The Editor who foresaw Siddaramaiah as CM

K.B. Ganapathy, editor-in-chief of Star of Mysore, on the man who will be Karnataka’s next CM, in today’s paper:

“Back in November 2010 I had gone to Siddaramaiah‘s Mysore house with Mysooru Mithra editor M. Govinde Gowda to invite him personally for my second son’s wedding.

“As expected, the house was full of people spilling over to the road with many vehicles parked around. His aide took us to the dining hall where he was sitting at the head of the table alone, probably for our meeting.

“After the initial courtesies and platitudes I gave him the invitation and requested him to bless the groom in a customary way. As is his wont, he was expressionless and silent for a while and said that he would come.

“I did not believe him.

“I asked him about the political mess the BJP was in at that time and he mumbled something that I don’t remember now. However, I told him that it was good that he joined Congress and Congress never disappoints its loyal members in the matter of rewarding them suitably.

“He lifted his inclined head in slow-motion, looked at me and smiled. Who would not like to hear a positive prognosis of oneself?

“I continued. I said in Karnataka, in the past many years of Congress rule, I had seen that senior Congress members who were ministers and aspired to become chief ministers had realised their aspirations even if it was only for two or three years, and gave the recent examples of Bangarappa, Veerappa Moily and S.M. Krishna (who was deputy chief minister like Siddharamaiah).

“Therefore, you too will become the Chief Minister,” I told Siddaramaiah.

“Now I could see his lips turn elastic revealing his teeth from right molar to left molar with a twitch of his snubby nose. Eyes too twinkled for a fleeting second.

“I am happy to tell my readers, Siddaramaiah indeed kept his words and attended my son’s wedding held at Mysore Race Club premises.”

Photograph: Siddaramaiah gestures to the crowd after being elected as the leader of the Congress legislative party, at the KPCC Office in Bangalore on Friday (Karnataka Photo News)

Why Modi will address only one rally in K’taka*

Security personnel on election duty search a car at a check post on Hospet road in Bellary on Thursday, even as a new pre-poll survey suggests that the Congress, despite all its troubles, continues to maintain a healthy lead over the BJP in the assembly elections due in the “gateway to the south” next week.

The survey, conducted by the centre for study of developing societies (CSDS), for CNN-IBN and The Week, shows that the Congress could end up with at least 117 seats in a house of 224. Like other polls before this one, BJP comes second with 59 seats, JD(S) third at 44. KJP and others are also-rans.

Former chief minsiter H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) is the most preferred CM candidate, with 18 per cent people voting in favour of him. Ex-BJP strongman B.S. Yediyurappa is the second choice for CM (10%), followed by Congress leader Siddaramaiah (9%), S.M. Krishna (8%), and Jagadish Shettar (6%).

***

THE POLLS SO FAR

CSDS-CNN-IBN, The Week (April): Congress 117-129, BJP 39-49, JD(S) 33-44

Suvarna News-Cfore (April): Congress 105-122 out of 224; BJP 55-70; JD(S) 30-45

Headlines Today-C-Voter (March): Congress 114-122, BJP 48-56, JD(S) 32-38, KJP 10-14

Tehelka-C-Voter (January): Congress 133, BJP 63, JD(S) 19, KJP 5

Suvarna News-CFore (Decamber 2012): Congress 113, BJP 58, JD(S) 31, KJP 14

***

* Search engine optimisation techniques at work

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

***

2013 election coverage

When a wife-beater campaigns for the Congress

Rahul Gandhi fails five tests in Karnataka poll

They cry before the polls, so we can cry after

‘Diminishing returns from aggressive Hindutva’

Why is corruption not an issue in Karnataka?

POLL 2013: Can the Karnataka opinion polls go awry?

POLL 2013: Has A. Ramdas not supplied ‘henda‘?

It’s unofficial: our democracy has a bribe future

When a wife-beater campaigns for the Congress

ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from San Francisco: A week is a long time in politics; it’s even longer in the film industry, where reputations are made and marred over a weekend. But in Boxoffice Bharat, the fortunes of politicians and filmstars happily and conveniently comingle and collide at the turnstile, come election time.

And so it is in Karnataka, in the year of the bhagwantha, 2013.

Twenty months ago, when “challenging star” turned challenged star Darshan Toogudeep alias Darshan, beat up his wife, stubbed a burning cigarette, tore her dress, bit her ear, threatened their son, and pulled out his revolver and landed up in hospital like a wimp feigning asthma and jaudice, an obnoxious face of the Kannada film industry was revealed.

