whitefield rising

On 14th June 2014, Whitefield Rising is organizing a tree-planting drive along the shores of Munnekolala Lake. Read more about the restoration of this lake here.   As Arvind Keerthi from Whitefield Rising says, What is exciting about this drive is that it is a confluence of efforts made by the BBMP Lakes Department, which is supplying the 600 saplings, private sponsorship from United Way of Bengaluru, which is funding the equipment and materials, and of course our beloved volunteers, who coaxed the process along, and will supply the calories needed to plant the saplings.  If you love planting trees,…

That was a typo. We are not here to save you! We are only saving ourselves. As you see, the hot air balloons have lifted off ;). Seriously, more balloons are rising, just hop on. As we celebrate one year since the day 50 of us first gathered, we have no time to reminisce. We are infact shocked to get a call from Namma Bengaluru Awards that we are a finalist. They had 71,000 entries. (Yeah all those zeroes are there). We are not even sure we should be compared with or win against others that are all doing good…

Bangalore is supposedly a bin-free city. An unofficial garbage dump, across Jagriti Theatre in Whitefield, with a slum behind and shops in the neighbourhood. A wine shop next door. At night, the lighting for the spot was non-existent making the place easier to dump in. A few weeks back the black spots at .Ramagondanahalli dump on the sidewalk had got spruced up, and so this one saw even heavier use. This spot fix took 2 days. 2 communities and The Ugly Indians with the Whitefield Rising team. This fix required some homework. The slum behind was polled on what went…

Who hasn't heard of Arnold Schwarzenegger -Hollywood star - California Governor andbody builder - he had won the Mr. Universe  World Amateur Body Builders Championship (WABBA) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Iaz_r2t-g).  And now the next Mr. Universe Body Builder champion is a young man from our very own Whitefield. G Balakrishna, a 22-year-old youth from Ramagondanhalli village has won the Junior Under 24 title of Mr. Universum in Germany on Nov 16th. As a 19 year old in 2010 he stood 6th in the WABBA Mr. Universe Competition. (http://wabbaworld.com/w-a-b-b-a/history.html) . Pls see this video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5CPAIVHH0Q. He is number 85 (third from the right). Whitefield is thrilled and extremely proud…

On November 9, 2013, Whitefield residents got a unique opportunity to learn about sharing space with wildlife. A group of 20 enthusiastic residents assembled at the clubhouse of Waterville apartments, to attend the first ever session on Wildlife conservation with a focus on snakes. This session was part of a track that aims to help us to peacefully co-exist with our furry (and not so furry) animal friends. Conducted by Gerry Martin and Sumanth Madhav, the session addressed aspects of man-animal conflict, what one can do when encountering snakes, and the best ways to avoid these encounters. While children chatted among themselves…

People from very different walks of life gathered on a sidewalk today. The common thread linking them all was "dignity" and an inexplicable oneness. A cleaner street and gifts for people were mere by products. Over a month, led by Anjali Saini and her team, well heeled residents of communities worked side by side with BBMP garbage collectors, children, housewives, small shopkeepers and villagers. They took former black spots aka garbage heaps and open sewers and transformed them. Then they took pride in it and kept it that way. Today they came together to honour those that either made it…

A movement called Whitefield Rising has been brewing in Whitefield in the last few months. Many residents, supported by a core group of experts in the field, have got together to make the streets of Whitefeild Rising cleaner and greener. With the initial focus being the main road from Hope Farm to Kundanahalli, involved, excited and determined residents, teenagers and retired people are meeting on the streets and brainstorming. A simple format is emerging:  1) Go for a walk as a group on the street near your house 2) Identify issues 3) Begin fixing. Residents can fix a lot, it turns out! 4) Learn to work…

Saplings lined up for planting by BWRCA volunteers. Pic: Suryaprasad Following the footsteps of The Ugly Indian, on October 2, the Bruhat Whitefield Residential Community Association (BWRCA) volunteer team took an initiative to plant saplings in order to help beautify the city. This took place in Whitefield near Chaithanya Samarpan and Chaithanya Smaran. The team started off with an initial plan to plant around 150 trees for every kilometre and had a target of covering a stretch of 3.5 kilometres. In the days leading up to event, various factions of the community lent a hand in the preparation. The Seegehalli…

Whitefield Rising, a voluntary, non profit organisation focussing on transforming Whitefield, is making efforts to better the lives of the residents of Whitefield. As part of the effort, Sangeeta Venkatesh, one of the leaders from Whitefield Rising, along with her team, has forged an agreement with BBMP with the corporator’s support, to create a ‘Model Street’ in Whitefield, that can be free of garbage within three months, starting July. The Model Street with no garbage A 4-km stretch between Hope Farm and Varthur Kodi on Whitefield Main Road is being cleaned up to showcase as a model street. The road,…

‘Whitefield Rising - Waste Management Team’ conducted their maiden seminar on June 15th,　2013 at The Whitefield Club.It was attended by the Corporator of Hagadur Ward, Mr H A Srinivas and several Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanaga Palike (BBMP) officials -Devaraju, Joint Commissioner, BBMP; Vinayaka, Environmental Engineer, BBMP, Sidalinge Gowda, Executive Engineer, BBMP, Whitefield, Devaraj, Health Inspector, and Kalpana, Health Officer. R. K Misra, (Founder of Nav Bharat and　SAHYOG - Indian Council for PPP) along with over 100 residents of the Whitefield area including communities such as Adarsh Palm Meadows, Waterwoods, Waterville, Renaissance Jagrithi, Vaswani Pinnacle, Brigade Metropolis, Prestige Shantiniketan, Laughing Waters, Shobha…