Trawling on the net for some information, I chanced on this site that had this image:

The People’s Action Party which rules Singapore has been in power since 1959 and this unbroken continuity has enabled it to transform their country er, city actually, into a powerhouse on the global stage. Many of us surely have read about attempts to transform Bangalore into a Singapore. This is easier said than done for leader(s) with such a vision are yet to be born, perhaps. Also, the sad thing is that such a transformation cannot take place unless a paradigm shift happens in terms of our collective mindsets & thinking.
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A few days back the water purifier at home broke down. We called the service center & lodged a complaint but the service guy didn’t turn up until four days later. So in the meantime we had no option but to use the corporation water (drinking water supplied by BWSSB) directly. For someone who is so used to drinking purified water, this experience can be difficult. The tap on the ground floor was opened after a long time and immediately some indescribable sounds emanated out of it & only then the water began to flow. But the water flowed freely & with much force. Not someone who enjoys doing something like this I opened the tap completely. Within a minute or so the vessel was full. I observed the color of the water, it didn’t look clear. But we had to make do with that until the service guy showed up.
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The Government of Karnataka, Forest Dept, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, British Council, Wild Screen U.K, Vodafone, Radio Mirchi, and Epson, are together organising “Aranyam 2007- Wild Life and Environmental Film Festival” a film festival with WILD LIFE and Environment as its theme in Bangalore on 5th 6th and 7th during Wild Life Week on October 2007.

Aranyam 2007 will be held at Gurunanak Bhavan, Jasma Bhavan Road Off Millers Road Vasanth Nagar Bangalore, Karnataka, 560001. India.), Bangalore on 5th, 6th and 7th Oct 2007.

The festival will start the screenings of documentaries, animations,PSAs, music videos and feature films from 17:00 to 21:00 hrs on the 5th and 10:00 A.M to 8:30 p.m.

Aranyam is a three-day special event showing films about wildlife and nature. Films will be presented with discussions and the gathering will include consumers of eco tourism, environment organizations,wildlife organizations, forest department and documentary movie producers.
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Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, in J P Nagar/ Jayanagar (the flyover is named after the Institute) is holding an Indo-American workshop, where pacemakers will be implanted, and angioplasty with stent procedures done, all without charge, for patients who cannot afford the usual fees.

Dr Govindaraju Subramani, a surgeon from the US, is sponsoring 10 pacemakers (which cost about Rs.1.25 lakhs each). He is also willing to provide 10 stents (about Rs.50,000 each.)

So if you are aware of anyone in your locality who might need surgery and cannot afford it, ask them to get in touch with the Institute. The patient should be registered before September 28 (which leaves only 1 day and seems to be difficult to me…).

For more details, the phone no. is 22977444.

When one gets a vehicle, it is normal to get a “temporary” licence number plate before getting the actual ,permanent one. But the temporary licence plate should clearly mention that the vehicle is “for registration”.

I spotted this near Indira Nagar:

IThere are two separate sets of numbers written on that plate, (8199 or 8799 vertically, and 146 horizontally) and one of the numbers on the horizontal axis seems to be smudged from 9 to 4…if this vehicle hit someone, what on earth would the bystander take down as the number of the licence? And it looks as if it is a board where the numbers can be easily erased and re-written, from the way the 9 has been changed to a 4…

Very convenient, you can change your licence number to suit the day, date, numerology, your mood, anything at all!

Oh how we love flouting the law….

Taken on September 25th, at about 6.45 pm in the Indira Nagar area.

I had posted earlier about animal rescue shelters in Bengaluru and the good work that they are doing with rescued animals…but what is the plight of the animals which cannot be rescued, which are not ill-treated enough to be forcibly taken away from their owners, and which are yet not treated well?

Yesterday, on my way to the Channel V recording, I saw these animals near the BTM 2nd Stage area:

I was planning on calling someone at one of the animals shelters when the owner, a “dhobi” or Istrywallah, saw me and came rushing out. He told me that the animals belonged to his family and stoutly insisted that the animals were being treated very well indeed. I protested that both the donkeys were very young to carry loads…but there was no result. “Madam, you go behind the people who stone dogs and kill birds, don’t harass us,” he said, and I had to leave it at that…he probably did have a valid point. I left the two sad-looking animals rooting around in the plastic and garbage, and walked on…who knows, probably, by comparison to others, these animals ARE being treated well…?

Urban animals…life is not pleasant for many of them, and they cannot be helped, either.

On Metroblogs, several of us ensure that many topics, major and minor, serious and lighthearted, get covered. And when Channel V wanted to do a program on blogging in several cities across India, they decided to contact Metroblogs of Bengaluru, to meet the bloggers. The recording of the discussion was done yesterday.

It was quite fascinating for me to see the TV crew at work, and watch how “location” recordings are done. The equipment seemed to be really portable, unlike the heavy cameras and sound recording equipment I saw earlier with Suvarna TV.

Here are some of the members of the Channel V team:

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A long dream has turn to real, New Kannada channel “Kasturi” is set to air today!

This channel is owned by Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha Kumaraswamy and the channel is also known as first T.V.channel by a Kannadiga and for a Kannadiga.

Let’s wait and watch for the quality and quantity of the channel in the coming days.

I wish a great success for Kasturi.

Whenever we go out into the forest areas surrounding Bengaluru, especially around the Kaveri banks, we see Nature’s beauty spoilt by the unthinking trippers who leave so much of trash behind them, unmindful of what it is doing to the environment. Most of us delicately pick our way through the waste, complain bitterly,and come back resolving not to go to that particular spot again.

But not all of us do that. Some are concerned enough about the damage to the surroundings to do something about it. Some people form NGO’s and try to approach the problem from different angles.And some people, like Clean and Green, just band together as a group of volunteers, and decide that they will just clean up as much plastic as they can, when they can.

Clean and Green is just a band of volunteers, says Sandeep Chakraborti, who conceived of this idea some time ago, in the course of the angling/trekking/camping trips he organizes with his organization, Outrigor. Along with Roopa Shankaran, they have been getting together small bands of volunteers to pick up plastic trash at various places, like Sangama, Muthathi, etc. Jungle Lodges and Resorts has been very supportive of this initiative in terms of providing a place for the volunteers to rest after their labours, and provides a simple lunch to the volunteers.

But this time, Clean and Green’s hands were strengthened by Oracle, the software giant.

Oracle has the Global Volunteer Days initiative across the world every year, as part of their commitment to contribute something to the upkeep of the environment. Last year the volunteers in Bangalore had taken some underprivileged children to a resort and spent the day with them.

This year, they decided that through the NGO, Nisarga, they would work alongside Clean and Green to clean up the area around the Kaveri near Muthathi.
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As an advertising professional, I have for long reserved a certain fondness for what I call “friendly neighborhood newspapers”. Community newspapers may not figure in large-budget media plans, but certainly have a homegrown flavor that large newspapers can’t even come close to.

So how do they achieve that ?

They voice even the smallest concerns of the neighborhood. They showcase talent. They provide useful information and news. Who’s what ? Who’s where ? Who’s who ? And with some luck, if the paper features a matrimonial column, it might even set some hearts aflutter.

But the biggest feature of the community newspaper is its ability to bring people together under one small banner. It gives the residents a common platform - “space” they can call their own.
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