Homas were conducted, buses were stoned, processions were taken out for his release from police detention. The angels of the industry (including ‘Duniya‘ Vijay, whose own extraordinary marital life recently played out on live TV) put pressure on his wife to withdraw her damning complaint.

The scandal took on a visibly casteist tone, as Vokkaligas jumped into the picture. The “other woman”, Nikita Thukral, was “banned” from acting in Kannada films.

Compromise ensued after “rebel star” Ambarish intervened.

It’s payback time.

As Ambarish, the Vokkaliga leader, contests the elections in Mandya on a Congress ticket, Darshan, his supposed “successor”, is at hand, lending his voice to Sumalatha‘s. And this one picture conveys all there is to be said of the “forgiving nature” of our largely illiterate, star-struck electorate, which can barely make out the difference between art and life and probably doesn’t care.

Meanwhile, Nikita Thukral provides the opium to the unwashed masses on “Bigg Boss“.

Howdu, swami!

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also read: What Darshan‘s brutality says about Sandalwood

CHURUMURI POLL: Should Darshan be banned?

‘Darshan scandal reveals’s Kannada bias, bigotry’

***

2013 election coverage

Rahul Gandhi fails five tests in Karnataka poll

They cry before the polls, so we can cry after

‘Diminishing returns from aggressive Hindutva’

Why is corruption not an issue in Karnataka?

POLL 2013: Can the Karnataka opinion polls go awry?

POLL 2013: Has A. Ramdas not supplied ‘henda‘?

It’s unofficial: our democracy has a bribe future

They cry before polls, so that we can cry after

Former Karnataka chief minister and president of the KJP, B.S. Yediyurappa, wipes his brow during election campaigning at Badami in Bagalkot district on Thursday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also view: The best B.S. Yediyurappa pics on planet earth

Why is corruption not an issue in Karnataka poll?

As the election scene hots up in Karnataka, the commentariat is swinging into action.

Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi writes in the Indian Express:

“Over the past decade, Karnataka has acquired the dubious distinction of being among the most corrupt states, competing with the likes of Jharkhand. Yet, discomfort over the issue of corruption has been restricted largely to the English media, and possibly some upper-class activists. Why, then, has corruption not become a core electoral issue, despite the nationwide anti-corruption campaign in recent times.

“Consider this: corruption is no longer a visible act, like bribe-taking or collecting commission on state projects. Rather, it has become broad-based manipulation of public policy for private profit and hence, invisible. Notions of the public good are absent from policymaking, as the politician-entrepreneur has taken centrestage.

“Perhaps this was true even two decades ago, when politicians began establishing capitation-fee-paying medical and technical institutions, or started mining granite. But now the scale of profits, especially from mining (iron ore in Bellary and surrounding districts), as well as the real estate industry in Bangalore, has transformed political culture and policymaking.

“Note that the beneficiaries of this new corruption aren’t the old elite from the landowning castes, but upstarts from all caste and economic backgrounds. Invariably, they have entered politics to consolidate their burgeoning business interests and mould public policy for their benefit. Janardhana Reddy is perhaps the best known example of this new breed of politician.

“If there hasn’t been vocal opposition to such manipulation of public policy, the reason is simple: this new corruption is often justified as a victimless crime, since only the natural resources owned by the state are being exploited, and no single individual is victimised. More significantly, the spoils of this new corruption are generously shared and percolate to different sections of society. Sharing the wealth of these illicit activities has become the basis for a new political populism in Karnataka.”

Samar Halarnkar in the Hindustan Times:

“If there is to be a barometer of India’s soaring aspirations — and its grim political and administrative realities — look no further than Karnataka, a microcosm of emerging India, which goes to the polls next month and could serve as a precursor to next year’s national elections.

“If corruption was institutionalised by successive Congress governments, the state’s first BJP government made it a way of life, with more heart than it did Hindutva, its Hindu-first ideology. So it is that B.S. Yediyurappa, the former BJP chief minister who handed out crores to Hindu religious institutions (the latest budget sets aside more than Rs. 182 crore) and shut out minorities from his Cabinet, declares that his new outfit, the Karnataka Praja (People’s) Party, is strictly secular.

“If Narendra Modi showcases his administrative acumen, his party in Karnataka represents a baser, corrupted, caste-ridden avatar. Even if Modi, who is popular in urban Karnataka, campaigns for the BJP, the state may dump his party.”

