GENRE: Voices

Legislators from the ruling Congress have submitted a petition in the Assembly to remove Upalokayukta Justice Adi, on charges of overstepping jurisdiction. Meanwhile a group of citizens have written to the Chief Minister opposing the move. The Assembly also admitted a motion to impeach Lokayukta Bhaskar Rao. Upalokayukta Justice Adi addressing the press at Kaikondrahalli lake that he visited in 2013. Respected Chief Minister Shri Siddharamaiah, We, the citizens of Bangalore request your kind attention and intervention in the case related to the motion initiated in the State Assembly to remove Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi. The Lokayukta is…

Can't find a clean public toilet? Consider using a vacant plot. Civic sense? What on earth is that?  Vacant plots in our city are considered as nothing but garbage dump yards.  And if they are under litigation, they are ignored by the concerned parties for obvious reasons. The civic authorities don’t seem to care, and irresponsible citizens and commercial establishments like hotels and pubs begin disposing their waste in these sites in the wee hours of the night or early mornings; sometimes even in broad daylight. This empty plot has become a garbage dump over the years. Pic: Praveen S…

Bengaluru is reeling under the severe garbage crisis once again. BBMP and the relevant authorities have failed to address the garbage situation in the city; they have handed over the city and citizens’ health to the garbage mafia. Heaps of garbage are quickly turning into mountains, and an outbreak of an epidemic is inevitable if the apathy and mindlessness continues. Throwing money at every problem seems to be the only idea BBMP comes up with. Unfortunately, BBMP’s expenditure of over Rs 400-500 crores on Solid Waste Management (SWM) annually has not stopped the garbage crisis. Bengaluru is probably the only…

Whitefield. I know the very mention of that name is starting to remind people about all the things that are going wrong in that part of town. In my recent visits to that side too, I have been surprised by the degree to which the city has collapsed over there, and wondering what can be done to retrieve the situation. Rather than continue the litany of complaints, I thought I would put together the things that can be done to tackle the problem, initially focusing on roads and transport. A beeline of vehicles waiting on Varthur Main Road, near Kundalahalli…

The wise woman at Lalbagh. Pic: Ashok Kumar S This happened one sunny Saturday afternoon in Lalbagh. It was all green everywhere. Trees swayed all around me, a gentle breeze blew, birds chirped, squirrels ran down trees and grasshoppers hopped on the green grass. I saw an old woman squatting down on a less-walked road in the park, plastic cover in hand, looking down at something. At first, I thought she was picking up tamarind, as there are a number of tamarind trees in the garden. I tilted my head and looked above to check if there was a tamarind…

If you are willing to listen, people always have stories to tell. Especially in a city. And despite the best efforts of civic authorities to make us think otherwise, Bangalore is still a city. And people have stories to tell. People like Srinivas. He works as a floor captain at one of those fancy Church Street F&B joints. I found him to be a very familiar face. I was there nursing my cutlery, and tactless that I am I probably was also staring at him too hard, trying to figure out where I had seen him. Probably tired of my…

Kamakshi Vidyaakar is a quiet and industrious girl who has been with Udavum Karangal from her infancy.  She completed her schooling at Ramakrishna Vidya Niketan and trained as a nurse at Jeevan School of Nursing. She has been handling various challenging assignments on her own. The phrase Udavum Karangal means ‘Helping Hands.” It is not just a metaphor. For Vidyaakar, who founded it, it is the one principle that he has lived and breathed during his chosen life. His are the ‘helping hands’ for the thousands of children – young and old, man, woman, child and infant, the dying and…

I had been on the fence with menstrual cups for a few months and felt like a failure every time the time of the month arrived. But at last, I’ve been able to make the switch. And I’m so proud. :) Menstrual cups: an eco-friendly alternative for sustainable mentruation. Pic: Frank Krueger, Wikimedia Commons* There’s a growing mountain of menstrual waste, which is toxic for our environment. It was something I was contributing to every month in a major way and I hated that. It didn't help that none of the people I know use reusable cloth pads or menstrual…

There was, on the opposite side of our street, a depression about four feet deep that ran parallel to the street. In this depression, were small individual cottages (I BHK, in modern terminology). Eight or nine of them, as I recall. These even had a kind of front veranda/porch kind of space.  The cottages were, I recall being told as a kid, built to house refugees coming from the partition woes of 1947. However, when we moved to the street in 1965, these buildings were police quarters – pronounced PO-līs kōtrassu. In the first of these lived M and fly.…

A little off the city, on Mysore Road after the Kengeri township, it is hard to miss the ultra-colourful stuffed toys being sold by the kerb. Makers of these toys are the members of more than 20 families migrated from Naklav village, Jharkhand, a decade ago. Their profession back home was making mortar and pestle and statues. They have made Bengaluru their home now, but sadly they do not even hold an address proof. Even after all these years, very few of their children get to attend schools. One among them is Pooja. Pooja is ony 18, cute and shy…