Human interest

Badly-injured bull rescued by the residents of HSR Layout!

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injured bull

By Aratrika Dey ‘Nandi’ as he has been endearingly named, was rescued by the residents of HSR Layout. On November 26, resident Prabha Bhaktaram found him bleeding profusely around his head. It was right in front of her house in Sector 4, and she immediately took action.   “I started making calls to CUPA (Compassion Unlimited … Read more

‘Self rule’ outside Bengaluru since 1960; Janapada Seva Trust’s Gandhian success story

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janapada seva trust

By Aratrika Dey The real India resides in the villages. Just three hours drive from Bengaluru stands Melukote where one organisation has been applying Gandhian principles to create an equitable society and promote sustainable living. From rehabilitating abandoned children, sustaining livelihoods of dozens of families, educating the local children and adults, and restoring local forests, … Read more

COVID-19: How scuba diving lessons are helping me during the pandemic

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Neha Contractor

By Neha Contractor In May 2020, I returned to Bangalore from the Andamans as the island was shutting down due to COVID-19. Before this, I had quit my corporate job and spent all of 2019 learning more about the ocean and teaching scuba. I was able to dive whenever I could. On my days off, … Read more

Lockdown adoptions: Hamsters spin the wheel!

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hamster

By Qamar ZJ During COVID-19, pet owners have risen in number. And hamsters are proving to be particularly popular as they are low-maintenance and can take care of themselves in their all-purpose cage with a spinning wheel for company. This particular video of a hamster on his own treadmill of sorts will win many hearts. … Read more

‘Moral policing’ in Agara Lake, actress Samyuktha Hegde protests

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samyuktha hegde

By Qamar ZJ On Friday evening, actress Samyuktha Hegde was stopped from doing her usual fitness exercises and flowing the hoops at Agara Lake. She was accused of obscenity for wearing a sports bra and practising hoola hoops. In the fracas that followed, one person threatened her, and park caretaker Kavitha Reddy called her three-member … Read more

COVID-19: Diary of a social worker and adventurer

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Kavitha Reddy

By Kavitha Reddy Thanks to COVID-19, life has come to a standstill since March 15. Fortunately, the last event of Kaagaz Foundation was the Women’s Day Run and it was indeed the last ‘running’ event since March 8 in Bengaluru. For over 47 days, beginning with March 28,, the non-profit organization run by me and … Read more

COVID-19: Pet owners rise in number, and so do abandoned pets!

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pet lovers

By Ritika Srivatsan COVID-19 is proving to be a gamechanger for pet adoption. Ever since the pandemic reared its ugly head, there’s a spike in new pet parents. Vets are not available on video calls as they are completely occupied with physical visits by patients. There are long queues at pet clinics, which is unlike … Read more

COVID-19: House helps facing troubled times

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bangalore maids

By Ritika Srivatsan Everyone is affected by the coronavirus, but the most impacted are the underprivileged, such as house helps. They blame the government and the BBMP for the mess. Some are living hand-to-mouth, while others are thankful to their employers for paying them even when they are unemployable. The other house helps are unhappy … Read more

Parents of Bangalore’s first Bicycle Mayor injured in ‘city of cars, not people’

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sathya sankaran's father
Parents of Bangalore's first Bicycle Mayor injured in 'city of cars, not people' 2
Parents of Bangalore's first Bicycle Mayor injured in 'city of cars, not people' 3
Pictures courtesy: Sathya Sankaran

By Qamar ZJ

Despite cries for pedestrian-friendly roads and city infrastructure, Bengaluru continues to be mismanaged by an apathetic corporation and an even-more disoriented state government, irrespective of which party occupies the highest seat. The latest diatribe against such a bad road infrastructure came from the city’s first Bicycle Mayor Sathya Sankaran. Calling it the ‘city of cars, not people’, Sathya gave the examples of his parents who fell victims to Bengaluru’s appalling road infrastructure only recently. 

Tweeting to the city police and BBMP Commissioner, Sathya wrote: “After the bad fall my father had on Sanjaynagar Main Road, it was my mother’s turn near New BEL Road bus stand. (She) Tripped over construction material left all over the place. This is a city for cars not people.”

The twitterrati was quick to react to this latest development by wishing his parents speedy recovery. In addition, they shared their thoughts on the city’s civic woes.

Citizen activist Srinivas Alavilli, the co-founder of Citizens for Bangalore, said, “We have become a city of machines and people have no place left. We shall take it back.”

The proactive Whitefield Rising resident group agreed with Srinivas by stating, “Our streets are strewn with debris, garbage, potholes and missing slabs.”

Vinay Kamble wanted to know if the government can be sued for this terrible incident. If you have the same question, yes, you can, if the injury happened due to a pothole, an open manhole or drain. In a recent case, the Karnataka High Court ordered the BBMP to compensate one such victim.