Photograph: A dry borewell opposite the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore (Karnataka Photo News)

Also read: How BJP pushed Karnataka into cesspool of caste

How BJP turned Karnataka politics into a cartoon

How BJP completely lost the plot in Karnataka

‘BJP’s lotus grows in the muck; so do BJP people’

How China changed the politics of Karnataka

CHURUMURI POLL: Karnataka, Bihar of the South?

CHURUMURI POLL: India’s most corrupt CM?

Those who live by the Reddys shall die by them

Two kinds of people work in the dead of night

When the lights come on, two kinds of uniformed men get down to work: one for private profit, the other for public good.  As the Royal Challengers Bangalore get into their red and gold at the Chinnaswamy stadium for the first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) tonight, a not-so-royal set of challengers, will put on their helmets for the Bangalore metro.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also view: The Namma Metro photo portfolio

Pay attention. You’ll soon be zipping through it.

It gets dark and it sounds different when the Bangalore metro passes through a tunnel from the arts college towards the civil court. But before that happens, some worthy souls need to wade through slush and mud and steel,  as one of them did in Bangalore, on Thursday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also view: The Namma Metro photo portfolio

If there’s a traffic jam, it’s most likely cause is…

It’s probably a cruel thing to say, given that Ratan Tata has hung up his gigantic boots and is enjoying the fruits of recruitment. But, surely, it is no exaggeration to say that 8 out of 10 cars that break down in the middle of the road are ones bearing his surname?

As one did near the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore, on Wednesday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also read: The best advertisement for safety of Hyundai?

Double-riding a Honda in the era of helicopter joyrides

What goes on behind the boards at Minsk Square

It is difficult not to get exasperated while negotiating the bottlenecks that the metro rail project in Bangalore creates every morning. But few, if any, have the time or the inclination to see what’s happening behind those green and white barricades, as here at Minsk Square, behind the general post office, on Monday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also view: The namma metro photo portfolio

Yet another shameless plug for a true Indian great

Presumably after buying vegetables for the day, as he said he would following his retirement, former Indian cricket captain and India’s second-most prolific batsman Rahul Dravid (right) makes time to be present at the launch of an advanced trauma centre at a hospital in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also read: Player No. 207 is the modern-day Vijay Hazare

India’s greatest match-winning batsman is…

Everybody is a child to somebody or the other

At the inauguration of the 8th international children’’s film festival, the veteran actor, B. Saroja Devi, proceeds to give Puneet Rajkumar a nice little hug, in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also read: An old flame ignites the media’s insensitivity

Corruption OK. Massacres OK. Romance, not OK?

If only you could do this to the Vidhana Soudha…

Photographers at tourist spots like the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal prod visitors to pinch their fingers in such a way as to make it seem as if you are lifting the gigantic monument. The cranes of the metro rail project do the needful for the cameras opposite the intrigue-filled Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore on Monday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also view: The Namma Metro photo portfolio

What Rajni missed when he went out to smoke

On his 60th birthday, school children in Bangalore hold up notebooks of the City’s most famous cinematic export: Shivaji Rao Gaekwad also known as Rajnikanth.

The books were supplied by the Rajniji Seva Samithi (RSS).

***

The website First Post has published excerpts from a new biography of Rajnikanth by the film scholar Naman Ramachandran, with this passage of his relationship with Kamal Haasan.

“In the beginning, in 1975, just how big a star Kamal Haasan was, today’s generation does not know,’ says Rajinikanth. ‘He was an even bigger star in 1975 than he is now. Old or young, a new artiste had never shaken all of India like he did. I had just entered the cinema industry then.

“Apoorva Raagangal, Moondru Mudichu, Avargal, these were all my guru K. Balachander’s films—I became a hero with these three films. After that the films that came, big films like 16 Vayathinile, Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu, Aadu Puli Attam, Aval Appadithan—these were all hit films.

“For those films, if Kamal had said, ‘Don’t cast Rajini,’ nobody would have taken me. I got Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu solely on Kamal’s recommendation.

“So I acted in all these films and then, after I became a big actor, one day Kamal called me and said, ‘Rajini, only if you act alone will you get your own space. If you say no, the cinema world will use us, and you won’t be able to grow.’

“I listened to all that he said. After that I worked on my own.

