city

Here is a short video Abhisheka Gopal and a few of her friends made, about the Malleswaram Central Library:     Do send feedback to abhishekagopal@gmail.com

Here is a short video Abhisheka Gopal and a few of her friends made, about the Malleswaram Central Library:     Do send feedback to abhishekagopal@gmail.com

Playing with tops ia a boys' sport and pastime  in India. This is not a sexist statement, it quite simply is so; I have not seen girls playing with tops, from my childhood, till date. As I grew up, I found that there was a season for tops (referred to as "lattu" in Hindi and Bengali), much as there was a season for marbles, kite-flying, cricket, football, and gilli-danda. Tops came traditionally as wooden globes, with nails sticking out of them. Thin ropes were wound round and round the lower part of the top, which had grooves to accommodate the…

Playing with tops ia a boys' sport and pastime  in India. This is not a sexist statement, it quite simply is so; I have not seen girls playing with tops, from my childhood, till date. As I grew up, I found that there was a season for tops (referred to as "lattu" in Hindi and Bengali), much as there was a season for marbles, kite-flying, cricket, football, and gilli-danda. Tops came traditionally as wooden globes, with nails sticking out of them. Thin ropes were wound round and round the lower part of the top, which had grooves to accommodate the…

Bangalore enters the summer with the flowering of the Pink Poui (Tababuia rosea)...you can see here about Tabebuia. Watch out for these blooms on many roads, and especially at the Jayanagar Shopping Complex!

Bangalore enters the summer with the flowering of the Pink Poui (Tababuia rosea)...you can see here about Tabebuia. Watch out for these blooms on many roads, and especially at the Jayanagar Shopping Complex!

A few months ago when I started writing this blog, I wanted to call it Everyday City and had tried to put down as simple a blog description as I could. I had said it was about ‘observing how the everyday life of the city influences its urban spaces’. Today, I want to go a bit further on this. To begin with, what is meant by ‘everyday life’? In a workshop on Urban Studies that I attended last week, we were told that to think deeper about a research question, one could explore it in terms of ‘contrast’. So, if…

A few months ago when I started writing this blog, I wanted to call it Everyday City and had tried to put down as simple a blog description as I could. I had said it was about ‘observing how the everyday life of the city influences its urban spaces’. Today, I want to go a bit further on this. To begin with, what is meant by ‘everyday life’? In a workshop on Urban Studies that I attended last week, we were told that to think deeper about a research question, one could explore it in terms of ‘contrast’. So, if…

Recently, I had an occasion to travel on a couple of very long journeys (Bangalore to Guwahati and back, and Bangalore to Ahmedabad and back). The Indian Railways had just raised the price of all food and beverages sold on the trains. I'll take one example, where I found that vendors are resorting to unethical practices, and cheating passengers of their money. We were told that tea and coffee were now to cost Rs.10, and though we grumbled, there is really no alternative to the vendors on the train, and we paid up. We were surprised, the next day, to…

Recently, I had an occasion to travel on a couple of very long journeys (Bangalore to Guwahati and back, and Bangalore to Ahmedabad and back). The Indian Railways had just raised the price of all food and beverages sold on the trains. I'll take one example, where I found that vendors are resorting to unethical practices, and cheating passengers of their money. We were told that tea and coffee were now to cost Rs.10, and though we grumbled, there is really no alternative to the vendors on the train, and we paid up. We were surprised, the next day, to…