GENRE: Voices

The nicest thing about Bangalore's roads is that they are (were?) tree-lined. Every out-of-station visitor to our home has said this to us. My daughter’s seasonal observation when she was 3 years old (and when she could only see the treetops from our car window) was testimony to the fact. Come the violet flowers of the Jacaranda tree and she knew that we had reached the main road from our locality in ST Bed Layout, Koramangala; the Gulmohar tree with its beautiful red flowers signaled that we were right across the Barista on the 80 feet Road and the yellow…

About 30 years ago, one of my colleagues was transferred to Calcutta. A year later he came to his hometown on a holiday and it was shocking to hear his experience about the notorious traffic jams of Calcutta. Sitting in the peaceful and slow city of Bangalore we could not envisage those serious traffic jams. But then, we had no clue that we would be experiencing such jams right here very soon! Pictures of a beautiful bungalow from different angle Pic: Sudha Narasimhachar.When I used to go to work on MG Road then, I used to leave home (Yelahanka Satellite…

  Beautiful RoadsPathetic condition of BDA approved layout Upadhaya layout, Nagadevanahalli, Kengeri Hobli with 319 sites was approved by BDA five years back (vide Res No 145/2004 dt. 29-05-2004, Extent 28A-27G as per information available in BDA website). The roads have never been asphalted till date. Crimes have started during night in absence of street lights. How much time do the tax payers have to wait for basic amenities??? ⊕

If Rs.11.2 lakhs is the value of one tree, imagine how much the football-fields worth of trees that are razed to the ground everyday are worth - the mangroves, the forests, and all those that cannot be accounted for.... Oct 18th: A tree-lover seems impervious to the pain inflicted on this notice-bearing tree on Dickenson Road. Pic: Shivani Shah. "People keep talking about opening more wilderness for development. We seem to understand the value of oil, timber, minerals and housing, but not the value of unspoiled beauty, wildlife, solitude, and spiritual renewal. We need to start putting prices on the…

"If I were pregnant, I'd surely have a miscarriage", is the thought that I have everyday when I'm on my Kinetic Honda on Bangalore roads. The bumps and potholes on the road jiggle my fat enough that I never feel the need for a workout. Coming back to Bangalore after five years provided a shock to my entire system. The place had changed! No more was it a sleepy town and when someone told me that Jayanagar still reminded them of OLD Bangalore, I chuckled away to myself.I believe from the depths of my heart that you should not swear…

It was a hectic day, and walking out of Leela on old air-port road with my husband, discussing the interview I had just then finished for an upcoming BPO in Bangalore only made me feel exhausted and wanting to go home and hit the sack. The traffic at 7:30 PM and the blinding vehicle headlights made it difficult for us to walk, cross the road an wait for an auto. any people were already standing here and there, competing with each other to hail an auto. One empty auto came our way, making all of us rush towards him, only…

The last week of October saw the entire country celebrating the festival of lights. Diwali brings people together and marks the beginning of the Indian winter.People decorate their houses with candles, Diyas and Lanterns, also known as Kandils. The markets are filled with gift shops, laden with a selection of gifts to suit all budgets. This is the time for the sweet shops to highlight their creativity and come up with different flavors for the festive season.The sound of crackers start increasing as the evening draws closer. While boom-boom crackers still hold kids and young people in thrall, some elders…

Let me at the outset say that I am as against noise pollution as other concerned souls like Huda Masood and Bala Venkata. Heck, I don't even listen to loud music. But on the roads, it's another story. I have been riding/driving on the roads for many many years. Traffic has obviously increased. And conversely road sense has decreased. A while back, I was driving at a sedate pace . A man was closing a conversation with his friend and walking away. He continued walking right into my path, still looking back at his friend. I hadn't honked since I…

Rock On is quite unlike any other movie that the Bollywood factory has churned out. It is the first Hindi movie that deals with rock music as its central theme, and is refreshingly different from most of the standard fare that we, as cinema-goers, have been subjected to. While the public in general seems to have been greatly appreciative of the movie, as box-office records would illustrate, I had mixed feelings about it once I walked out of the multiplex and walked back into reality, where rock bands were struggling to make it big, despite the odds being stacked heavily…

I have taken up a project to educate people about "Road Rage". The possibility of this project is to save people's lives on the road.When two vehicles collide with each other, what is our first reaction? Our first reaction usually tends to be to abuse the other party and the one who is provoked tends to get into a fist fight with the other party which can sometimes be fatal. Lakshman K, # B 11, Tallam Residency, Serpentine road, Kumara Park west, Bangalore - 560020 Contact Number 9845249184An example of this is of the ex-cricketer Navjoth Singh Siddhu who was…