Good morning, Bengaluru!
🌤️ Today’s weather: Sunny temperatures and gentle breeze.
🧐 Did you know? The name Doddanekundi comes from Dodda Nakka Vundi, which means ‘There’s a big jackal there’ in Telugu. The area located in east Bengaluru used to be Telugu-dominated, and gradually, the name was Kannadicised into its present form.
🚇 Sluggish metro work
With many detriments delaying metro work, Bengaluru plays catch-up with other cities.
Story so far: The pace of the city’s metro project is far slower than other cities. For instance, the Bengaluru metro became operational in 2011 and presently has 55.6 km of service. The Ahmedabad metro started in 2019 and has 37.9 km of metro rail. Added to this is the issue of several construction mishaps causing death and injury. Experts attribute the delay and cost of life to state oversight.
- The state government has failed to keep the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) accountable. As the case of the metro line from Byappanahalli to Whitefield suggests, the authorities have embarked on an unplanned construction.
- Activists claim that the authorities’ callousness and disregard are evident in the 38 deaths and 50 injuries the project has caused since its inception. The state government, on its part, has penalised three engineers and contractors.
Several complaints: Bengaluru citizens are discontented with the metro project that is running in its second decade of construction. The completion of Bengaluru’s metro network will likely alleviate traffic congestion concerns. However, some experts claim that the longer it takes, the less effective it will be in reducing the city’s road traffic.
- Citizens also complain of a lack of transparency regarding the metro. An activist claims that the excessive delay is a cause of concern for Bengaluru as it displays the corruption and sense of impunity with which the state government functions.
Counterview: BMRCL spokesperson Yashwant Chawan argues that Bengaluru’s geographical requirements, weather, land acquisition norms, and traffic diversion strategies are different from other cities. For instance, the city’s hard soil and lengthy guidelines on tree-cutting effectively delay the metro’s expansion.
🚌 Premium sleeper buses
KSRTC hopes to compete with private players by launching luxury sleeper buses.
Story so far: The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is ready to introduce Volvo 9600 multi-axle sleeper buses called Ambaari Utsav in its premier service sector.
- The European-inspired buses will be operational from 24 February and will take Bengalureans to multiple cities with a travel time of 10 hours or more.
- KSRTC has inducted 15 buses and plans to arrange 35 more. The fare will be 13% higher than the Ambaari Dream Class sleeper buses that charge ₹1,151 for Mangaluru and ₹1,638 for Hyderabad.
What’s the need? The KSRTC aims to deliver a plane-like luxury travel experience for travellers. The new buses will equip the public body with an edge to compete with private players in the market that are currently dominating long-haul bus travel with their sleek and comfortable buses. In the past, the KSRTC has been criticised for operating old buses.
🎬 A short film by Spitting Image
Sultana’s Dream is a vignette anthology of feminist utopia and stories from the partition.
Story so far: Spitting Image, a Bengaluru-based design and animation studio, have directed and animated a short film called Sultana’s dream. The film is an adaptation of a 1905 feminist utopian novella written by Rokeya Sahkawat Hossain. Sultana’s Dream, the movie, premiered at Lost Migrations, a film festival held at Bangalore International Centre on February 18.
- The film is about Sultana, a lady who drifts into a feminist utopian land where there is no patriarchy and men are restrained by the purdah tradition. Accompanying it are four semi-fictionalised vignettes of crimes perpetrated against women during the Partition.
- Pakistan-based Saadia Gardezi and UK-based Sam Dalrymple collated their findings on the partition’s impact on migrants and the middle class. Gardezi wrote a script that incorporated the experiences of women from social backgrounds.
Why it matters? People from the UK, Pakistan, and India created all the films that premiered at the film festival. Sultana’s Dream aimed to initiate conversations about the Partition using the animation format and including diverse voices in its script. The creators decided to display the faces of the perpetrators instead of focusing on the gory violence.
🎲 Boardgame-themed cafe
A new cafe opens for avid and aspiring board gamers.
Story so far: Now Boarding Cafe, in JP Nagar, is the city’s newest boardgame-themed cafe for board game enthusiasts. It is the brainchild of the entrepreneur partners Avikant Bhardwaj and Sweekruthi Kaveripatnam. Bharadwaj and Kaveripatnam used their experience as board game enthusiasts and teachers to design the cafe’s business model.
- The cafe was launched after several months of market research and developing models. Kaveripatnam came up with a business plan, after which it took six months to breathe life into it.
- The cafe has high-strategy games like Imperium classic, Imperium legends – rarely found in India, Civilization, and Settlers of Catan. They also have games for toddlers, like Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.
Tell me more? The cafe is designed to facilitate board game play while relishing food and drinks. Customers may choose from different seating options like loveseats – an intimate two-person seating arrangement and cubby holes built to accommodate bigger groups. The cafe has a game master who will explain the rules of each game to the uninitiated.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you prefer living alone or with people around you?
- I like living alone.
- I prefer having friends, family, or flatmates around.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
What’s a cliche that you believe holds true?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- Demanding an underpass near Hanakere, residents of nearby villages blocked the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway on Sunday.
- The Karnataka HC issued notices to a BJP minister, a worker, and BBMP officials of the RR Nagar zone.
- After years of construction, the second railway track between Carmelaram and Heelalige was commissioned on Monday.
- Bengalureans top the charts in CO2 offsets and the fuel saved in companies.
- Here’s a piece about sericulture as a good source of income.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I like reading books more: 20.0%
- I like watching movies more than reading: 80.0% 🏆
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What’s something you would like to say to your younger self?
Datta: “Do not skip on the immigration plans”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!