GENRE: Voices

It is inappropriate to talk about this till another innocent kid is needlessly mauled. Since BBMP is most adept at knee-jerk reactions, they need to be constantly prodded with these two faces and their untimely end caused by a pack of stray dogs, however harrowing it may seem. Sridevi, 8 yrs old, Chandra layout (R.I.P since Jan 6 2007)Manjunath, 4 yrs old, BEML (R.I.P since March 1 2007) These are not isolated cases - over 100 dog-bite victims per day are admitted in Victoria hospital alone. The official census of rabies cases is not even known as it is not…

This is a son’s tribute to a great lady who would have been 100 years old this year- a well known social worker of Bangalore in the last century. Jayalakshamma was born in Hassan 100 years ago, the youngest in a family of four. She was pretty, dark and short. At the age of 12, she was married off to an idealistic youth, P R Ramiaya who had run away from Mysore to Benares when he was in school. He was about to complete his Master’s in Chemistry when the pied piper from Porbandar called upon the youth of the…

It is 10.28 on Thursday 14 August morning when Praveen Sood, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic and Security arrives at his office in a white Ambassador. The office is located in the most airy place of Shivajinagar, the second floor of the BMTC building in the bus stand. As citizens, we have numerous queries when it comes to traffic in the city. Most of us simply blame the traffic police for the mess. Our questions – the ones we discuss every evening before leaving our offices or when we come late the next day – are the same, but the…

Being involved in a community project in colleges through which we try to empower students to make an informed decision of whether to start their own company after they pass out of college, a thought struck my mind a couple of months ago. Students can do this only if they know the ground realities of being an entrepreneur - which is best achieved by talking to one. Part 1 of "Startup Savvy" People say a picture is worth thousand words, I thought, so why not make a documentary film on the life of entrepreneurs? A movie that will not only…

The traffic situation at the KR Puram Flyover Bridge makes for a miserable and highly frustrating experience. Nowadays, most Bangaloreans have to travel miles to reach their office or work place. In the midst of the journey, ordinary traffic state or jams are bearable but the situation of waiting at the same point for close to an hour is frustrating. The different issues I have noticed and faced at this junction are: • Cross roads access to and from the junction.• Roads narrows down terribly at the Railway bridge junction ... leading to huge congestion. The roads' width is just…

There was a very disturbing news in the Times of India last week. It is about the cabinet decision to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to give immunity to retired bureaucrats who are caught accepting bribe or have Disproportionate Assets just like serving bureaucrats. This immunity is about getting prior sanction from the government for prosecution even if the official has been caught red-handed. This is supposedly to prevent harassment to the officials from baseless charges. It is in fact a ploy to shield the corrupt who might have shared their ill gotten wealth with the mighty and powerful…

I was in a miserable state of mind on Independence Day. The traffic nightmare that I was subjected to on the previous evening was the reason.On 14th August 2008 evening, there was a heavy downpour in Bangalore. My domestic help was to board the Rajdhani to Delhi scheduled to depart at 8.20 PM. We reside at Old Madras Road close to C.V.Raman Nagar. We started at 6.30 PM, a good 2 hours ahead. I cannot explain the nightmare that we went through....Horror Situations1. To engage an auto to take us to the station2. Negotiating a fare which was jacked up…

I get up in the morning and slip my feet into my house slippers, and the first twinge starts. If this is real rubber, is it OK? If it is synthetic rubber, is the manufacture of these slippers causing some harm to the environment?I switch on the geyser. Oh, am I consuming scarce electricity? Should I heat up water on the gas stove? But that will use up scarce LPG....Should I heat up the milk for my coffee on the gas stove or the microwave? And should I have the whole kitchen lighted up for this or just switch on…

When I went to college to study Computer Science at BITS, Pilani, located in a remote village of Rajasthan, I never expected the remoteness of the place to exceed the extent of not having a cinema hall. How could we sustain an existence of 4 years without the staple Indian diet of bollywood movies? Thankfully BITS fostered a strong sense of multi-cultural living, in addition to of-course studying computer science. So enough and more emphasis was laid on participating in variety of activities like college fests, theatre, photography, dance, music etc. through the form of various clubs. Inherit the Wind…

This is a quick primer by for Bangaloreans on borewells, open wells, recharging, and undergound acquifers. Bangalore originally used to rely on open wells more than borewells. Open wells get their water from shallow acquifers that lie at depths of less than 80 feet from the ground. Many parts of Bangalore still have open wells. Illustration: Sripathy Konada, Biome Environmental Solutions. Click for larger picture. Borewells are in essence, narrow holes dug deep into the ground. A borewell taps into a deep acquifer, which essentially water in rocks. Because waters of shallow acquifers are subject to contamination (in part to…