Our pavements and footpaths are full of people who are trying to eke a living in a city that they have moved into. Amongst these are the immigrants from Rajasthan, who make these ceramic artefacts:
Several of these patterns seem to be the most popular, including square containers for Tulsi plants, vases, and Shirdi Sai Baba statuettes. They certainly add colour to our footpaths, even as they block them for pedestrians!
On my way to and from the Bangalore International Airport, one building often catches my eye:
I have long known the custom of the Parsi community to dispose of their dead by exposing the bodies to the elements and to the sun. I vaguely remember being shown a “Tower of Silence” in Mumbai, many decades ago.
I googled for “Tower of Silence”, and got this link about
Dakhma, transliterated as “Tower of Silence”
I was not sure if the Tower of Silence in Bangalore is being used now…but a little digging produced
this link to an article in the Hindu
…which seems to say that it was, at least, nearly three years ago. Today? I do not know.
Instead of being in a remote area, it is now right alongside a major highway; and in any case, vultures, the main birds who would feed on carrion, are so depleted in this area that there is just a tiny population about a dozen birds or less, in Ramnagara, even though the article says the lack of vultures is not an issue.
As I seem to see this place only whizzing past on the way to the airport or to Nandi Hills, I asked my friend Bhavita Toliya to click a few photographs, and though she didn’t venture into the place, she sent me this beautiful photo of the winged-disk design:
1940 seems, (71 years ago), not all that distant a date in history when this place was constructed; and it serves as a reminder of how rapid the change in our city has been.
There is also an inscription in Gujrati, of which I can read only the first two words, “Sri Jahangir”….
I do wonder what the rest of the plaque says.
To see another interesting article about the Parsis,
For an article from Citizen Matters.
Bhavita was told that another place has been acquired, and this will probably be “developed” into an apartment complex.
And so, perhaps, another landmark of our city will disappear….
When
asked me to take several people around the 1km perimeter of Puttenahalli Lake, I was very happy indeed to conduct the nature trail.
We all assembled there at 6am:
The sun also decided to come up and join us:
There were about 50 people altogether, including old friends like Shashi and Shalini.
Obviously, I wasn’t able to take too many photographs, but with Poornima and Srini along, we sighted quite a few interesting things, such as this
SPOTTED OWLET
on top of a dead palm trunk:
and this
PURPLE HERON
which seems to be a regular resident:
It was enjoyable having children on the walk, asking lots of questions and ticking off what they saw on their checklists, or (as with the Spotted Owlet) adding to them:
At the end of the walk, a nice breakfast of IVC (Iddli, Vada, Coffee) was served to all the participants, and Usha talked to some of them:
The children sat down to draw their impressions of the walk:
They produced some lovely artwork!
To see the rest of the photographs..including the food!…
I am planning to take the children of Magic Puddles and Desire Society there this Saturday….
I’ve been trying all day to load some photos to Photobucket, so I can write about the Trash Trail I went on yesterday…but I think the internet connection is terrible, so I’ll write about it and you can see the photos (with the narrative) at my Facebook account,
I’m sorry, but you need a Facebook account to be able to see the photos.
I’m adding the few photos I was able to post…starting with this one…illustrative of the dog’s life they lead in the garbage business.
I’d heard about
a while ago, and have been taking my organic waste to a neighbour who uses their compost “vessel”, since our apartment building does not segregate waste. Last month, I wanted to go on their
but managed to make it only this month. There’s one happening tomorrow (11th Nov 2011), too.
I knew about the problem we have about accumulating garbage in Bangalore…but nothing short of this trail would have opened my eyes to even the basics of the situation.
Poonam, Aparna and Kamal took us to the following places:
1. A place where garbage is dumped (which is not an official dumping place), and also picked up by smallish vans called tipper autos, in a residential neighbourhood. The tipper autos also go and feed a compactor, which compacts the garbage and makes the trip to the landfill to dump it there.
2. The premises of a “semi-wholesaler” who operates in the unorganized sector, who segregates usable items from trash, bags it, and packs it to be sent to the recycling units.
3. One of the garbage landfills of Bangalore, this one in Bodhigere, where our senses were truly assaulted: our sight by the mountains of trash; our noses by the toxic stench, and our feelings by the fact that it was we.as citizens of Bangalore, who were responsible for this.
4. One of the areas where migrant communities live in shacks, and make a living, sorting out usables from trash. They live in shanties on the site, and the land is owned by a contractor, who pays them daily wages.We saw that the children of the community did not go to school, but worked through the day, sorting out the garbage.
5. The City (Krishna Rajendra) Market area, where a wide variety of waste and scrap materials are sorted out and loaded on to trucks to be transported.’
6. Recycling units in Nandyanahalli , where plastic is melted, extruded, pelletized, and recycled.
The whole tour was meticulously managed; we started on time, an excellent home-made breakfast was served in the van. The group size is always 9. We were given lunch in a restaurant just off the B G S flyover on the Mysore Road. While we were being shown the realities of the rag-picking, garbage, and plastic trade in our city, we also watched various short movies while we were en route from one destination to another. We had some sharing of our thoughts and ideas. We even watched one movie which made the point that the earth would set itself right, and humanity should not think it can cure or save the Earth. We wrote our feedback on fairly exhaustive forms and returned them. We came home, quite thoughtful about what we had seen, and the enormity of the garbage problem that faces a city which has no planning for waste disposal, and is, at present, only dumping in landfills.
