GENRE: In Focus

Following a long wait, Bengaluru inaugurated its very own National Gallery of Modern Art earlier this year. Functioning under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, National Gallery has its head quarters in New Delhi, and another centre in Mumbai. Originally established in 1954, NGMA developed as a premiere institute for the housing and display of modern and contemporary art objects, of which they currently have more than 17,000. Over 500 items from this collection – paintings, sculptures, prints - were selected to be part of the inaugural exhibition at the Bengaluru centre with the title of ‘Signposts of the…

Her eyes well-up as she speaks about the notice she received from the Karnataka Forest Department dated September 1st 2009, informing her that her house is illegal as it is on forest land. She was to appear in court on September 14th with all her property documents, as per the notice. Forty-year-old Baby Saroja is a resident of the Rajiv Gandhi Nagar Slum in Devasandra, Krishnarajapuram Hobli, of East Bengaluru. This area falls under Ward No. 55 - Devasandra*. The slum is crammed with tiny houses – mould, thatched and tiled roofs can be found, and water flows through the…

“I won’t vote this time. What’s the point?”, asks a flustered Siddalakshmi, 55-year-old Bengaluru's slum-dweller in Koramangala’s Rajendranagar, referring to the now over-due BBMP council elections. Siddalakshmi’s anguish is shared by her neighbours, as she urges them not to vote as well. “Even if we are not voting, we should all decide to not vote. Not just one or two people”, quips Sujatha S, 33, another resident of the area. 55-year-old Siddalakshmi. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal. Siddalakshmi, Sujatha and the others explain the various problems in their area, which remain unheard till today. “The toilet chamber overflows and everything comes into…

As part of the controversial project to lay a 9.2 kms road through the Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) of the University of Agricultural Sciences’ forestland, BBMP has cut down 680 trees, some of which were part of the university’s germplasm collections according to a survey undertaken by the Conservator of Forests, Bangalore Urban Circle. Germplasm collections are wild varieties of various crops that are collected and planted in different parts of the GKVK campus. The wild varieties are then crossed with conventional ones to create a hybrid. Sources within the university as well as the Forest Department have confirmed…

With Diwali just round the corner, cracker vendors in Bangalore have set up shop at 35 open grounds across the city. These are temporary stalls set up on the allotment of the Bangalore city police commissioner’s office and are allowed to sell firecrackers till October 21st using their temporary license. List of grounds designated for sale of crackers – Diwali 2009(Numbers in brackets are number of shops/licenses awarded for that ground) 1. Deepak playground (15)2. JP Nagar playground (17)3. Udayabhanu playground (10)4. HMT playground (9)5. Jayanagar Telephone Exchange (18)6. Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Shankarnag playground (18)7. Rama mandira playground (28)8. Malleshwaram playground…

Be it Sachin Tendulkar fainting in his hotel room after dinner or Harbhajan Singh slapping his team mate, a huge furrow over cheer leaders or TV channels discussing T20 over one day matches, cricket finds its way to the top stories of the day anyhow. The second in league should be Tennis with talks about Sania Mirza's engagement party or rift between two senior players. But rarely do we hear about certain karate championship or find these champions during the prestigious Rajeev Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards. “We mostly stay in places (government schools, temple compounds, etc) where there are no…

The smell of sulphur wafting through the air, the night-sky filled with beautiful firework displays, constant sounds of bombs being blown – crackers are an integral part of the hindu festival Diwali, or Deepavali as it is termed in  some parts of south India. The Late A Chelladurai, General Director of the Sivakasi-headquartered Standard Fireworks Ltd., once wrote, “At no time was there or is there a product that has contributed more to relaxation, merriment and enjoyment - both for young and old alike. Let us enjoy fireworks!”  But unlike a decade ago, when this was a sight only during…

Just around three months ago, the state government completed the wards delimitation process. From 100 wards, Bengaluru now has a total of 198. And if you want to know what the boundary of your new ward is, www.bbmpwards.org is a website you can go to.  The homepage of the site states that the site gives “comprehensive information about the composition of BBMP and the delimited wards along with details of localities forming a particular ward”.  The site has been set up by Zoomin Softech Pvt Ltd, an IT solutions company, for the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Bangalore district, who is the…

Recently, an incident of pillar-bending at a Bengaluru Metro construction site and its consequential casualties shook everyone. The days following saw press conferences, public meetings, officials giving clarifications and a number of people looking at Metro construction with scepticism. In August 2009, an over-six-metres-tall pillar stooped and caused two causalities and four people were injured. It happened on CMH road, Indiranagar, where  ‘Reach 1’ of the Metro is being constructed by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL). There were immediate allegations of unsafe working conditions for the workers and faulty design being followed. But the question about who should be…

Karishma Jain, a law student at the Hosur Road-based Christ College travels by bus from her Sarjapur Road residence every day. Since Karishma does not know the local language, she says she initially found it very difficult to travel by bus as the destination boards were in Kannada. “I don't know Kannada. But now I know the numbers and the bus routes”, she says, even as she just gets off a wrong bus, thinking it was going towards Agara through Sarjapur Road.Karishma is among the 40 lakh passengers of Bengaluru who use the BMTC bus services every day. The BMTC…