GENRE: Features

A viewing deck over a stormwater outfall in Dadar that looks out onto the sea. Solar-powered electric poles shaped like a tree. Multi-coloured and fun-shaped zebra crossings near school gates. These ideas may seem unrelated, but they share a common thread; they all come under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s new push towards ‘tactical urbanism’. Starting January, the drive has sparked off several projects to enhance livability in the city, often on a pilot basis and in local pockets. Some of the steps taken under it are fairly simple and ordinary, such as planting trees along roads, refurbishing bus stops,…

Two-and-half months since the BMTC introduced digital passes, demand for these passes remains low. According to A V Surya Sen, Director (Information Technology) at BMTC, only 17,645 digital passes were active on June 22nd. This comes to less than 1% of BMTC's average daily ridership of 25 lakh. In pre-pandemic times, use of paper passes was common among BMTC passengers. For example, a BMTC survey of 2019 had showed that 48% of those surveyed used paper passes. It seems few have converted to digital passes. Launched on April 6th, the total number of digital passes issued so far (including expired…

There is always someone looking for a house to rent in Chennai. “Looking for an affordable 2 BHK house in Adyar with a friendly neighbourhood for two working women. We eat meat and invite friends over. Any leads would help”. Posts of this kind flood social media on a daily basis. Being the fourth most populous metropolitan city in the country, Chennai is home to a large chunk of inter and intra-state floating population, with employment and studies being the major reason for many people from all over the country to move to the city. Those moving here take help…

After suffering badly for two consecutive years (2020-2021) due to COVID, Jammu and Kashmir’s ailing tourism sector is back on track with a bang. In January this year, the state’s tourism department launched a major promotion plan highlighting places other than the usual tourist spots like Gulmarg. The promotion seems to have worked, if one looks at the steady arrival of tourists in Srinagar. The plan entailed holding road shows in Gujarat, Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Maharashtra and other states inviting tourists to Kashmir. The results have been more than satisfactory. Srinagar has been jam-packed with tourists since March and guests are…

Thanks to a crowdfunding effort that raised around Rs 10 Lakhs and two months of intensive work by community residents, local villagers and workers from the panchayat starting April 2020, the residents of Zed Earth, a gated community in Dodaballapur, haven’t spent a single rupee on water tankers so far this year. In the past, their annual cost on tankers could go up to as much as Rs 2 Lakhs depending on the ground water situation. “This is the only year when we have not spent a single rupee on buying water,” says an elated Anil Kashyap, resident of Zed…

Hailing from Naini in Allahabad district, UP, Ajay, 19, runs a roadside gol gappa stall in Sarjapur on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Street vendors are few in this area so the few vendors like Ajay selling street foods like samosas, idlis, vadas, rolls, momos and gol gappas are sought after by students from nearby.  Ajay, who does not face much competition on his street, does brisk business on weekends, especially Sundays, starting at 3 pm and closing shop around 8 pm in the evening. He shares a small home near Billapura with five others, who are also street vendors. A…

After a gruelling two years of the COVID pandemic, medical teachers from the Grant Medical college in JJ Hospital, Mumbai, went on strike starting January 5th. For over two months, they demanded regularisation of their services and the implementation of the 7th pay commission, which would mean standardised salaries and timely promotions. The situation in medical colleges and hospitals that are run by the Maharashtra government point to discrepancies in budget allocation and implementation for medical colleges, when other central and BMC run hospitals provide better working conditions for medical practitioners and teachers.  The working conditions coupled with the depleting…

Eight-year-old Dhrona has keen interest in music. Unlike many of his peers, he does not attend a traditional school. His parents have chosen to nurture his talent by enrolling him in music theory classes and keyboard classes under the ABRSM board which comes under the Royal School of Music. He is one of many children in Chennai taking to homeschooling and unschooling for various reasons The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the landscape of schooling considerably. With consecutive lockdowns, school closures, a larger push to digitise various aspects of learning, new forms of education have started gaining popularity. Homeschooling allows for an…

Rakhi Sahu, a kindergarten teacher in Bhopal, is pleased that children are happy to be back in school. But where she sees worrying learning gaps from the two years of school closure is in basic manners or etiquette. “It has been difficult to teach them basic manners like sharing toys with other children or how to sit or conduct themselves in classrooms,” says Rakhi. “The children who are coming to school now after the lockdown have a blank slate in terms of social or behavioural skills”. “Many children have had a hard time adjusting to being back in school full time,”…

Lakshmi, a resident of Chikka Banaswadi in Bangalore, and the 30 other families who live there, have no access to water. Lakshmi buys nine plastic pots of water every day from shops nearby paying Rs 2 per pot. Even if each pot holds 20 litres, nine pots give Lakshmi, her husband and two children, just 180 litres of water per day for drinking, bathing, washing dishes, etc., whereas the Centre's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs recommends daily water supply of 135 litres per capita in urban areas. Lakshmi, who lives in a slum in Chikka Banaswadi, spends Rs 18…