GENRE: Voices

It's one of those things that makes you cringe when you hear about it but eventually fades from your memory. But 18-month-old Vijay refreshed our memories of five-year-old Abhishek. As much as we express anger against the BBMP, nothing really can be done to bring back these two lives. When I saw a local news channel showing footage of firemen working their way through drains, searching for little Vijay's body, for me it brought back memories of Y S Rajashekhar Reddy, the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister. As soon as it was known that there was no contact with his…

Here’s a quiz : What does a lamppost remind you of ? Light ? Nah, try again.... Got it – a dog raising its leg against the base? Yup, that’s it. But what has Bengaluru to do with lampposts? Look for yourself – along many roads, at the base of each lamppost, lies a heap of rubble or trash, shored up in a cone shape. I counted seven along just one  stretch of some 200 metres (down 27th Cross, leading from the Jayanagar shopping complex towards Kanakapura Road). Bricks, chunks of concrete, mud scraped up from the roadside, assorted rubbish…

In 1978, as the city of Seoul in South Korea 'developed', a 6 km. long river called the Cheonggyecheon was covered up. An 8-lane street was built over it, and an elevated expressway built over the street. The road was called Cheonggye Road, in memory of the late river.In 2005 the elevated expressway and the road were broken up and the river restored. It took two  years and the equivalent of Rs. 4000 crore for the restoration. 2002 : Seoul's Cheonggyecheon river in its avatar as a road. Pic source: G V Dasarathi. 2005 : Seoul's Cheonggyecheon river after its…

Does it sound strange, travelling to work by train every day from Bangalore to Mysore and vice versa? Well some of us do.  Those who do, live in a different world and also in a different time scale. Regular commuters may not remember the time when Kaveri Express was introduced. Pic: Pushpa Achanta Kaveri Express was introduced in September 1980, around 30 years ago. On the occasion of Kaveri Express' anniversary on 11th September, below is an excerpt from Specular. Specular was a weekly general interest magazine focusing on news and information about Karnataka, which was started by K N…

A few days ago, I visited the 158-acre Beggars' Rehabilitation Colony off Magadi Road, at the intersection of Ring Road, along with officials of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) (which owns the facility) and BDA (to whom the land is now being transferred, at the direction of the Chief Minister). BDA is keen to develop the area, quite nicely located at the junction of the Outer Ring Road and Magadi Road, into a township, and also to ensure some public good outcomes using a portion of the land (perhaps, for a hospital, a man-made lake, a bus terminal for BMTC,…

BBMP wants to take land from the owners along the 100 feet ring road (BTM Layout and JP Nagar) for road widening. They say they are doing this "for the benefit of the larger population". Now compare this with Bangalore Metro train project. The government setup a committee  called "Thomas Committee" which analysed the socio-economic impact and set the guidelines for deciding the compensation package for each of the affected land owners and business establishments. The report can be seen at the following link here. Now the Metro is also being built in the same place and the irony is…

The construction of a residential house in 121, 3rd cross, Dollars Layout, JP Nagar 4th phase has been going on for more than past four years. This design-as-you-go house is less than 50 per cent complete at this time. The construction is done with steel and concrete. This type of construction requires very good planning as there is very little room for error. Once the concrete is poured the structure is fixed and can’t be altered. This building is anything but planned. One day they build a section of the building and following week they realise they made a mistake.…

One might wonder as to what is so unusual for a person to use a wheelchair at any airport; often these are people who are sick, old or unable to walk due to fractures or disability. For me it was scary, challenging and full of apprehension. That’s because I have been a patient of Parkinson disease for the last ten to twelve years.Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder caused by degeneration of brain cells and is a progressive disease which leads to chronic disabilities of movements such as  slowness, tremors, drooping rigidity called Bradyskinesia and Dyskinesia which cause involuntary movements…

There is complete chaos with the markings that BBMP has made on the properties on 100 ft Ring Road in JP Nagar, where they say they will now acquire part of our property to widen an already wide road.1. Minutes of a CDP (Comprehensive Development Plan 2015) meeting classifies this as a medium density road, why would the BBMP need more than a 100 ft road for a medium density road.2. The Peripheral Ring Road is getting ready, should they not divert all heavy vehicles to that road which would then mean there would be no need for road widening.3. These…

On 9 August, M  Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister (CM) of Tamil Nadu, unveiled the statue of Thiruvalluvar near Ulsoor Lake. Kalaignar, as he is popularly known, was at the RBANMS grounds when the statue was unveiled by remote control.  The yellow curtains opened and suddenly, magically the statue became visible to people from all four directions. There was a hush and it took a while for people to start clapping.It was past 12:20 PM.  Kalaignar’s speech broadcasted over loudspeakers, talked of the need to build interstate brotherhood which was lavishly quoted from Sarvagna’s couplets.  He said publishing Kannada poet’s couplets…