Articles by Vaishnavi Vittal

With Diwali just round the corner, cracker vendors in Bangalore have set up shop at 35 open grounds across the city. These are temporary stalls set up on the allotment of the Bangalore city police commissioner’s office and are allowed to sell firecrackers till October 21st using their temporary license. List of grounds designated for sale of crackers – Diwali 2009(Numbers in brackets are number of shops/licenses awarded for that ground) 1. Deepak playground (15)2. JP Nagar playground (17)3. Udayabhanu playground (10)4. HMT playground (9)5. Jayanagar Telephone Exchange (18)6. Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Shankarnag playground (18)7. Rama mandira playground (28)8. Malleshwaram playground…

Most of the times, injuries while bursting crackers occur because of no supervision, misuse of crackers, device failure and so on. Injuries may also result from being too close to fireworks when they explode. For example, when you lean over to look more closely if a firework has been lit or if a bottle rocket hits a nearby person. The types of fireworks that generally cause injuries are flower pots or fountains, sparklers, bombs, rockets and sky shots. Precautions and safety measuresBuy fireworks from licensed and reputed manufacturers only. Ask the shopkeeper for his license given by the city police.…

The smell of sulphur wafting through the air, the night-sky filled with beautiful firework displays, constant sounds of bombs being blown – crackers are an integral part of the hindu festival Diwali, or Deepavali as it is termed in  some parts of south India. The Late A Chelladurai, General Director of the Sivakasi-headquartered Standard Fireworks Ltd., once wrote, “At no time was there or is there a product that has contributed more to relaxation, merriment and enjoyment - both for young and old alike. Let us enjoy fireworks!”  But unlike a decade ago, when this was a sight only during…

Just around three months ago, the state government completed the wards delimitation process. From 100 wards, Bengaluru now has a total of 198. And if you want to know what the boundary of your new ward is, www.bbmpwards.org is a website you can go to.  The homepage of the site states that the site gives “comprehensive information about the composition of BBMP and the delimited wards along with details of localities forming a particular ward”.  The site has been set up by Zoomin Softech Pvt Ltd, an IT solutions company, for the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Bangalore district, who is the…

Take your Form 6 to the Voter Facilitation Centre (VFC) of your Assembly Constituency (AC). Even though your wards may have changed after delimitation, your constituency remains the same. Each AC has one VFC. You can get the address and contact number of your VFC here. Remember, even though there are new wards now, your VFC will remain the same since your AC has not changed.Submit the Form 6 at the VFC with copies of address proof/ID proof.The VFC officials will check if your form has been filled in correctly and then give you an acknowledgment receipt.These forms are then…

As the BBMP elections are slated to be held by the end of the year, this new website, set up by Zoomin Softech Pvt Ltd, an IT solutions company, for State Election Commission (SEC), will help you search for your name on the voters list.But this is only if you voted for the parliamentary elections earlier this year. Citizens who have registered during the past few months after the Lok Sabha polls will not find their names on this site, since these updates have not yet been published online.The homepage of the site has both English and Kannada, with the…

The Bengalee Association held Durga puja celebrations at the RBANMS grounds in Ulsoor. It was my first Dussehra, Bengali style! The idol of Goddess Durga at the decorated pandal Bangalore's Bengalis turned up in hundreds for Durga's blessings  Both young and old were a part of the celebrations  Plenty of food stalls, all a tribute to the Bengali's love for food  Old habits die hard, they say. Despite the presence of many garbage bins, this was the scene at the grounds  The toysellers had quite a day themselves! ⊕ References

Karishma Jain, a law student at the Hosur Road-based Christ College travels by bus from her Sarjapur Road residence every day. Since Karishma does not know the local language, she says she initially found it very difficult to travel by bus as the destination boards were in Kannada. “I don't know Kannada. But now I know the numbers and the bus routes”, she says, even as she just gets off a wrong bus, thinking it was going towards Agara through Sarjapur Road.Karishma is among the 40 lakh passengers of Bengaluru who use the BMTC bus services every day. The BMTC…

It's one of those things that makes you cringe when you hear about it but eventually fades from your memory. But 18-month-old Vijay refreshed our memories of five-year-old Abhishek. As much as we express anger against the BBMP, nothing really can be done to bring back these two lives. When I saw a local news channel showing footage of firemen working their way through drains, searching for little Vijay's body, for me it brought back memories of Y S Rajashekhar Reddy, the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister. As soon as it was known that there was no contact with his…

Contacts play the most important role when you are doing a story. And it takes a while to build a rapport with these contacts. Once you establish this rapport, it's all for the best. This works all the more well with government officials. But what happens when these officials get transferred? Especially when you are the middle of a story? Let me tell you, it is disappointing. Very disappointing. And what if you feel you have something to do with these transfers? Not directly, but probably...hmmm...in a karmic way shall I say? Well, it all started off with the much-approachable…