“Then, after I became a big man, Kamal called me again one day and said, ‘Rajini, you have to be cautious in Tamil cinema. I have seen from a young age—MGR and Sivaji, though they had no rivalry between them, the cinema industry separated them. And because the industry separated them, their fans also separated. That shouldn’t happen with us. The producers and directors I work with, you should work with them too.’

“I don’t know how to thank him.”

Rajinikanth adds, ‘In other industries, people like Mammootty, Mohan Lal, Venkatesh, Chiranjeevi, Amitabh Bachchan and even Dilip Kumar look at me and are amazed how I managed to make a name for myself as an actor in an industry where Kamal Haasan exists. The reason is simple. I grew as an actor just by watching Kamal Haasan acting. I had the good fortune of being able to observe Kamal Haasan from close quarters.

During the shooting of Avargal I was sitting outside when K. Balachander noticed this and got angry. He sent word for me to return to the set and asked me, ‘Did you go outside to smoke? Kamal is acting; observe him. Only then will your acting get even better.’

“From that time, when Kamal acted I wouldn’t go anywhere; I would just sit there and watch. This is the honest truth.”

Buy the book here: Infi Beam

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also read: A stylish lesson in humility from namma Rajni

11 similarities between Rajni and the iPod

A hit, yes, but why does Rajni have such a hold?

The most testing day in the life of Rajnikanth

Don’t tell us you didn’t know this one about Rajni

How Rajnikanth caught the lion

You’re too old for Dilli but not so for your Halli*

The lord moves in mysterious ways in the Congress party. At the age of 80 years and six months, Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna was overnight found too old to be the nation’s external affairs minister and packed off to the boondocks in quick time to usher in Salman Khurshid, 21 years his younger.

But at the same age of 80 years and six months, S.M. Krishna is still young enough for the verdant political landscape of his State, where the Congress is eyeing a comeback after six years in the doghouse. On Thursday, the “dapper” former chief minister, who is eyeing the CM’s chair once again according to the grapevine, was meeting independent MLAs who, having supported the BJP earlier, are now eyeing the Congresss.

Question: Can S.M. Krishna, the only Congress figure with Statewide appeal, make a difference in the assembly elections?

* To be sung to the tune of the old Amul jingle

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

What does the great gold obsession say about us?

The Punjabification of southern celebrityhood attains new heights—or plumbs new depths—with each passing day. Notions of austerity and simple living and high thinking are passe; flaunt it if you have it is the new mantra as “stars” exploit every ounce of their stardom, or what is left of it, for a few rupees more.

With Deepavali round the corner, it is habba for filmi folk.

Three generations of actors—from left, Bharati Vishnuvardhan, Tara, Jayanthi and Padmaja Rao—pose for the camerasat an antique jewellery mela as part of the Deepavali festival celebrations organised by a jewel firm in Bangalore on Monday. Like, celebrating the festival of lights with anything less is a crime.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also read: All that glitters is a gold scam about to burst?

***

The commodification of women portfolio

Ramya: One more example of commodification of women

Ramya: Another example of commodification of women

Anu Prabhakar: Another example of commodification of examinations

Ramya: Like, bombers get scared looking at bombshells?

Ramya: Now, what will those fools do with these kids?

Aindrita Ray: Surely all that glitters is more than just gold

Jennifer Kotwal: The best ice-candy melts before nice eye-candy

Ramya: What it takes to smoothen some rough blades of grass

Nicole Faria: Denims, diamonds, Miss India and the Mahatma

Priyanka Trivedi: See, a brand ambassador always gets good press

Roopashree: Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

Gul Panag: You are almost tempted to say ‘Intel Inside’

Ramya: Don’t ask us what it is, but it sure costs a bomb

Mandira Bedi: It ain’t so easy to woo an iPhone4 user, sister

Tejaswini Prakash: As if we didn’t have traffic diversions already

Pooja Gandhi: Why Vodafone subscribers experience call drops

Raveena Tandon: From a flower of stones to a stone of flowers

Sameera Reddy: Finally, some ‘commodification’ we are OK with

What the lights ‘n’ sights of Mysore hide from you

“Doorada betta nunnuge” (from afar, even a distant hill looks smooth) is an old Kannada saying.

The sight of the Mysore palace with the Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar circle in the foreground, all decked up for Dasara in Mysore on Saturday, is a shining example of that. “Dasara Works” are going on feverishly even as the festival is veering to an end, but tourists and visitors are unlikely to notice.

For, the lights provide a nice veneer to mask the darkness.

