Environment

At the outskirts of Bangalore, many small-scale vendors try to beat the middlemen by selling direct-to-consumer....First one sees one basket of custard apples...Then a few..Then a few more...And if one takes the larger view, one can see that it is definitely custard apple season now, all down the road!I wonder..when the baskets are arrayed in serried ranks like that...is there a cartel that dictates the minimum price? How can the sellers hope to get a reasonable margin on their fruit? And an interesting point about those baskets is, they seem to be made from lantana twigs...surely a good use of…

Some years ago, all of us had to bear with the roads, and sidewalks too, getting dug up for various reasons; one of them was OFC. "OFC"! said the little concrete signposts said, that came up later on the spot. OFC stood for Optic Fibre Cable; this was going to be the cable that would make Bangalore the city of the future, with internet connectivity everywhere.Then there were reports in the newspaper that there were only the pipes laid down; the actual optic fibre cable itself was missing. "Ah!" we breathed; it was nothing new to Bangalore to have something…

Some years ago, all of us had to bear with the roads, and sidewalks too, getting dug up for various reasons; one of them was OFC. "OFC"! said the little concrete signposts said, that came up later on the spot. OFC stood for Optic Fibre Cable; this was going to be the cable that would make Bangalore the city of the future, with internet connectivity everywhere.Then there were reports in the newspaper that there were only the pipes laid down; the actual optic fibre cable itself was missing. "Ah!" we breathed; it was nothing new to Bangalore to have something…

I was walking along the "80 ft Ring Road" (I still don't know the name of this road, that goes from the Silk Board along Ragigudda up to Kanakapura Road!), when I saw how this tree had been revered, and a small shrine built to it: Trees (Pic: Deepa Mohan)It was good to see that some trees are still held in such reverence; but in these days of road-widening and tree-felling, I could not help wishing that the BBMP adopted the same attitude towards the beautiful living beings that give us shade, oxygen, shelter, beauty, and a home to several…

I was walking along the "80 ft Ring Road" (I still don't know the name of this road, that goes from the Silk Board along Ragigudda up to Kanakapura Road!), when I saw how this tree had been revered, and a small shrine built to it: Trees (Pic: Deepa Mohan)It was good to see that some trees are still held in such reverence; but in these days of road-widening and tree-felling, I could not help wishing that the BBMP adopted the same attitude towards the beautiful living beings that give us shade, oxygen, shelter, beauty, and a home to several…