. It claimed two lives when a part of it collapsed in 2017, and poses a continuous fire hazard. And yes, it is causing changes in the climate of the city. This is the Ghazipur landfill in East Delhi, now represented in Parliament by former…

On July 8 2019, about 500 middle class working professionals skipped work, school and college, ignored delayed train services, and braved heavy rains and jammed roads to turn up at a public hearing at an auditorium in the Bandra-Kurla Complex. Adivasis, students, professors and people from different walks of life had all gathered to raise their voices against the proposed felling of 2702 trees in Mumbai's Aarey Colony, to make way for a car shed of Metro-3. Their demand, the trees in this lush green forest be saved from the axe. Holding placards, shouting, booing and jeering, the attendees questioned…

On July 8 2019, about 500 middle class working professionals skipped work, school and college, ignored delayed train services, and braved heavy rains and jammed roads to turn up at a public hearing at an auditorium in the Bandra-Kurla Complex. Adivasis, students, professors and people from different walks of life had all gathered to raise their voices against the proposed felling of 2702 trees in Mumbai's Aarey Colony, to make way for a car shed of Metro-3. Their demand, the trees in this lush green forest be saved from the axe. Holding placards, shouting, booing and jeering, the attendees questioned…

Media, political cadre and scores of citizens were present at the Villivakkam railway yard on Friday morning, as the special train from Jolarpettai, carrying 2.5 million litres of water chugged in. The fact that the water train, festooned with flowers, was welcomed by hordes of people, underlines the magnitude of water scarcity in Chennai and the desperation with which citizens are looking for solutions. The train is at the centre of focus also because this is the first time in the past 18 years that Chennai has transported water.  But how will a trainload of water quench the thirst of…