the ugly indian

In August 2019, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike had invited citizen groups and other organisations in Bengaluru to adopt streets. Under this volunteer initiative, the adopter has to maintain streets and ensure their visual cleanliness. Nearly one-and-half years later, the project is yet to kick off. D Randeep, Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) at BBMP, says the delay was due to COVID and that the programme would likely be resumed in the first week of February. “During COVID, we did not want people to come out together and do community work, which would be required under AASI. Before COVID, we…

Pillars on the East-West Metro corridor will see a unique makeover in near future. The Ugly Indian is partnering with Government of Karnataka, BBMP and BMRCL (Namma Metro) for the Vijayanagara Vybhava initiative - transforming 6kms of Metro pillars and medians in Bengaluru with a Hampi-Vijayanagara theme! COME AND BE PART OF the inaugural spotfix this Saturday at 9am. All are welcome! Right outside Vijayanagar Metro Station, Bengaluru. Details and registration here: https://www.facebook.com/events/414628052207391/ Facebook page Karnataka Government Updates has more details. The post says: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) are working on…

Stop talking. Start doing. That’s the mantra more and more citizens in Bengaluru are adopting these days. The fever has now spread to corporates too. The new initiative launched on Independence Day, Adopt-a-Mile, aims to drive the cynicism towards government, into a movement of bringing in change. “I used to come to Bangalore during my summer vacation. The city was so beautiful then, but today, it has lost its beauty. We want to give back our city its beauty,” says Ananth Ramachandran, an executive working with a technology firm. The movement, started by five such people from different companies, will…

Let’s escape the din and chaos of the Bengaluru streets. Let’s go underground! Sounds nice? But who would want to go underground in Bangalore? Do you have such places which are not dark and dingy? Short answer is, yes! Sometimes it is right in front of you... but you tend to ignore it. The project Bangalore Underground aims at exploring creative and better use of the public spaces like subways. And here is the slogan: Let’s escape chaos; Let’s go underground! Curious? On August 17, just walk into one of the pedestrian subways near K R Circle, with friends and…

The inaugural TEDxBangalore event will take place on August 3rd 2014, under the theme ‘Challenge_____’, at the MLR Convention Centre. TEDxBangalore is poised to be India's largest TEDx event with over 1500 ardent TEDx aficionados, leading thinkers, visionaries and doers coming together in Bangalore to find inspiration and celebrate dialogue. “We are fortunate that we live in an era of change and abundance, and that we have everything we need to build something far bigger than ourselves”, said Sartaj Singh Anand, TEDxBangalore curator.It was with this belief that TEDxBangalore was conceived. The event will be hosted in three thematic sessions…

X orders more coffee. He has made his point. But who is in charge – surely there must be someone in charge? I ask. Before plunging in to fix this corner themselves, X and V have done some basic asking around. The question they had was simple – So who’s really in charge of the street in Bangalore? They found that there was no single person or authority. And that is why the streets are such a mess. There is a maze of authorities in charge of different aspects of Bangalore’s civic infrastructure, each of which is a law unto…

Can you show me the photo of the rat, V asked. Bangalore is a great city for rats, he remarked – it’s almost like the city is designed for them! It didn’t seem the best topic for conversation in a restaurant, but by now I had got quite immune to such stuff. Once you work in muck, talking about it is easy. X went on – The place we fixed is Rat Heaven. Let me tell you why. He took out a pencil and started sketching. Do you have any idea what lies beneath the footpath? He began explaining. Here’s…

Part 1 of Chapter 11: Steal Proofing Part 2 of Chapter 11: Installing garbage bins can be a design challenge for city planners! Part 3 continues... Before and after photo of a spotfix in Banaswadi. Pic: The Ugly Indian X took some photos of the Spot, got them printed at another Spot neighbor, Tru-Images, a digital studio down the road, and created a small portfolio of five photos – one photo of “Before”, one photo of “After” and three photos of “During SpotFixing” (featuring the Wipro employees, the drivers, and Veliyamma). The studio owner was very happy to see the…

Part 1 of Chapter 11: Steal Proofing Part 2 continues... These are the realities of the Indian street that are often ignored by city planners and those who want a better city. Seemingly simple things that work overseas (like trash cans) don’t work well in India. McDonald’s tried its best on Brigade Road, Bangalore – and installed some 30 large fibre-glass dustbins, costing about Rs 2,000 ($40) each, and branded with their Golden Arches logo. They lasted barely a few weeks. Some were vandalized, some caught fire from tossed cigarette butts, many were stolen, and soon none were left. Many…

X and V are not finished yet. The basic rescue act is over and the initial impact has been made. Their mission is to find a permanent solution to a decades-old problem, not just beautify a street corner for a feel-good photo-op. It would be a failure if the dump just shifted to the next orphan spot, to the next point of least resistance. V & X are very conscious of this, and have worked out a plan. For a start, they have made friends with all the security guards in the area. All commercial areas have security guards – who are…