GENRE: Features

In the last two decades, Bengaluru, India seems to have let go of the moniker "The Garden City" and adopted some new ones: "IT City," "Start up city," "The Silicon Valley of India,” after tech companies set up base in the city and attracted millions of migrants. Having grown up in Seattle, the birthplace of tech-giants Amazon and Microsoft, I was interested to learn this before I left for a three-month stay in Bengaluru. What similarities there must be; two cities experiencing the brunt of the tech-boom. Like Bengaluru, Seattle is one of the foremost spots for startup growth. Amazon’s…

Lessons I Learnt While Dealing with my Father’s Cancer Treatment Six months ago, my father was diagnosed with grade 3 squamous cell carcinoma - that’s the fancier name for oral cancer.  Since that day, life has not been the same for me and my family.  When they say there is life before cancer diagnosis and a life after, you better believe it. There are bunch of things I learnt, while my father was being treated for it – think of this as a ready-reckoner to take care of a cancer patient. I will pray to God that you won’t ever…

New campaign eyes a Hepatitis C-free Chennai It is not one of those killers that are widely discussed or feared by the masses, but an estimated 80,000 people in Chennai currently live with the insidious Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), one of the leading causes of liver cancer. What is even more alarming is that a majority do not even know that they have it. The good news, however, is that it may not be long before the city witnesses a new programme in action, that could well set an example for the world in how to effectively rid geographies of…

In an age when the colloquial phrase “there’s an app for that” is true of almost everything imaginable—dating, determining whether your watermelon is ripe, predicting bad hair days—it makes sense Bengalureans would use apps to teach and learn Kannada. As early as 2001, before the largest cohort of migrants took up residence, Kannada, the official language of Karnataka, was the first-language of only 40 percent of Bengaluru's residents (this statistic doesn't include those who speak Kannada as a second or third language) Since then, the number of English-medium schools grew, Hindi became a more common choice of second-language, English became…

WOMEN’S SAFETY – A LONG WAY OFF? I was walking home from the grocery store in my neighbourhood of R.A Puram the other day, when the driver of a passing rickshaw stuck out his tongue and made an obscene gesture at me. I was stunned. For less than a second though, after which I started laughing, highly amused. I suppose I should have been offended. But it happens so often that I have learnt to ignore it and laugh at it, indirectly allowing it to persist, not just with me but with scores of other women in the city. I…

“We were planning a trap for a tiger, waited for it and later realised that it was sitting atop a tree behind, watching us intently all the while.” You may think this is a wildlife expert recounting his experience in the deep jungles. Not exactly. Dr Sujay, a senior vet at Bannerghata Biological Park, popularly known as the Bannerghata Zoo, has some fascinating stories of the animals in his care. Bannerghatta zoo. Pic: Saravana Bharathi The Bannerghata National Park became an independent establishment in 2002. It includes the Zoo, Animal Safari, Butterfly Park and Rescue Center. The Bannerghata zoo is a popular weekend…

The whole of last month, this member of the cactus family (Hylocereus) has been delighting people across our city. I clicked the photos below in front of my bank at J P Nagar 5th Phase. This flower/cactus is not native to India; it comes from Central and South America. But we certainly seem to have adopted it; locally, it’s called “Brahmakamalam” (though the actual Brahmakamalam is another plant altogether!) and the edible fruit is called “Dragon fruit”, thanks to its shape and colour. You can see the fruit if you click on the link here. The flowers bloom at night,…

For over 10 weeks now, Friday after Friday, volunteers from CTC and other organisations, have been tirelessly cleaning up the Adyar river, inside the Theosophical Society grounds. While it is distressing to see the amount of garbage they have cleared from this verdant expanse, arguably Chennai's lungs, the commitment and enthusiasm of the volunteers is amazing! Here are some images from the clean up over the weeks.  

The Schizophrenia Research Foundation of India; the Southern Railway Ticket Reservation Centre at ICF South Colony, AnnaNagar; the Hitech Diagnostic Centre on Dr. Nair Road, T.Nagar, the Indian Bank ATM in Chetput opposite the KMC Hospital and Aavin Park, Adyar: this host of seemingly disparate landmarks in Chennai are unified by a single common attribute, which is the presence of a wheelchair ramp that makes these locations accessible even to the physically challenged. These and several other spots have been identified for compilation in a database on wheelchair accessible spots in the city, thanks to an innovative campaign launched by…