Articles by Subramaniam Vincent

The Kolaveri phenomenon still rages. Literally translated, the word means 'murderous rage', as is widely known by now. The video spawned off Kolaveri derivatives in several languages, some comical, some serious. On December 5th, BBMP was put at receiving end of at least one of them. An upset citizen and Youtube user, Debashish Ghosh shot off a video asking 'Why this Kolaveri?' of BBMP. The city corporation recently won a High Court case on it's massive tree cutting plan along Sankey Road to widen the corridor to Yeshwantpur. The video is a drive with the lush canopy of trees on…

The Kolaveri phenomenon still rages. Literally translated, the word means 'murderous rage', as is widely known by now. The video spawned off Kolaveri derivatives in several languages, some comical, some serious. On December 5th, BBMP was put at receiving end of at least one of them. An upset citizen and Youtube user, Debashish Ghosh shot off a video asking 'Why this Kolaveri?' of BBMP. The city corporation recently won a High Court case on it's massive tree cutting plan along Sankey Road to widen the corridor to Yeshwantpur. The video is a drive with the lush canopy of trees on…

Yes, we all do. After all, malls are nice places to be in. They are structured spaces, they have clean toilets, swanky floors and always running escalators. People dress nicely to ‘go to the mall’. Even the outsides of malls are paved nicely compared to our very dusty streets. So much so that youngsters - girls and boys - just love to ‘hang around’ and have fun.Everyone in our malls is usually polite. Ever seen a desi street fight break out in a mall? In the mall, we become a ‘mall public’, i.e. more civil, even as on the streets…

Yes, we all do. After all, malls are nice places to be in. They are structured spaces, they have clean toilets, swanky floors and always running escalators. People dress nicely to ‘go to the mall’. Even the outsides of malls are paved nicely compared to our very dusty streets. So much so that youngsters - girls and boys - just love to ‘hang around’ and have fun.Everyone in our malls is usually polite. Ever seen a desi street fight break out in a mall? In the mall, we become a ‘mall public’, i.e. more civil, even as on the streets…

Every year, Mothers Day comes and goes on May 7th just as Womens Day on Mar 8th. But the unwritten and unaccounted subsidy that capable, productive, educated, women provide to public life is usually forgotten.Most often, our elders get care at home from homemakers. Second, domestic help and cooks and their unpredictable schedules are 'managed' at the cost of our homemakers' time. Third, everything from receiving LPG cylinders, couriers, mail, to daycare and pre-school centre timings are run today around the premise of homemakers' availability.These assumptions about life itself will breakdown locally if more women pursued full-time work by their…

Every year, Mothers Day comes and goes on May 7th just as Womens Day on Mar 8th. But the unwritten and unaccounted subsidy that capable, productive, educated, women provide to public life is usually forgotten.Most often, our elders get care at home from homemakers. Second, domestic help and cooks and their unpredictable schedules are 'managed' at the cost of our homemakers' time. Third, everything from receiving LPG cylinders, couriers, mail, to daycare and pre-school centre timings are run today around the premise of homemakers' availability.These assumptions about life itself will breakdown locally if more women pursued full-time work by their…

BBMP's 2011 garbage tender draft is a scam. Complaining about garbage is easy. Collecting it and transporting it is tough. Citizen Matters expose of one contractor who handles a part of Bellandur ward has shown this: Contractors continue to severely and illegally underpay garbage workers and cook the books. Collection is very irregular and some areas are left out completely. New residents are ignored. With no other choice, citizens, who are themselves not very civic minded, start dumping garbage in vacant sites and outside roads, unwilling as they are to chase down a contractor with no name and no face.…

BBMP's 2011 garbage tender draft is a scam. Complaining about garbage is easy. Collecting it and transporting it is tough. Citizen Matters expose of one contractor who handles a part of Bellandur ward has shown this: Contractors continue to severely and illegally underpay garbage workers and cook the books. Collection is very irregular and some areas are left out completely. New residents are ignored. With no other choice, citizens, who are themselves not very civic minded, start dumping garbage in vacant sites and outside roads, unwilling as they are to chase down a contractor with no name and no face.…

It was a preventable fire that took nine lives and injured scores of others. On February 23rd, the Beyond Carlton trust, co-founded by a parent of one of nine who died in the Carlton Towers fire, conducted its memorial service at Manipal Hospital Auditorium. Shankar Bidari should have attended this memorial service. Not just in honour of the people who lost their lives, but in honour of the high-minded notification he issued in March 2010, just a week after the tragedy. Bidari in an exercise of police power unseen in Bangalore till then, had asked owners and leasers of all…

It was a preventable fire that took nine lives and injured scores of others. On February 23rd, the Beyond Carlton trust, co-founded by a parent of one of nine who died in the Carlton Towers fire, conducted its memorial service at Manipal Hospital Auditorium. Shankar Bidari should have attended this memorial service. Not just in honour of the people who lost their lives, but in honour of the high-minded notification he issued in March 2010, just a week after the tragedy. Bidari in an exercise of police power unseen in Bangalore till then, had asked owners and leasers of all…