Articles by Vani Balaraman

It was a seemingly pleasant evening at Bannerghatta road, near Dairy circle. I got off my office cab and took an auto to my son's daycare to pick him. I wanted to give him a surprise by picking him up that day, rather than wait for his dad to pick him up. We shopped for a few minutes on Spar and as we got back, we had a very unpleasant surprise waiting for us. Even as we walked towards his daycare, we watched a mini truck overturn and spill all its contents on to the road. This is a very…

If you stay around Kanakpura Road , you know what a ordeal it is to traverse this road during peak hours. With the Metro construction in full swing, all we are left with is a narrow lane on either side for cars. Buses, jatka vehicles (horse carriages), cement mixtures, autos and lorries. On any normal day, it can take up to 30-45 min to reach the family mart junction from Konanakunte cross. If this weren't enough, we noticed that a huge pandal with loud speakers, lighting arrangement and seating arrangement was done right below the flyover. I believe this is…

On days such as these, when it rained through the night, our cab driver takes a alternative route. A route which traverses through the many hamlets of Bellandur and Doddanekundi villages. This route does not ensure a faster and quicker access to Marathahalli but atleast we get to escape the traffic jam at ORR signals. It really seems like a never ending journey sometimes. So while he drives through lanes and by-lanes for a good 30 minutes, we get to see the real Bangalore that resides behind the glitz and glamor of the shiny software parks. File pic: Vivek M.…

We take the BTM Layout-Silk Board route everyday. In the evenings at around 6.30 pm on BTM Layout, you can find huge private buses that ply between cities parked on to the left side of the road occupying one lane completely. This causes a traffic jam and slows the traffic considerably. BTM Layout already has its own traffic woes because it has Electronics City commuters as well Whitefield commuters taking the road.Similarly JP nagar as well as BTM Layout has quite a number of individual houses. These residents do not have parking speces in their own houses and simply park their…