***

Dr K. Javeed Nayeem writes in Star of Mysore:

“We are all in the middle of Dasara which is our most important annual event. But Mysore is still getting decked up for the occasion even after the short-lived celebrations themselves have started and are also about to end. It is a little like the bride still getting dressed even after the priest has started chanting the sacred mantras, completely unmindful of the fact that she is missing and only mindful of not allowing the designated auspicious moment to slip away!

“This is the scenario that meets our weary eyes year after year, ever since the Dasara slipped from the hands of our erstwhile royalty into the hands of our new netas. I wonder why some proper planning does not go into its preparations. At least it can then serve its intended purpose of showcasing our city at its best and making our tourists happy that the time, effort and money they spent on seeing it were worth it….

“Here I am reminded of Aesop‘s fairy tale where work on the project which started off in great haste, has fallen asleep enroute like the hare, while it is slowly but steadily being overtaken by its rival, the tortoise of escalating costs. Instead of wasting money and time on fairy tale projects and trying to achieve the impossible, it would be better if we concentrate on doing something tangible and useful.”

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also read: What is so world-famous about Mysore Dasara?

Should Bollywood have a place in Mysore Dasara?

Once upon a time, on this day, in another age

Mysore Mallige for the Maharani amid gold, glitz

When ‘time piece’ gets a whole new meaning

churumuri‘s acclaimed campaign against the commodification of women continues without a pause. This time, models flaunting Titan’s Edge series of watches at a launch in Bangalore on Friday. –

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

***

The commodification of women portfolio

Ramya: One more example of commodification of women

Ramya: Another example of commodification of women

Anu Prabhakar: Another example of commodification of examinations

Ramya: Like, bombers get scared looking at bombshells?

Ramya: Now, what will those fools do with these kids?

Aindrita Ray: Surely all that glitters is more than just gold

Jennifer Kotwal: The best ice-candy melts before nice eye-candy

Ramya: What it takes to smoothen some rough blades of grass

Nicole Faria: Denims, diamonds, Miss India and the Mahatma

Priyanka Trivedi: See, a brand ambassador always gets good press

Roopashree: Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

Gul Panag: You are almost tempted to say ‘Intel Inside’

Ramya: Don’t ask us what it is, but it sure costs a bomb

Mandira Bedi: It ain’t so easy to woo an iPhone4 user, sister

Tejaswini Prakash: As if we didn’t have traffic diversions already

Pooja Gandhi: Why Vodafone subscribers experience call drops

Raveena Tandon: From a flower of stones to a stone of flowers

Sameera Reddy: Finally, some ‘commodification’ we are OK with

Mysore Mallige for ‘Maharani’ on day of glitz, gold

On the first day of Dasara 2012, the scion of the erstwhile royal family of Mysore, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, dressed in traditional robes, sits on the throne at the main palace (top and middle), and blesses his wife Pramoda Devi, during the private darbar, on Tuesday. –

Photographs: Karnataka Photo News

Also read: What is so world-famous about Mysore Dasara?

Should Bollywood have a place in Mysore Dasara?

Once upon a time, on this day, in another age

It’s true: every view can have an opposite view

At Hasthakala, an exhibition of traditional arts and crafts at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat, a divine dude in stately recline takes a comfortable look at visitors, in Bangalore on Monday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

The total number of colours in this picture is…

Students of the Satya Sai institute of home science turn out in their colourful best at a youth festival organised by the women’’s University in Dharwad on Thursday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

***

Also read: Save women from having to save the saree

2011: How the Dharwad peda enhances your smile

2009: 22 ways to smile in a blaze of earthy colours

8 reasons Karnataka is wrong on Cauvery issue

Like a bad penny, the Cauvery “dispute” returns to the national discourse every few years with both the “riparian” States involved the story, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, making the same noises—the former of everlasting injury and the latter of arrogance, with the Centre acting like a traffic policeman with his hands tied.

Every time the dispute flares up, and that is usually when there is scanty rainfall, the same revanchist forces of linguistic chauvinism and parochialism dust themselves and utter the same threatening cliches.

The world’s topmost water resources experts—the moviestars of Gandhinagar—descend on the streets. Bandhs are called, roads are blocked, resignations are offered, the ruling party flexes its muscle, all-party delegations meet the PM, and the media beats the familiar wardrum that sends shivers down the spines of those who can remember 1991-92.

Lost in the melee is sense and common sense. A dispute involving a couple of districts in the deep south holds the rest of the State and its relationship with a neighbour hostage. Karnataka’s fair name as a law-abiding State and the reputation of Kannadigas as a decent, civilised lot is muddied in the eyes of the nation and the courts.

