Society

Holidays and broke teenagers don’t quite fit together, more so during summer. With the scorching heat and sweat dripping down our faces, getting annoyed was pretty easy. Bengaluru certainly made living easier in some ways, but not if you weren’t ready to pay for it. Every time I wanted to catch a movie, I’d pay Rs 150 or 200 at a single-screen theatre because I couldn’t pay up for a multiplex. So was my story with Rex theatre in Brigade Road. 'Logan' had just come out, starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine for the last time. Despite not having followed or…

“Ardambarda astrology kaltu, Aptamitra Avinash range-ige build up kodtarappa!” (“Barely knows any astrology, but portrays himself as Avinash from Aptamitra movie”) says Sudarshan in one of his gigs, warning the audience to stay away from the astrologer uncle at family events. Bengaluru has been a stand-up comedy hub for about a decade now, with artists from various backgrounds performing in English and Hindi. This is not surprising as the city is home to people from across India. But modern comedy in Kannada was not popular here till a few years back. Traditionally, in local art-forms like Yakshagana, 'Vidushakas' or comedians…

The Fort High School in Chamarajpet, built in 1907, has lain dilapidated for years. Its alumni include freedom fighter H S Doresamy, cricketer G R Vishwanath, and even the former King of Mysore Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar. Sometime back, authorities even "repaired" the school in places with vitrified tiles, completely ignoring its importance as a heritage structure. Last year, the non-profit INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) took up a project to restore the building to its original state. It took about eight years for INTACH to document the building, get permission from DPI (Department of Public Instruction) to…

In mid Feb 2019, we were shocked to observe a very old tree having been cut down on Whitefield Main Road. The construction behind seemed ominously like the reason for the felling. Having seen other beautiful old trees been felled as mercilessly, we decided to take action this time and filed a Case.  Turns out that the Forest Department had themselves felled it citing disease. We had the well known Vijay Nishanth come and inspect the tree stump and declare that clearly this was not a diseased tree that needed cutting. We also investigated by asking people living right next…

India is in the middle of Lok Sabha elections, and the entire nation is in the throes of emotional upheavals ranging from hope to despair, wrath to apathy, and a general heightened level of excitement. Every election brings hope to millions who believe their fortunes would turn around at least this time, but it has remained a gambler’s fallacy every time. Factors such as a young and rapidly-growing working-age population, increasing education and engineering skill levels that enhance growth of the manufacturing sector, and a growing middle-class that offers sustained growth of the consumer market, are factors that have propelled…

I have been fortunate to be associated with two great noble minds in my life. K S Padmanabhan and S Muthiah. I joined Mr Padmanabhan’s EastWest Books in my early 20s. EastWest started operations in Madras at that time dealing with distribution of general and technical books, which later on took several ‘avatars’ and is now Westland Publications, a part of Amazon. During my tenure with the company, I came in contact with Mr Muthiah whose book Madras Discovered was published by EastWest, first as a small booklet and then on to a much larger edition with historical facts and…

The Graphite India #AirPollution campaign - NGT upholds KSPCB CLOSURE order from 2012!  Following the Supreme Court order, where Graphite India was recognized as a polluter under the Polluter Pays Principal, the complainants continued their case in the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The hearing was on Monday, Jan 28th, 2019. The four judge bench listened to the complainants' side of the story, poured over the Appellate Authority ruling from 2013, and fully overturned it! The Principal Bench of NGT called the majority opinion of the appellate court ‘presumptuous’, and instead accepted the dissenting judgment, which pinned pollution on Graphite India. Dissenting Judge Lawrence…

Does your maid experience any violence at home? Maybe it is not violence but just abuse? Or alcoholism ? Is your co-worker struggling to make sense of her spiraling marriage? Is your neighbor feeling unwanted, disrespected or manipulated? We finally have an answer after years of not being able to effectively help women reaching out to us having experienced violence of some sort. The term violence seems to suggest physical harm - but emotional and mental harm are equally harmful and people need to be helped. It is to address this very issue that we have begun helping an increasing…

Community Awareness and Outreach March was the month of many firsts for Bembala. Bembala’s community outreach initiative “Bol Sakhi” organized its first event with nearly 30 Pournakarmikas (street sweepers) and an awareness talk with the parents at the Samriddhi Trust Bridge School. We also had our first pop up at Indus International School -Bangalore (IISB) Bol Sakhi was a heartwarming gathering where the volunteer survivors shared their own stories, which highlighted different forms of abuse creating awareness. This forged a connect that women’s experiences of violence cuts across all socio-economic barriers and encouraged the ladies to empathize and share their thoughts on abuse…