Society

Festive season is also marriage season in the city? How does Bangalore’s urban, professional crowd find that perfect match when it comes to an arranged marriage? Citizen Matters checked some trends. You may expect a 31-year-old man to have his own checklist when it comes to selecting a prospective bride. Yes, Suresh Kumar (name changed) does, but along with conditions like she should be a working woman, well educated and good conversationalist, comes another point added by his mother: the caste and community should match. It’s one of the reasons Suresh, who’s registered on a number of online sites, jokes…

When was the last time you saw at least 70 different characters (could be more if one actually counted!), not to mention other things like vehicles, tables, houses and more  on one sheet of paper, with each character minutely detailed with suitable clothes, accessories, postures & expressions?  Not to mention having you in splits at the same time! If you are a resident of Bangalore and your answer is ‘in the past couple of weeks’, I am sure that you are one of those lucky to have visited the exhibition of Mario de Miranda’s works that is currently on at…

Be it Sachin Tendulkar fainting in his hotel room after dinner or Harbhajan Singh slapping his team mate, a huge furrow over cheer leaders or TV channels discussing T20 over one day matches, cricket finds its way to the top stories of the day anyhow. The second in league should be Tennis with talks about Sania Mirza's engagement party or rift between two senior players. But rarely do we hear about certain karate championship or find these champions during the prestigious Rajeev Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards. “We mostly stay in places (government schools, temple compounds, etc) where there are no…

Most of the times, injuries while bursting crackers occur because of no supervision, misuse of crackers, device failure and so on. Injuries may also result from being too close to fireworks when they explode. For example, when you lean over to look more closely if a firework has been lit or if a bottle rocket hits a nearby person. The types of fireworks that generally cause injuries are flower pots or fountains, sparklers, bombs, rockets and sky shots. Precautions and safety measuresBuy fireworks from licensed and reputed manufacturers only. Ask the shopkeeper for his license given by the city police.…

It’s that time of the year when, everywhere you look, you see gaily wrapped boxes of dry fruits and mithai. With Diwali coming up and plenty of options available, customers are spoilt for choice. Pic: Theresa Varghese. Here's we found in some of the most frequented sweet shops in the city. Adyar Ananda Bhavan, 80 Feet Road, 7th Block, Koramangala A well known name that has people flocking to its many franchises, this outlet always has customers tucking into the tasty snacks and strong coffee it offers. No doubt, Adyar Ananda Bhavan has its loyal clientele but here, the name…

The smell of sulphur wafting through the air, the night-sky filled with beautiful firework displays, constant sounds of bombs being blown – crackers are an integral part of the hindu festival Diwali, or Deepavali as it is termed in  some parts of south India. The Late A Chelladurai, General Director of the Sivakasi-headquartered Standard Fireworks Ltd., once wrote, “At no time was there or is there a product that has contributed more to relaxation, merriment and enjoyment - both for young and old alike. Let us enjoy fireworks!”  But unlike a decade ago, when this was a sight only during…

Citizen Matters was present at the Sneha Sante event, with a spot drawing contest for children and also encouraged visitors of all ages to share their thoughts about the city. Sneha Sante was organised by Bangalore Cares, a non profit group, on 27th and 28th September 2009, at H N Kalakshetra, National College, Jayanagar. The event combined a charity bazaar and a programme of cultural events, Here are some thoughts people shared. A city full of people with good intentions! And it’s great that a lot of them actually carry out their intentions.Maha KumarBe kind to animals it is their…

On 27th and 28th September 2009, Bangalore Cares, a non profit group organised "Sneha Sante", an event that combines a charity bazaar and a programme of cultural events, at H N Kalakshetra, National College, Jayanagar. Citizen Matters was present at the event with a spot drawing contest for children on the theme, "My street". Here are the drawings of the two groups, children aged eight years or below and those nine years and above. Scroll below to vote for your favourite.  Here are the drawings in group A, comprising of children aged eight years or below. A1 A2 A3 A4 A5…

Dasara or Navarathri is celebrated by different communities in different ways. In Bangalore, many families celebrate Gombe Habba (festival of dolls) by arranging dolls, new and old. This is also called bombe koorisodu, bombe kolus, bommala kolu, and the dolls are usually made of clay or wood, and nowadays with Plaster of Paris (PoP). The tradition has passed on from generation to generation, and is accompanied by a variety of customs, pujas, story-telling and food. Tableaux depicting a scene from Ramayana, created by Soumya Srikanth. Pic: Deepti Sarma. Patronised by the Mysore maharajas, and with a large number of doll…

Goonj, a voluntary organisation, is initiating Vastra Samman (dignifying clothing), a pan-India campaign, to collect about one crore units of material in the 'Joy of Giving Week' being celebrated across India from 27th September to 3rd October.Goonj will use the collected material as resource under 'Cloth for Work' for development activities in the villages, school material and toys to support rural or slum schools and anganwadis; and useless cloth to make mats, school bags and the entire cotton waste material to be converted into sanitary napkins. Collection CentresSmitha Anand, BTM 2nd Stage,  Ph: 9986213181, 9 AM to 10 PM Jennifer…