INTERVIEWS

Running culture is not new to the city. Bengaluru has hosted many marathons and is also witnessing an increase in the number of runner enthusiasts. Among those are Athreya Chidambi and Neera Katwal. They have been among the top finishers in the last few marathons. Chidambi and Neera were the first Indians to finish the Midnight Marathon in Bangalore. Athreya Chidambi and Neera Katwal at the Ultra marathon in November2011. Pic: Anju "It was on one of my new years' resolution list," says 33-year-old Athreya Chidambi, reminiscing about the time when he first gave running a ‘try.' Chidambi, who is…

On November 1st, KSPCB released a guide on Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs). In this exclusive interview with Citizen Matters, KSPCB Chairman A S Sadashivaiah talks about how the guide will help, and clears the air on many issues that resident associations have been raising on STP maintenance. Most apartment complexes today have their own Sewage Treatment Plant(STP). According to KSPCB rules, any large apartment (more than 5,000 sq m in the outskirts or more than 20000 sq m in core areas) need to have STPs. The new guide has illustrated explanation about the working and engineering features of STP, and…

"I am 80 years old. I have spent 76 years in theatre", when I heard the senior citizen on the stage say this, I thought he must have got mixed up. But I was wrong. He joined the Chamundeshwari Karnataka Nataka Sabha, which was then run by Nandi Basappa for the Mysore Palace authorities, at the age of four because of abject poverty. "My father was an archaka (priest) in a small temple. His income was not sufficient to feed our family of seven", says R Paramasivan. He can can sing 1260 Ranga Geethegalu (songs from the plays) from his…

For M Abdulla Saleem, his recent appointment as Additional Commissioner Police (Traffic) is a return to familiar turf. He succeeded Praveen Sood a few months ago. "I am basically a traffic man," proclaims Saleem and it is not without justifications. Pic Courtesy: DCP (Traffic) Office The 1993 batch IPS officer previously served as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic East Division, Bangalore and in 2010 completed a PhD in Traffic Management from Bangalore University. He has held various posts across the state including Assistant Superintendent of Police, Gulbarga, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) and Inspector General of Police,…

Dario Hidalgo, a leading international expert on public transport systems, was in the city two weeks back to work with the BMTC. He was part of the team that revolutionised bus transport in his hometown Bogota, Columbia, by introducing BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System). In this exclusive interview with Citizen Matters, Hidalgo says BMTC has a lot to do before it starts its ambitious BRTS project for Bengaluru. He also says that BMTC's BIG-10 buses have the potential to provide service for the entire city - the ordinary fleet can be gradually replaced by using BIG-10 and feeder services.What are…

Shikshana, a non-profit organisation based out of Bangalore, is working towards improving the quality of education in government primary schools by participatory intervention. The representatives talk to the school administration, teachers and students about their opinion on how to make the learning effective. In some schools students are encouraged to perform through incentives. File pic: Padmalatha Ravi This approach is completely alien in a setting where schemes are made at the power centers and the benefits trickle down. ‘I've been working for twenty two years, and this is the first time someone has come asking for what I think', remarks…

The world is a small one, in today's age of jet travel, but not many of us can claim to have visited the Poles. Of the two polar regions, Antarctica (the south Pole) still remains largely inaccessible to the whole of mankind. So when the first woman from Bangalore, Priya Venkatesh, visited Antarctica, her trip made for an interesting conversation. Priya, 36, lives in Jayanagar and works for a training company. She is a keen amateur naturalist, and an excellent photographer. Priya Venkatesh in Antartica. Pic courtesy: Priya Venkatesh Why Antarctica?"In school, I used to see the little strip of…

If Pride and Prejudice is a timeless novel turned in two films, a TV serial and more, so is Greed and Connivance. Except, stand back. Greed and Connivance is not a piece of Victorian-era fiction, it's the title of a report published by V Balasubramanian, Chairman of Karnataka's Task Force for Recovery and Protection of Public Lands on land grabbing in the state, particularly Bangalore. Each chapter in this book is a story in its own right, and the entire report is perhaps worth a television series of the length of Ramayana. TASK FORCE FOR RECOVERY OF PUBLIC LAND AND…

You must be having a ‘special' tree in your life. Or at least a memory of - a mango tree you grew up climbing; the neighbour's Jamun tree that stained your compound wall purple; Ajji's house Jackfruit tree and its profuse yield; the Pipal tree by the river in your ‘native' village; the ‘haunted' Tamarind tree on the edge of the school compound... Tulika publishers' latest - ‘Let's plant trees' by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer, is a book for parents as much as children. It gets directly to the point - action, not theoretical discussions. It comes with real Pongam…

Two months after Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) started its page in Facebook, it has about 3,800 'likes'. In this interview with Citizen Matters, Praveen Sood, ACP, Bangalore Traffic, talks about the idea behind the initiative, how it has turned out and further expectations.What was the original idea behind starting the BTP page?Our main intention is to educate and sensitise public about traffic rules and create a forum for discussion. We also get lot of feedback which we would not get otherwise - like, when a signal is not working. This forum is not just a shoulder to cry on or…