Dashing through the streets

"The only difference is that there is a gate", declared my friend who resides in one such place. "We decided to come here only because of the security; now we know that it's just an eyewash", she added. That set me thinking. How different is the houses in gated communities to the others? Do the residents NRIs or foreigners want a home away from home? Expats in Bangalore take pride in stating that they don't live in Whitefield whereas we Indians still do. I have tried to highlight the similarities or differences under certain common headers. Note: These are just…

I read this blog by pure chance while weaving through the thick maze of the internet. It set me thinking in the same lines about our city. Sure, Bangalore has its share of problems - traffic, bad roads, water and power shortage - to name a few. "But it's still my city", says an irrational inner voice. What is it about Bangalore anyway? I can hear a thousand voices shout "weather". I have my doubts on that. Well, Bangaloreans, what makes you like this city? I'm very curious to read your answers⊕

The ongoing siege of Mumbai's richest district is yet another terrorist attack to demoralise India and its people. This time the attacks have targeted the city's heritage buildings; including the CST railway terminal(also called VT by locals) which is a deemed World Heritage site by Unesco. The 1998 LTTE attack on Kandy's most revered Buddhist temple, the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas by Taliban in March 2001 and the recent ongoing Mumbai terror are just a few examples of terrorism wiping out or atleast damaging history. Just why do terrorists attack heritage sites? There are several reasons. The Kandy…

Five hours in the car. Five hours without food, water. Five hours of incessant horns, weak phone signals, frustrated commuters, wailing ambulances, and broken down trucks. And if you look out of your car window to see if the traffic inches forward, you are most likely to spot several posters with JDS leaders smiling(smirking?) at you. For the JDS Rally, it was a huge success. It showed its iron fist and strangled Bangalore. I happen to live in north Bangalore. For years I gloated over the fact that I'm far from the madding crowd who suffer traffic jams in BTM, Koramangala or Indiranagar. But in…

"She is from a village near Bangalore. Leaving behind the plot of land to her husband's brothers, she and her family moved to the city decades back. Migrating from rural happy poverty to urban hand-to-mouth existence, she etched out a living by working as a housemaid. Her husband sold tender coconuts near the local bus-stand and disappeared for days together when finances were low. Living in an urban slum, her son and daughter studied hard and graduated, thanks to the financial generosity of the families she worked for. After graduation, the daughter left an accounting job to become a docile…

  Russell Peters was in Bangalore on Saturday (18th October) and performed at the Chowdiah Hall. For those who don't know, he is a Canadian comedian of Indian Origin, currently living in L.A. He traces back his roots to Calcutta and Bombay. I remember watching his comedy show on the internet and laughing uncontrollably. His Indian accent is great but his take on the Chinese is superb. His 'Be a Man, do the Riiight thing' joke still resounds in my ear. So I heard that he would do a show in the city, I just had to be there!I was…

It's a whole different experience to watch India's most popular game at the stadium. The crowd, the buzz, watching players warm up, huge shouts as Tendulkar walks in, boos when there is a war of words between the teams, there are no Ad breaks here or replays - the atmosphere is enticing and you become a part of it. My friends and I entered the KSCA stadium, we passed the security check (five security guards and two metal detectors) and raced up the stairs to get a good view of the players(there are no seat numbers in our gate). It…

There have been quite a few articles recently on disappearing footpaths (or sidewalks), illegal speed breaks etc - so I took these pictures as a pun on BBMP (our favourite punching bag). To their credit, they do good work (airport road is a shining example), but poor planning throws a lot of problems for the public.Since the construction started at the junction to RT Nagar on Bellary Road, the commuters take the extended roads on the side. The distance is about half a kilometre - with no pedestrian walkways, footpaths or even a proper tarred road. Speed breaks? The gravel…

When can we truly 'fly over'?I hate the word flyover. After crawling for half an hour to cross a few yards near the Yestwantpur junction - where a 'flyover' construction is underway - the BBMP mocks at me by saying 'Construction is in progress. Go Slow'. There must be a grammatical error here - the word 'Slow' should be the first word in the sentence. Is there any flyover in Bangalore on which we can literally 'flyover'? If it were not in any stage of construction, there would be a traffic jam on it. Its more practical if these extended…

Most of you would have planned a holiday this long weekend. But are you leaving lesser carbon footprints? Here's an interesting quiz to test your green knowledge - Save the EarthI took the quiz and scored just 50%, however learnt a lot from the facts window that explains after each attempt. You can also set up a quiz question by clicking on the ‘Add a Question' window, embed this quiz in your blog or email it to a friend. ⊕