GENRE: Voices

Reeth Abraham is one of India's most well known athletes participating in the hurdles, long jump and heptathlon events, with a career that began in 1976. She has won various medals at several international competitions including at the Asian level. Her achievement stands out particularly since she won a medal at the Asian level less than a year after she became a mother. Reeth, at one of her practice sessions at Kanteerava Stadium. Pic: Deepthi M S Although she retired from competitive athletics in 1992, this 49-year-old has continued training over the years and is now active as a Masters…

He is leading a retired life but spends most of his time and energy in bringing necessary improvement to the community. He is affable, determined, disgruntled with the official apathy yet hopeful. He is the 'military man' of HSR Layout, meet Brigadier R S Murthy, 68, Vice President, Federation of Residents Welfare Associations in HSR layout. Brig Murthy with his wife Lalitha. Pic: Deepthi M S He lives with his wife Lalitha Murthy, 61, who is a teacher. Learning to use the Internet seems to be their latest pursuit. With Brigadier's transfers to various parts of the country, Lalitha says…

By writing this post, I am going to make loads of enemies! I did contemplate for a long time whether I should write this or not, and now I have made up my mind to say this publicly, so that I can move on and find a solution!At least five times a day, I have someone asking me - What happened to Lucia? When is it starting? Who is it starring? I feel like I am being stabbed whenever someone asks this question. The update is that Lucia is a completed script. It has come out beautifully and I don't…

An individual who leaves his personal agenda aside can work very well with the Government bodies, feels Narahari Mukund, Jayanagar resident.This he says from experience as he has been working to resolve civic issues in Jayanagar 5th block. He has lived there for 45 years. passion towards the civic society helped me to write problems that public faced in the society” says Narahari Mukund. Pic: Vijayalakshmi P 48-year-old Mukund has been part of traffic committee for a over a year now. He regularly collected information public grievances on traffic situation and presented to the traffic department. He is also a…

In mid 1800, it was noted by Ignal Sommeweiss in Vienna that death rates after delivery came down from 17% to 3 %, merely by insisting that doctors wash their hands with chlorinated lime solution , before attending to next patient. (Source:WHO Guidelines). We have moved on from then, to hand sanitisers. These are basically alcohol based rub and have the advantage of easy access , portability, and excellent outcomes in terms of disease prevention.Off late there have been discussions on whether the excessive usage of hand sanitiser adversely affects children's immunity. There has been a report in Canadian Medical…

So have you started him on finger foods yet? The lady at the park asks the question pointing towards my nine month old. Since I'm debating the best zigzag (and breeziest) route to take the stroller around so that he goes off to sleep, I take some time to answer. Yes, I have started to give him finger foods. At the moment, it's Parle G. Someday I will graduate to ‘well cooked carrot sticks' as mentioned in those parenting tomes. Until then he can nibble on biscuits in between meals if required. Oh yes, and I forgot his finger, which…

He is 29, trained as an engineer, a Kannada-film maker of rising repute. However that is not why he is the focus of this article. Pawan Kumar is also a piracy warrior in Sandalwood. For his debut film, Lifeu Ishtene, he ended up irking the Censor Board by re-releasing the movie with a changed ending. Now he's gone back to a familiar approach engineers take to fix problems: technology. Home talkies aims to protect Kannada cinema piracy. Pawan has founded Home Talkies a movie viewing website to release Kannada films on the web. As the description the website goes ‘through…

Ranka Colony road, off Bannerghatta road, is a good example of the city's horrendous infrastructure. There are at least ten apartments, with around 2000 flats, along the road. This road has been in poor condition since the last 10 years. Rainwater would enter apartments, rising up to seven feet high, damaging parked vehicles and entrapping residents. Over the years BBMP has dug the road many times, but never fixed it. BBMP again dug up the road last year, which has only caused more trouble. A 1600-m storm water pipeline is being laid along the service lane from Bannerghatta main road…

In the commoditised world, if you don't like the price of a shirt or even a car, you can shop around to your hearts content.Schooling though is a different cup of tea altogether. It is an investment parents make for their children, and certainly no commodity. So when private unaided schools increase fees regularly, parents will simply not automatically move out in a hurry. Switching costs time, energy, money and stress on children. Some parents straightaway suspect that they are being exploited because they're not about to change schools at the drop of a hat. In market economics, this is…

Around two months back, our apartment association got a notice from the Rajaji Nagar regional office of the state Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). The notice said that we had to pay Rs 1.2 lakh as STP operation fee for six years, starting from January 2007. Ours is a 165-unit apartment in Kundanahalli.When we went to pay this amount, KSPCB officials said that we had to pay an additional Rs 45,000 (Rs 7,500 annually for the six years) for an environment audit report. This was to be paid to an agency that conducts surveys. When we enquired about the audit report…