public spaces

The annual Chitra Santhe was held on 6th January 2020 in Bengaluru this year. Since 2003, the festival has been celebrating traditional and contemporary art and making it accessible to the public. It has brought art out of galleries and museums to the streets thereby reaching out to broader audiences. The art fair featured over 1,300 artists this year and is estimated to have had around four lakh visitors. For more details, see Yourstory. Artists from outside Bangalore - North Karnataka, Goa, Odissa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala participate. The Kumara Krupa Road leading up to the Karnataka Chitrakala…

On our way for a quick birding trip at Basapura Lake, we were crossing Bommanahalli when our attention was caught by a car-pillar. We quickly stopped to take a photo, and when I put it up on my FB page, I got several details....this is a park, with an RTO (Regional Traffic Office) nearby, where people come to take driving tests. It's just referred to as a "Car Park", which I thought a nice pun! My friend Vidhya Sundar says there are many creations here, made from waste. She sent me this photograph of the plaque which gives the names…

I've written before on the practice many organisations indulge in, in appropriating the space in front of their buildings as ‘reserved’ parking spaces for themselves. I think the problem is assuming large proportions and the police department should launch a campaign and a drive against this pernicious practice. I went to visit a friend who lives on Eagle Road, Langford Town. In front of her home is Agarwal Eye Hospital. My friend parked in the empty spot and promptly a security guard came and told us to park on the opposite site of the road because, "A patient will come…

One of the small, but intensely annoying practices that I am increasingly finding is that of security guards in front of large office/commercial buildings, obviously acting on instructions, to "reserve" the parking space in front of the buildings for those who are visiting an office in that building, and to prevent others from parking there.   In fact, Corporation Bank in J P Nagar  3rd Phase (1st Main, along the Mini Forest) also went to the extent of putting up cardboard notices on the chain-link fence saying that the space was for their customers. Saner counsels have prevailed and the notices…

The practice of charging the members of the public for cameras (aftear 8 am or 9 am)at many public spaces is irritating a lot of people. Joiston Pereira writes:"The entry ticket and camera fee....is the Horticulture Department's new money making racket. At Madiwala lake, which is.under the Brihat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)  and to an extent, the Horticulture Department, the tickets for cameras are a whopping 100 rupees and for video cameras it is  Rs.200, while entry is a modest  Rs, 10  Where all this money goes, God alone knows. The lake clearly isn't maintained very well. "As for the…

There are finally corporators who are walking the talk on managing waste. Smt Nandini Srinivasa and Sri ME Pillappa (BBMP Wards 9 and 10 respectively) are taking a personal interest in trying to alleviate the Mandur mess. On the Facebook page Vidyaranyapura-The Original, Smt Srinivasa's post reads: We all know that most of the waste collected in Bangalore is being dumped near Mandur and that is creating health and environment problems to Mandur residents and nearby villages. To avoid this we request you to attend an event “From Waste to Wealth” on 20th July 2014, Sunday at Narasipura Lake. We are thankful to…

I’m sitting at Lalbagh gardens. The sun is already strong but it doesn’t bother me. I sit in the shade of a Tree, listening to the birds. I can’t see them but know they are there somewhere up in those branches. I sense a gentle breeze. I could have been someplace else. But, I am here and I wonder: Why do gardens matter to us? Not all of the Public spaces in the city are what Lalbagh is. So, what is Lalbagh? How did it come about? How much of what Lalbagh is comes from the trees that belong here?…

Steps and Seat  What scenes have these steps seen?Who are the people who've sat upon that seat?How many have rested their backs there?On the steps, how many feet?How many suns have cast their lightUpon the steps and the seat?How many misty winter mornings?How much of summer heat?How many quarrels or scoldings?How many newspapers unfurled?How many people have used seat and stepsTo get away for a while from the world? ⊕

Another visit... I went to Lalbagh on Friday evening, because a friend wanted to try out the 300mm prime lens. I've not often been to Lalbagh in the evening, and was freshly amazed at what one can see and observe, in spite of many more people being there than in the morning. Apart from the sights and sounds....were the smells, that cannot be replicated, at the present state of technology. The air was redolent of the scent of the entire lane of Sampige (Champa, Shenbagam)...Michelia champaca, belonging to the Magnolia family, says the scientific mind...but my mind was thinking of how the…