Society

On a day Karnataka’s Covid number crossed 50k, with 50% of it coming from Bengaluru alone, the attention was else where. All thanks to the sting operation conducted by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, MLAs Ravi Subramanya, Satish Reddy and Uday Garudachar, all from the ruling party, on 4th May 2021. Was anyone surprised that there was corruption in bed allocation? I wasn’t. Was corruption really the focus of the sting operation? You tell me. Seventeen workers out of the 206 employed in the COVID war room were fired for being Muslim. A smear campaign Among the arrested so far, a…

School seems a memory of the remote past. The play dates have stopped too. Add to it a general sense of foreboding, constant restrictions and in some cases, illness and death witnessed in very close circles. Children, both my own and among friends and family I've spoken to, are terrified with what's going on. They're also lost and confused. First, they're afraid of catching the virus themselves. My 8-year old keeps smelling things all day to ensure he hasn't lost his sense of smell. If he feels hot (it's summer), he asks us to take his temperature. If his legs…

Several civil society organisations and individuals on Thursday, called upon the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to act against four elected representatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party who, in the name of exposing a scam in BBMP's bed-allocation for COVID patients, had targeted Muslims working in the relief effort. The demanded that Bengaluru South Member of Parliament Tejasvi Surya, Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya, Chickpet MLA Uday Garudachar and Bommanahalli MLA Satish Reddy be made to apologise for their actions and compensate Rs 50,000 to each of the targeted 16 muslim employees of a private firm drafted by the BBMP in…

Coronavirus is devastating and many families have lost multiple members due to the infection. We are seeing many young people losing lives. We have a recommendation for parents with young children. Please make a plan for your child/children if and when you fall sick. Identify family or friends in the community, or in the city, who will take care of them, even if your child is suspected to have COVID and needs care-taking. That means that the care-giver should not have elderly parents or co-morbidities which would not allow them to offer this support. Tough as it may be, do…

Scrambling between a COVID-positive mother and a COVID-positive father, I was getting exhausted. Given the deluge of cases and the shortage of beds in Delhi's hospitals, we had decided to home quarantine, but I was now wondering if it had been a good idea. My father's oxygen levels had started dropping. The doctor told me not to get anxious. Oxygen levels do fluctuate, but if we could get an oxygen concentrator at home it would relieve some of the tension. The oxygen situation in the hospitals was anyway uncertain, and with several friends and family members in other houses also…

For three-and-a-half-year-old Aadi (name changed) with cerebral palsy, a good book - Thottu Paru Poochi - was all it took to direct his boisterous energy into reading. Despite it being the first book he was ever introduced to, Aadi engaged with it immediately, and after a few readings, he was turning the pages independently on his screen reader and attempting to vocalize the sounds. Reading tends to have that effect - simultaneously teaching and entertaining, giving delight, enticing the reader to persist, to explore and experiment.  The birth of ARM For many like Aadi, accessible libraries are the only gateway…

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the country amidst rising COVID cases and states resorting to lockdowns, curfews and more to contain its spread.  As a young person, I was drawn toward one statement from the speech: "I call upon the youth of India to form small committees and help in COVID administration in their areas. If that happens, the government will not have to put containment zones or lockdowns..."  The PM's comment made me ask myself: are Bengaluru’s youth totally disconnected from social realities? Are they doing nothing about this health crisis? The answer is a resounding NO.…

In 1997, Stephen Webber, a professor of music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music, proposed teaching a course in turntablism. What DJs were doing with turntables had opened his eyes to a new musical frontier. But when he proposed teaching the course, Berklee denied. He tried two more times but he was denied on both occasions. Webber explained to the college that turntablism and hip hop was a crucial part of culture. “If we plan to be relevant in academia, we have to address it [hip hop] and learn about it ourselves,” he tried saying. In 2003,…

What is your last name? Do you eat meat? These are questions often asked while renting a house in Bengaluru. While they seem innocent on the surface, these questions enable owners to ascertain caste which, in turn, controls their decision on whether or not to take them on as tenants. “If you are not from the dominant caste, they will delicately backtrack and state how there was a misunderstanding and they did not intend to rent the house at all” says Bengaluru-based author Vijetha, remembering how her mother would cook fish in their Basavanagudi home and light agarbattis to camouflage…

Recently, the Delhi government reduced the legal age for alcohol consumption from 25 to 21. The government also approved a new excise policy allowing the opening of more liquor stores in the national capital.  In India, the business of manufacture, sale and consumption of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) remains one of the most regulated domains with rules varying from state to state. In this article, we try to explain the laws and rules that govern the sale and consumption of alcohol . The business of liquor  As per the Indian Constitution, Item number 51 in the state list, which…