October, 2016 Citizen Matters, Blogs

Is Deepavali without crackers an oxymoron?

October 27, 2016 Pravir Bagrodia

Pic: Shree D N Diwali or Deepavali, literally a row of lamps, is just round the corner. Spread over five days, it is the biggest festival for our family and our community. The biggest festivities are reserved for amavasya or

Partnering with Canadian varsity to report on urban resilience

October 26, 2016 News Desk

It’s yet another milestone in the journey of Oorvani Foundation. You may have read about our joint initiative with Radio Active Community Radio 90.8 MHz – Co Media Lab. The community media lab serves as

Metro route to airport needs surveys, not just opinions

October 25, 2016 Ashwin Mahesh

Metro has sought public input on which of the different lines – existing as well as proposed – should be extended to the airport. I’m sure many people will give their input, but there are

Pool Circle completes full circle

October 20, 2016 Pravir Bagrodia

Two days after the launch of the Whitefield Rising Pool Circle Initiative, Ashish (the ride giver) and Pravir (the ride sharer) car-pooled from Whitefield to Domlur on the morning of 19th October. Although their residences,

Where the wild things are

October 20, 2016 Sumanth Bindumadhav

Every city, even giant metropolises like Bengaluru, still have a few patches of green, blue or brown that have managed to survive or at least allay the formidable onslaught of concrete and glass. Look carefully

How tough the process of getting a duplicate licence is!

October 19, 2016 Deepa Mohan

Day before yesterday (22nd June, 2016) my driving licence (along with many other cards and quite a lot of cash, but that’s another story) was stolen. The website told me, I needed to get a

Yakshagana…on the streets?

October 16, 2016 Deepa Mohan

On the 15th of October, 2016, as my friends and I were returning from a nature and birding trip to Nandi Hills, we saw these Yakshagana artistes on the road back (which is also the

When an Indian Pitta goes to IIM-Bangalore!

October 15, 2016 Deepa Mohan

Earlier this year, in February, a group of friends and I had conducted a bird survey in the campus of IIM-Bangalore. At that time, the Dean of Administration, Prof. G Shainesh, and his famkily, keenly

BESCOM’s instructions, and why they are tough to follow

October 13, 2016 Deepa Mohan

I am told that I can pay my BESCOM bill online, if I know my Customer ID or the Account ID, which, according to BESCOM, is printed on my bill. <a href=”http://bescom.org/en/know-your-customer-id-or-account-id/”> here </a>

The Donald

October 10, 2016 Ritvik Mandyam

A few months ago, on my other blog, I wrote a post about Donald Trump, making less-than-gentle fun of the man. At the time, he didn’t seem like much of a threat. I was fairly

The plastic ban in Karnataka – a boon for animals

October 7, 2016 Sumanth Bindumadhav

Cattles die from eating plastic. While plastic may seem almost indispensable in our daily lives, we tend to remain oblivious to the harm that we cause to animals and the environment by using this material

Trashonomics 101 – Ward level waste management

October 5, 2016 Seema Sharma

October 2nd was Gandhi’s birth anniversary and a reminder of his vision of Clean India. Our Prime Minister Modi revived the dream two years back on this day by launching Swacch Bharat Mission. We at Bellandur

Why right processes matter in city planning

October 5, 2016 Ashwin Mahesh

In well-planned cities, the government makes the plans and the builders respond to that with project proposals – to build residential communities, commercial facilities, and so on. In our cities, the builders and individual plot

Recognize contributions of wastepickers in new urban agenda

October 4, 2016 Kabir Khan

Indira, wastepicker from Bengaluru, made a passionate plea to world governments for recognizing contributions of wastepickers in ‘New Urban Agenda‘ during an event organized on the sidelines of United Nations (UN) Habitat III Prepcom at

“I want children to study”

October 4, 2016 News Desk

Written by Sowbhagya and translated from Kannada to English by Devaki Samuel It’s been twenty years since I started working as community organizer. I started as a teacher for children of 3-6 years of age.