ncroachment of Bangalore’s E lakes continues unabated P8 The man who managed Bangalore’s famous mills P11 Being a mom means becoming a better manager P15 Our lake of dreams coming true P18
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A Step-by-step guide for getting things done in Bangalore From covering public services to property matters, school boards to driving licenses, voting to saving water to filing FIRs and more. www.livinginbengaluru.in Since its launch, The Living in Bengaluru book has become a hit with Bangaloreans, both recent settlers and long-time residents alike. Many bookshops including those in peripheral areas are seeing brisk sales. “This is a very welcome book, long overdue, which should be a prized possession of every citizen of this great city.” - T V Mohandas Pai
“I recommend this book to every Bangalorean as it is a holistic book and every Bangalorean must have it.” - Santosh Hegde
Living in Bengaluru is available at all major book shops like: Jayanagar/JP Nagar: Prism the Bookshop, Book Paradise, Nagashri Books, Page world (Puttenahalli), Nudi Pusthaka (BSK II Stage) Basavanagudi: Belegere Books, Ankita Pusthaka, Shree Book Centre, Koramangala: Intouch, Bookstop, City Centre: Gangaram, Higginbothams, Bookworm, Page Turner, Blossom Books, Vinayaka Book Distributors, Strand Book, Shankars (Domlur), North Bangalore: Sahitya Sadan, (Sahakaranagar), Bangalore Book Centre (Hebbal) Navakarnataka (Kumarapark 25-May-2013 CITIZEN MATTERS 3 west) Also available at Sapna book stores, Reliance Timeout & Crossword. AVAILABLE ONLINE at Flipkart and www.livinginbengaluru.in
Guides and Primers WATER MATTERS
Where does Bangalore
How is the city’s water demand met? Why is it import make best use of treated water? Can treated water be
W
e all depend on groundwater. The single largest source of water that Bangalore has created apart from Cauvery, is actually a hole in the ground! We are pulling water that has been down there for hundreds of years, that is somebody else's right as much as it is ours. Some use Cauvery water or groundwater to flush the toilets, while some
4 CITIZEN MATTERS
25-May-2013
others are not getting water even to drink.
Where does ground water come from? We all live above common aquifers – spaces between soil particles and cracks, fissures and faults in the rocks. The spread of aquifer is independant of property or administrative boundaries.
Everytime we pull out water from the ground, we are possibly denying someone else of their source of water. Ground water is rainwater that has trickled down and percolated into the earth.
Layers that hold water The Deccan plateau broadly has three layers – top soil on which plants grow, a ‘weathered zone’
Guides and Primers
get its water from?
tant to reuse water or not waste it? How can people e used to recharge bore wells? beneath the top soil and finally hard rock. This is therefore called ‘Hard rock’ geology – particularly important from a groundwater perspective. The weathered zone looks like soil but is actually rock ground down to powder – this layer acts like a sponge and holds water in between particles. Water percolating further down fills up the fissures/ cracks/ faults in the
hard rock. When it rains and water percolates down, it passes through the weathered zone and then into the hard rock fissures. A large connected set of fissures, in effect one single body of water under the ground, is called an aquifer. Aquifers in the hard rock and are referred to as ‘confined aquifers’ as they are under pressure. Water in
the weathered zone is shallow and is referred to as shallow unconfined aquifer. Open wells up to depths of around 80 feet in Bangalore were meant to access water in the shallow unconfined aquifers. Over time these have been dried out, except in certain parts of Bangalore. After open wells started drying, people started digging borewells which were going deeper and
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CITIZEN MATTERS 5
Guides and Primers picking up water from the fissures in rocks – or from confined aquifers. It's difficult to predict where you get water in deeper confined aquifers - at depths of 100 to 650 feet, there are a lot of fissures through which water trickles in. There is no way to predict, other than testing each site. When you dig a borewell and start pulling water out, you are emptying the water in the aquifers which is a finite amount. The process by which water enters into these fissures is called recharge. This can be natural or artificial. Since there is only a finite amount of water underneath, we cannot endlessly keep pumping out water. As a city, we need to understand how much water is available. This is not an easy task. All the residents in an area need to share where they have dug the bore well, how deep did it go, at what depth did they get water, etc. The data collected across the city can help get a better picture of the city’s aquifers.
