GENRE: Voices

V and X had done a simple exercise the previous week – something done by thousands of Bangaloreans everyday. They took a walk from Cauvery Emporium on the Brigade Road – MG Road junction to the famous Koshy’s cafe, along the length of Church Street. This is probably one of the most well-trodden paths of Bangalore’s entertainment, food, book and beer seekers, and takes in all the well-known landmarks – Cauvery Handicrafts, the Levi’s store, the Magazines store, Nando’s Chicken, Matteo Cafféa, several icecream and dessert parlours, the popular Queen’s eatery, Shrungar Shopping Centre, the venerable Indian Coffee House, the…

In recent times, two newspapers (Deccan Chronicle and Times of India) have featured the Dry Waste Collection Centres of Bengaluru, in the guise of an 'expose,' leaving tan ignorant reader with a distasteful feeling with the use of dramatic phrases - to name a few, ‘Misuse by waste-pickers’, ‘Waste of public money by allowing the centers to become money spinners for private enterprises,’ ’Dark side of the DWCC underbelly.’ One of the articles has quoted the source as a study / report done by two citizens.  As an SWM practitioner working closely with the BBMP and with the several NGOs /private…

It's been a little over a year now that the nation rode the ‘Nirbhaya’ wave. However, this is not to say that there have been crimes any lesser before that or even after. Innocent women getting raped when they go about their ‘normal’ day is horrendous enough; but what would you make of something like this? In a city like Bangalore? Where population is exploding and there are no clear ‘peak’ times - which means Bangalore is almost always busy. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… all the way up to 65+ are the ages of girls and women getting raped…

Under the light of a pen-torch, they peer closely at the photograph of the same spot they took that morning. Ugh! This is the corner of Church Street and Rest House Road, right outside the entrance to the offices of Wipro & Times of India. Church Street is Bengaluru’s most happening street, packed with pubs, restaurants, cafes and bookstores, and always full of people having a good time. If you had to pick one street that symbolized Bangalore, it would have to be Church Street on a weekend. But there is a dark side to Church Street - ugly spots…

Something that happens once may be brushed aside as an aberration. What if it occurs twice? I am a regular commuter on the garden city Bengaluru's buses. Needless to say, I spend a substantial amount of time both at bus stops and on the bus. One resource that is aplenty on buses and at bus stops is people. Where there are people, there is scope for interaction. Interactions are not a norm at bus stops or buses. Each person prefers their own space in this situation. That is why even a rare exchange could prove interesting, unlike one may have…

There comes a time in your life when it doesn’t matter what comfort zone you are in, you just want to move on and do something in life — something for the society; something to better the lives of others; something that everyone cannot do. This doesn’t happen to all, but Kalpana Kar saw it happen to her. Once she left her corporate comforts behind, incorporating professionalism in local governance became her new passion in life. Kalpana began her corporate career in TATA administrative services. She worked in Tata Unisys and Titan Industries. She also helped her husband in the…

The Karnataka government is trying to increase tourism in the city of Bengaluru. Recent news reports say that they are planning to extend the 11.30pm closing time for bars and restaurants in the city to 1am. A few days ago the paper had a report of the city introducing a tourist 'Big Bus' with a hop-on, hop-off service which goes to the tourist attractions of the city — Lalbaug, Cubbon Park, Vidhan Soudha, Bangalore Palace, Tipu's Palace, Bull temple etc. However, these tourist attractions are all quite old. Most predate independence and the formation of Karnataka and are at least…

On Sunday morning (February 16th, 2014), I was rudely woken up at 5.15 am by a group of people who were making religion* loudly outside my apartment block. I’d heard this cacophony before and had dismissed it, assuming incorrectly on two separate occasions that it was a funeral procession and a Jain family taking sanyas. Even though the religion was happening loudly on both occasions, I thought this was an aberration that can’t be outraged over because these were one-time events. However, what took place on Sunday changed all that. At 5.15 am, about 15 people, armed with a dholak…

Bangalore Political Action Committeee (BPAC) conducted a Google Hangout panel discussion on the budget, on February 14th, 2013. The panelists included BPAC President Kiran M Shaw, Vice-president TV Mohandas Pai, social entrepreneur Ashwin Mahesh and urbanist V Ravichandar. The debate was moderated by Revathy Ashok of BPAC. Mohandas Pai said though in terms of growth the average of the state is better than the national average, he wants to see a large vision in the budget to develop the entire region and industries in terms of infrastructure. He said he wasn't happy with the 7.2 % growth in service economy,…

Lok Sabha elections are nearing. People are waking up to see what has been done from the funds the Member of Parliament gets. For those interested, here is a little bit of history. The Government of India put in place the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) since 23-12-1993, (barely two weeks following the passing of the Seventy third and seventy fourth amendments on 6 December 1993), enabling MPs to identify small works of capital nature with emphasis on creation of durable community assets based on locally felt needs in their constituencies. The initial allocation of Rs. 5…