migration

Here’s a video I took, of some remarkable ‘fishers’ that we are able to see, even in urban lakes such as Madiwala or Lalbagh, in the winter. These are Spot-billed Pelicans which are local travellers. There are some long-distance travellers, too. These are Bar-headed Geese landing at Hadinaru Kere, near Nanjangud, Karnataka, in August 2015; they come all the way from Mongolia! Here’s one, which was tagged in Mongolia (yes, I received a reply from the scientists there when I emailed them, it was quite a thrill). This winter, we had another lone, and surprise visitor. The Demoiselle Crane was a lone bird that I spotted in a lake…

“I’m suffering from the empty nest syndrome. Help!” A mother whose daughter has just left for university abroad commented recently on a Facebook group I belong to. In less than two minutes, there were other mothers in similar situations commiserating with her. Mothers with children who had just left home to attend college in another city or country; Mothers with children who had started working elsewhere or were about to take off soon, whether for college or work. As I read the comments, I realised that precisely at that moment, I was rather thrilled to have the children out of…

If there is one politician who is most qualified to present a Budget for Karnataka, it is the Chief Minister himself - Siddaramaiah. While he has shown his ability to do the fine balance with not antagonising the public with more taxes, he has played to the gallery as far as keeping multiple vote banks in good humour is concerned. What should the budget aim to do? What are the key measures that should have been dealt with differently in the budget? Creation of more jobs across agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors should be the fundamental objective for the moment.…

Every budget talks about how Bangalore is an important metropolis and how its glory as an IT-BT capital has to be restored. In keeping with the current sentiment, the budget has discussions about garbage, roads, sites and investments. However there is only so much a city can take; so much a city can absorb; a limit to which it can cope. So, the question with every budget is that why are we so Bangalore-centric? Unpack the current Karnataka budget and you have a section dedicated to Bangalore which details out fly-overs, sky-walks, grade separators and garbage management. There is an…

"We should learn Kannada. No Kannada, no respect" says one white cab driver to another. This is a scene from the recent Kannada blockbuster Super. The movie is set in 2030 with Bangalore as a ultra modern city populated with men wearing Mysore petas and where all the cab drivers are white. Hegemony is maintained through language – English and Hindi are considered to be above Kannada. A person may expect you to learn Hindi while not learning Kannada – this causes resentment among Kannadigas. There are many avenues for learning Kannada. For example, Tamil Sangam holds Kannada classes, or…