Groundwater level ups; quality deteriorates Ground water tables tend to be rising in central parts of Bangalore, where pipes are laid. This is said to be due to leakages. Recharge from leakages has been large enough that even the shallow aquifers in these parts of Bangalore are getting full (eg: Frazer town around Ulsoor lake). However this leakage is getting mixed with the leakage from the sewage pipes. So though the ground water levels are going up, the quality is not good. In outer areas of Bangalore, groundwater levels are going down.
How can we recharge water? There are two kinds of recharge you can do. One option is to put water back directly - direct recharge; this kind 6 CITIZEN MATTERS
It is important for every apartment and local community to check ■ Is your STP working or is it just getting rid of your waste water? ■ Do you do regular checks of STP output water? ■ Is the contract with your STP operator linked to quality of output? Does he have metrics of performance? ■ Can you reuse waste water? Can you separate out different kinds of waste water? ■ Does your flushing need good quality water? ■ Can you treat waste water to good enough quality that you can recharge it?
of recharge is a huge operation. One tanker of water can get sucked in within five minutes. Alternatively you can have open well recharge. You pour water into open wells (shallow layers) and let the earth seep water down. You use
is even a little contaminated, in direct recharge, you have no control; you will end up contaminating the entire aquifer at one shot. In the case of open wells, that is shallow aquifer recharge, the earth has the capacity to kill the bacteria.
How does BWSSB supply water? Recharging a bore well. Pic courtesy: Avinash Krishnamurthy
the shallow aquifer as the recharge points. The recharge rates can be as good as 4,000-5,000 litres within 12 hours in north Bangalore to a 4,000-5,000 litre well taking a week to recharge. There is a difference between both kinds of recharges. If the water
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The water is pumped and transported over a distance of 100 km, from the Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Mysore. The power required to pump this water is enormous and it is citizen's tax money – Rs 300 crores — that finances this. BWSSB charges do not account for the total cost you pay. There are 6,60,355 BWSSB connections in the city, as on January 31, 2013. The BWSSB estimates the demand for the water to be 1125 million litres per day and claims to supply 900 MLD. But the distribution losses amounts to 460 MLD. In the Cauvery Phase II, stage IV project, an additional 500 MLD (million litres per day) is to be supplied to the entire city.
Guides and Primers How do we waste water? “Wasting? No! We don’t!” That’s a general response. But knowingly or unknowingly, we waste water in so many ways. Top five ways of wasting water are listed here: 1) Leakage in the taps: We tend to ignore those small drops of water constantly trickling down to the bathroom or kitchen sync, as the magnitude does not look bigger. We also tend to forget the proverb small drops of water together make an ocean. 2) Washing utensils under running water: It’s fun to hold the utensil under running water and wash it. But, all this water goes down the drain, unless you have some method to tap this water, clean it and use it. (By the way, did you know that even such soapy, oily water can be cleaned and used? We will bring you excellent case studies of this shortly) 3) Washing cars with hosepipe: Yes, car looks clean and good when washed in running water. But can’t you use a sponge and a bucket of water and achieve the same effect? 4) Showers: Bathing in the shower is something everyone craves for; but have you ever checked the water level before and after the shower-bath and compared it to the simple onebucket-of-water bath? Check and you will see the difference. 5) Over-watering the garden: Over-watering? Yes. Gardens survive even with sprinklers; but we waste water by pouring it indiscriminately on the plants, while the excess water flows out of the pot unless you keep a plate under the pot. Keeping a plastic/ earthen plate helps retain the water and feed it back to the pot as it gets dried up. 6) Washing machines: They drink a lot of water. The machines with water-saving mode save water to some extent. But if you can,
Open wells at Ferns Paradise. File pic.
