Last week, as many of us were fretting about how it was getting too cold for our kids to attend school, some parents in East Delhi's Dallupura slum had no such worries. Shivani Singh reports.
Shivani Singh writes about the tedious admission process in elite schools and how it is important for all schools to have reasonably decent standards.
One thing that strikes me every time I am in Kolkata or Mumbai is how easy it is to move around in these metros even if you don’t have your own car. You can flag down a taxi anywhere and very few refuse going to even an inconvenient destination.
Evergreen, a four-storey building in the heart of the city got knocked down on Friday by a temblor that measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. The same day, Delhi found itself in yet another global list of cities most exposed to environmental disasters.
Like our governments, we too have a short memory. Now that the sun is barely out for three days, not many recall the thick grey blanket that hung low over the city most of the last two weeks and left us gasping for breath. Shivani Singh writes.
Dengue knows no class barriers. On September 29, it killed nine-year-old Tabassum in an unauthorised colony of south Delhi. In less than a month, veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra died at Mumbai’s Lilavati hospital of multiple organ failure triggered by dengue. Shivani Singh writes.
All through my growing years living in a Punjabi-dominated "refugee" colony in central Delhi, my brother and I had difficulty establishing our regional identity. Shivani Singh writes.
In most western countries, kids below a certain age are not allowed in the front seat and child seats are mandatory. Though the Indian Motor Vehicle Act has no such provisions, I believe holding a child while driving will be considered dangerous driving under the law. Shivani Singh writes.
Two years ago this week, Delhi was a different city, at least in certain pockets. Despite the collapsing pedestrian bridge, the flooded Games village and the bad international press, our city managed to pull off a decent Commonwealth Games show in those 12 days in October 2010. Shivani Singh writes.
Going by the response to our news reports on civic problems, what seems to rankle our readers most is an unclean Delhi. For every report on sanitation, there are numerous mails on littered streets, overflowing public bins, choked drains, men urinating in public and spit-stained walls.
It took less than a month for the “garden city” of Bangalore to become a “garbage city”. Till last week, nearly 5,000 tonnes of waste generated daily by this IT hub was piling up on the streets because the surrounding villages blockaded Bangalore’s garbage trucks that were turning their backyards into landfills. Shivani Singh writes
No city in the world would have allowed its heart to be ripped open and left just like that; certainly not a city that hosted a mega event and proudly claims its legacy.
Shivani Singh writes.
Security is a superstition, thought Helen Keller. But most of us need the assurance, even if it remains no more than an illusion. Shivani Singh writes.
Having lived close to Delhi's Central Ridge most of my growing years, I took the birds for granted. Some nested in the guava and pomegranate trees in our neighbour's yard. Some found their way into our home, building nests on ledges, in ventilators and open shelves. Shivani Singh writes.
Ten years ago, I applied for a driving licence for the first time. Getting a learner’s was easy. The questions on road signs and signals were fairly easy. Having got the learner’s, I polished my skills for a month and took a formal driving test. Much to my shock, I failed. Shivani Singh writes.