GENRE: Voices

Listen to Chetan, where he speaks about his understanding of gender and sexuality, on being a heterosexual and living his life in an hetero normative society, transphobia in films, need for queer literature in India, the need to support the rights of the LGBTQIA community... these are his inspiration to be a supporter of the community.    

So what do you get when you have an eager reader with a ticking mind and time on her hands! - A Book Club! Reading has always been a pleasant diversion for me. In the 70s, during my childhood, (as for many children who spent their childhood in the 70s),  Enid Blyton took me through adventures, fantasies, enchanted lands and the most fascinating journeys across places that I could only fancy going to. This progressed, as one would imagine, to Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew mysteries and Mills and Boons. However, as the years rolled by, studies, marriage, children and work…

An evening scene from Indiranagar. Bengaluru city has been mushrooming over the years with little regard for any form of Town Planning and Governance. The fallout of this rapid growth is witnessed most acutely in residential areas of the city. Civic woes abound. Indiranagar was once a pensioner’s paradise and now our existence today is trying to restore some order into our personal lives, thanks to the illegal and reckless commercialisation of our residential areas violating zoning norms left, right and center. The real estate mafia, an apathetic local administration and a greedy citizen have connived to create an experience…

This road is one where construction has no end. Governments after governments keep on adding projects on this road, thus forcing the road to never-ending construction works. For example, now,  the Government of Karnataka has announced an Elevated Light Rail System connecting JP Nagar to Hebbal. There is also a plan to build an elevated light rail line from Magadi Road Toll Gate to Peripheral Ring Road as part of this project. The execution of this project could take some time given that the construction of the signal free corridor is still underway on the stretch between JP Nagar and…

Anyone who has been following the campaign for suburban rails in Bengaluru would know that Government of Karnataka’s (GOK) proposal for implementing a suburban rail system in Bengaluru is pending since 2013. Meanwhile, recently, Indian Railways has circulated a draft policy on Suburban Rail System to all the state governments. In last three years, we have seen three railway ministers, out of which two were from Karnataka - Mallikarjun Kharge and D V Sadananda Gowda. Including the present railway minister,  Suresh Prabhu, all had agreed that suburban rail is an important project for solving some of the Bengaluru traffic issues.…

WhatsApp is huge in India. It reaches the common man much more than Facebook or Twitter does in India. It’s so big that government authorities in India use WhatsApp for information dissemination or even to get information. For a lot of people in India, WhatsApp has become the window to the Internet. Many in the country now use WhatsApp to get news. Most of them get this news while being part of a big group as ‘forwards’. This makes it a rich medium for any controversial news to go viral. Also a good medium for scammers. Recently, the prime minister of India mentioned…

Going vegan is easy in Bengaluru, with multiple options available. Pic: Sowmya Reddy/ Paradigm Shift Across Bengaluru, people are wilfully modifying their palates in a bid to push cruelty off their plate. Veganism or the practice of adopting a lifestyle which excludes the consumption of and other products derived from animals such as meat, dairy, honey, beeswax, silk and leather is gaining ground fast. Veganism is not merely beneficial to animal welfare; it also has immense health and environmental benefits. The meat, dairy and poultry industries together are notorious for animal cruelty, are a huge drain on water and energy…

“I want to make Chennai the Detroit of Asia.” That is what the late Jayalalithaa told me during an interview in the 1990s during her first term as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Chennai (or Madras as it was then) had already had a history of automobile industry, with the presence of Standard Motors in the suburb of Perungalathur and Hindustan Motors in nearby Thiruvallur. Of course, at the time that she made her assertion, Standard Motors was already dead, but Hindustan Motors, the makers of the old warhorse Ambassador cars, was still alive and kicking. So were Ashok…

TenderSURE roads in Bengaluru have been the topic of debate for a few years now. While the designs shown in presentations are only schematic and not open to public scruitiny, the execution of the project on many roads has drawn criticism from public. Jahnavi Pai, an environment enthusiast, has done a study on the environment-friendly quotient of a TenderSURE design. According to her, The space for roots is not enough to help the tree grow, according to the drawings of TenderSURE design available in public domain. This could be a major drawback as far as trees are concerned. The rainwater…

In the wake of the Indian government’s decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from the market, and ensuing restrictions on withdrawing money from banks, the common man has had to grapple with considerable liquidity challenges. More than three weeks since the announcement, those primarily using cash as trading currency are still facing a crunch. ATM queues, paucity of lower denomination notes, confusion over exchange and withdrawal policies linger. For a citizenry used to working with cash, this appears as an insurmountable hurdle. They are just at their wits’ end. The government, however, has been pitching…