it’s always best to hand-wash the clothes, to save some water and get some good physical exercise. 7) Water filters: The high-end filters that promise clean water with less TDS (total dissolved solvents) level, in the process of filtering, drain out almost twice the water they filter. The drained water is a bit hard; collect it and use it for flushing the toilets, car wash or gardening. 8) Flushing the toilet: Flushing the western commodes takes lot of water. Unless you use the partial flush option whenever possible, you will be wasting lot of water. The water tankers that drip all along the way are a common sight in the city. The washing of the front yard with lot of water in the morning is a habit for many. They are used to the old times which did not have any water problem, hence not able to connect to the severe shortage the city is facing.
Can we use treated water? Though the city has 14 Sewage Treatment Plants with a capacity to treat 721 Million Litres per Day(MLD), only 302 MLD of sewage water gets treated. However with STPs being mandatory in apartments built post-2007, treated water is used for gardening in many places. Many apartments are now using the same
for flushing too, using a twin-line system. Cost of treated water is way lower than fresh water. An STP in good running condition produces good quality treated water that can be used for gardening, flushing and certain other purposes like basement cleaning. For this, the piping system needs to be designed such that the inlet going into every flush is connected to the treated water supply. Water is usually pumped into a special overhead tank, from which the pipes can be rerouted. The usual reuses of waste water follow here: Waste sludge: Gets composted and can be used as fertilizer. Waste water: Can be used for landscaping – but don’t just indiscriminately irrigate because you have waste water available. Also using for landscaping means that people can get in contact with it when in gardens/park. Therefore COD/BOD (chemical/ biochemical Oxygen demand) counts should be adequately low and it should be treated well enough. Flushing: Using treated waste water for flushing is a great idea for two reasons. Firstly it reduces demand for fresh water. Also, because it is coming in people’s toilets it ensures the community is treating the waste water to good quality – All the people now know the quality of output of waste water. In very ideal cases, when quality of treatment is extremely good (back to potable quality water) it can even be recharged.What goes around comes around. Bangalore Ground water has high nitrates (upto 100-150) The waste water you throw out comes back into your borewell.
25-May-2013
News Desk
CITIZEN MATTERS 7
city news
O
ne more lake in Bangalore seems to be nearing extinction. Kadugodi lake in Whitefield is the victim. And the encroachers belong to water mafia. The catchment area of this beautiful lake is being encroached upon by local politicians. They supply water to Whitefield apartments. The water is extracted from the lake and supplied to the apartments at Rs 2,000 per tanker. As if this is not enough, a new compound and buildings are coming up on the lake bed and catchment area. A few concerned citizens of this area have been trying to bring some limelight on the issue and stop the constructions from coming up, besides saving the lake. Whitefield Rising is one such Facebook group. One of the volunteers of the group, Veerendra, a resident of Shanitiniketan, spoke to Citizen Matters about the rampant encroachment of the Kadugodi lake. He said that the corporators are establishing community Sewage Treatment plants in the catchment area. This is illegal as per the High Court Committee guidelines given by N K Patil, J. The water mafia have dug up unauthorised borewells on the lake bed to draw water and make profits. The volunteers went near the lake several times to enquire about the encroachers, but the labourers working there don’t really have any information. A complaint was also made on behalf of Whitefield Rising to the BBMP and the local corporators. But the authorities have not responded. Veerendra has lodged a complaint on ichangemycity.com, a Janagraha initiative. This is just one case. What is happening in other parts of Bangalore on this front? This reporter tried to explore it.