Vinay Sreenivasa had a similar story to share. “My mum in law also hurt her knee on a badly-laid footpath on Malleswaram 15th Cross. Unless we fix our pavements, we fail all the elderly and differently-abled in our city, and all of ourselves.”

Rajkumar Dugar recommended one measure that could rectify this issue. “This problem will reduce the day we have names of BBMP engineers and contractors displayed at every road with penalty clause for any damage to road. Citizens are made to cough up for the slightest mistake. Why not these people too?

Reacting to the incident, a representative of Save Harlur campaign made a stark statement: “This city is not even made for cars”. Another resident asked chief minister YS Yeddiyurappa to “transfer all inefficient officers”.

Only Balaji had an ironic twist to the controversy by questioning Sathya’s mission of sustainable mobility by saying, “And you have been misleading gullible people to cycle on such dangerous roads.”

 

 

 

 

Youngster tweets, resolves a problem and makes Rs 500!

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Arun Bothra

Dipika Bajpai, the award-winning and dynamic former Deputy Conservator of Forests in Bangalore, praised a middleman the other day. Actually, it was a boy. She was reacting to an impressive story shared by Bhubaneshwar IPS officer Arun Bothra who summed up the tale by saying, “We are a nation of middlemen.” And Dipika responded with: “What a novel and nobel way of employment.”

Why are these civil servants so impressed with the boy, you ask? According to Bothra, this youngster apparently helped a senior citizen’s legal issue by tweeting about it to the cops. After looking at the grouse on Twitter, Bothra apparently invited the harassed citizen to his office, and resolved the issue. But what surprised him most was the passing remark by the elderly gentleman. “While leaving he told that a young boy in his area tweets for others. Charges Rs. 500/- for every resolved issue,” tweeted Bothra.

Clearly, where there is an opportunity, there is money to be made. The tweet received over 238 comments, was retweeted over 600 times and registered over 2500 likes.

However, Bothra did clarify that only 5-10% of complaints are resolved through Twitter. The rest is through the respective police stations.

Here are some of the best comments on Twitter about this boy’s side venture:

Aishwarya P: On a positive side, we can appreciate the boy for using his skill and time to earn money and also enabling others to solve their issues. After all, what he is rendering is also a service. I believe he is much better than those who depend on parents or govt for money.

Sitanshu Mahapatra: The Boy is the Entrepreneur of the Year👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾

Sandip: Is he mentioned anywhere that he is doing social service? If not, then he is doing nothing wrong. You must have heard the dialogue “if you are good at something never do it for free”.

Arun Chopra: He’s making money out of his education while doing social service, better than selling pakoras.

C J Karira: He saw a business opportunity! Fifty years ago, letter writers sitting outside GPOs did a similar job… only difference is that paper sheet has become smartphone and pen the finger.

Syeda Sabaun Noor: Wow!!! This thing is making us less of a community… Everyone is doing a side business.. sad.

Jay Jagdev: These jobs carry more respectable names like Advisor, Consultants…

The heartwarming story of an HSR pet that was lost and found during Diwali!

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The heartwarming story of an HSR pet that was lost and found during Diwali! 4
On Wednesday, November 7, Dr Sumana Kaushik lost Angel, a female golden retriever due to a negligent caretaker in Mangammanapalya. On Saturday, November 10, she was reunited with her six-year-old pet, thanks to four dog lovers of HSR Layout.
 
 
The heartwarming story of an HSR pet that was lost and found during Diwali! 5
The message that did the rounds of social media
 
Dr Sumana had given her female dog to a pet trainer who had in turn given it to a woman in Mangammanapalya. During Diwali, with all the firecrachers going off simultaneously, the dog got scared and ran away. Thankfully for her, dog lovers Prashanth, Bindu and Sindhu Gowda, who had lost their dog a year ago, sheltered and fed this dog for three days when they found her strolling on Hosa Road. They also put up her photo on Facebook’s ‘HSR Canine Club’ group.
 
 
The heartwarming story of an HSR pet that was lost and found during Diwali! 6
The ‘Found dog’ message that went viral on social media
 
 
The heartwarming story of an HSR pet that was lost and found during Diwali! 7
Sumana after being reunited with her pet
 
 
The dog was reunited with Dr Sumana when Anshu Vyas, another HSR resident and a member of the pet club, saw a ‘lost dog’ message on Facebook by Dr Sumana’s sister in law. “After seeing both the ‘lost’ and ‘found’ posts, Anshu put the puzzle together and asked us to contact the Gowdas,” Dr Sumana told Residents Watch. “The rescuers have a nursery on Hosapalya where they took care of her for three days. Even now, my dog is scared after going through all the trauma. I thank Anshu, Prashant, Bindu and Sindhu who looked after our Angel. It showed us that God’s miracles are personified through such warm-hearted good souls.”