GENRE: Voices

50% women reservation for BBMP council, gimmick or empowerment? Pic: Abhishek Angad Dear Rahul Ji, You breezed in and out of Bengaluru warning the Chief Minister and City Ministers of serious action in case Indian National Congress (INC) loses the BBMP Elections. Good to know that you are talking tough and telling the Ministers who are from Bengaluru City to win or get ready to be axed. There is no doubt whatsoever, that if all the INC MLAs and Ministers from Bengaluru work in the interest of the party, INC will get an absolute majority in BBMP Elections. But at…

It was camp-fire time at Naamadachilume, near Tumkur, Karnataka, school year 1972-73. All manner of sharing, singing, joking, and so on was going on. The Scout Master said, “I know students call me Dappa Ravay (V)unday. I think it is because I am a very sweet person.” In those few seconds, we realized that famous “fortune” line that would appear, decades later, on my Unix terminal: “Remember that secret you had? It isn’t!” DR Vijayendra Rao aka DRV, from a family photograph. Pic: DV Prahlad Generations of students (about 5 or 6 only, at the time) had called him that.…

Traffic at the Marathahalli-Sarjapur Outer Ring Road. File pic.  It has been two years since I wrote this on the sorry state of commuters and residents along the Outer-Ring-Road. Fast forward to the present, nothing much has changed. It might in fact have gotten worse as more and more bottlenecks have sprung up. In these two years, more people have added their own cars to the roads, more buildings have come up and more companies have moved in to the stretch between Sarjapura Road and Doddanakundi. Ecospace, a word that now mainly conjures up images of traffic jams when heard…

Hello Dr Saleem, At the outset a big thank you for reaching out to citizens on this serious issue that we face on a day to day basis. Just to give you the context, every day I travel from Jayanagar 5th block to Iblur in 30-40 minutes. It takes me another 20-30 minutes (there have been days when it has taken as long as an hour) from Iblur to Adarsh Palm Retreat in Bellandur. I am guessing a good 3-4 lakh people are employed in IT companies between Iblur and Marathalli junction and another 3 lakh people pass through this…

Ward offices say they don't have the addresses of the voters, which poses a problem when there is a need to print the voter id card once again. File pic. Being a responsible citizen who has not missed a voting opportunity in the last 20+ years, I was horrified to discover recently that my voter id was missing – did I leave it in the bank while opening an account six months ago, or was it in one of the photocopying shops, or was it at the mobile phone outlet…? I went back to all places where I had used…

Dear reader, who I may know well or not at all, you are going to get to know all sorts of strange things about me. Let’s be forward with each other, shall we? Today, for instance, I am going to write about my toilet. Of all of the things I’ve been itching to share with you, I think I need to talk about my toilet. And while I’m at it, I might throw in some interesting details about the rest of the bathroom as well. You see, this isn’t really the type of restroom I’m used to. Pic: Holly Thorpe Had…

How long does it take you to get to office? 10 to 20 minutes, 45 minutes, a little more than an hour, or two hours? For those of you who spend long hours on your commute, what do you do? Read? Work on your phone? Listen to music? Read a book? Well, here's something else you could do... Vikas Tripathi, a resident of Whitefield, works in an organisation operating out of M G Road. The present condition of the infrastructure in Whitefield ensures that it takes him around one and a half to two hours everyday, to reach his office.…

CIVIC, a non-governmental organisation in Bengaluru has registered its concerns regarding new garbage tenders published in June 2015 by the BBMP. Here is the summary of the letter sent by CIVIC to the BBMP Administrator T M Vijayabhaskar. Overall concerns 1.     Outsourcing of garbage disposal to contractors needs to be discontinued and contract PKs regularised CIVIC feels that outsourcing of garbage disposal by BBMP to contractors should be discontinued as garbage disposal is a “core” and “perennial” activity of BBMP which cannot be outsourced as per the Contract Labour (Abolition & Regulation) Act. CIVIC suggests that the current contract workers…

In the United States, I’m never really forced to think about the colour of my skin. I suspect very few white, middle-class girls are, although I may be wrong there. This is a privilege, a luxury that, despite its pricelessness, society rarely reminds me of. However, in Bijapur, a small town in northern Karnataka, I was constantly reminded of it. A naturally introverted person, especially while travelling, I really do my best to blend in. Neutral colours, quiet voice, don’t stray from my group. This would be easier if I were not so pale; I give off glare in sunlight.…

How can corporate CSR funds support more city improvement projects? I was at an event yesterday where this was discussed by some of the CEOs of large companies in the city. The ongoing neighbourhood improvement partnership competition has already helped find the first 1 crore of CSR money for a few city improvement projects, and I'm hopeful that next year there will be five times as much money, so that 40+ community projects in the city can be showcased. That kind of scale would begin to help build a very different kind of city - with citizens actively responsible for…