Insights from ‘Save our lakes’ Many people concerned about the protection of lakes congregated at the ‘Save Our Lakes’ programme organised by The Alternative and Korkai in Domlur, on May 10. Kadugodi lake is not the only one on the list. Pushpa from Lingarajapura, Silver lake champion, who participated in the event, stated that the local corporators encroached the 50-acre Silver lake area to build two temples and a BBMP school. The encroachers also involve the land mafia. They turn the catchment area of the lake, which is an agricultural land, into a non-agricultural land by planting the eucalyptus trees, explains Peevee, co-founder of Korkai, a photojournalist community initiative. The roots of these trees suck the water and turn the land barren. When this occurs, the mafia sells the land to commercial establishments. 8 CITIZEN MATTERS
25-May-2013
Construction work continues unabated on Kadugodi lake bed Pic: Whitefield Rising Group
TRUTH ABOUT LAKES
Encroachment o lakes continues
Though many lakes in Bangalore are dying a concretely to stop the mindless encroachme
Harini Nagendra, ecologist, stated that the Kaikonderahalli lake was an encroached Kaluve. After the Kaluve was eviscerated of the cattle and the pig farms, the lake was back to its original form. She also stated that the BBMP was quite responsive when approached. Also the pelicans were back once the lake was restored. The lake still faces the challenge of sewage though. Subramaniam, lake expert, spoke against the private players maintaining the lakes. The guidelines by Justice N.K Patil High Court Committee reject commercial exploitation of any lake under any circumstance.
city news
of Bangalore’s s unabated
slow death, nothing much has been done ent. Kadugodi lake is the latest on the list.
These guidelines give power to remove unauthorized construction within the 30 meters of peripheral lake area. He also spoke of the importance of rainwater harvesting. Brigesh Mohan, BBMP, claimed that the BBMP is trying to manage 20-25% lakes. He also claimed that 55 lakes are with BBMP and 5 with the Forest Department. The Revenue Departments, BBMP and BDA are said to be under the guidance of the Lok Adalat and High Court. He stated that BBMP is incapable of watching over the lakes and calls on people to become partners in this endeavor.
The fresh water resources comprise the river systems, groundwater and wetlands. Each of these has a unique role, and characteristic linkages to other environmental entities - Wetlands, natural and man-made, freshwater or brackish, provide numerous ecological services. They provide habitat to aquatic flora and fauna, as well as numerous species of birds, including migratory species’. A holistic view of Wetlands is necessary which looks at each identified Wetlands in terms of its causal linkages with other natural entities, human needs, and its own attributes. National Environment Policy, 2006
Lakes - remnants of a glorious past The beautiful lakes of Bangalore are man-made in nature. They were traditionally built for activities like irrigation, drinking and fishing. Lord Cornwallis around 1600s had sent an army to Srirangpatnam, which through an alternative route, reached Bangalore. He called it the ‘Land of thousand lakes’. Some of the lakes have disappeared during the years. The Majestic Bus stand was built over Dharmambudhi lake; Shule lake was converted to Hockey stadium; Sampangi lake made way for Kanteerva stadium; and some of them wiped out under the malaria eradication program. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched this program in 1958 in which it closed down the reservoirs which were infected. The Arkavati water which generally flows from Nandi hills branches into a Rajakaluve. This further branches out into a lake and chain of lakes. Multiple canals connect the lakes. When WIPRO was established, the inflow to the Madiwala lake was blocked. 25-May-2013
CITIZEN MATTERS 9
city news
The Whitefield Rising movement is a group of about 517 citizens, mostly educated middle class who have come together to fight for environmental issues. Kaikondanahalli lake: A classic example of how a lake can be rejuvenated. Pic courtesy: Saving our lakes FB page
Lake chains, not just lakes Because of the valleys on which Bangalore is located, the lakes cascade naturally from higher elevation to lower elevation. As the lake on the higher elevation would fill up, water would flow into the lower lakes. Bangalore has three main valley systems: Hebbal, Koramangala Challaghatta, Vrishabhavati. The lakes thereby form a chain of reservoirs in each of the three valley systems. The existing Rajakaluves are the inlets and outlets of the drainage system for the lakes. In many places, the sewage pipe and the water pipe are laid out in parallel. The joints of these pipes become weak at certain points and the water tends to mix with sewage. Of the 600 lakes on the revenue records, 189 live lakes are sewage tanks. In such areas, e-coli percolates bore wells and the Cauvery water. Lakes have to be preserved to maintain the ecological balance. The environmental consequences of the lack of biodiversity and lake systems are not obvious, hence not 10 CITIZEN MATTERS
understandable too. But the city will have to pay a price if we cannot preserve and rejuvenate at least the existing lakes.
