GENRE: Voices

The Department of Urban Development of the Government of Karnataka has published the draft rules for the Constitution of the Metropolitan Planning Committee for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region and invited comments from the general public on these rules. These are my comments, following a detailed consideration of the provisions of these rules. Overview of the proposed MPC structure Draft rule 3 speaks of the constitution of the Committee. The State government nominees are: The Chief Minister Minister for urban development Chairperson, BDA Principal secretary to government Urban Development One representative of the Government of India (National Capital Region and Planning…

Having spent the last couple of months speaking to the residents of Sadashivanagar, convincing them to begin segregating their garbage, I once again joined the pourakarmikas on their Saturday dry-waste collection drive to note what impact my efforts had on apathetic residents, and to adjudge how much more I would have to do to help realise the dream of 100% collection.  The pourakarmikas – who by now had grown accustomed to my company – greeted me with smiles and waves. They informed me that the drive would start a few minutes late due to the early-morning rain which had dampened…

In popular imagination the Vindhyas represent the boundary between north and south India. In the case of music, that boundary while far more diffuse inarguably runs through Karnataka. While Dharwad, Hubli and Belgaum in the northern parts of the state have spawned Hindustani musicians such as Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal, Bangalore and Mysore in south Karnataka have been nurturing grounds for Carnatic musicians. The Mysore school of music has produced several renowned Carnatic musicians from veena vidwans such as Veena Seshanna, Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar to violinist Chowdiah and the present-day violinists (brothers) Mysore Nagaraj and Mysore Manjunath to name…

Following is the text of objections and recommendations by CIVIC. Rules should be general: They should be applicable to any metropolitan city in Karnataka - not just Bangalore, as many other cities in Karnataka have reached or are fast-approaching the population mark of 10 lakhs and will require MPCs to be set up. Recommendation: The Rules need to be general, to apply to all cities which cross the 10 lakh population limit. Public discussion needs to happen: There has been no prior public intimation of the intention of the government to draft the said Rules as per Section 4(1)(c) and…

Urban Development Department has published the draft rules for the Constitution of the Metropolitan Planning Committee for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region inviting objections or suggestions. Please find below my submissions after a detailed study: The draft Rules have not been given adequate publicity in the Press and Media. Even till date the notification does not appear in your department’s website. I therefore request you to give wide publicity in the media including publishing on your department’s website and extend the date for receiving suggestions by 30 days. Sec 4(1) c of RTI Act requires you to publish all relevant facts…

Who hasn't heard of Arnold Schwarzenegger -Hollywood star - California Governor andbody builder - he had won the Mr. Universe  World Amateur Body Builders Championship (WABBA) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Iaz_r2t-g).  And now the next Mr. Universe Body Builder champion is a young man from our very own Whitefield. G Balakrishna, a 22-year-old youth from Ramagondanhalli village has won the Junior Under 24 title of Mr. Universum in Germany on Nov 16th. As a 19 year old in 2010 he stood 6th in the WABBA Mr. Universe Competition. (http://wabbaworld.com/w-a-b-b-a/history.html) . Pls see this video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5CPAIVHH0Q. He is number 85 (third from the right). Whitefield is thrilled and extremely proud…

After going through the news item published in the front page of The Hindu dated 20th November 2013, on the brutal attack on a woman inside the closed ATM in the heart of Bengaluru city, I would like to explain a possible cost-effective remedial measures to avert such criminal incidents in ATM kiosks. Normally we observe that on very next day of a holiday or in other occasions, rolling shutters of many ATMs partially closed or fully closed due to non availability of cash or for any fault in the system and no notice board is placed on rolling shutter…

For many years now, civil society has waged a long fight to get a proper Planning body instituted for Bangalore and other large cities. This is not only essential in order to coordinate different development activities in all sectors, but also required by the Constitution. Now, in responding to a PIL by C N Kumar, the government has put out the draft notification to create this body. Purely institutionally, it is a victory for all of us. JNNURM was supposed to get this done, but that was dodged by packing the Mission with pliable appointments and state governments that cooperated…

My post for this month is late. As expected, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I have been hit by writers block. But that’s not the only thing that was bound to happen sooner or later. I also got bit by a dog! A little introspection revealed to me that the bite was the reason for the block. I consider the season between Diwali and New Years to be one big party season. Time for merriment and in my mind, there is no merriment without food. So I wanted to write about food. But the dog bite did…

Duets – the very word evokes images of love ballads from Hindi movies. The successful pairing of Lata Mangeshkar with Mohammed Rafi or P. Susheela and T.M. Soundararajan left an indelible mark on Indian movie music. Here is a song by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar from the classic Hindi movie Aandhi.  Duets are not uncommon in classical music. In Carnatic music, the last fifty years have seen numerous successful pairing of singers. Radha-Jayalakshmi were one of the pioneering duos from the 1950s. They were followed by others such as Soolamangalam Sisters and Bombay Sisters all the way to present-day…