The residents of Teachers Colony have decided to impart conversational Kannada classes for non-Kannadigas at a nominal rate of Rs 100 while senior citizens don’t have to pay anything.

Though this is meant for residents staying in and around Teacher’s Colony, they have been kind enough to extend this facility to all the residents of HSR Layout and HSR Layout extension.

The classes will be conducted every Sunday, beginning October 14, 2018. They will be held over two months. The Kannada sessions will be held at Carmel Garden Public School from 11am to 1230pm. “The necessary books will be provided by us,” says Divya Yogeesh. “A teacher from BTM Layout will be the regular faculty in addition to the Kannada-speaking residents who volunteer from time to time.”

In addition to weekly contact classes, the education will happen through a WhatsApp group specifically set up only for students. “Every day, we will teach them how to draft one sentence,” says Divya. “In addition, all the doubts will be clarified by the tutors in the WhatsApp group.”

The interested candidates can register their names by paying Rs 100 as the registration fee with either Geetha (90087-97000) or Divya (94803-50295). And those who want to volunteer as a Kannada teacher are also welcome to be part of this noble initiative.

Every Monday, since June 2018, a group of residents accompanied by the staff of Agara Lake and morning walkers/joggers, pick up trash at the premises of the water body.

Call it ‘plogging’ or a cleanliness drive, but this is something they began three months ago and doing it continuously and with a fervour seen only among civic activists. Plogging is a fitness trend that is all about people walking and running even while picking up plastic strewn along the roads, footpaths and park/lake premises.

Why Monday? Because the trash is maximum after the 12000-14000 people that visit the lake on weekends (6-8000/day). This morning, the amount of garbage collected by five residents, three staff workers and two citizens filled up four large bags weighing about 60-70 kilos.

“Even after the bins are made available, people still litter all over the place,” says resident Kavitha Reddy of the Agara Lake Protection & Management Society. “Plastic bottles, ice-cream cups, plastic spoons, cone Ice-cream papers, paper cups from corn, chocolate, toffees, guthka wrappers, bhel puri paper, plastic covers…”

Ward 173 that includes a part of HSR Layout Sector 5 and Sector 6 residents, is off to a great start. Two percolation/recovery pits have been dug today in Teacher’s Colony that will not only prevent flooding of roads but also recharge the groundwater. By the end of the month, the entire ward will get about 68 such pits.

The recovery pits can also be called ‘underground wells’ and this work began in Ward 173 last week with Venkatapura. However, some residents objected to it fearing that their building will collapse if the pits come up close to their houses. The work was stopped but has resumed now with pits being dug in parks and stormwater drains, an idea that is inspired from resident Ashwini who has made stormwater drain wells, a successful way to recharge groundwater in Sahakar Nagar about six months ago.
The brainchild of Sudhakar Reddy, Ward 173 corporator Saraswathamma’s son, this is an idea worth emulating in Ward 174 that includes six sectors of HSR Layout.

Says Mohan Govindiah, secretary, Namma Teacher’s Colony Residents Welfare Association: “The BBMP workers dug a 10 feet hole into the ground, put a ring around it, placed gravel, charcoal and sand at the bottom for about 3-4 feet, and covered the well with a grill, so people don’t fall into it. Whenever it rains, all the impurities will settle down because of the sand and gravel, and the rest of the good water will recharge the groundwater levels.”