Conserving the lakes - checks and balances The Government of India operationalised a wetland conservation programme in 198586 in close collaboration with concerned State Governments. Several steps were allegedly taken to arrest further degradation and shrinkage of water bodies due to encroachment, decline in biodiversity and other associated problems. But this program was restricted to only three lakes in Bangalore. The Wetland rules 2010, notification brought by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, restricted activities like solid waste dumping and discharge of untreated effluents into lakes; prohibited the construction of a permanent structure except boat jetties for fifty meters of catchment area. Also the State government is to submit prior
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approval for activities like dredging, withdrawal or impounding of water. It’s presupposed to carry out a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment. The Lake Development Authority (LDA) is a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Two states, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka have established this statutory body, which acts as a principal permitting authority. Brigesh Mohan said that the BBMP has drafted a policy scrutinised by LDA where the citizens help proactively in the maintenance of the lakes. The citizens can involve themselves during the development stage and later. The members in a ward part of Residents Welfare Associations and financially independent are eligible to be part of this initiative. If the rules, checks and balances existing on papers can come into practice in reality. Bangaloreans would see more lakes alive and ecosystems thriving.
Priyanka Nadgir
Features
MEMORIES FROM THE PAST
The man who managed Bangalore’s famous mills Bangalore’s Mysore Mills and Minerva Mills have faded into history. However, the entrepreneurial spirit of Dattatreya Narayan Sirur who managed them are ever-inspiring.
I
t was a warm week-day afternoon, around the early 1950's. I had just finished my school day and was crossing the road to pick up my father from the office of N Sirur & Company, at Kalaghoda, Fort, Bombay. As I reached the other side I chanced upon Ramakrishna A Lajmi, who had retired from the firm a decade earlier. Relying on a walking stick, attired in his customary shirt, dhoti, coat, black cap and chappals, he portrayed the quintessential Saraswat gentleman of a past age.
For some inexplicable reason, he held my arm and spoke to me in Konkani:"Vhai re puta ! Magale sagle ayushyantu hanwe ekuch honest manushya palaila - tugalo ajjo Datta! (Young man! In my entire life, I have come across only one honest man your grandfather Datta!)." Extravagant though this statement might appear in the current time, the impression that has always been with me, was this: Here was this gentleman who had spent his entire professional life working in a firm that he had retired
from, but the love and respect that he had, along with countless others, for the central figure in that business enterprise, continued to linger, long after he had left the scene. Would it be an exaggeration to say that the endeavours of Dattatrya Narayan Sirur and the enterprises that he created touched just about every family in this our small community of Chitrapur Saraswats? Every successful man has his share of detractors, the naysayers who would cavil and carp, either through sheer envy or through
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CITIZEN MATTERS 11
Features rightful indignation at a perceived wrong done. In all these years I have yet to come across a person who does not have anything to say but a kind word and convey a deep sense of admiration for the memory of the person that was D N Sirur. I did not know my grandfather, because he passed away 75 years ago on 11th March 1937, just 5 months before I was born. Every person who knew him personally has now passed on and so I have to rely on written material from several persons and the impressions that they have recorded. The foundation for the achievements of D N Sirur was laid two generations earlier. The Sirur family hailing from that eponymous town, on the border of North and South Kanara had moved to Kumta in or about 1870 where D N Sirur was born in 1876. His grandfather, Anappa Sirur was the District Court prosecutor for the British Administration of North Kanara. Circumstances that severely tested