Z-Blogs

On the 15th of October, 2016, as my friends and I were returning from a nature and birding trip to Nandi Hills, we saw these Yakshagana artistes on the road back (which is also the road from the airport into the city.) That was the goddess of power, Shakti, herself, stepping out into a city, state and country that had just finished celebrating Her in the form of Navaratri or Dashera.   I realized that I would never know why these people were dressed up, and where they were going...was it for a performance, or something else? Yakshagana is a…

Earlier this year, in February, a group of friends and I had conducted a bird survey in the campus of IIM-Bangalore. At that time, the Dean of Administration, Prof. G Shainesh, and his famkily, keenly followed us througout the morning of birding and documentation. This morning, I received a message from him asking about a bird that had fallen from a tree in his garden. He asked whether it could be a kingfisher or a barbet, as the appearance seemed different to him. I viewed his excellent photo-documentation of the bird...here it is:   Indian Pitta,IIM-Bangalore campus, 15 Oct 2016.…

I am told that I can pay my BESCOM bill online, if I know my Customer ID or the Account ID, which, according to BESCOM, is printed on my bill.   <a href="http://bescom.org/en/know-your-customer-id-or-account-id/"> here </a>   is their snapshot of a sample bill, from which one can get the Account or Customer ID.   Alas...that sample is not close to reality.   Month after month, I get a bill where the figures are nowhere in alignment with the lines describing the various details. In fact, for the month of October, I have this bill which is actually half of two bills,…

Cattles die from eating plastic. While plastic may seem almost indispensable in our daily lives, we tend to remain oblivious to the harm that we cause to animals and the environment by using this material in almost every aspect of our lives. Plastic is not bio-degradable in that it cannot be decomposed into simpler chemical constituents. It remains in the environment for thousands of years, endangering various life forms. Therefore, this year, the state government of Karnataka took the momentous decision to ban the use, sale and distribution of various items of plastic across the state. As per the notification,…

Written by Sowbhagya and translated from Kannada to English by Devaki Samuel It’s been twenty years since I started working as community organizer. I started as a teacher for children of 3-6 years of age. I noticed most of the time older sisters came to drop their younger siblings. The sisters were beautiful, smart and intelligent but had taken the burden of single mothers, who were involved in incense stick making. Deprived of education, instead of holding books, their hands were blackened with the ingredients of incense sticks. Whenever I saw them, my heart ached.  I had an opportunity to…

Indira, wastepicker from Bengaluru, made a passionate plea to world governments for recognizing contributions of wastepickers in ‘New Urban Agenda‘ during an event organized on the sidelines of United Nations (UN) Habitat III Prepcom at Surabaya, Indonesia. She emphasized on the fact that wastepickers keep the city clean. They save municipal corporations and local governments lot of money by channelizing waste for recycling. According to her, if an area generates 2 tons of waste, waste pickers take at-least a ton of waste from the same. They sort and sell it to the industry as raw material. This reduces the generated…

On the 30th of September, 2016, a few friends and I visited Hennagara lake, and this was the condition of the water on the lake...it actually looked like an abstract painting, with light refracted from the pollutants floating on the water surface.   We were quite shocked, therefore, to see quite a few tankers filling water from this lake. Here's a photo of one of them:   When many of us get water from water tankers, are we aware from where the water is being sourced, and what the quality of the water is? Do Residents' Associations check on this…

Sewage and plastic waste has been steadily pouring into Kaikondrahalli lake for the last few months from the eastern side of the lake. On the evening of 12th May 2016, a private landowner from that side breached the lake bund with JCB and drew a channel to empty sewage from his land directly into the lake. Despite best efforts from the BBMP Lakes dept led by Mr Satish (Chief Engineer), Mr Jagannath (Executive Engineer) & Ms Shilpa (Asst Engineer), and the surrounding community volunteers, gallons of accumulating and fresh raw sewage have been entering the lake for past 4 months.Since…

Encouraged by the success of Neighbourhood Watch (NW) initiative in Whitefield, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East Division), Dr Boralingaiah M B has announced the extension of the programme to other areas of South East Division, ie, Kadugodi, Varthur, HAL and (Old) Airport. In an event organised by Whitefield Rising (WR) on August 20, 2016, at Ecumenical Christian Centre (ECC), the DCP launched the NW4 Group within Whitefield PS limits to cover residents of ECC Road. The first such group was formed near Forum Value Mall in March, and two other groups followed.   As over 50 citizens from different…

Don't rush for credit, ask for cash too. Our birding group just got this pleading email: Hello,I am ___ , from ___ newspaper, I am looking for a photograph of Grey Hornbill, sighted in the City, supporting the news write up. If some one has one has one photograph, please do send with credentials. My deadline is 7pm. Please. My response to the egroup: This is going to be a very unpopular post in several circles, but I need to say it. Just a word to everyone that when I was getting articles published in your paper regularly, many years…