Z-Blogs

"Two years ago", all of us came together to oppose the steel flyover that threatened to ruin our city. Your support in the form of physical presence at human chain and resolutions passed in your organization played a critical role in successfully stopping that. Now we have a much bigger battle ahead of us as the 100kms elevated corridor looms upon us. The old steel flyover is also part of it in the concrete avatar! We need to come together once again and we request your help. As you might know, we were expecting a notice for public consultation ever…

Since all of us are becoming so polarized by caste these days, I thought I would take a tongue-in-cheek look at the four varnas, or castes, into which I can categorize the living beings around us. No offence meant, this is a light-hearted classification, intended to drive home the point that dividing ourselves by "caste" is not a good thing to do! The Brahmins of the "upper caste" is easily represented as there are several creatures with the word in their name. Here is the Brahminy Kite: See the beauty of the Brahminy Skink: There is also the Brahminy Myna…

"The Emperor of All Maladies", a Pulitzer-winning book by Siddharth Mukherjee, is an intense book about that dreaded "C" word...cancer, and looks at the dread ailment via multiple lenses...history, biography, describing the several discoveries, obstacles,triumphs and failures in humanity's long journey with, and battle against, cancer. To base a play on a book like this is a major challenge, and Bangalore Little Theatre rose up to that challenge with their play, which I watched at Ranga Shankara on the 27th of February, '19. The theatre group had produced an excellent brochure, which described the play. I skimmed through it, wanting…

It had been quite a while since I went to Ranga Shankara for a play, and the blurb about "Bali" was interesting enough to pull me in. Here's the quotation from the excellent brochure that was handed out before the play: "Adishakti's Bali is a retelling of the various events that lead up to the battle between Bali and Ram and eventually, the death of Bali. The play explores the notion of right and wrong, and how it may change when each and every character is given an opportuntiy to voice their thoughts and opinions." With this intriguing introduction, I…

In an earlier post, I wrote about the rise of the citizen entrepreneurs. Thought I’ll share why these active citizens do what they do. I am including myself in this club because I still volunteer occasionally. Many of our team members are engaged in their own local issues (but we ensure that is independent of our work at Citizen Matters!).  Satisfaction First of course, is the immediate sense of empowerment — that we get when we start doing something. Whether or not there are results to show. Sometimes there is a feeling of being better than the rest, because hey,…

For a while now, the world of insects and spiders has begun to be revealed to everyone, through the medium of photography. As the micro-sized creatures are captured through macro photography, stunningly weird-looking creatures appear on social media feeds, making us feel that these, surely, are beings from a different planet! No, these creatures are not "out of this world" at all. It's just that their tiny size prevents us from seeing them in detail. Another reason why we know little about them is that they are often so well camouflaged, as leaves, bark, or other natural phenomena, that we…

In a symbolic gesture, more than 300 residents of all age groups and from all corners of Bengaluru assembled this morning to inaugurate an initiative: #ಮರಹತ್ಯೆತಡೆಯೋಜನೆ (MaraHatyeThadeYojane (Project Stop tree felling)) Srinivas Alavilli, co founder of Citizens for Bengaluru said “This yojane is in response to the marking Of 144 trees on Bellary Road by KRDCL. KRDCL seems to be making preparations for cutting these trees for elevated corridor project. However, environmental impact assessment(EIA) has not been done and environmental clearance has not been granted for this project. Due process was not followed and public consultation not held in violation…

A small town in the Cauvery delta comes alive in January each year. Carnatic musicians and rasikas all over the world turn their focus to Thiruvaiyaru (city of five rivers) in the Tanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. Many even travel from around the world to be there. Thiruvaiyaru is where carnatic composer Tyāgaraja lived and composed some of the most well-known songs of the genre. On Bahula Panchami—the fifth day of the lunar month Pushya—Jan 25 this year, five songs of Tyāgaraja, simply referred to as the “pancharatna kritis” were sung in one voice by millions of people all over…

The fifth edition of the habba is the most talked about community event in the neighbourhood of ORR-Sarjapur Road. Kere Habba or Lake Festival is an annual day long conservation-focused celebration of the gorgeous Kaikondrahalli lake, planned this time on February 17. 2019. It is an amalgamation of music, theatre, fitness, art, design and fun - all talking the same idiom of ecology and environment. Some of the most prominent names in the world of conservation, ecology and science conduct pro bono sessions to raise funds to support and maintain this lake. Their sessions are jam-packed and draw huge crowds. One of…

We have several group for senior citizens in our city, but today (16 Jan,2019) I attended a meet of senior citizens...the common factor between them being that their children are living in Portland, Oregon, in the western seaboard of the USA! The group, all of whom are on WhatsApp, is called "PDX BLR Friends", and is an offshoot of "PDX Seniors" in the city of Portland. The venue chosen for the morning meet was another "senior" of Basavanagudi, Vidyarthi Bhavan, which has existed since 1943. I spoke to Sri Venkatesh Rao, who had used the Metro to arrive at the…