Deepa's Jottings

If you are a customer of Indane gas cylinders, and you do not book the cylinder at least once in 90 days, your customer number gets blocked and you have to make the trip to the dealer, produce a proof of residence, and get the block released. People who live alone or travel a lot are particularly harassed by this senseless rule. If I have a history of low usage of the cooking gas, surely I can be registered as such, and I need not be troubled each time I want to book the cylinder? And in today's scenario of petroleum products,…

 My friend Amitabha Saha Roy writes:We had a pleasant expereince at the sub-registrar office when we went to register a trust that we are forming for restoring Arekere lake. Spending a Saturday in the Govt sub-registrar office is not exactly how anyone would look forward to spending a weekend. When we think of a government office, the most common things that come to our mind are corruption, inefficiency and bureaucracy. But, our experience at the Begur Sub-registrar office proved to be exactly the opposite and made it a weekend to remember. We are a team of volunteers working on an…

 If you have rescued an animal or bird and do not know what to do with it: There is a wild life rehabilitation centre close to Bannerghata Nationalpark.Bannerghatta Rehabilitation CentreSurvey No. 129, Jigni Hobli, Anekal Taluk, BannerghattaBangalore, Karnataka 560083ph: 91 80 22947307alt: 91 80 22947300You can get in touch with them and hopefully they should be able to guide you appropriately. Sorry, I still don't seem to have any mobile nos. for them.  ⊕

I got introduced to Rohan Chakravarty some time ago, when he moved from Nagpur to Bangalore. He was also with us in this year's Bangalore Bird Race (an involved debate about some waterfowl made their tally about 50 species less than ours, though we were mostly going around together!)I don't know him very well yet. We've met for a couple of cartoon exhibitions, and I asked him to contribute a cartoon for the write-up I did for the Bird Race website In person, he comes across as rather quiet, and I suspect this is because I do not know him…

Dr. S. Subrahmanya ("Subbu"), one of the very experienced naturalists/ornithologists of Bangalore, writes:Over the recent years, I have been campaigning for planting bird-friendly plants in gardens. In the process, based on my own observations, I have developed the concept of a 'Sunbird Corner' that can be adopted in sizable home gardens and public parks.This Sunbird Corner is developed on the concept that nectar available to sunbirds is in short supply and that habitually, individual sunbirds or pairs defend known sources of nectar yielding plants. Towards this, sunbirds tend to become territorial and ward-off any unwelcome `thieves'. Thus you can spend…

We are delighted to tell you that PNLIT has been shortlisted for the People's Green Award instituted as part of the TCS World 10K. Public voting and Jury assessment will together decide the final three winners. PNLIT is a local people's initiative to tackle the problem of dying lakes and water shortage through public participation. We were instrumental in getting the Puttenahalli Lake restored and are the first citizens' group in Bangalore to officially maintain a lake. We work within a very tight budget from donations made mostly by individual well wishers. The People's Green Award will help us get…

Women Safety Awareness on Modern Crime, Psychological Preparation against Fear& Israeli Krav Maga Self Defense Tactics Sessions against Molestation, Eve-Teasing & Rape. Why do you need this?In the past few years, Bangalore ranks 2nd in overall crime rate reported in India beating Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai & Kolkata. Rape on Indian women has increased 763% from 1972. Kidnapping has increased 543% since 1953. Our India stands at the top three countries with the highest sexualy abused children in the world. Blaming the polities, police or our legal system is not enough. Women have to stand up and get educated & prepared…

 Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas writes on Facebook:   "Bangalorean friends - For sometime, I have been following MD Bescom. You will be amazed at how Manivannan, the present MD has used facebook to provide an open platform to directly address queries to him. Indeed, the same person who put up a live video feed of his office to make an example of transparency in public service and the also the same officer who in his earlier assignment used to personally supervise medical audits of infant and maternal deaths.Just reading the exchanges on his wall is so informative. An amazing initiative by a…

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? ⊕

I was delighted with the last workshop I attended, so I would strongly recommend this!  *Introduction to Origami - Beginner workshop on Origami*Date: Saturday, 7th April, 2012Time: 4pm-5:30pm (90 minutes)Place: Jaaga, Double Road (www.jaaga.in)Age: 8-80 yearsFees: Rs 150 (inclusive of paper, you just need to bring your hands) ⊕