The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Reporter's Diary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 07, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Reporter's Diary

Graduating to school

PARENTS OF children just old enough to join kindergarten sections already lined up in front of "most desirable schools," a standard which keeps changing every few years.

That brings us to the question of "graduation" ceremonies for toddlers just completing KG and about to be promoted to first standard. Of course, the tiny tots look cute in scaled down gowns and scholastic camps. But is it not rather premature to push them into such roles, when they have barely mastered the alphabet? Some parents are beginning to think so.

The road ahead

AFTER LAST season's record rains, the civic administration came in for a lot of scathing criticism, because many important roads were allowed to be flooded and unusable for days together. Elsewhere, layouts which somehow came up in the middle of what used to be lakes, turned into islands. Over the past three months, the civic body appears to have regained its self-confidence. At least a list of roads totalling over 120 km length which are now supposed to be "pot-hole free." The BMP went one step ahead and has offered rewards for anyone spotting a pothole (defined as more than 20 cm long) on any of the listed roads. Well done Ms. Mayor and now turn the attention to other roads too.

Two-in-one

MULTI-TASKING IS a favourite word in the corporate dictionary. Of course, which employer wouldn't like an employee doing the job of two with the same efficiency. Perhaps that is why the driver-cum-conductors of our BMTC buses are a favoured lot.

The khaki-clad drivers should apparently be good drivers first before they venture into the cash collection business. And in Bangalore's chaotic traffic where accidents no longer raise eyebrows, driving with the right hand while the left hand does the conductor's job, could be tricky. That most drivers are multi-tasking with finesse is itself akin to a ropetrick.

Beginners often halt at the bus stops a bit longer to issue the tickets before starting their buses. But once they gain on confidence, the drivers do brisk business on the move.

K. Satyamurty,

Rasheed Kappan

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