GENRE: Voices

Prof. Elinor Ostrom, recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics, passed away in Indiana, United States, on 12th June, after a short and intense battle with pancreatic cancer. Her life and her ideas hold deep significance for us in Bangalore. Prof. Ostrom visiting Kaikondanahalli lake in February 2012. Pic: Harini Nagendra In February 2012, Prof. Ostrom visited Bangalore for a few days, giving the T N Khoshoo Memorial Lecture at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). In addition, she was very keen to visit one of the sites of a recent research program that…

Have you ever told the driver using a hose to clean the neighbour’s car that he is wasting fresh water, and his response is “Borewell Madam!” with the emphasis on the word borewell? And in a tone suggesting you are so dumb it’s a free and plentiful supply?  That is the crux of the water problem being faced in Bangalore today. That is where education comes in. Where care should be taken by owners of borewells, to be judicious in their use of the water, just like they are with corporation water which they pay for. The Karnataka Ground Water…

It has been two weeks since the June 5th deadline to remove sun films from cars. The urgency to evade fine has died down. The garages don’t have long queues anymore. They did make a lot of money though. On the last day, one of the garages in Bommanahalli made Rs 15,000 rupees, just by removing films. Albeit the owner of the garage was not pleased. ‘It is a lot of work for Rs 300/- per car madam’ he said.Has there been a lull in crimes, especially against women, post the removal of sun films? After all that was the…

Historically, human civilisations growth is punctuated with attention to weight and to diet. Diet fads like low fat diet, low carbohydrate diet, Duke diet, Couch Potato diet, HCG Diet, GM diet, banana breakfast diet, no breakfast diet, fruit diet, salad diet, tomato diet, etc. have evolved over time. In this maze, we have lost sight of what is known as balanced diet.Peer pressure, celebrity endorsement and size-zero concept contributes to diet fads. Some also have the desire to lose a lot of weight, that too very fast!   A balanced diet is a balanced proportion of different components are -…

It was a seemingly pleasant evening at Bannerghatta road, near Dairy circle. I got off my office cab and took an auto to my son's daycare to pick him. I wanted to give him a surprise by picking him up that day, rather than wait for his dad to pick him up. We shopped for a few minutes on Spar and as we got back, we had a very unpleasant surprise waiting for us. Even as we walked towards his daycare, we watched a mini truck overturn and spill all its contents on to the road. This is a very…

This year, I haven't seen the pre-monsoon rains that almost start by March. The monsoon is delayed and so far there has not been any good rains except maybe a couple of times. No matter how much we conserve, the water crisis is of grim proportions. We don't have Cauvery water yet, not that it is of great solace because we all know how irregular that supply is even in areas that have them. And, now BWSSB have literally left the people high and dry by suspending supply for 3 straight days in the coming week. In a thirsty and…

R K Misra is a member of the ABIDe task force for Bengaluru and urban reforms campaigner. He's a card holding member of the BJP. And yet, here he is supporting a Loksatta candidate, Ashwin Mahesh, in the coming Sunday's Graduate constituency election. This support is part of his online campaign Bangalore28 that he has started on Facebook. Bangalore28 is a campaign to field ‘good candidates' for Bangalore's 28 MLC and MLA seats for the 2013 elections. He feels this will in turn impact the 2014 national elections. Citizen Matters asked RK (as he's popularly known) some hard questions on…

On the last episode of Satyamev Jayate, the topic raised was healthcare in India. I felt that in this episode many facets related to healthcare in India were aptly handled. One of the issues raised was of the exorbitant cost of medicines and the need to make generic medicines available within the reach of all. I admire Dr. Samit Sharma who has helped in setting up many of these generic medicine shops with the help of Rajasthan government in Rajasthan. I do hope that this initiative can be taken to other states as well. Many of us are aware of…

There was a citizen’s piece recently on Citizen Matters that talked about what BBMP should look at in the upcoming council budget. I would like to suggest adding bins. In fact, how about a vigorous, mass, ‘Bengaluru-centred ‘bin beku’ movement , along the lines of TeamHazare’s mobilisation  last year ? Lane outside BDA complex Koramangala. Filepic: Anisha Nair We need garbage bins. Urgently. I don’t know whose idea it was, to do away with roadside garbage bins, in the name of  “door-to-door collection” but  the city has now become one huge, continuous pile of rubbish, from one end of each…

Today on 5th June, a team of around 20 youngsters will celebrate World Environment Day, at Narsipura lake, in Vidyaranyapura, Bangalore North. Children from local schools will join and sing Kannada songs on nature and biodiversity. They will also plant some saplings. Original five who grew into Pancharathna plus. Courtesy: Jayalakshmi Chatterjee The youngsters in the age group 7-17 yrs have been working since mid-April to preserve the biodiversity of Narsipura Kere.There were initially five children -  Viraja, Adityan, Anand, Akash and Boomika (thus Pancharatna or five gems in Sanskrit) who started to take an interest in the birds, this…