GENRE: In Focus

Take a drive from Dehradun’s iconic Forest Research Institute (FRI) towards the city centre, the Clock Tower, and you will observe a clogged, toxic and dead Bindal river. Much of the uncollected waste from the city finds its way here. Next to the river are almost 30,000 slum dwellings harbouring a population of 1.25 lakh people. It is also a home to around 100 to 150 waste picker families. Apart from Bindal, large numbers of waste picker families live in the slums of Kanwali, Lakkhibagh, Premnagar and Kargi. Enter Bindal slum and one can see many homeless children carrying waste…

Buddha Nulla, or Buddha Dariya as it was once known, is a symbol of all that is wrong with Ludhiana, Punjab’s largest city. Old timers in Ludhiana remember a cool seasonal stream, a tributary of river Sutlej, that flowed through the city and rejoined the river 16 kms downstream. "It was I think in 1977 or 78, I was in class seven,” recalls Arun Chatwal, born and brought up in Ludhiana. “Both banks of the Buddha Dariya used to be a place for social gatherings. My father used to take all of us as kids there, and some of the…

The midday sun reflects sharply off the shiny red surface of the brand new bus that is on its way from Koyambedu to Kelambakkam. The new-look bus is part of the 300-strong addition to the MTC’s fleet in a phased manner. Half of the new buses commissioned that are operational now traverse the routes in the Old Mahabalipuram Road stretch that is not yet connected by the suburban train network or the metro rail and relies heavily on buses for connectivity. “The new buses were very necessary. The upgrade has made the rides more comfortable. This was long overdue as…

Milan Bhowmick has been farming on his two acres of land in the East Kolkata Wetlands for over thirty years now. He grows brinjals, cauliflower and other vegetables. His land lies close to the Dhapa dumping ground where the solid waste of the city is dumped. The 45-year-old says that the solid waste from Dhapa was composted to produce fertilizers for the farm even till a few years ago, but the increasing presence of plastic and other toxic waste in the dump has now forced him and other farmers to discard the practice. “A proper mechanism to deal with the…

Few citizens in Mumbai are seen wearing a mask outdoors; fewer are actively concerned about air pollution. “It’s not as bad as Delhi”, most say, and inevitably point to the winds that blow from the surrounding sea. The murky, grey and polluted water might make them reconsider their statement, but the feeling that Mumbai is better than the northern landlocked cities wins. But when winter arrived last year, the sea winds failed Mumbai. In the month of December, temperatures dropped in the city but pollutants remained trapped in the atmosphere. The overall air quality index (AQI) was reported to be…

Few citizens in Mumbai are seen wearing a mask outdoors; fewer are actively concerned about air pollution. “It’s not as bad as Delhi”, most say, and inevitably point to the winds that blow from the surrounding sea. The murky, grey and polluted water might make them reconsider their statement, but the feeling that Mumbai is better than the northern landlocked cities wins. But when winter arrived last year, the sea winds failed Mumbai. In the month of December, temperatures dropped in the city but pollutants remained trapped in the atmosphere. The overall air quality index (AQI) was reported to be…

Rusty swings and broken see-saws once ruled the playground in KSGMPS aka Immadihalli Government School in Whitefield, established during British rule. But since 2017, children are heading to the school playground earlier and leaving later, just so they can play with swings, caterpillars and twisters. Anthill Creations had set up these structures here using scrap tyres, a trademark of this Bengaluru-based non-profit. In another part of the city is Aralikatte Park, near National College in Basavanagudi, also set up by Anthill. The monkey bar-like structure here has colourful tyres overhead, instead of the usual metal bars. Children clamber through and hang…

Cyclone Fani in early May was one more reminder for Bhubaneswar of its vulnerability to extreme weather events, and the massive damage to urban infrastructure that such events could bring about, even in an upcoming ‘smart’ city. Fani left Bhubaneswar in shambles  in its trail, with uprooted trees all around falling on roads and buildings, disrupting major services like supply of water and electricity as well as Internet connectivity. Life in the city remained miserable for weeks. Last year too, life in the city had been severely disrupted, as it almost went under water following unusually heavy rainfall of nearly…

When the Tamil Nadu government proposed to restore Avadi’s Paruthipattu Lake in 2016, the suburban residents rejoiced. The Public Works Department (PWD)-owned lake, spanning 87.03 acres was to be restored in a sustainable manner, at an expenditure of Rs 28 crore. Unfortunately, the work has been a curse, leading to untreated sewage water from 3,500 houses around flowing straight into the water body. The plan was to convert the Lake into an eco-park, much like the one at Chetpet, with boating facilities, a children’s park and walking track. It was expected that the water body would spring back to life…

The #MeToo movement in India gathered momentum in the south when playback singer Chinmayi Sripada exposed popular Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu for sexually harassing her during a show and threatened to end her career after she did not give in to his overtures. A dubbing artist too, Chinmayi was  expelled from South Indian Cine and Television Artistes and Dubbing Artistes Union following her allegations against Vairamuthu. She disclosed that she was slut shamed  and there was also a concerted effort to destroy her career in the film industry. More recently, the Justice S.A. Bobde in-house committee has given the Chief Justice…