OPINION

The blame game is one of the easiest to play -- and Facebook turns out to be an unlikely source to drive home this point.  Take a look at the Bangalore Traffic Police's (BTP) Facebook page. The city's traffic is chaotic,  the number of rule breakers is horrendous, and the number of  offenders pulled up or punished is a small fraction of those who deserve to be penalised.True. But how many of us try to put ourselves in the shoes of the BTP, to  see  whether the blame is all  to be laid solely at their doors, for this state…

The term emergency is derived from Latin emergere (e-, "from," and mergere, "to dip, plunge") and mean "unforeseen occurrence." However , it is in our interest to foresee emergencies , be prepared. This consists of : awareness of emergencies likely to occur, in special situations, or in special segments like children and elderly. The dos and don'ts are particularly relevant. Emergencies may not give sufficient time to reach Doctor/Hospital, and the response of person at scene can make all difference between life and death. You too can save a life. Emergencies at home can be classified as those arising out…

How many beggars are there is namma Bangalore ? No, not a few thousands, but the entire population of the city -- some six-odd million, at last count. Including you and me. Wondering if you read that right ? Yep. After following the latest media reports on the infamous beggars home and the responses from our city administrators, we all seem to have been reduced to the status of beggars -- begging for attention to our problems, begging to have our voices heard, begging for some accountability in public servants, and begging for some shred of ethical - moral considerations…

I waited. And he waited. I waited some more and he too waited some more. Impasse. Flustered and confused, I looked at him -- and waited again. He too stared at me, with a hint of impatience and bafflement. My first day at Cambridge, UK, on a pleasant May morning. I had stepped out and while making my way along the pavement saw a cyclist coming down the same way (cyclists and pedestrians share the same pathways skirting the roads). Used to Bangalore's "get-out-of-my-way" culture, I assumed he had right of way, and waited, while he, following the local road…

Doctors are wary of asking someone a simple question like "How are you?" in a social gathering. The reason is, the moment this question is asked , the person starts off with all his medical complaints. The doctor is definitely not interested in professional consultation in social get together. Strangely enough, when the same person goes to a doctor's chamber, he is not so forthcoming. Often the doctor has to ask probing questions to get the symptoms out of patient. The result in both cases is dissatisfaction. It is so easy to blame the doctor. However, it stands to reason…

Healthcare has always been in a state of dynamic flux. The good old family physician has been replaced by specialists and super-specialists. The chances of finding a family physician in Bangalore are just as hard as finding a home sparrow. Nursing homes have been swamped by corporate and private hospitals. Government hospitals are patronised mostly by those who cannot afford private treatment. On the other hand medical insurance is plagued by issues related to Third Party Administrators (TPAs) and inflated bills. New concepts in healthcare have emerged: Preventive Healthcare, Corporate Healthcare, and Home Healthcare. Suddenly, there has been a shift…

"Consuming this product, especially early in the morning, may be injurious to your health" - we don't have this warning printed at the top of the front page of our daily newspaper. But they should. Because reading newspaper does make one's blood pressure shoot up. This scam or that rip of, all accusing or implicating VIPs who are supposed to be our leaders, administrators and adjudicators. Involving not just lakhs but hundreds of crores, even lakhs of crores. A day care centre's roof collapse  killing children, a substandard construction causing death, contaminated water causing illness, a woeful, criminal  lack of…

The recent series of popular films starring heroes who are more than fifty years old, desperately trying to appear half their age and paired with heroines old enough to be their granddaughters, has surprised discerning film buffs for its mass acceptance. Robot (Rajani), Manmadhan Ambu (Kamal), Shankar Dada Zindabad (Chiranjeevi), Aptharakshaka (Vishnuvardhan) are some examples. If young Akshay Kumar's antics in Raveena Tandon starring 'Cheez badi hai' song was bad enough, his 43-year old smitten self, prancing around a younger Katrina Kaif in Sheela ki jawani (made 16 years later) is even worse. Such films with old heroes have been…

In the last week of March, while World Water Day was being marked globally with a focus on "Urban Water Management". But our own urban administrators were busy - giving out contradictory statements about metropolitan water management and plans for tackling water scarcity as summer sets in; leaving citizens with emotions ranging from confusion to anger that can be as enervating as thirst. The Karnataka Groundwater (Regulation and Control of Development and Management)  bill passed recently forbids drilling of  borewells in groundwater-depleted areas (and most areas are depleted, with the water table sinking to incontrovertibly alarming levels)  but four days…

Bengalureans have come to expect that at every corner they turn, they will be met with a wide heap of garbage.  They have also come to accept that Pourakarmikas themselves will dump their melange of garbage on the ground. What Bengalureans are not aware of is that this manner of collecting unsegregated garbage and transferring it manually, with the garbage exposed to the environment, is in total violation of the Ministry of Environment & Forests' Municipal Solid Waste Handling Rules of 2000.  What Bengalureans also do not know is that behind this ‘gawd-awful' system of collecting garbage lurks one more…