GENRE: Voices

A couple of weeks back, bored on a Sunday morning, I set off on small exploration trip. From JP Nagar 6th phase Nandini Hotel stop, I took a 215C to Jambusavari Dinne (JP Nagar 8th phase) -the ride took about 15 minutes for the 5 km stretch. As the bus stopped at Jambusavari Dinne, a bus on route No. 378 passed by with the LED board showing "Electronic City" with reasonable crowd. I enquired with someone standing nearby and learnt that bus had a good frequency. In about two minutes, I noticed another 378 came on opposite side, bound for…

Padmashree P T Usha was the chief guest at the sports day celebrations at The Samhita Academy, a school in south Bangalore off Bannerghatta Road. The students were abuzz with excitement at the second annual sports and athletic meet on December 11th. Also present were the school's Permanent Trustee, S D Shibulal, COO of Infosys Technologies and Managing Trustee, Kumari Shibulal along with proud parents. The school spread over a six-acre campus, has close to 200 students, stresses on a holistic approach to learning. The school also has a 25 per cent quota for under-privileged children in each class and…

Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) organised a workshop on "Youth and Conservation of Lakes" for students of Jyoti Nivas College on December 4. Several prominent Bangaloreans were invited to speak at the event, which was followed by a trip to Parapanna Agrahara Lake. Dr. Yellappa Reddy, noted environmentalist, a trustee at the Bangalore Environment Trust and former Indian Forest Service Officer was the chief guest. He explained the importance of conservation of lakes. He said that lake is truly a living entity; due to the dissolved oxygen content in it that supports various aquatic flora and fauna. He suggested using…

Excerpts from a recent conversation that Citizen Matters had with Shanti Raghavan (SR) and Dipesh Sutariya (DS), the enthusiastic, committed and unassuming co-founders of EnAble India. This 11 year old non-profit, NGO based in Koramangala is famous for its employment assistance services to those with mental, physical, visual and auditory challenges. Enable India co-founder Dipesh Sutariya. Pic: Pushpa Achanta. Shanti Raghavan was awarded the best individual working for the cause of persons with disabilities by the ministry of social justice and empowerment on December 3rd on world disability day, this year. Can you trace your journey from working in the…

It's called Saaku. It has picked up quickly this week and is a mini-rage on twitter as Bengaluru hit Friday weekend night on December 10th. Bangaloreans online are now chirping away to reach asking more and more people to join the Saaku rally against corruption on Saturday morning. Swarathma, one of the city's leading rock bands, has thrown its support for the rally. Pic: Saaku.in Walkers will start from Kanteerava Stadium at 930 and converge to Shantinagar Grounds at 1030 am, next to the Hockey Stadium, for meeting and a rally.Tweeted EndhirenV2dot0, at around 11pm, when this article was getting…

Following are the excerpts from a manual, which BBMP could be preparing for pedestrians: 1) For crossing streets, never assume that you can use the zebra crossings. The primary purpose of those crossings is for vehicles to come to a stop. The pedestrian is only an afterthought. Vehicles have full right to occupy the zebra crossings. Any pedestrian violating these rights of vehicles may be arrested. 2) BBMP has been magnanimous in providing separate signals   for pedestrians in some intersections. Again, please understand that the traffic signals are primarily meant for vehicles. Do not complain that these signals are on…

We suffered for months with bad roads. And my recent article on Citizen Matters got some good comments. One especially good comment was the 'sit in bund' suggested  to galvanise a reaction from the powers that be.  Castle Street now free of potholes. Pic: MN. Then on Sunday morning we were so surprised to see road rollers move in and a group of labourers sweeping off the mud. By nightfall the entire stretch of Castle Street had been done and you can see from the picture which is taken at the same place, before and after, there is an amazing difference. …

Looking at Manjula Sridhar, you may mistake the BTM Layout resident for yet another technology professional. Not quite. Pic courtesy: Manjula Sridhar. As a Program Manager at Lucent, she was appointed the Distinguished Member of Technology (DMTS) in India. She was recipient of the Lucent Innovator Award and Bell Labs President Gold Award, and has filed many patents in wireless security and network management areas. She was Co-Founder and CTO at Aujas Networks. Now working for a large telecom MNC as Director, Market Analyses Datacom, she is also an avid cyclist and endurance athlete. She has participated in dozens of…

When the tragic incident of a 13-year-old schoolboy falling from the terrace of an apartment block and losing his life made news a fortnight ago, there was one detail in the media reports that epitomises, in a single sentence, the criminal gap between proper city planning and the ground realities of  Bengaluru as it is developing today. It said, "As there was nowhere for him to play, Allan went up to the terrace to play" - and the rest is a tragedy that has already been reported in the press. High-rise apartment blocks have sprouted like rashes all over the…

Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, is a well known NGO based in south Bangalore which supports the physically and visually challenged through various initiatives and programmes. Lesser known is the Trust's involvement and promotion of games like cricket and chess for the differently abled.  In end September 2010, Citizen Matters had a telephonic conversation with Chandrashekar K N who heads the sports desk at Samarthanam. A former blind cricketer (as he called himself) this enthusiastic thirty year old was the first student at Samarthanam when it was founded in 1997. He has been with the organization since then. Chandrasekhar has…