GENRE: Voices

“Silambam is inseparable from me — I swing whenever I’m overwhelmed and also when I’m gloomy; it completes me,” says Kowshik Palanisamy who won the third World Silambam Championships held in China on February 20, 2018.  Kowshik moved to Chennai three years ago to pursue undergraduation in Bio-mining at the College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG). Citizen Matters caught up with him in the vast campus of CEG to find out more about his passion and the route to the top. This was the first time that Kowshik contended in the world-level championship and came out on top, outperforming competitors from…

For an effective air quality management plan, a lot of information is required at various stages to ascertain the sources, their impacts on health, and their potential to control emissions. However, the most basic information that every city requires is ambient monitoring data. This data tells us, what is the level of air pollution, where and when is it the highest (spatial and temporal trends). It is very important that the ambient monitoring network for a city is representative, spatially and temporally, to support an effective long-term air quality management plan for the entire airshed of the city. For example,…

A recent BBC report projected that Bengaluru will run out of water soon. Yes, it was a superficial list of cities that already have water problem. It just pronounced the harsh verdict without any in-depth analysis of the factors involved. That’s like taking a casual look at an emaciated man and saying, “he is going to die soon”. But in this case, all the x-rays and MRIs are only going to confirm the same verdict. Ignoring the problem is going to worsen the situation. Let’s have a look at this complicated case, Munnabhai-style. He is bound to say, “Ae maamu!…

Even as the large water bodies in the city struggle to keep encroachments at bay, the smaller ponds and kalyanis that have been nameless but have been part of the city’s water systems historically are losing the battle. One such nameless pond that maybe lost to encroachment is situated near the Don Bosco College at Mysore Road.  While the encroachment (as we have seen it) measures about 40 X 20 meters, the kalyani is about 6 to 8 times bigger. It abets the rear compound wall of the educational institution and the water body has a cemetery near by which…

The Indian Motor Vehicles Act makes it compulsory to wear a BIS standard helmet when riding a two wheeler. It has been proven that wearing a standard helmet can reduce the risk of fatality by 40% and severe injury by 70%. Yet 70–80% of the helmets sold in the country are spurious. Bengaluru Traffic Police recently decided to make driving safer for two wheeler riders by insisting they wear ISI branded helmets only. Campaigns were launched and repeated reminders were published in the newpapers leading up to the roll out date of 1 Feb 2018. Then came the U-Turn, the…

The Bengaluru Master Plan for 2031 promises to equip the city to deal with the challenges that will come its way by 2031 - principally more people, causing more demand for living space and transport. There are plans for development of new mass transport options like LRT (Light Rail Transit), BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) and Monorail along several major corridors alongside road and junction improvements.  But in this article, I want to step back from the issues concerning the city at large, and focus on the impact of the master plan on my own area of J.P. Nagar. The strange…

Every morning hundreds of tempo travellers traverse IT corridor routes including Outer Ring Road and Hosur Road in Bengaluru. On their way to picking up their customers’ employees, they also ferry commuters waiting on the way for public transport, illegally of course. It is no secret that there are many private buses too plying from K.R. Market or Anand Rao Circle, to the outskirts. Some of them have just a contract carriages license, and some service organisations. A colleague of mine reports college buses plying in the evening near Race Course Road, carrying regular passengers to pre-defined destinations within the…

If you have travelled a reasonable number of major cities in India, the first thing that will strike you about Bengaluru is its green cover. The trees that stand regally spreading their foliage on both sides of the road, creating cool, beautiful avenues for passers-by to enjoy. These trees shield us from the fury of the sun during the warm summer months, and bear beautiful flowers in springtime. The joy that comes from watching these flowers in full bloom is truly sublime. It can transport one from mundane surroundings to a veritable paradise. Trees soothe our senses and relieve stress.…

With rising concerns about air quality in the city, a number of private citizens have begun measuring pollutant levels in the atmosphere, and are publishing them. The Karnataka Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), which is tasked with monitoring air quality and protecting the public from the health risks of poor air, disputes these measurements, arguing that these are taken by un-certified sensors. That's true, but it's also not the end of the matter. The problem is quite simple - secrecy is the weakness of pollution control efforts in the country. The government has taken the view that it will collect its…

It is 4:15 a.m. and this is the scene at the gates of the Samta Nagar Post Office in Kandivali East, Mumbai. Men (mostly) just hanging around on the street, doing pretty much nothing. Chances are, they’ve done this before, but not early enough… the reason for this repeat visit. As I approach the group, Hukam Singh greets me. We were among the unlucky ones, not in the “first 20” of the previous morning. “Madam ka naam lick do bhai… athara” (write madam’s name brother… eighteen), said one. Yeah! I was in the first 20. This is probably the scene at…