his integrity made it impossible for him to continue in that position. Round about this time two Scottish gentleman, brothers John and Patrick Chrystal, were scouting around for a person of unimpeachable honesty to help them in the cotton export business they had started some years earlier and found him in the person of Anappa Sirur. By joining the firm of P Chrystal & Co., Anappa Sirur was probably one of the first Bhanaps to venture into the private sector who until then were largely into civil service and government jobs. The American Civil War had devastated the cotton-fields of the southern United States which in turn pumped up a huge demand in the Lancashire mills for Indian cotton. This cotton grew on the highlands of the Deccan Plateau and had to be transported in bullock carts to 12 CITIZEN MATTERS
the ports strung along the coast of Western India. Kumta was one such port, which during this period exported massive quantities of cotton to the UK, so much so that to this day, all Indian cotton in England is designated as 'Coomptas'. Anappa Sirur's job was to organise caravans of bullock-carts from Kumta, ascend the ghats, tour the cotton growing areas of what is now North Karnataka and return with the cotton which would then be packed and shipped off to its UK destination. Anappa Sirur worked conscientiously at this strenuous job and when he retired, his two sons Ramakrishna and Narayan were inducted into the firm of P Chrystal & Co. Meanwhile, P Chrystal & Co, in an effort to ascend the value chain, sought to found two spinning mills
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in Hubli and acquired another running mill in Bangalore. The task of erecting and commissioning the Hubli mills fell to the younger brother Narayan who performed this task diligently and in due time was rewarded by being made a partner in the firm. Towards the end of the 19th Century, the firm of P Chrystal & Co. fell into troubled times and decided to revert to their core business which was cotton trading rather than cotton manufacturing. The larger mills in Hubli were quickly snapped up by the prestigious firm of Forbes, Forbes and Campbell. The smaller mill in Bangalore, Mysore Mills, had been started as the very first industrial enterprise in the city of Bangalore, financed by the royal family of the Princely State of Mysore and had had a chequered past before it was acquired by P. Chrystal
Features
& Co. Dattatreya, the elder son of Narayan, by virtue of the latter's partnership in the firm, wanted his father to press his claim to this mill. The father did not like the idea and gave him no encouragement. It was then that the disappointed son decided that he would stake his own claim, derived from his patrimony, but independent of his father. Because the fixed assets of the mill were mortgaged to the Government of Mysore it was necessary to seek the permission of the British Resident in Bangalore. A young, confident D N Sirur, not yet 30 years of age, sat in front of this august figure, outlining his business plan and quickly convinced the British Resident of his rightful claim to the mill and his ability to make it a success. The mill was in terrible condition, the machinery was old,
the buildings even older. The lien on the liquid assets were held by a financier in Bombay. It was under dismal conditions that D N Sirur decided to take over the managing agency of the mill under his own name and founded the firm of N Sirur & Co. in 1904, which he dutifully named after his father. There were only two partners: he and his wife Sunderabai. An apocryphal story tells of D N Sirur raising Rs 5000 by mortgaging the jewellery of his wife, to finance the firm. Explains Narsingrao S Sirur, his cousin and the first Indian General Manager of Mysore Mills: "I look back to the year 1904 when Mysore Mills with which I have had a connection, had a re-birth. Founded in the eighties of the 19th Century, it had well-nigh become the despair of men of high reputation in the industry of those times. Like Lazarus
