GENRE: Features

Narrow, crumbling roads, buildings on either side, cars and pedestrians navigating the maze. I glance at the navigation app on my phone. Less than 100 metres now. But it’s still nowhere in sight. Asking people doesn't help. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, a sharp turn. The GPS says I’ve arrived: I'm inside the congested urban village of Panchsheel Vihar, in front of Ramditti J R Narang Deepalaya Learning Centre. The Narang Trust formed by the family-owned Narang Steel, has donated the use of their building to Deepalaya—an NGO—rent-free, for close to forty years. It is within this building that…

On the occasion of India's 72nd Independence day, when Bengaluru should have observed the plastic ban effected two years ago on March 11, 2016 through a gazetted notification, bulk manufacturers of the national flag remained unaware of the environmental impact of using common polyester fabric to make these flags. Despite the Ministry of Home Affairs issuing a notice advising state governments to keep a strict vigil on the usage of plastic flags this year, the purpose was defeated, primarily because most vendors did not grasp the real implication of making and selling polyester fabric flags. The manufacturers, distributors, and shops often…

9.45 acres. Three officials in charge and at least 1.5 lakh rupees of public money spent every month on this near-defunct institution. These details pertain to the only government beggar rehabilitation centre located at Melpakkam near Avadi that has had no inmates for more than three years now. There are three permanent officers who live at the Centre itself, besides 14 officers who work on deputation basis. Even if we ignore the salaries of deputed officers for the time being, who also work in leprosy homes in Tamil Nadu, the three officers are paid between 40,000 to 70,000 every month, as shared…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship “I wanted a job that would pay me well. But more importantly there needed to be some ‘prestige’ attached to it.” says 20 year-old Sathish. His father Pothalu has worked as a pourakarmika for the last 27 years. Sathish grew up watching his father sweeping the streets of Basavangudi. There are countless like Sathish, who come from underprivileged backgrounds, looking for jobs. These youngsters' ambitions face a lot of hurdles - limited opportunities, access to quality education and financial challenges in their homes.  Most of their parents work in the…

To write a play that deals with a highly technical scientific topic, and to bring that play to life on the stage, are two very difficult tasks indeed.  Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT)  took on this challenge as part of their series, the History of Ideas programme. "Photograph 51" is the sixteenth play in the series. This is an award-winning play by Anna Ziegler, about the race between two leading laboratories in England, in the nineteen-fifties, to crack the nature of the DNA structure. The title of the play comes from the nickname given to an X-ray diffraction image taken by…

It has been close to a month since R Gopinath, a Class 8 student from the Corporation Higher Secondary School in Koyambedu returned from Washington D.C. but his face brightens up still as he speaks of his experience. Gopinath was one of the students selected by the Rotary Club, with which the US Consulate had tied up for this initiative, a branch of their two-year English Access Microscholarship programme. Eight students from Chennai’s Corporation schools were chosen for a trip to Washington D.C., based on an evaluation of their creativity and logical reasoning skills. Before taking the trip, the students…

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the month with a "visual" move. He read out and defiantly tore a report sent by Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance camera systems in the capital. The LG's document referred to a monitoring panel, police licensing and public suggestions for installation of CCTV cameras. It said that every owner and data controller of camera systems culling information from the public needs to disclose the "purpose, number, location, manner of usage, handling and storage of data or information" as well as other related details. However, the CM is of…

The 208th Lal Bagh Flower Show has started in the city to commemorate the 72nd Independence Day. The show is being jointly organised by the Department of Horticulture and Mysore Horticulture Society. With the theme ‘Sevege Gaurvarpane’, the biannual event pays homage to the Armed Forces this time. The chief attraction is the model of Amar Jawan Jyothi, the memorial to the fallen soldiers of the country at India Gate, with the flags of the three branches- Army, Navy and Airforce. Behind it, as an impressive background is a replica of the Siachen Glacier with the models of Indian soldiers…

Will environmental issues finally bask in the electoral limelight? If events across some of the major Indian cities in the past few years are to go by,  it is definitely the time for green issues to shine. The environmental issues plaguing the internet-savvy electorate as well as the poor sections of these major cities may finally become an integral part of the election discourse. Over the past year, the national capital has garnered the most attention for environmental issues, compared to other major cities in the country. Cleaning of the polluted river Yamuna, considered holy by Hindus, has been a…

No notice. No alternative housing. Tsunami survivors at Nochi Nagar near Marina beach are left in the lurch as the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) is tearing down their temporary shelters, in brazen violation of the residents' basic rights. As their houses are destroyed before their eyes, the Nochi Nagar residents stare at an uncertain future, a future in which they will have to shell out exorbitant sums for rental housing if they want a roof over their heads. They say they have been victims of discrimination throughout -- eleven years ago, they didn’t get the houses meant for them and…