Good morning, Bengaluru!
☁️ Today’s weather: Partly cloudy today, with a high of 28℃.
🧐 Did you know? The newly coronated King Charles III has a unique Bengaluru connection. City-based holistic physician Dr Issac Mathai takes care of the 73-year-old’s health.
💰 Encouraging kids to save money
The Postal department is creating an awareness programme to encourage kids to save money.
Story so far: India Post has partnered with Deccan Herald and Prajavani to hold awareness programmes in 10 schools on the importance of saving money. It already has a new deposit scheme called “Sukanya Samruddhi” for 10-year-old girls. By adding all its post offices into the Core Banking Services (CBS), it runs the world’s largest financial services network.
- The department has encouraged school students to open accounts to instil the habit of saving early. Those under ten can open their own accounts and deposit money given by their parents.
- They can download the mobile app for spending and manage the account themselves after they turn 18. It’ll be launched in Bengaluru and then extended to rural areas.
Why it’s necessary: Between 2011 and 2016, the percentage of women with savings accounts in developing countries remained stagnant at 9%. Studies showed that gender discrimination was lower in countries with more mobile bank accounts.
🛣️ New highways to reduce travel time
Four greenfield highways will help reduce travel time from Bengaluru to other cities.
Story so far: Bengaluru is one of the most vital traffic corridors in India. New greenfield projects will help reduce travel time to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. The Bengaluru-Pune Brownfield highway has a high traffic density.
- The first highway will connect Bengaluru to Vijayawada on the Kolkata corridor via Kadapa. The next connection is to Mumbai with a new alignment from the Mumbai-Pune expressway to the Pune Ring Road.
- The third is the Bengaluru to Chennai highway, for which work has already begun. The final one is the Surat-Chennai expressway covering 1,600 km.
Time savers: With the new highways, travel time from Bengaluru to Pune will be 5-6 hours. For the journey to Chennai, the expressway will cut travel time to just 2 hours from the current 6-7. Part of this is due to increased speed limits on these highways.
🌊 Record number of lakes overflowed
126 lakes across the city overflowed due to heavy rains since the beginning of the month.
Story so far: The city has been battered by heavy rains and flooding over the past couple of weeks. More than 120 lakes are said to have overflowed. Years ago, the city had more than 1,400 water bodies. That number has reduced significantly over the years.
- Data from the BBMP showed in the Mahadevapura region alone, 42 lakes overflowed, leading to flooding. In the Bommanahalli zone, 30 lakes overflowed, and 22 in the RR Nagara zone.
- The water retention capacity of the city lakes has been reduced due to encroachments and non-desilting. Stormwater drains from the lakes have also been blocked.
Government findings: Government data identified more than 500 encroachments in the flood-hit areas. Only 20 lakes didn’t have any encroachments. 28 of the lakes were encroached by government agencies like the roadways and railways.
🍽️ Review: Whitefield Social
Vignesh (founder of The Local Brief) had lunch at the ‘Whitefield Social’ restaurant on Sunday with his wife. Here’s his review.
No waiting: A place usually expected to have a queue longer than our yesteryear famous milk booths, welcomed us without any waiting time.
First, the drinks: We ordered Dewar’s Penicillin and South Pacific Rim.
- Dewar’s Penicillin is a cocktail made of Dewar’s White Label, Ginger, Honey and Lime. The mixture of sourness and sweetness felt heavenly!
- South Pacific Rim is a cocktail made of Bacardi Carta blanca, Captain Morgan, Pineapple juice, Orange juice and Grenadine. The taste was akin to a sweet fruity punch. Sugar rush guaranteed!
The starters: It was time for Momopalooza (a spread of different kinds of momos), Butter Garlic Pepper Chicken and Awesomosas (sheet samosas stuffed with pizza sauce and mushrooms).
- Among the different varieties of momos, tandoori and hell momos tasted the best.
- We thought the Butter Garlic Pepper Chicken would be spicy assuming the usage of black pepper. Instead, we got a slightly bland chicken with bell peppers. A waiter did tell us that we were not the first ones to get confused about the peppers!
- The samosas were crispy and piping hot with dripping innards. They vanished into our stomachs rather quickly!
Main course: We went for the quirkily named Nina Aunty’s Mutton Dhansak with Brown Rice. Well, Aunty got the mutton gravy right and the rice too, but some more spice would have elevated the flavours a bit more.
Service: We ordered using our mobile phones by scanning a QR code. The first drinks were served within 10 minutes of placing the order. The food followed soon after.
- Overall, the experience was good. The drinks and the samosas were the standouts.
How would you rate our menu choices? If you were to try one of the above, what would interest you? Let us know by replying to this email!
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you prefer watching new movies on OTT platforms or in the theatres?
- I prefer watching movies on OTT platforms.
- I prefer watching movies in the theatres.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
Who is your favourite Indian music director and why?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- 136 apartment complexes were affected in the Mahadevapura zone due to the floods.
- Bangalore University students continued their protest against the relocation of a temple into their campus.
- The state pollution control board’s directive against plaster of Paris Ganesha idols hasn’t been effective.
- One of the reasons why the city has suffered from severe flooding is a lack of a Master Plan.
- Environmentalists say most lakes aren’t full despite the heavy rain.
That’s it for today. Have a great day!