GENRE: Voices

Ajay Gopi greets you with a shy, heart-warming smile. As is usual, the now twenty-year-old is accompanied by his camera – photography is one of his greatest passions. As he happily chats away, one is hardly likely to suspect that he is quietly working to revolutionise Indian farming systems. In fact, Ajay is the founder of “Hands on Agriculture”, which aims to establish aquaponics as a less water-dependent alternative to conventional farming. His journey began with countering his parents’ explicit will. Ajay recounts that his father wanted to make him an electrician, but he had other ideas. “My wish was…

“The city is both natural and contrived, a transformation of "wild" nature to serve human needs, and an evolving entity shaped by both natural and cultural processes."  - Anne Whiston Spirn I’m standing in a vacant lot in the periphery of Bengaluru. It’s a slightly hazy spring morning and it’s already sweltering. The muted stillness of the neighbourhood is occasionally pierced by the clamour of nearby construction and the distant screeching of regional passenger trains. The heavily disturbed terracotta colored earth below radiates a slightly sour odor and is punctuated by a scrappy patchwork of discarded plastic debris and scrubby spontaneous…

May 30th is the last date for paying your property tax in advance, if you want to avail discount. But the problems in your account have not been fixed in the BBMP portal to collect taxes, in spite of having a complete year at their (BBMP) disposal. So in all probability, you will end up paying inaccurate amount this year as well, if your account had a problem last year. The wrong calculations of last year are being carried forward this year as well. Those who paid as ‘early birds’ with highertaxes due to revision in tax as well as…

The ongoing case at the National Green Tribunal (and the frequent fires!) has helped keep the Bellandur lake in the news. The hearings on the petition filed by D Kupendra Reddy and another suo moto case when the fires happened some months ago, have resulted in a number of directions to the respondents including the state, and agencies like KSPCB and KLCDA. In its latest order on April 19, 2017, the NGT said: “All local authorities shall ensure that no untreated sewage water is permitted to enter into Bellandur Lake” - sounds familiar? Here is the chronological summary of developments…

Garbage it seems has become an unavoidable part of our lives. However, we can reduce the amount we generate. A few months ago, 11 of us, all part of the Grandma & Grandpa's International Early Learning Center's Leadership Development Series, were discussing cleanliness of cities and their waste problems, and decided to go on a walk around our neighbourhood to understand how clean it actually is. While walking we came across piles of garbage on the streets everywhere and overflowing from the bins! We were overwhelmed to see so much waste and this caused a switch to flick in all of us.…

April 24th was the Women's Political Empowerment Day. Is this cause limited to just a day? How do we actually make it happen? This graph shows the representation of women in municipality, assembly and parliament levels, from Bengaluru. What does it tell you? Womens' representation in Parliament, Assembly and BBMP levels in Bengaluru. Graph: Sahana Mohan Think about it - though there are no women MLAs or MPs, there are 101 women corporators in Bengaluru. The number of councillors rose to 101 because BBMP has 50% reservation for women, not because the political and electoral system believed in the cause.…

The Karnataka High Court has directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to constitute Ward Committees in Bengaluru within a month! Several earlier orders that asked the civic body to constitute the ward committees had not been conformed with. Ward committees are mandated as per Constitutional 74th Amendment (Nagarpalika) Act, 1992. The direction came as part of a petition filed by Leo Saldanha and others, that said the BBMP is in violation of repeated directions from Karnataka High Court. Leo Saldanha, sharing this news over email, points out, "What would really help now is for public-spirited persons to step up and…

If you are in Delhi now, the ink on your fingers is probably fresh still. In about a day from the time you read this, the much awaited results of the elections to the three municipal corporations in the national capital will be known. It has been an intense, high-decibel and often bitter campaign but once the reins have finally been assumed by the newly elected members of the municipal bodies, can Delhiites hope to breathe easy? Not just metaphorically, but literally too? In the years to come, Delhi’s deteriorating air could have disastrous consequences for its population. According to Greenpeace India,…

ijay Nishanth, the founder of Vruksha, a non profit prganisation that works to protect trees, talks about how guidelines to put up hoardings are not being followed.He is also a member of Tree Committee in BBMP. Trees are often poisoned to death. Nishanth talks about how acid was poured on 17 trees in Marathahalli, to ensure visibility of hoardings. 14 of these trees died. An FIR was filed in this regard and the case has been assigned to the Lokayukta. He talks about how all of us can get together and work towards creating awareness of the need for saving…

I first met Faiza Aijaaz a month back. Her school in Hyderabad was one of the seven Minority Welfare Schools where our organisation was all set to start working. Faiza was one of the smallest girls in Grade 7, a class of girls aged between 11 and 13. Shy and reserved at first, Faiza turned out to be bright as a button. As a part of vetting the students and the school, our team was to have a short interaction with the girls. During this session – an activity that placed the spotlight on the various physical, emotional and societal…