GENRE: Voices

I feel rather insulted when people say Indira Nagar or Koramangala is ‘…such a happening place!!!’ or some such silly thing. I mean, Malleshwaram is as happening a place as either of them. What could possibly make news in Indira Nagar? Another P3 type PYT strutting about with a barely there LBD? Another Italian ‘ristorante’ making its debut on 100 feet road? Pshaw!! In Malleshwaram, what makes news is not the debut, but the death of a ‘ristorante’, especially if it had the effrontery to spell its name in that manner. When a naïve Johnny-come-lately troops in with a fancy…

I am a teacher. I should teach all my subjects with equal vigor and ensure that all my students understand what I am trying to convey. I try my level best to be honest. However, one subject that always poses a challenge to me is - environmental studies. Yes, it is the easiest of all the subjects, but do try teaching ecosystem and different types of pollution to the undergraduate students in technical streams, you will end up with a room full of dozers! My first challenge hence was undoubtedly to see that students do not doze away while I…

For the third time, we are getting Lifedream skills to town. You can now pitch in to teach the youth who badly need intervention to get a leg up and become employable slowly redeeming their self esteem as well in that process. You already saw Christina's story. The ideal candidate is someone between 18 and 28, female. In some cases we can take 17.5 years or 30. The minimum education is 8th standard pass/fail, but we can have graduates also - depending on their 'level' they benefit, as the course is designed that way. This is targeted towards poor students…

We will start this series by exploring the consent process in medical treatment processes—a process that is relatively new to the doctor-patient relationship in India. In the United States, the informed consent is nothing less than an extreme medico-legal document–not an ideal situation either. Well, what is the essence of an informed consent? Informed consent is a patient's acceptance of the procedure and/or the treatment to be performed by a given doctor or a team of healthcare professionals, after being fully informed about the pros and cons of the treatment by the doctors. There is no longer room for the…

It's been a year since we moved to this home in ISRO Layout. A terrace for the kids to play, another terrace for our Kambha / stand-in pot and yet another one for my terrace garden plot. Perfect? No. What set off the home-happiness balance was the empty plot next door. It's been a year long journey of attempts to locate the owner, getting BBMP to stop dumping in the site and stop burning garbage and dry leaves in the site. Telling the PKs, calling the BBMP control room, catching supervisors in action setting fire to garbage piled up. We…

Republic Day is a good time to think about citizenship, and the responsibilities it carries. The basic premise of a democracy is that the people imagine it, create it, shape it and sustain it. There are no 'others'. But in fact, what we find is that most people go about their lives without any of this. There are many reasons for this, but one important reason is misconception about what is needed. A lot of people think doing things for the public good is a 'major' commitment, and that they cannot achieve much by giving a few hours a week.…

Moves are often not momentous when they happen. In hindsight, many of them turn out to have been keys that opened doors to rich treasures. Moving from N R Colony (to where auto drivers still balk at plying!) to Jayanagar in 1963-64, on the shores of the Lakes Yediyur (yes, plural), is a vague memory for me. Most of life in the new house, however, is as fresh in memory as if it were only yesterday. Well, day before. The north-facing house was owned by film personality Chi. Sadashivaiah (1908-1982), or some close relative of his. It was set in…

The fruit and vegetable market at Nagarthpet. Pic: Aruna L I had a sneak peek into old Bangalore through a heritage walk organised by www.unhurried.in and I am so glad that someone is taking the initiative to let us all know about the heritage of the city we live in. I had heard of such walks in the temple town of Madurai, which is basically for foodies, but I could not be part of it when I went to Madurai. It is great that something like it has started in our own sweet little Bangalore. There is so much to Bangalore that we are…

Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal First up, let me state that I treat myself like a princess when it comes to commuting. While buses are probably the first choice of transport for most folks in the city, I am yet to make my peace with it. And I have tried, honestly! And at the end of each bus journey, I am put off buses for a couple of months. A couple of days back, a friend was talking about how much she enjoyed the me-time on her commute home from Jakkasandra to Malleswaram and how she manages to get a good amount…

For the past four months or so, we went through research papers, news stories, blogs and other personal accounts on garbage. We met people involved with waste management in the city. And slowly, garbage slipped from being an afterthought to something intimate, tied intricately to the way we live. Some thoughts. My great-grandmother had a sleek cap of silver hair pulled back neatly into a bun like a spun egg. After a tragedy in the family, she became hypertensive, which meant salt was something she could not indulge in. She had recently crossed 40. But she continued to make pickles,…