Here, a lawyer conversant with the intricacies of the dispute lists eight reasons why Karnataka is once again barking up the wrong tree in circa 2012.

***

1. When the agreement of 1924 was signed between the Maharaja of Mysore and Madras, the former diwan of Mysore,  Sir M. Visvesvaraya, supported it unequivocally. The said agreement gave 80% of all the water to Madras, which is equal to 360 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) at the Border.

2. The Cauvery Tribunal, reduced the quantity from 360 TMC as provided by the agreement of 1924 to 205 TMC in its interim Order, or 192 TMC in its final Order, which is a reduction of about 50%. During the years of drought, the shortfalls are to be shared equitably by riparian states. How is this distress to be shared?

3. According to Tamil Nadu, if the shortfall in the flows is 40%, its share ought to stand reduced by 40%. On applying this simple mathematical reduction formula of pro-rata, the shortfall in the flows given to Tamil Nadu comes to 40 TMC as on 19 September 2012.

4. However, the Prime  Minister rightly ignored the pro-rata formula when he passed the Order on 19 September 2012 directing Karnataka to ensure 9000 Cusecs till 15 October 2012 equivalent to only 20 TMC. This 20 TMC not only includes the arrears but also the monthly quota. Therefore, in real terms, the Prime Minister has only given 10 TMC towards arrears as against 40 TMC which ought to have been due to Tamil Nadu under the pro-rata formula.

5. Present storages is about 65 TMC. Even in the worst year of 2003-2004, 30 TMC flowed into the Karnataka reservoirs till December. So, in this year too, a similar quantum of water can be expected.

6. Cauvery is a political issue for the Vokkaligas. Historically, none from the Vokkaliga belt in Mandya and Mysore ever raised a word of opposition in 1924. Even after independence in 1947 or the re-organisation of States in 1956, none from Mandya or Mysore sought revision of the agreement of 1924. It is only after 1974, that the Opposition to the 1924. After 1974, the opposition in the Vokkaliga belt started but it is selective, targeting Non-Vokkaliga Government.

7. Mandya Vokkaligas opposed the Varuna Canal because it benefitted the Lingayats and Backward Classes in Mysore District. Mandya Vokkaligas do not bother when water is released from Kabini to fulfil the Order because Kabini caters to Lingayats, SC, ST and OBCs.

8. The ones who should really be complaining are Coorgis, since Coorg does not have drinking water though more than half the Cauvery water comes from there.

Photograph: Kannada movie stars (from left) Pooja Gandhi, Prameela Joshai, Shruti, Tara and Sudharani emerge out of the Raj Bhavan in Bangalore on Saturday after submitting a memorandum to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj on Cauvery issue (Karnataka Photo News)

Also read: If it’s summer, it’s time for a nice Cauvery row

Not everybody is a loser in the Cauvery dispute

All that glitters is not always what you think it is

Not a gold mine, just work afoot on the Namma Metro project at Minsk Square in Bangalore on Monday evening.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also view: The namma Metro photo portfolio

Since government work alone is not god’s work

Some of Bangalore’s hardest working men, workers on the Namma Metro project, take a breather near the Vidhana Soudha, the headquarters of some of Karnataka’s you-know-who.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Also view: The complete Namma Metro portfolio

It doesn’t hurt to pray; it does if you do to plastic

A cricket idol (Anil Kumble, if you must ask) is appearing on TV channels, exhorting people not to use pick up synthetic idols made with synthetic colours this Ganesh Chathurthi. At least this smart devotee has heard and paid heed to the clarion call while making her purchase at Gandhi Bazaar in Bangalore on Tuesday.

How about you?

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

***

Also read: At 8th Cross, even Ganesha wants a good concert

Once upon a time, Govinda, Venky, Seshu, Gundu…

One child per family; one Ganesha per colony?

When Gajanana meets JCB on Chowpatty

Not quite the Hero who’d say it’s a boy thing

A picture is worth a thousand buses (and autos)

On the day the city bus terminal at “Majestic”, aka Kempe Gowda bus station, at Subhashnagar in Bangalore wore what tomorrow morning’s newspapers will call a “deserted look”, autorickshaws whizzed around K.R. Market  as if they owned the roads, all thanks to the strike by KSRTC employees demanding a hike in wage.

Photographs: Karnataka Photo News