JP Nagar

Recently, new bus shelters have come upall over Bangalore. Extensive space has been given over to advertising, and some space has also been allocated, at the top of the bus shelter, to give the name of the bus stop. However, not a single bus shelter has any provision for some essential information...the bus routes stopping at the particular stop. I am not talking about timings as there may not be adhered to at all. But certainly, the route nos. and the series of stops could be displayed.  It surprises me that such an essential feature has been left out of…

I received the following email from another member of the cycling egroup that I belong to: I'm Charles Hayward and I had a large stroke on Easter Sunday of this year. Luckily, I was able to recover with minimal residual impact which according to my doctors is attributable to being relatively fit.My fitness (at least recently) is because I cycle, so in recognition of World Stroke Day (which is 29th Oct actually) I wanted to ask people to join with me in lauding the benefits of cycling. My idea was for a group ride starting from Decathlon-Sarjapura- Chitratirupathi-Hope Farm-Varthur-Decathlon. It…

  Here are some of the common butterflies that one can see around us, right now. One of the good places I look for them is the Reserve Forest in the MICO Arikere Layout; but quite often, I find these beauties in the gardens nearby, too!SNOW FLATLEMON PANSYCOMMON ROSEBARONETBARONET closed wingCOMMON CASTORTAWNY COSTERPALMFLYCOMMON PIERROTPLUM JUDY:CRIMSON ROSE mating:And, just to wind up, a beautiful beetle, too.JEWEL BUGI keep looking around me as I walk in the residential lanes of our city....these lovely creatures provide spots of colour and beauty to my day. ⊕

JP Nagar Citizens' Association (JPNCA) on 9th October celebrated its 35th Anniversary at VET School Auditorium. A little over a 100 members gathered at 530 pm in the evening as three senior past presidents of the association - Colonel (Retd) G K Burli, V S Rao and Bhoja Shetty were honoured on the occasion. Chief guests and JPNCA members on the dias. Pic: Yogaraj S MudalgiFilm actor Avinash, his wife and television actor Malavika Avinash, who live in Rajarajeshwarinagar, presided as Chief Guests while Dr Y L Rajashekar of Shekar Nethralaya was the Guest of Honour. Also present was JP…

A trash dump that was earlier in the Mini Forest area was shifted, some time ago, to the compound wall of Casa Ansal Apartments, on the road perpendicular to Bannerghatta Road: In spite of repeated requests from the residents of the apartment, trash continues to be dumped there. The number of rodents in the area has proliferated, and there are serious issues of hygiene as a result. Can BBMP please shift the trash dump back to the old location, where it was not directly in front of any residential building, and clean up this awful, stinking mess? ⊕

When I go to Ranga Shankara to see a play, I go with an open mind...as I often say, I go, not knowing if it will be "fair play" or "foul play"! Recently (7th of October) I went to watch the interpretation of Hamlet, staged by the Mumbai troupe, Cinematograph. And I saw one of the best productions I have seen in the recent past. The cast in one of the scenes. Pic: Author It's always a difficult exercise to make a comic interpretation of a tragedy...it could work, or fall so flat that it might become a worse tragedy…

 On Vijaya Dashami Day, the Casa Ansal Apartment Owners' Association (CAAOA) organized a Garba and Dandiya evening.    Several of the residents put up food and clothing stalls, at which the sales were brisk.  The effigy of Ravana...representing the powers of evil and darkness...was kept ready to set on fire at the end of the evening.   The ladies participated enthusiastically in the Dandiya ras, wearing traditional Gujarati garb.   Here are one of the apartment buildings senior residents, who are connoisseurs of music and dance, who were enjoying themselves that evening!  "The sense of community gets fostered by such cultural events," remarked Mrs. Alamelu, one…

Some 25 members of the Bird Watchers Field Club, Bangalore, led by ardent bird watcher, Deepa Mohan visited the Puttenahalli Lake on 8th Oct. After spotting the juvenile coots, little grebes and pheasant tailed jacanas and seeing a coot couple building a nest, Deepa called our lake a "nursery." This was the nicest thing to hear about the lake we have been trying very hard to revive and sustain. The nesting shows that the birds feel safe to raise their young ones and the presence of large shoals of fish means that the water is clean enough for them to…

The festive atmosphere of the Dushera/Navarathri season was very apparent at the Durga Puja Pandal on Bannerghatta Road.At NGR Kalyana Mantapa, on Bannerghatta Road, the South Bangalore Cultural Association, under its President, S Lahiri, began the Pujo festivities on Shasthi (sixth day after the new moon), which fell on 2nd October. Several cultural programmes were scheduled for the festivities up the 6th of October, when the idol of Durga was  taken in ceremonial procession for "Bisarjan" or immersion, after the worship. Indrashis De Sarkar, a very active volunteer, says smilingly that this Pujo is as old as his marriage!  He…

We are sure everyone is aware of the flood in Orissa and the Earthquake in Sikkim. Hundreds of lives have been lost, livelihood destroyed and people have lost everything and have been taking refuge in relief shelters. As learnt from people who have been volunteering in the area, the extent of damage is immense. Orissa: Water is continuing to surge from the river Mahanadi and its tributaries and creating havoc in Orissa. More than 3000 villages have been marooned by this flood. Many districts have been severely hit and all communication channels to these pockets had been disrupted. About 10…