Civic

An Act that entrusts commoners with the authority to question the government and its actions. The only legislation that stipulates a response time of 30 days (48 hours in the case of human rights violations). A fairly inclusive law that was created with the involvement of social workers, ordinary people, non-governmental, community based and grassroots organizations.We learnt this and more during an invigorating session on the "Introduction to Right to Information Act" that lasted three hours and a half (an hour longer than originally planned) and left us hungry for more. Organized by the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) in…

Trees being felled or the remains of cut trees have sadly become an increasingly common sight in the garden city of Bangalore nowadays. Some of us have questioned, protested or expressed our indignation in various ways at these appalling and often baseless actions by the government. A few have tried to compensate this loss by planting trees elsewhere after ensuring feasibility. Such indiscriminate tree felling that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) 'authorities' have undertaken irked Vikram Simha, a well known Right to Information (RTI) activist in Bangalore with the Mahiti Hakku Adhyan Kendra (MHAK) and a lover of trees.…

Trees being felled or the remains of cut trees have sadly become an increasingly common sight in the garden city of Bangalore nowadays. Some of us have questioned, protested or expressed our indignation in various ways at these appalling and often baseless actions by the government. A few have tried to compensate this loss by planting trees elsewhere after ensuring feasibility. Such indiscriminate tree felling that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) 'authorities' have undertaken irked Vikram Simha, a well known Right to Information (RTI) activist in Bangalore with the Mahiti Hakku Adhyan Kendra (MHAK) and a lover of trees.…

Almost every other week, outside my office on Sarjapur Road, I see an elderly gentleman stopping by a tree in the morning, to relieve himself.  A Nirmala Shauchalaya stands barely 100 metres away from this recipient tree. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget ambitiously speaks about a lot that the city needs - storm water drains, flyovers, underpasses, parks, playgrounds - so on and so forth. A lot of criticism has gone the way of the budget, pooh-poohing the amount of loans that the corporation is planning to take and slamming the massive revenue projections. Plans have been made…

Almost every other week, outside my office on Sarjapur Road, I see an elderly gentleman stopping by a tree in the morning, to relieve himself.  A Nirmala Shauchalaya stands barely 100 metres away from this recipient tree. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget ambitiously speaks about a lot that the city needs - storm water drains, flyovers, underpasses, parks, playgrounds - so on and so forth. A lot of criticism has gone the way of the budget, pooh-poohing the amount of loans that the corporation is planning to take and slamming the massive revenue projections. Plans have been made…

I went for a short walk just now...and here are the things I did....I went across to the "Samatha" cobbler's booth across the road, and found that after 6 days, the cobbler was still absent, and the booth closed. After the closure of the booth where my "regular" lady cobbler used to repair my footwear and handbags...this man was my "regular" guy. Strangely, no other vendor in the area knows where he has gone, or what has happened to him...he's a hard-working guy (though sometimes the smell of liquor wafts across!) and does good work, so I  hope he's just…

I went for a short walk just now...and here are the things I did....I went across to the "Samatha" cobbler's booth across the road, and found that after 6 days, the cobbler was still absent, and the booth closed. After the closure of the booth where my "regular" lady cobbler used to repair my footwear and handbags...this man was my "regular" guy. Strangely, no other vendor in the area knows where he has gone, or what has happened to him...he's a hard-working guy (though sometimes the smell of liquor wafts across!) and does good work, so I  hope he's just…

I posted once about the Monkey Puzzle Tree with its beautiful leaves (go see the huge trees near the Glass House  in Lalbagh, if you can!)and later, I got theMonkey Puzzle Butterfly amongst other things, on a nature trail:A few days ago, it was very nice to see that someone still cares about our Bangalore heritage, and has re-created the Monkey Puzzle architectural detail for their home:Possibly this feature was so called because monkeys used to sit on it...it's also called "Monkey Top".

I posted once about the Monkey Puzzle Tree with its beautiful leaves (go see the huge trees near the Glass House  in Lalbagh, if you can!)and later, I got theMonkey Puzzle Butterfly amongst other things, on a nature trail:A few days ago, it was very nice to see that someone still cares about our Bangalore heritage, and has re-created the Monkey Puzzle architectural detail for their home:Possibly this feature was so called because monkeys used to sit on it...it's also called "Monkey Top".

When is a footpath not a footpath?When it's a death-trap....There is simply no reason why we should have such awful pavements; it's just sheer negligence and an attitude of "don't care".This was taken in J P Nagar 3rd Phase, close to the Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind. If we have such difficulty negotiating our roads and pavements....imagine what it must be like for those without vision.⊕