of the Bible story, it awaited the Master's touch and my beloved and illustrious cousin the late D N Sirur hallowed be his memory - performed the miracle. I now shudder to think of the then condition of the Mill, its building and machinery, the slender resources and the unenviable heritage of credit and reputation that the mill had acquired." The successful working of a cotton mill requires sufficient working capital especially in the purchase of raw material. D N Sirur's father, Narayan, by this time had a thriving cotton trading business and was regarded as a merchant of high standing in Hubli. Although he was originally against his son's shouldering the responsibilities of working an old Mill, he was later willing to assist him in this venture, albeit at an arm's length. Narayan, on his own account would purchase cotton, send it to Bangalore and draw on the Head Office in Bombay for the value, once in three months. That meant that in three months, the cotton should reach Bangalore, be converted to yarn and sold before the bills became due. Through the dint of sheer hard work, perseverance and tenacity, the Mill slowly turned the corner. Mysore
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CITIZEN MATTERS 13
Features Mills declared its first dividend in 1913 and thereafter maintained an unbroken streak of paid dividends right upto 1960. The First World War provided the opportunity that was badly needed. Production in the Lancashire cotton mills had slumped due to shortage of man-power and the mills in India eagerly filled the gap. Demand for yarn and cloth soared and profits increased. By the end of the war in 1918, Mysore Mills was in a financially sound condition. D N Sirur at the beginning had employed several Europeans as managers but in due course these positions were quickly filled by young men with a yen for learning and someone whom he could depend on. In a few years one could say that Mysore Mills had become the bastion of Saraswat employment. In the words of Frank Conlon in his book, 'A Caste In A Changing World': "In 1904, Dattatraya N Sirur took over the managing agency of Mysore Spinning Mills. Almost immediately the Saraswat population grew, for the mill's clerical offices soon filled with Bhanap 'quill-drivers'. This altered the pattern of Saraswat residence in Bangalore. While the (Saraswat) government servants
14 CITIZEN MATTERS
much in a nascent stage. By 1930, Minerva Mills had declared a dividend. More was to come when he acquired an ailing mill in Parel, Bombay from the Birlas and another one in Mahalaxmi from the Petit family which he amalgamated into Modern Mills. By this time, the hard work and toil had taken its toll and his health began to deteriorate. He passed away suddenly from a heart attack on Mahashivaratri Day, 11th March, 1937, leaving behind a stunned family, a saddened community and many others who depended upon him for him for his livelihood. had lived throughout the city and adjoining cantonment, the mill employees clustered in the vicinity of their jobs in Malleshwaram. That neighbourhood became the site for the social club, now called the Canara Union. It was built in 1919 with the assistance of D N Sirur." Instead of resting on his laurels he started on a new venture, Minerva Mills for which the Maharajah of Mysore provided the land just up the road from Mysore Mills. His financial acumen and unquestionable integrity had gained him many investors both in the financial circles of Bombay and among the Chitrapur Saraswat community as a whole. The rest of the world was reeling under the effects of the worldwide depression but the project went on as scheduled and production started on time. Since this enterprise started from the scratch, the planning was immaculate. Raw cotton and other production material entered the premises from a special railway siding, went through the manufacturing process and finished cloth emerged from the other side. One wonders at this foresight and planning at a time when the science of Industrial Engineering was very
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Hemant Sirur is the grandson of D N Sirur, the 3rd child of his eldest son Madhukar. He was educated in Bombay at St. Xavier's High School and St. Xavier's College, graduating with a B.Sc in Chemistry & Geology in 1960. He then proceeded to the United States for further studies to the Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science where he obtained a B.S. in Textile Engineering in 1964. He has worked in the family business for many years and emigrated to Canada in 1979. He is now retired and lives in Pune, India with his wife.
Features ADVENTURES OF A SECOND-TIME MOM
Being a mom means becoming a better manager Being a full-time mom teaches you all skills in life and makes you a better manager. Here’s why essential, everyday mommy skills would be an asset in any job.
