Environment

When I was a kid, every so often, something in the house would go kaput, many a time, because my brother or I felt the need to meddle with it. Living in a remote area in the Nilgiris meant that we would have to wait to get it fixed till we travelled to town. My father would try disassembling and assembling to fix that VCR or whatever small item that was acting up. The times have changed though. But in a changing environment, where people don't have the time to go to a service centre or more often, find nobody…

Music from Kannada films continue to be very popular, despite media coverage of the challenged state of the Kannada film industry.Much of the credit has to go to music directors who continue to innovate, by combining elements of classical music with fast-paced rhythm and lyrics that appeal to the masses. Movie songs are seldom based on a single raga and often are a mix of several ragas. Let's explore some Kannada movie songs that are based on Indian classical ragas. Hamsageethe was a ground-breaking movie that featured classical music from Shyama Shastri's compositions to Jayadeva's Ashtapathis. The movie was based on the…

Naziah sitting in her house, narrating her story. Pic: Kabir Khan My mother left me in Bengaluru under the care of my uncle. He worked in a Government office. Later, he asked my family to move to Bengaluru as there were more employment opportunities in the city. He managed to get us a hut to stay. My family shifted here but we didn’t have any money for food. I was seven or eight years old then—the eldest among all my siblings. We picked vegetables from riverside and sold it for Rs 7 or 8, with which I purchased dal (pulses) and…

Halanayanahalli- off Sarjapur road is like many other parts of the city depends on groundwater for water needs. Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Center (KSNDMC) has put up a weather station at the Halanayakanahalli Gram Panchayat Office. We obtained the rainfall data from KSNDMC and here are the results... 878.5 mm from April to October 2015. Wonder, how much the total would be if November rainfall data is added.   Month Rainfall (mm) Rainfall days Highest rainfall event (mm) April 111.5 12 28.5 May 73.5 10 20 June 120 18 44.5 July 55.5 12 29 August 186.5 15 45.5 September 171.5 12…

The unprecedented heavy rains of the past few weeks has exposed the vulnerabilty of our erstwhile "City of Lakes" yet again... the vulnerability to flooding, primarily due to haphazard growth and inappropriate land use changes. The filling up of several lakes and the exploitation of the ones left back, coupled with similar mistreatment of the land in the immediate vicinity of their catchment areas has had undesired effects on Bangalore.     Mahadevpura Parisara Samrakshane Mattu Abhivrushi Samiti (MAPSAS) has been working very hard over the past few years to keep Kasavanahalli and Kaikondarahalli lakes, among others, alive and thriving. The…

Can't find a clean public toilet? Consider using a vacant plot. Civic sense? What on earth is that?  Vacant plots in our city are considered as nothing but garbage dump yards.  And if they are under litigation, they are ignored by the concerned parties for obvious reasons. The civic authorities don’t seem to care, and irresponsible citizens and commercial establishments like hotels and pubs begin disposing their waste in these sites in the wee hours of the night or early mornings; sometimes even in broad daylight. This empty plot has become a garbage dump over the years. Pic: Praveen S…

Inviting nature lovers to plant 300 saplings at Kasavanahalli Lake.  This is the fourteenth lake where SayTrees will be doing tree plantation. Join this vibrant tree-planting group in its effort to increase the green cover of Bangalore and also save our lakes.  Date : 21st November 2015 Time : 8:30 A.M. Venue : Kasavanahalli Lake, Harlur Road Contact : Durgesh @ 9008659007   Please register at: http://bit.ly/1WYZNx1    

Update from People's Campaign for Right to Water-Karnataka <cawpka@gmail.com> 24th Nov 2015 The National Law School of India University & The People’s campaign for Right to Water invites you to a brain storming on   EVOLVING ROBUST LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SAFEGUARDS FOR SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF WATER BODIES  10 AM to 1 PM 26 November 2015at the National Law School of India University, Nagarbhavi Bangalore The discussants includeShri. Ranjan Chatterjee IAS, Expert Member of National Green TribunalProf. Ramesh, NLSIUProf. Sairam Bhat, NLSIUShri. Ramacharya Puranik, Deputy Director, LDAShri. Rajendran Prabhakar, PCRW – Karnataka The brain storming is being held to collectively and urgently address the issue of the…

Temperature is dipping down to 16 degrees. Gone are the days when the sun scorched at 40 degrees - 22 degree is the hottest part of the day now. The weather almost makes it feel like old-time Bangalore. Gloomy sky. Drizzles throughout the day and night. Heavy downpour by the time you leave office. Water logs, traffic jams. This is the typical rainy season in Bengaluru, though rains gave us a miss during the South West monsoon in May - June. This November, the incessant rain that soaked Bengalureans has broken the all-time record. As on November 19th morning, the…

The wise woman at Lalbagh. Pic: Ashok Kumar S This happened one sunny Saturday afternoon in Lalbagh. It was all green everywhere. Trees swayed all around me, a gentle breeze blew, birds chirped, squirrels ran down trees and grasshoppers hopped on the green grass. I saw an old woman squatting down on a less-walked road in the park, plastic cover in hand, looking down at something. At first, I thought she was picking up tamarind, as there are a number of tamarind trees in the garden. I tilted my head and looked above to check if there was a tamarind…