GENRE: Voices

In the early hours of the morning, (and I really mean ungodly hours), the peace and calm of the locality is only interrupted by the occassional chirping of early birds out to get worms. Or so we've heard. To the residents of the locality of Byrasandra (the place is as unglamourous as it sounds, trust me), this would be a novel concept. One that they would in all probability not even be aware of. In this BBMP-forsaken area, the early hours of the morning are filled with resounding honking, loud enough even to wake the dead. I'm half surprised there…

Editor's note: This is a response to the opinion published on Citizen Matters last week, titled When Bengaluru's reputed school says no to admitting a "low class" kid... Pic courtesy: ESAF Bangalore FB page Simplicity is misunderstood in two ways, exemplified by two statements: 1. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler” - Albert Einstein 2. "Given multiple explanations for a situation, the simplest is the best one to assume” — a  reformulation of Occam’s razor I heard as a kid. The first statement is often misinterpreted mainly because, in such matters, no two people can…

Rajeev Gowda (second from left) submitting the Namma Railu petition to the ex-Railway Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge in February 2014. Pic: twitter.com/rajeevgowda Rajeev Gowda is a well-known face in Bangalore. He is the son of M V Venkatappa, who was a Legislative Assembly Speaker and Chairman of the Legislative Council in Karnataka. An academic, Gowda was a professor of Economic and Social Science at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore until recently. He is currently a Rajya Sabha MP, elected from Congress party, representing Karnataka, at the upper house of the Parliament. Rajeev Gowda also started a citizen’s movement, Bengaluru Needs You,…

Let me introduce you to a livewire 5th grade kid I tutor in Bengaluru - Let's just call him Mo (obviously not his real name). All Mo wants to do with his life is to go to the National Defense Academy and join the Indian Army. Mo meets a Mig Yes, he is slow with reading English, and very hesitant while speaking it, thanks to his less-than-lousy Kannada medium education so far at the free local Government School. But he understands what you say in English completely.   Mo & Co. learn to pose He and I work on his…

X orders more coffee. He has made his point. But who is in charge – surely there must be someone in charge? I ask. Before plunging in to fix this corner themselves, X and V have done some basic asking around. The question they had was simple – So who’s really in charge of the street in Bangalore? They found that there was no single person or authority. And that is why the streets are such a mess. There is a maze of authorities in charge of different aspects of Bangalore’s civic infrastructure, each of which is a law unto…

We were having one of those Saturday nights, where we had a big group of people (from the Quora meetup) who decided to get out for a drink with last minute plans. As expected, we didn't really get a table in most bars and since we were a big group, we were desperate for a bar that seated us. Walking down Church Street in Bengaluru, a friend spotted Alibi, the restobar and it seemed like they had a few tables that would accommodate a large group. My friends and I had a decent time for about the first two hours…

Lobbying with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to fix your road should not be fundamentally a different experience from shopping for a car. After all, you paid your taxes; you are simply asking for the tax money to come back to your locality. You pay for your car, you take it. You pay your taxes, you get your road. But it ain’t so in Bengaluru. Once you pay your taxes, power transfers to the government. That’s fine, if we have a benevolent dictatorship, but what we have is an incompetent corruptocracy (if there’s such a word). Thus speaking to…

Can you show me the photo of the rat, V asked. Bangalore is a great city for rats, he remarked – it’s almost like the city is designed for them! It didn’t seem the best topic for conversation in a restaurant, but by now I had got quite immune to such stuff. Once you work in muck, talking about it is easy. X went on – The place we fixed is Rat Heaven. Let me tell you why. He took out a pencil and started sketching. Do you have any idea what lies beneath the footpath? He began explaining. Here’s…

Speed bumps are the common name for a family of traffic-calming devices or designs that use vertical deflection to slow motor-vehicle traffic in order to improve safety conditions. Variations include the speed hump (or speed ramp), speed cushion, and speed table. Well - it sounds like a mission statement. But this is the purpose of the speed breakers or speed hump. These were discovered in 1906 and used in the US. Later in the late 70’s the British Transport and Research teams found that this was more suitable for private roads and not the public roads. However in Bengaluru, you…

We live in a city that brags of its achievements, of its IT sectors, of its socially aware and educated crowd. For a while now, I lived with thi impression, until an incident that took place on June 19th changed my very perception of the city and its people. It was just another normal day and I was off to meet a friend living less than three kilometers from my place. I commute by rickshaws most of the time, since I don't have my own vehicle. I got into an auto, the drivers earrings and strange looks did not bother me…