GENRE: Explainers

Sushil Kumar, a resident of Sadashivanagar, was in rage and almost up in arms when he saw a majestic Gulmohar tree being axed to make way for road widening in his neighbourhood. When he tried to stop the workers from converting the trunk to logs, he was told that orders were given from the higher ups in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). When he contacted BBMP Forest cell top brass, pat came the reply, “I am not the authority concerned. But I will look into the matter, please give me the details.” He is not the only one. Sunita…

Monsoon has brought Bangalore many things to rejoice, and a bag of worries as well. While the much-needed respite from the scorching heat is a welcome change, the rains are also the indicators to be more careful about the reptile and rodent menace that increases every year during this time. It is not a rare sight to see houses flooded with water after a heavy downpour. This is especially so with houses which have been built on low-lying areas. This however poses a huge risk of reptiles, especially snakes, entering the houses. The city has been constantly reporting such cases…

Tariffs are the single most important economic tool to control individual resident’s water usage. Many apartments often bundle water charges into a single maintenance account. But this keeps the expense of water consumption invisible. RWAs must have a Cost Account for water separately. RWA Management Committees need to consider various parameters to arrive at the tariff. What cannot be measured cannot be managed. The first step is to measure water consumption and calculate the total cost for getting water into a resident's flat. See part 1 of this series: Where does Bangalore get its water from? To read, click here.…

Your neighbourhood lake where your mother and her siblings went swimming and fishing is now a multi-storied office complex with a sports stadium next to it. You yourself can remember the place as one where you sailed your little paper boats and from where you excitedly brought home guppies and tadpoles to put into your house pond. Thankfully, there is still some untouched space there – a playground with a few old trees, where boys and girls can play cricket, kick around footballs or just sit and talk. Yes, I’m reminiscing about the Akkithimanahalli “Mud Tank” in Richmond Town, which…

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the world. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), for the majority of women presenting with breast cancer, it is not possible to identify specific risk factors. Recently, Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie was in news after she underwent a double mastectomy following her learning that she was at risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. It was a genetic test that revealed she carried the mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. So what is this test all about? About five per cent of breast cancers are caused because of mutations in…

There’s surely someone special waiting for you out there, in some part of the world. You need to find him/her. But how? Matrimonial websites have emerged as the answer to this quest. Best thing about such websites is, one can decide about the life partner himself/ herself and search without having to pester brokers or bother parents. It’s completely about the option to select what one wants - social status, income, likes, dislikes, caste, religion, geographical location, special cases, second marriages - you name it, you have it. Matrimonial websites have been of much help, especially to the working professionals…

Pavan, a Bangalore-based sales professional in a company working as regional manager for India, needs to travel frequently to other cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune. If he has to catch the early morning flight to Delhi, he needs to reach the airport at 5.15am, which is not easy. There are limited number of buses at that hour; waiting for them is not a wise thing. Pavan has an easy solution: Book a cab to the airport the previous day. Shekhar Mahadev, a software engineer working in Bangalore, says, “I have to keep making a lot of trips to…

We all depend on groundwater. The single largest source of water that Bangalore has created apart from Cauvery, is actually a hole in the ground! We are pulling water that has been down there for hundreds of years, that is somebody else's right as much as it is ours. Some use Cauvery water or groundwater to flush the toilets, while some others are not getting water even to drink. Where does ground water come from? We all live above common aquifers – spaces between soil particles and cracks, fissures and faults in the rocks. The spread of aquifer is independant…

What time are the booths open?Polling starts at 7am and ends by 6pm. How to find your polling booth?  To find your name on the rolls and print the details, do the following:Go to http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in/vernacularSearch_New.aspxSelect the district (usually Bangalore, or Bangalore Rural), your constituency, and put your name, relative's name, gender, and hit search.If your entry exists, it will come up on the screen. Click the details link on left hand side of the entry line and you will get a blue popup box that displays all your details including booth location.Using your mouse, mark the entire box. Copy and…

Recently, I came across a booklet released by one of the candidates contesting the Karnataka Assembly elections about his achievements over the past 5 years as a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA). Over many colourful pages, he described the roads that he had got laid, the clogged drains that had been cleaned, the street lights that he had got erected, the numerous other small tasks that he had done for the city, the different schemes for which he had selected beneficiaries, etc. I spoke to a few people from his constituency only to find that most of them could easily…