SOCIETY

  Mutilated Ganeshas at Sankey Tank. Pic: Vani Murthy  Lord Ganesha is my favourite childhood friend, my saviour at all times - when I met with a road accident on a highway, during my illness, when I am in despair.  He is the one who comes to my rescue. I do know many others too love him, respect him, look up at him as their friend in need, but for me he is something special. As I grew up I realised what makes him so special to all. Everything he did evoked fun in the mind of young ones. His…

Pigeons feeding in the Ram-Anjenaya temple premises. Picture: Ashok Kumar S I saw a person on the premises of Ramanjaneya temple at Basavangudi, Bengaluru. He looked to me like a middle-aged person; he must have been in his 50s. He had come there to walk, like everybody else. He carried with him a bag of food. The bag contained wheat grains, bread, milk and water. I wondered why he had brought along all this food, and whom did he bring it for. I continued watching him, to know what he was up to, and find out what he was going to…

The District Disability Welfare Office organised a camp for the differently-abled at the Government Kannada School in DJ Halli on August 11th and 12th, to ensure immediate needs of differently-abled people at DJ Halli are met. The camp allowed the differently-abled to undergo medical check-ups, and apply for disability certificates, disability pension and aid devices.   The first patient to come into the camp was an old lady, Vijaya, with some form of mental illness, who came in as early 8 30 am on Aug 11th, despite the disability camp being scheduled to start only at 10 am. She was…

The Karnataka Domestic Workers Union has organised a protest against the employment of minors as Domestic Workers.  Time: Thursday August 21st, 3 30pm and 4 30pm Venue: Karmikara Bhavana, Bannerghatta Road The Karnataka Domestic Workers Union strongly condemns the recent attack on a child domestic  worker by her employers in Bangalore. We stand in solidarity with the girl who struggled for her life  for ten days at Vani Vilas hospital and demand that the employers are brought to justice. We stand for the right to life, dignity and education of every child and we demand that the girl is rehabilitated and…

Finding lost people, that too when they have dementia, is a big problem in Bengaluru. The success rate of finding a person who is genuinely lost is dismally low as the Police Department is not equipped or staffed properly to deal with it. For small children it is even lower. Tracking a person who cannot communicate, such as a dumb or mentally challenged person, is practically impossible. My dad went missing last weekend. My dad has Alzheimers disease. Although he is physically fine, he is not able to communicate even the simplest things. From the outset, we were told that our…

Panelists debating during 7th Media Watch held at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore - Ammu Joseph, Ravi Hegde, Shaibya Saldanha, Ashok GV, Madhuraveena (From left to right). Pic: Shree D N The auditorium in Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru, was full of young and energetic, enthusiastic audience. The seventh ‘Media Watch’ event organised by Oorvani Foundation, Avadhi Magazine and Network of Women in Media, was hosted by the Journalism Department of Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. The event, a panel discussion on ‘Naming and Shaming: Sexual Violence and the Media’, had experts from media, law, enforcement and medical fields.The panel discussed the complex…

"This time, every street, every lane of Bangalore will demand nothing less than complete justice. We have identified 23 centres in Bangalore. You need to step out this Saturday, 2nd of August between 8-9pm, take your friends, relatives, neighbours, everyone you know to your nearest Candle March centre and light a candle and demand justice. This time WE would be the ones giving out deadlines to give out the TRUE version of the case and arrest all the culprits within that date. They miss the deadline, one more march. WE won't stop." This is the introduction of the Candle March…

This is a sign that citizens are beginning to use IT Act section 66A to hit back people posting hurtful and offensive remarks online, in response to their own articulations. V R Bhat, a Kannada columnist in Bengaluru, and active user of Facebook found himself on the receiving end of 66A this week, when someone he offended used the infamous IT Act’s 66A clause on him. The above comment in Kannada, put on Facebook by V R Bhat has attracted a complaint against him under section 66A of IT Act. when the tagged person and others filed a complaint under…

In April 2014, a young boy from Noble Saint English School, Kadugondana Halli in Bengaluru, appeared for his SSLC exam. This was his third attempt at the clearing his 10th standard exams. When the results were announced two months later, he had cleared all papers but one - Mathematics. Young Fayaz at his home, with his Mathematics text book. Pic: Ganga Madappa The young boy is Fayaz and he is a quadriparetic. Quadriparesis, the condition that Fayaz is inflicted with, refers to muscle weakness affecting all four limbs. Due to his condition, Fayaz cannot lift his hands or walk. The…

I was recently required to set up a new bank account. The entire process took all of one week and I really didn’t have much to complain about. During that week however, one employee decided to become my self-appointed relationship manager — getting my number off company records and whatsapping me repeatedly after 8 pm at night, with delightful ‘Hi’ texts. Nothing irks me more than a genius who thinks a text that starts and ends with ‘Hi’, makes for a good start to anything. Maybe it was the fact that we were both Malayali and he thought we had…