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from India Insight:

Karnataka Assembly elections: Bangalore goes to the polls

(Pictures by Gokul Chandrasekhar, Rahul Singh and Raktim Hazarika) Elections to 224 constituencies of the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka were held on Sunday, May 5, 2013 across the state. The state capital Bangalore has 28 seats in the legislative assembly. Despite muted campaigning in the city, voters came out in large numbers to vote. Security was tight, given that the city had witnessed a bomb attack barely a few weeks ago.  Voter turnout was brisk during the early hours but slowed towards the afternoon. Here are a few snapshots of the polling booths across the city, where the elections by and large were peaceful.

from India Insight:

Samsung Galaxy S4 lands on Bangalore, hundreds get in line

By Sayantani Ghosh and Supantha Mukherjee

"I'm very excited. I've been waiting a couple of hours; I couldn't get any sleep last night," said Arif, an employee of UK retailer Tesco. He was near the front of the line of hundreds of people to line up at the UB City Mall in Bangalore to buy the new Galaxy S4 smartphone.

The phone went on sale at the Samsung store on Saturday, and Arif waited for about two hours for the privilege of spending 41,500 rupees, or about $763, on the new model, which comes with a 5-inch screen and 13-megapixel camera, and runs on Google's Android platform.

from India Insight:

Turning a Bangalore shanty town into a mall

(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily of Thomson Reuters)

The Bangalore city government and a private developer kicked more than 1,500 poor families out of subsidised housing in January, razed their neighbourhood and left them homeless. The reason? They want to build new, better housing – and a mall.

from India Insight:

“Homelands” exhibit in Delhi examines identity through art

Indians give high importance to the concept of identity and kinship, especially in a land that is home to hundreds upon hundreds of different languages and ethnic groups. Indian curator Latika Gupta explores this theme in “Homelands”, an exhibition of works by 28 leading contemporary British artists, all wrestling with the idea of what "home" means in the 21st century.

The artists whose works are displayed include four Turner Prize winners, Jeremy Deller, Richard Long, Grayson Perry and Gillian Wearing. Work by World Press Photo (2007) winner Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya, also is on display.

from India Insight:

Photo gallery: vigils after Delhi rape victim dies

Here are some photographs from our India Insight contributors that show vigils following the death on Saturday of a 23-year-old woman after six men raped her aboard a bus in Delhi on Dec. 16. We will update this post as more photos arrive. Thanks to Soumya Bandyopadhyay in Kolkata, