GENRE: Voices

23-year-old Basketball player, Kruthika Lakshman, bagged the Eklavya Awards for the year 2011-12. She is originally from Mysore but has been in Bangalore for the last 10 years. She was admitted to Sports School, Vidya Nagar,Yelahanka in 2003 and that's where her career started. Interestingly, she chose volleyball game at the sports school, but was pulled into basketball team because of her height. Since then there has been no looking back. In the six months, after she joined the Sports school, she started playing at the state level and finally in December 2006 she represented India.She says it was her…

Jay Zende, a 41 year old Maharashtrian from Mumbai, made Bangalore his home, eight years ago and started a new venture ‘BooksTALK'. He along with the co-founder Jayashree Mantri Easwaran, both hailing from different backgrounds, came up with the concept of making books talk, early last year. These books are read by actors and sometimes even the authors, instead of voice-over artistes, to make the listening experience better.  Zende talks to Citizen Matters about his venture, city, and how he has been ‘Koramangala'ed since the time he settled here. Jay Zende - Co-founder of BooksTALK. Pic: Anisha Nair How did…

Some of us residents from Bellandur Ward, representing about 19 apartment complexes, in and around Sarjapur Road, Outer Ring Road and Haralur Road have decided to work together to find common solutions to the Solid Waste Management problem. We will also work together to identify vendors and if possible, standardize process. As I read what is written in newspapers and various discussion threads, I find a huge disconnect on one count. I believe people want to segregate provided we don’t make it sound like rocket science, which the newspapers do. Our apartment on Sarjapur Road had initiated segregation 18 months…

Confidence. It is the one thing we want our child to possess in bundles, even if we sorely lack it in many areas. Confident enough to come down the slide in the park; talk to people without hesitating, confident enough to appear on stage; confident enough in thier swimming class, fearless when they steps into the pool even though we may be hydrophobic ourselves. The list is a long one.We may not get all ‘Pushy Parent' about this, but the truth is that we admire a confident child when we see one and wish the same for our child. Well…

Bengaluru-based R R Cherla is latest corporate executive to debut as an author. His book is the fiction thriller, Devil's Ether. 53-year-old Cherla is heading a product development team at a leading telecom MNC. In his book, he talks about technologies such as Remote Neural Monitoring (RNM) that makes possible to track a human brain, without any contacts. Cherla has been a Bangalorean for around 20 years. R R Cherla leads a product development team at a telecom MNC in the city. Devil's Ether is his debut as author. Pic: Abhishek Angad He says that quest to write a story…

Patience and persistence are the words that best describe Prabha Mallesh, who spent almost half of her life - painting. Prabha, 68, has achieved an expertise in ‘Mysore style' traditional painting and received many awards including the National Award in 1999. She lives in HSR Layout and has held exhibitions of her art around the world, and still continues her journey with traditional painting. Pic: Anisha Nair Excerpts from InterviewHow did you come across traditional mysore style painting and develop your interests in that?We do poojas, believe in God and that influenced me. Earlier I was into portrait and landscape…

We had met Somesh, BDA Engineer in charge of lakes in South Bangalore, requesting him to take action against construction debris being dumped in Haralukunte Kere. He promised action. But nothing has happened so far. Dumping continues unabated, more of the lake is missing now, than when we complained back in July. Pic: Balasubramaniam Thirunavakkarasu At the same meeting, we were promised that two security guards or Home Guards, will keep watch at the lake, none have arrived so far. BDA did however send a letter to the HSR Layout Police Inspector on 5th September, asking them to cease the…

BBMP's recent entry into Facebook may have impressed a few, what with the Bengaluru Traffic Police holding fort well on the social media. But not Justice Santosh Hegde. "BBMP is a den of corruption", he says, in the direct and unhesitating way he is known to speak.Justice Santosh Hegde, a man who needs no introduction to Bangaloreans, recently endorsed Citizen Matters' 'Living in Bengaluru' book at an event in Whitefield. Subramaniam Vincent, Editor, talked with him over a number of recent political and graft-related developments in the city, as they drove to the venue. This interview happened in mid-September when…

September 29th is observed as world Heart day. Cardiovascular diseases causes at least 17 million people deaths annually.Heart attack typically occurs when blood supply to heart is blocked. If the blockage is temporary, it results in chest pain or ‘Angina.’ If it is prolonged and irreversible, it leads to death of heart muscles, and is called heart attack. It can and does lead to death in a significant number of cases, if immediate treatment is not provided. It is estimated that 50 percent of all deaths due to heart attack occurs in first hour. Pic courtesy: Wikimedia commons It is…

Early in the morning one may notice people sweeping their front yard, and then accumulating the leaves and other waste on the pavement. Yes the houses are clean, but the roads are a mess because of us. In a society that has high regard for cleanliness, we have yet to understand that cleanliness is not just inside our homes, but on the road as well. Drive down any city road and every corner is littered with massive amounts of garbage. Unsegregated waste just put into plastic bags and chucked on the road. Garbage being piled up. Pic: Mark Rasquinha The…