W
hen I quit full-time work to bring up the babies, I often wondered how difficult or impossible would it be to get back on the career track. Eight years and two brats have taught me how nonsensical that thought was. If you are a full-time mom (and all moms are full-time, whether working or staying at home), you have skills that are valuable in any and every work area. They just haven’t been discovered yet, or else every headhunter would be hunting for new recruits among moms. Here’s why essential, everyday mommy skills would be an asset in any job. Or even in the current unpaid, overworked and under-slept one. You keep yourself constantly updated on the latest happenings around you. You are alert to the slightest change and know that you cannot afford to fall behind or be laid back or else the competition (read kids) will get ahead of you. You are the queen of the One Step Ahead game. You can anticipate when to hide the remote. When to change the password on the computer. When to intervene during Snakes and Ladders because the fight’s threatening to get worse. Which company wouldn’t want those skills? You are the world’s shrewdest negotiator and best bargainer. In fact, bargaining is your chief skill
because you are constantly at it. “Can I watch TV if I finish my homework?” “Can you buy me this book if I behave myself?” “Can you give me pizza for dinner if I have apple?” You know when to give in and when not to. When to give in to the small stuff (Ice cream) because you want the bigger ones done (Beetroot). When to give in instantly because well, you were a kid once and you know that while the flimsy looking bubble machine isn’t going to last more than two days, it will mean hours of fun and smiles you gave up that job in your previous life for. You are a master coordinator. Birthday party arrangements, last minute gifts, play dates, extracurricular classes, pickups and drops, fun trips, grandparent visits, daily activities, food planning,
summer vacation boredom busting, weekend outings… you can do it all. And usually to everyone’s satisfaction. Think of it as event planning and customer service all rolled into one. Just on a smaller scale. And not really noticeable by anyone. You invented the word ‘multitasking.’ You can wipe the child’s bottom and order grocery on the phone at the same time, all the while thinking that you need to pick up new socks for the kids AND call your best friend. You can run a successful catering business from home, take last minute party orders AND do the school run for your kid who’s developed a last minute stomach ache. You can work on a project while one child blares the TV as if he just discovered it produces sound and another shows you everything he is doodling in his new drawing book. Every two minutes. Show me a man who can do that on a daily basis without losing his cool. Well, to be honest, you lose your cool too but still keep at it and do the same gazillion things all at the same time, everyday. That in itself is worth a mention.
Reshmi Chakraborty is a features writer and mother of a 6-year-old and a one year old. She lives near Bannerghatta Road.
25-May-2013
CITIZEN MATTERS 15
Puttenahalli Post
Our lake of drea B
ased on a total station survey done by Enzen Global in Aug. 2011, PNLIT got the BBMP to install a new diversion channel (DC) to harvest surface run off from the Brigade Millennium road into the lake. After some unavoidable delays, complicated government procedures, worker issues, etc. the DC was finally completed a month ago. The intermittent drizzle over the past couple of weeks indicated that the DC could work but we were not sure just how well it would till the downpour last night. Glimpses of the lake lit by lightning last night were exciting, raising our hope that we tried so hard to suppress! Doesn't the brightest idea in the dark of the night seem drab in the morning? But this was not an idea. This was reality. Our DC was working and how! Catching the first rays of the morning sun, the water glittered here, there, almost everywhere. Yes! Our Puttenahalli lake finally seemed like a lake (to quote trustee OP Ramaswamy)! This, despite the fact that the DC work is not even complete. The BBMP is yet to replace the concrete slabs beneath the Brigade Millennium arch with a grating that would enable even more water from the road to enter the lake. We hope they will do it within a week for then the inflow will be several times more than yesterday's. With prediction of a "normal" monsoon, we are confident that the dismal sight of a puddle in the lake even yesterday evening can be forgotten at last. The only blessing our Puttenahalli Lake will need is from the Rain God, not from an STP. With this, one of our dreams came true last night. Many more are still to be realized but at this point, we'd like to thank the BBMP for installing the DC, Contractor Harish for doing such a good job despite being skeptical about it functioning, to Enzen for giving us the hope two years ago that we could fill the lake with rain water. Thanks too to all our friends, supporters, volunteers and donors. Together we make a great team!
USHA RAJAGOPALAN
16 CITIZEN MATTERS
25-May-2013
Puttenahalli Post
ams coming true
25-May-2013
CITIZEN MATTERS 17
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