Jayanagar

CycleReCycle.in is a project aimed at recycling cycles that are unused, broken, abandoned and bringing them back on road.The project borrows ideas from http://www.recycledcycles.com/, http://www.kiva.org/ and http://thebicycleproject.blogspot.com/The goal is to build a platform where people can contribute time, money, effort, equipment, information so that more and more cycles can get onto the road.The project will be run on a not-for-profit basis.Please get in touch with them, if you: 1. Have an old/unused/broken cycle/cycle-part and want to give it away 2. Know abandoned cycle/cycle-part and can help retreive it it 3. Have time to spare to collect cycles, get them fixed…

Have you ever observed or interacted with children from low income families (and sometimes first generation literates) studying in private or government aided English medium schools, in their school or outside? Who are their friends? What is their medium (language) and topic of conversation?  Do they commute by walk  or bus or private transport? Does their body language display confidence and stability or insecurity and discrimination?   While tutoring and mentoring such children I have found that many of them feel diffident primarily because they can't converse fluently in English and lack academic and career guidance at home. Further, their…

Authenticity is a tough art to master. There was one time when I went to a restaurant abroad that claimed to be Chinese, had interiors that was roughly Korean, displayed Japanese art and was called, hold your breath, Dalchini (Cinnamon in many Indian languages). The Confused Orient would have been a better name. A food critic once wrote about how any self respecting European chef would take the next flight out; livid with shock, on seeing what was passed off as Italian cuisine in the city.You must sympathise with the purists for the raw deal they get. Or perhaps, you…

N Sivasailam, BMRCL chief, explained Metro's position to a group of citizens waiting to hear him out, while those against the tree felling and metro's way of functioning voiced their protest. However, on the question of the Metro using the Lalbagh and R V Road, the Metro's own Detailed Project Report and Sivasailam’s explanations do not sit well together. The morning of Saturday, 9th May, saw a motley crowd of hundreds assemble along RV Road (popularly called Nanda Road) in Jayanagar. Two events were being held simultaneously. The first had been called by Jayanagar MLA Vijaykumar, who at the behest…

‘An early morning run at Lalbagh. Yippee!' That was my spouse displaying objectionable amounts of enthusiasm at a time one should still be curled up in bed. Propping my bleary eyes open with my fingertips, I cautiously allowed the daylight in. Only to find there wasn't really much of it out there yet. Would have dropped off again, but could't go back to sleep. Reluctantly popping out of bed, I proceeded to soothe my jangled nerves with a refreshing cup of tea.The milk delivery was more than an hour away. No second cup of tea till then. The newspapers were…

Here's a message written by my fellow-volunteer at Hasiru Usiru, Kanishka Lahiri: The protests opposing the current plans of the Bangalore Metro in the southern reach have been well publicized in the mainstream media. As a result, they have elicited statements from politicians across party lines supporting the suggestion that the design and alignment of the metro be re-examined before further work is taken up. Interestingly, yesterday, the Chief Minister has made an adamant statement saying there cannot be any change to the current plan of the Metro. Why then, did his Transport Minister state otherwise in a pre-election statement?…

The Adigas fast food joint at Jayanagar 4th block is known to all south Bangaloreans and people of all ages come here to enjoy the food and coffee. But most of them are so busy that they don’t notice a serene art haven called Magnitude Art Gallery, situated straight down the road. Magnitude Art Gallery hosts exhibitions by artists whom they promote. It is one of the few firms that encourage talented yet unknown artists from various parts of Karnataka. The gallery has artists who work only for Magnitude; their work is exhibited and sold here. The artists work on…

Yesterday, hundreds of concerned citizens turned up at the spot where BMRCL proposes to have a Metro station inside Lalbagh itself...and had broken down a part of the Lalbagh wall, and felled several eucalyptus trees. They have not yet received permission to do this, so it was illegal, and citizens also reacted emotionally to their greenery being despoiled in this way.Here's the portion of the wall that was broken down:Several police officers were on duty, and they had the unenviable task of keeping the peace while not antagonizing the citizens. Mr Dawood Khan kept a low profile throughout, though he…

On the 29th of March, I went to Lalbagh to join the joint Max Mueller Bhavan /  Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) -organized Heritage Walk. Having taken many people around Lalbagh, I wanted to know if there was anything I had missed learning about....here's some of what I saw.We all met at the 3-billion-year-old (give or take a few hundreds!) sheet rock on which one of Kempe Gowda's towers stands, and marvelled at the range of pre-history to history; we then walked towards the Glass House, where the Lions of the Ashoka Pillar are etched into…

S.Karthikeyan, Chief Naturalist, Jungle Lodges and Resorts Ltd, is a keen observer of all things in Nature, and he has been alerting many of us, each year, to the arrival of glow-worms in the park adjoining the beautiful, and we-don't-know-how-long-it-will-last, parks adjoining Nanda Road (the correct name for this road is Rashtriya Vidyalaya Road, but it is more generally known as Nanda Road, or Rose Garden Road...there once was a real rose garden here!)They usually make an appearance around Sivaratri time (mid-February), but this year, we received Karthik's alert only last week, and some of us trooped off to take…