GENRE: Voices

It was around 2.10 AM, wee hours of February 4th. Bus Day. I had spoken to my friends over the weekend about this and totally forgot about it. Around the same time I SMSed (Short Messaging Service) as many people as I could reminding them of the day. I got two responses and also saw two Facebook (an online social networking site) status messages posted about the day.I woke up early thinking that I might take longer to reach work by bus. However, I eventually ended up setting out for work around the same time that I generally do every…

Bangalore Bus day! For all those who are crying hoarse about Bangalore's transport system this must come as a shock. What is there to celebrate you say? Let me take you on a trip down memory lane and you tell me.My schooling started with bus commutes, morning and evening. That means 16 years of friendship with the six wheeled wonder. Back in the '80s there weren't so many buses. I used to take the route number 137 from Yeshwanthpur to Ulsoor which would be available only once in two hours. Almost always, the buses were jam packed and foot board…

As most of you know, the Bangalore Elevated Tollway from Electronic City (E-City) upto Bommanahalli was inaugurated by the Union minister, Kamal Nath, last week. The government hailed it as a successful project completed in record time. I have been using it since last week, and this is what I observed. The elevated highway in use. Pic: Thejesh G N. Even though my travel time from E-City to Silk Board junction has reduced by 20 minutes, I clearly see the bottleneck shifting to St Johns, north of Silk Board and to E-City Phase I main entrance in the south. The…

For a mathematician who has been honoured with the Padmabhushan and made a fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Narasimhan made one small wrong calculation on the morning of Monday, December 14th, 2009.Walking down the narrow sidewalk along Sanjaynagar main Road, he tried to get past a large advertisement board balanced on top of a massive slab of concrete placed in the middle of the pavement by a newly opened grocery store. The narrow sidewalk along Sanjaynagar main Road. Pic: Sakuntala Narasimhan. With barely enough space on either side of the concrete slab for walking past, his foot got caught…

Recently, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and his band of Ministers, R Ashoka, Katta Subramanya Naidu and S Suresh Kumar, laid the foundation stone for a housing complex in JP Nagar. The housing complex will come up where a low income neighbourhood (slum) now exists with over 1000 houses. For now, around 100 houses have been razed and the families shifted nearby, in tin sheds.Speaking to these residents, they complained about the water problem, lack of toilet facilities, families of five were living in a cramped space, the tin sheds scratched them, they were sleeping on mud floors. Many refused…

The annular solar eclipse on January 15th provided a good opportunity for a live physics lesson. Several children and adults gathered on the terrace of Mayflower block of Brigade Millennium to view the eclipse through solar goggles and simple pin-hole cameras.  Balakrishnan explaining the working of the pin-hole camera. Pic: Arathi Manay Yajaman. Children trying out the pin-hole camera themselves. Pic: Arathi Manay Yajaman. The image of the eclipse captured by the pin-hole camera. Pic: Arathi Manay Yajaman. ⊕

Our BBMP seems to have achieved a unique double by first felling trees on a large scale and then leaving the roads chosen for widening in a pathetic state.   A great example is Seshadri Road on which I drove last night , when returning from the Railway station.  We know that the Rain Trees on this road were felled in December last year and the road widening has been underway for one full year on what is only a 2 km road. On one stretch of this road where new trees have been planted and the road fully laid the situation looks good.   The real…

In 2004-05, four underpasses/ flyovers were thrust upon the citizens of Basavanagudi. V V Road flyover built against intense public opinion, has less than 30 per cent utilisation even today. R K Ashrama Circle flyover was scrapped due to BJP's opposition. R V Road underpass was overtaken by Metro work. An underpass at Gandhi Bazaar Circle was opposed by the traders and a quid-pro-quo was reached with them that the underpass will be shifted to Tagore Circle and the traders will not oppose. This can be verified.In 2006, when the Chief Minister came to start this bypass-work, the local public…

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or High Capacity Bus System (HCBS) is a high quality, ultra modern, customer oriented transit option that could deliver fast, comfortable and cost-effective urban mobility, quite similar to metro rail. Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) incorporates most of the high-quality aspects of metro systems without high investments. BRT was developed as a viable transit option in Latin America, where urban planners were seeking cost effective solution for the urban transport dilemma. This highly effective and economical mass transit option is now a way of life in many developing as well as developed countries such as China,…

Being a career woman, means a juggling act between home and office. Though we do believe we have super powers to do it all, we need help all the same. Be it a young unmarried girl, newly married or mother of two; we all need help.  In a city like Bangalore where nuclear families are the norm, more often than not it is the domestic workers or maids that come to the rescue of us superwomen. We may not openly accept it or even acknowledge it but talk to a woman whose maid has taken an unannounced vacation and you…