The model of “Pick up, take far away, and dump” no longer works, as the city is expanding at an enormous rate; and the inclusion of vast quantities of plastic in our waste has compounded the problem exponentially. We saw how various companies, malls and other commercial establishments hired contractors to dump unsegregated garbage wherever possible. We saw how people dump their garbage, too, and are happy when it is out of sight, never counting the ultimate cost of that apathy.
Every Bangalore resident should visit the website of The Daily Dump…however, unless someone goes on the trail and sees the awful reality, they may not get sensitized to just what all of us, collectively, are doing to poison our environment. Well, I’m glad I do my bit, but I am afraid the efforts so far are woefully inadequate. However, people like Poonam are in the fray, and not about to give up.
Perhaps, one day, we will develop enough civic sense to stop the awful practices we are indulging in…and learn to manage our waste better. Right now….the only simile I can give is…a housewife taking her garbage each day to the far corner of her home, and dumping it there, thinking that it’s out of sight, and the rest of her home is clean.
Are you a photographer? If yes, have you ever been given a deadline to click for a particular theme in an hour or so? Have you planned your shots and chased behind the subject? Have you met most of the photographers in the city for one event? If no, then here is an interesting event for you which will give you a funfilled day with loads of good experiences in photography, called “Canon Photo Marathon”.
Canon Photomarathon is a photography competition, where you are given few themes and you run around the city, looking for photographs for a given theme and take photographs under time pressure. Canon organizes photomarathon every year and this year it was on September 18th in different places in the world. In Bangalore, St.Josephs High school in Vittal mallya road was chosen as the venue. You need to register before participating in this through canon photomarathon website : http://www.canon-asia.com/photomarathon/photomarathon.html. There is no entry fee.
Event will start with registration and you will get a free T shirt. They give 3 different themes and participants should take photographs based on this theme in prescribed time. Only 1 theme will be announced at a time and we should submit the photos before they announce the next theme.
Themes given : 1. Games people play, 2. Building values in next generation Indians, 3. Thinking green.
As soon as themes were announed, few people left to click for the theme while few people discussed among their friends where to go, what to shoot and headed in different directions. It’s a nice event where you can have loads of fun with friends and also get to know many photography enthusiasts. There were few guests at the event like Kannada movie actress Aindrita ray and Wild life photographer Sudhir Shivaram. Also, last year’s winner spoke about his experience of winning and 8 days trip of Turkey which was last year’s 1st prize. Prizes for this year was 8 days trip to Tasmania, Australia and DSLR cameras as other prizes. We enjoyed roaming around and clicking for different themes. Results may be announced in a month or so. Overall, it was a fun filled event but bit tiring too.
Few of the photographs taken during the event :
It was not a normal nature walk. We met someone so lovely, so charming and so caring with us(who they met just on road). The trail started with Kaggalipura where we were busy in capturing fantail flycatcher and suddenly a vehicle stopped and asked that what we were doing here. A graceful lady and a charming man told that “please come to our home, which is just here”. It was little surprising but I know we have such a lovely people in our country.
We went to their home, tea followed by Cake and Idly.. and a great warm welcome. They told us everything about their home and welcomed that you guys take key and keep on coming here. What else !!
Mr. Fred - A charming lovely person
Golden-fronted Leafbird
Charming Sunflower
Oriental Magpie Robin
Jewel Bug
 Plain Prinia with a drangonfly |
 Small Green Bee eater |
White cheeked Barbet
 Purple Rumped Sunbird - Female |
 Common Tailorbird |
White browed Fantail Flycatcher
Scaly Breasted Munia
ladybug
Common Tiger
Bush Brown
Chandu, my birding partner came home on Wednesday night with an excitement that we will go somewhere tomorrow. Yes, it was holiday but I was tired. Tough to peruse him and we decided to go all time favorite Valley School. Reaching around 6.30 AM, again a cloudy morning. Decreased our chances of butterflies and even birds. Though I put camera on a high ISO and said “lets take whatever is coming on the way”.
Deepu and Chandu searching insect, butterfly, bird and anything whatsoever was available. Most of the pictures will have a high noise but I want to share our work for the day and yes reporting is important.
Thanks to Deepu for most of the butterflies picture and Chandu for searching birds.
Common Wanderer
Pea Blue
White eye Buzzard
Common Pierrot
Indian Grizzled Skipper
 Blue Faced Malkoha |
 Fire bug |
Glory Lily
Black headed Munia
white browed bulbul
Common Picturewing
Scaly Breasted Munia - Family
indian robin juvenile
Red-wattled Lapwing
Choco Pansy 
Green Bee eaters
Immature Grasshopper
 Golden Silk Orb-weaver |
 Rufous Babbler |
UnID Bee
Last but not the least [I guess this is a old dialogue now], new chaps of birding :
Chandu at focus, Deepu with Camera
Empowered by the unity and youth of the country, Anna Hazare was never ready to get convinced and break his fast, with nothing less than a victory. This historical win of republic system has been celebrated hugely whole day, all over the country.
The fight against corruption does not end here, rather its just a warm beginning.
Few captures from Freedom park, Bangalore, where many were fasting throughout, as with Anna Hazare.
Ready for a new fight tomorrow
Blowing sound should reach all India and Indian
dancing and full with celebration mood
So much strength in the slogan together....Jai Hind. National Anthem is been sang together by the whole mass
Candle march in the night after Anna announced breaking of his fast.
Walking down Malleswaram, I saw this strangely moving sight….it shows that our footpaths are put to far more uses than the BBMP envisions…
A man and a dog often share a home…but sharing a home on the pavement….and peacefully asleep together…the sight was odd, and eloquent of poverty in our city.
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