GENRE: Explainers

A community swimming pool is one of the most pleasurable and easiest avenues of relaxation for most urban apartment dwellers today. And yet a number of very unfortunate incidents in the recent past have created grave concerns and stress around its use, maintenance and management. From Gurgaon to Hyderabad and of course, in Namma Bengaluru, several shocking incidents leading to fatalities in swimming pools have given a huge jolt to residents and management committee members. The biggest jolt, perhaps, came in the recent instance, where following the tragic swimming pool death of a nine-year-old child in one of Bengaluru’s apartments,…

Recent incidents of stray dog attacks have raised concerns about the safety of the elderly and children. On August 28th, a 76-year-old woman allegedly died in a ferocious stray dog attack in Jalahalli.  In another incident last month, a 40-year-old woman in Banaswadi was bitten by a stray dog. The video of this incident went viral on social media. As reported in the media, BBMP East Zone Assistant Director of Animal Husbandry) Mallapa Bhajantri said that they received information about the dog bite from another resident of Banaswadi, but have no details about the injured woman.  The Assistant Director also…

Recently, a social media post revealed the shocking experience of a woman, who found a mobile phone hidden in the waste bin in the washroom of one of the Bengaluru outlets of a popular cafe chain. The phone camera was reportedly pointed towards the toilet seat and was recording video. The cafe states that the staffer who planted the phone was terminated and legal action was initiated against him. In another, more recent incident, a hidden camera was found in the women’s washroom of a college in Andhra Pradesh. The videos recorded via it were allegedly circulated among male students…

In May this year, the 'deepfake' controversy took a grim turn and hit closer home, when AI-generated morphed photos of a class 9 student from a prominent public school in Bengaluru, was circulated on an Instagram account. The parents lodged a complaint with the cyber crime cell. This incident raised concerns about the growing threat and damaging effects of deepfakes, particularly revenge porn, on young adults. "Even as there were fears about deepfakes being used to subvert elections, it didn't pan out that way. Of greater concern is that 95-96% of deepfakes are used for pornography," says Jaspreet Bindra, founder…

On July 16, two minor boys driving an SUV on Pycrofts Road in Chennai's Royapettah, caused an accident with a two-wheeler, injuring two pedestrians. This incident occurred two months after a similar case in Pune, which drew nationwide criticism. In that case, the Juvenile Justice Board in Maharashtra granted bail to a teenager responsible for a car accident that killed two people, on the condition that he write a 300-word essay on road accidents and their solutions. "What about the families who suffer the loss of their loved ones killed in these accidents?" asks Mihika Gupta who lost her husband,…

Trash is mostly an afterthought when it gets taken away seamlessly. Like most residents, I follow the weekly trash routine without much thought. This system contrasts with my recent experiences in Chennai, where household waste segregation is more community-oriented, while civic authorities are largely responsible for collection and disposal of the waste in the city.  Compared to Chennai, Seattle has a smaller population, about 762,500. Chennai's population according to latest GCC data is about 7.1 million. In both Seattle and Chennai, the city government contracts with private companies to collect waste, and charges households a collection fee. In Seattle, unlike…

“Police are asking us to give a list of foreigners in our block. Did you all get a similar question? I find it strange and uncomfortable. They went to one of our resident's houses, who are Australians, and asked them to share their Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) details to a Whatsapp number. This includes Indians with foreign passports. Please let me know how you are tackling this issue." — This was a message posted by an RWA member on the Koramangala group last week. The reason behind the police asking for OCI details can be traced to an unfortunate incident…

“One life-form turns into another. Recycling is like that,”  says Ramnikbhai Satra, a scrap dealer, as he compares inanimate objects taking on another form to the cycle of death and rebirth. Even as he speaks to me, he keeps an eye on one of his workers weighing newspapers and flattened cartons, answers a customer who wants to know the price of some plastic objects kept in a tray next to which there is a box of glass jars of all shapes and sizes. “Individuals sell this stuff to me. Then it is picked up for recycling by different people— a…

You go to a pathologist to run some tests. Your blood is drawn out with a syringe, pressed down with a piece of cotton, and a tape is stuck on it. The needle, the syringe, and the cotton are biomedical waste and need special handling for its disposal. In the second part of our series on solid waste management in Mumbai, we look at specialised waste—waste generated in restaurants, e-waste and biomedical waste. Previously, in the first part we looked at how household waste is disposed and explored various agencies of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that handle waste. Waste…

Bengaluru has had the Outer Ring Road (ORR) for decades. While it was initially a road around the city, now it is estimated that more people live outside the ORR than inside. Along with the movement of people, traffic has also grown by leaps and bounds and sections of the ORR are in the news regularly for large pile-ups. Outside of the ORR, the NICE road covers a large section of the city from the North-west to the South. There have been talks of other ring-roads to ease the traffic in the city. The premise is that a lot of traffic in…