GENRE: Voices

I was a student at Manipal thirty five years ago. The college library used to be open till 1 am. Taking a break from studies, we would step down to the road to eat boiled eggs and rubbery toast, and drink some hot syrupy tea. After the library closed for the day, we would walk back to our hostels. When we worked nights at the hospital, we visited these food carts at all times of the night whenever our youthful stomachs groaned with hunger. When disturbing incidents like the rape and abduction of an unsuspecting young woman in Manipal is…

Recognizing that accidents are one of the biggest killers of children in India is paramount to preventing thousands of hospital admissions, hundreds of deaths and disabilities every week, in children. Understanding that many of these are avoidable is important to provide a safe environment to nurture our children before they are scarred for ever. With the objective of ensuring a safe and healthy environment for our children and to enable them to lead more active lives, Dr Supraja Chandrasekar, an oncosurgeon in Bangalore and Ilaunched the Safe Children Mission. Our plan of action includes increasing awareness among caregivers, providing safety…

The Governor has once again returned the Sakrama Bill. In any event, given the court case that is going on, any attempt by the government to circumvent the court was bound to land in trouble, so there's not much point in the Governor also getting embroiled in it. Let's face it - this Bill should be killed. It's a bad idea, always has been. But more than that, we should now be thinking about a scarier proposition - we have reached the stage in our politics where it is difficult to do good things because our representatives are being elected…

The bus fare increases are irrational, and unnecessary. There are at least three things which are wrong, and if these are fixed the bus service could be a lot better without needing to over-charge the poor. a) The government needs to recognise, in its budget, that bus service is a public service that needs subsidy. All over the world public transport is subsidised, because it is well-known that the positive values that result - lower congestion, for example - are far in excess of the subsidy itself. For some reason, the Karnataka government has steadfastly refused to subsidise the BMTC.…

Open the day’s newspaper, or switch on the TV, and what you get is a series of reports on some scam or the other - politicians exposed for their roles in illegal sanctions, nepotism, unaccounted money. However, I find the ‘other’ news reports, about non-political, social aberrations, equally alarming and distressing. The first week of June in particular saw a series of such reports that hold up a mirror to what is happening in the city, right next door to us, in so-called ‘ordinary’, nameless middle class urban families. On June 4, the police “rescued a naked woman in her…

"Affordable homes with Smart Spaces and Community living" -- so goes oft seen copy in real estate advertisements and marketing brochures. Pic courtesy: Wikimedia Commons, Amol Gaitonde. First, let us clear the misconception that affordable homes are related to the lower income group. The word affordability has been misused by many in residential real estate market today. Affordability in its true sense means what is affordable for people living in that locality and it is very contextual. A two crore 2 BHK in Lavelle road is affordable for people who are living in Lavelle road and the same two crore…

It was one of those humid and dry Bangalore summer days when I stepped out with my friend and future roommate Manjusha to look out for accommodation in the city. The journey from Kumbalgodu to Marathalli took the two of us almost three whole hours. We weren’t discouraged as we were in one of those victorious moods – we were recruited by a leading news agency.It was a prestigious and laudable moment in our lives; hence the long BMTC journey seemed very petty. Our bus halted at this seemingly bizarre location, which looked like a cross between a highway and…

I stepped into a very caustic conversation some days ago. Four moms I know were having some kind of semi-heated discussion. One of them was a working women and the other three were stay-at-home mums. I believe the conversation started when one of the moms who went to work reprimanded her child for hitting another. One of the moms informed her that this was a regular occurrence. The child came down most days with the maid, who settled him down with his toys and parked herself in a corner with her phone, while the child hit other kids, bullied and…

Metro Phase-I has not completed, but the plans for Phase-II have already begun. File Pic. The new alignment near Jayadeva Hospital has caused panic among residents that many residential properties and commercial buildings on Bannerghatta Road would be demolished. Here are some thoughts on this. Why public consultation with residents, experts,users ,metro officials and elected representatives is not being held on pros and cons, alternative routes etc, like the public consultation held by Additional Chief Secretary regarding Signal-free corridor of Koramangala? The project was scrapped unanimously by all stakeholders on direction of the High Court, based on the PIL filed…

When it suits their dodgy interests, the political parties actually cooperate with each other, even though they are theoretically opponents in the electoral and other arenas. Yesterday (June 11, 2013) we saw a very good example of this in the Karnataka Legislative Council. Some years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a judgment that was intended to free the police forces from direct political interference. The court ordered the establishment of an appointments Board in each state that would manage the postings of lower level police staff (below the rank of DySP). This Board is filled with members of senior…