GENRE: Features

There is a flurry of activity in my house. Furniture is rearranged to make space. Glasses of chilled nimbu pani are kept ready, and everyone waits for the familiar brown truck to come to the gate of the building. Things move quickly with its arrival. Men jump out of it and carry huge, blue plastic tubs filled with goods ranging from pulses to stationery to utensils, up to our house. The goods are checked against a list, the lemonade consumed, and the truck and these grocery Santa Clauses have moved on to their next destination. History of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat…

Mariappa, a resident of Silicon City, who lives a few minutes away from the city’s glittering high street, leads a challenging life. He is a pit worker in Bengaluru, eking out a living from the repulsive job of manually cleaning the gutters of the high tech city. His entire family does pit work. Mariappa rues, “My body stinks.” He adds that many pit workers, several of whom live in the heart of the city, have got diseases and have even died due to their work.  Even though manual scavenging has been legally banned, it is still practised in Bengaluru. In…

Crude oil, reportedly from a public sector refining company, has leaked into the Kosasthalaiyar river to the north of Chennai, the biodiverse Ennore creek, and the Bay of Bengal, thereby polluting the ecosystem and rendering the waters unfit for fishing. As many as 2,301 fisher families have been affected, and 787 boats remain damaged. In the absence of fishing opportunities, fishing communities struggle for the basics and say that the compensation provided is insufficient. As the oil has also impacted the mangroves in the region — an essential breeding ground for fish and a crucial part of the marine ecosystem,…

On the afternoon of 26 November, 2023 a group of about 50 people gathered for a unique meeting at tribal activist Prakash Bhoir’s house at Mumbai’s Aarey forest. Members shared anecdotes, recalled incidents as they came together to commemorate their nine-year-long fight to save Aarey forest from concrete urban projects, especially the 33 hectare-Metro 3 car shed.  Dafli in hand, Prakash, a prominent tribal face from Mumbai now, sang a song he wrote on Aarey. He recalled the night of October 4, 2019, when his wife Pramila Bhoir was arrested for opposing the massive tree cutting.  “We were just going…

54-year-old Jyoti Kadam, who took voluntary retirement from being a writer with the Mumbai police to take care of her parents, feels lonely now.  Jyoti was widowed 22 years ago, when her son was just five months old and her daughter seven years old. She struggled throughout as a single working parent till she took voluntary retirement, only to take care of her mother suffering from Alzheimer's. Thereafter, she took care of her father, a paralysis patient.  Today, after her parents are no more and her children have grown up and started working, she has started pursuing her hobbies like…

Cyclone Michaung affected most parts of Chennai with the city receiving an average of 300 mm of rains on December 4th. The incessant downpour stopped around Tuesday midnight, bringing some respite to citizens; although the relief was only temporary, with the aftermath of the rains throwing up difficult and challenging situations for both citizens and civic workers. The unprecedented rains have triggered a variety of issues including heavy waterlogging in many areas, swinging NDRF personnel into action to rescue residents stranded in submerged areas, with boats. Other issues faced in various areas include loss of vehicles submerged in water, power…

Starting November, the first batch of shops from Chor Bazaar, Mumbai's popular and unique market for antiques, artifacts and cheap vintage knick knacks, have started moving into their allotted spaces in the new Al-Ezz towers in Bhendi Bazaar. A cloud of questions about if and how the new market will manage to retain its distinct identity in the new skyscrapers surrounds the shopkeepers, who have been there for generations.  About 122 shops from a part of Chor Bazaar will be shifted into the shopping arena of four 50-plus storied towers in the next few years, as part of the Bhendi…

The Kolis are indigenous to Mumbai, have a deep-rooted connection to the city's coastal areas, living in settlements known as Koliwadas along the coastline. They have a rich cultural heritage and have been traditionally reliant on fishing as their primary occupation for generations. The Koliwadas, once thriving fishing villages, have been facing the looming threat of redevelopment due to various amendments to Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) laws and urban development plans. This threat has put their traditional lifestyle and livelihoods at risk, leading to concerns about preserving their heritage and way of life amid modernisation and urban expansion. In the…

Chennai's lakes, once the lifeblood of the city, have been disappearing because of decades of neglect, encroachment and pollution. Worried about the state of these shrinking water bodies, many dedicated citizens and organisations have made efforts to revive them. From restoration projects to community-led initiatives, Chennai's journey in lake revival is ongoing, with some successful efforts and some riddled with challenges.  Chennai's lake restoration initiatives In response to the 2015 floods, the city initiated many lake restoration projects to mitigate urban flooding and enhance the holding capacity of the city's large lakes.   The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and…

Abhishek Pratap, a 19-year-old engineering student, felt an adrenaline rush every time he won a bet online. And every loss would prompt him to bet again. Six months into the game, he hadn't won or lost a significant sum of money. And relished the experience. This changed when he decided to use his father's credit card to wager a few lakhs. That’s when his luck ran out, as he ended up losing the bet. To conceal the transaction from his parents, Pratap deleted the bank's notification message regarding the transaction. But he could not control his craving to bet again. The…