Civic

The road between C V Raman House and MES College is near-empty and traffic-free. This makes it an ideal location for a food street. Pic: Ramesh Sreekantan Which Malleshwaram resident is not familiar with the Chinese food stalls set up every evening on 15th Cross, between 8th Main and 10th Main? They occupy the footpath in front of Panchavati, the house of the well-known Nobel Prize winning Physicist, C V Raman. The food stalls, which started with an auto rickshaw selling `Hot hot Chinese food' in the evening, have now increased. Now there is a stall serving meals at lunchtime,…

A young mother was sitting on a bench, in a park at the heart of Bengaluru. Her two kids had some eatables on their hands in cardboard plates. In spite of them sitting very close to a ‘Use Me’ dust bin, the children scattered their plates and tissues all over the place. ‘The bin is just here child, why can’t you put them in there?’ – I said casually. She looked at me askance and looked at her mother. The mother looked at me as though I did something wrong and with an expression of annoyance said “ಯಾಕ್ ಮೇಡಮ್, ಈ…

  Museum Cross Road, a residential street at the heart of Bengaluru, used to be a road like many others in the neighbourhood. The maintenance was neglected. The old pavement was uneven, and tree roots were breaking through, cracking the pavement and creating bumps. It was an eyesore. Worse than that, it posed a danger to the residents. There weren’t even street lights to illuminate the road at night. This was the fate, until residents of the street, which is colloquially known as Museum Cross Road because it is located just off of Museum Road, decided enough was enough. The…

If you ask people about their local RWA or apartment association, they'll tell you a lot of uncharitable things. Words like 'bickering,' 'clueless,' 'no communication' etc. will dominate the response. And if you stop to think about it, you'll realise that there are a lot of parallels between this and how they think about politics and governance of the country itself. What's going on? First, solving public problems isn't the responsibility of a few people. For legal and practical reasons we have formed these things - RWAs, industry associations, religious trusts, ward committees, city councils, state legislatures, parliament - but…

Graphite India, present in Whitefield, processes graphite daily in huge quantities which releases a large amount of fine graphite soot into the atmosphere. This is fine enough for it to not be very visible, yet is breathed by, not just the Graphite India employees, but, all the daily commuters, residents and businesses around the vicinity of Graphite India. And with ITPL and other business parks in the area, daily commuters are ever increasing (with the current numbers close to almost 1.2 Lakhs per day using the road in front of Graphite India). All these citizens are exposed to this soot.…

The recent cleanup of the pedestrian subways near Cubbon Park and K R Circle at the heart of the city of Bengaluru allowed citizens to enjoy what the city’s music and art scene had to offer at a new public venue. The Bangalore Underground Festival conducted on August 17, 2014, ushered in a new trend of  public spaces being maintained by the public, for the public. The festival also brought to light an obvious, yet neglected, hence not used, pedestrian pathway around K R Circle. Art and photo exhibition was held in one of the subways, while another subway hosted…

Stop talking. Start doing. That’s the mantra more and more citizens in Bengaluru are adopting these days. The fever has now spread to corporates too. The new initiative launched on Independence Day, Adopt-a-Mile, aims to drive the cynicism towards government, into a movement of bringing in change. “I used to come to Bangalore during my summer vacation. The city was so beautiful then, but today, it has lost its beauty. We want to give back our city its beauty,” says Ananth Ramachandran, an executive working with a technology firm. The movement, started by five such people from different companies, will…

How do we build a society? The routine passage of time, and politics, makes us think that the primary post-independence goal should be to build the country. Yes and no. The nation provides a rallying point for 'us' to think about where 'we' want to be. But underlying that intent, there has to be an idea of what kind of society we want to build. Ultimately, the country's prospects will depend almost entirely on that. This is a daily, continuous question. Hoisting flags on Independence Day should ideally be a kind of milestone in that passage, not a continuous promise…

Let’s escape the din and chaos of the Bengaluru streets. Let’s go underground! Sounds nice? But who would want to go underground in Bangalore? Do you have such places which are not dark and dingy? Short answer is, yes! Sometimes it is right in front of you... but you tend to ignore it. The project Bangalore Underground aims at exploring creative and better use of the public spaces like subways. And here is the slogan: Let’s escape chaos; Let’s go underground! Curious? On August 17, just walk into one of the pedestrian subways near K R Circle, with friends and…

And we do it yet again. Your own community magazine for Bengaluru has got another award. Citizen Matters has won the Manthan South West award in the e-news and journalism category. This is the 5th award for the team, in six years.  In a packed award function at Pune on August 7th, Ganga Madappa, Citizen Matters’ Staff Journalist and Community Manager, received the trophy. The event was organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation, which has instituted the award, and Your Public Interest Registry. Ganga Madappa from Citizen Matters receiving the Manthan Award South West India - Winner, e-News & Journalism Category…