GENRE: LN

Every once in a while things fall in place. The volunteers turn up, the media opens its ears, the funding starts flowing in and the world sits up and take notice. Every once in a while, strangers who have no obligation or responsibility step up and make that tiny dent in the universe. 350 formation by cyclists. Pic courtesy: Sohan Maheshwar. This Oct 24th, Bangalore was witness to one such event. Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) in association with a 17* government and non-government organisations pulled off a successful international day of climate action. The activities carried out on the…

A training-cum-tea party for house maids/helpers? And why not? The domestic help are a 100+ strong group working in the 220 apartments of Mayflower Block in Brigade Millennium at JP Nagar in south Bengaluru. The efforts of garbage segregation/recycling of dry waste at Mayflower started close to a year ago (in November 2008) through the introduction of blue drums. While the onus of segregation is primarily on the households, all those working in the building, like the housekeeping staff and house maids/helpers, have been directly involved in contributing to the proper disposal of dry waste. Participants are all ears. Pic:…

Political and welfare organisations in BTM layout independently collected funds and relief materials for flood affected victims of North Karnataka from residents and shops around this area. The relief materials include rice, pulses, oil, clothes, and medicines and so on. The disaster is reported to have left thousands of people homeless and around 170 people dead. Some shops in BTM 2nd stage confirmed they have donated rice, pulses and other materials. BJP’s Bangalore Slum Morcha group of BTM ward collected 600 bags of rice, claims its leader H K Muthappa, who is also hoping to contest from the BTM ward…

When Shivaprasad Krishnan returns from work to his apartment in JP Nagar III Phase at night, many times after 8 PM, traffic piles up on his residential street, 1st Main Road, he says, because of contract cabs and buses bringing and fetching Infoys BPO employees. As a result, driving the last stretch to his apartment’s entrance has become painful. Krishnan lives in the Casa Ansal apartment complex, and one of its two entrances is located on 1st Main Road just a little past the Infosys building. Traffic piling up at 9 PM. Pic: Raghavendra When Citizen Matters checked on the…

It was a morning to be remembered for the residents around ‘Anandhavana’, a park and recreational are in 3rd phase JP Nagar. ‘Walkathon 09’ was held on Sunday, October 11th and saw an overwhelming response with over 200 participants in the various categories for men and women. A winner of the event. Pic: T L Prabhakar. It all began when a small group of 60 plus men sat one evening and discussed the disconnect of the walkers – young and old - with one another, though they would see each other’s faces every morning. Thus, they hit upon the idea…

The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN), a coalition uniting Indian youth and organisations concerned about climate change and 350.org, an international movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis present a day long set of events to take a stand on the International Day of Climate Action – today, October 24th.Check out the twitter feeds for live updates of all the happenings today. The event include gatherings at colleges , tree plantation drives, distribution of CFL bulbs and cloth bags, cycle rallies, electric car rallies and more. There will be a human formation of the number ‘350’…

When was the last time you saw at least 70 different characters (could be more if one actually counted!), not to mention other things like vehicles, tables, houses and more  on one sheet of paper, with each character minutely detailed with suitable clothes, accessories, postures & expressions?  Not to mention having you in splits at the same time! If you are a resident of Bangalore and your answer is ‘in the past couple of weeks’, I am sure that you are one of those lucky to have visited the exhibition of Mario de Miranda’s works that is currently on at…

If you happened to be near Brigade Road, Church Street or Mosque Road (Frazer Town) on the evening of September 9th and saw a colourful truck it may have well been the Bangalore Bachao wagon. The brainchild of some students from the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, it is an art intervention about some of the critical environmental issues affecting Bangalore presently. The eight participants loaded the “float on wheels” truck with art material in its open back and drove through the city. Pic credit: Bangalore Bachao group. It highlights the efforts of Hasiru Usiru and its associated…

We often have things we do not require and look for someone to give it away. Some of us donate clothes to  domestic help or charity groups.But when it comes to things like books, an exercycle, a tabla or tailoring machine,  one cannot throw it on to a garbage truck or sell it to the raddiwala. Gayathri works part time as an auto driver to take care of her family and at the same time continue her education. She was able to get books for her course through the Bangalore Reuse group. Pic: Poornima Dasharathi This is where a networking…

Goonj, a voluntary organisation, is initiating Vastra Samman (dignifying clothing), a pan-India campaign, to collect about one crore units of material in the 'Joy of Giving Week' being celebrated across India from 27th September to 3rd October.Goonj will use the collected material as resource under 'Cloth for Work' for development activities in the villages, school material and toys to support rural or slum schools and anganwadis; and useless cloth to make mats, school bags and the entire cotton waste material to be converted into sanitary napkins. Collection CentresSmitha Anand, BTM 2nd Stage,  Ph: 9986213181, 9 AM to 10 PM Jennifer…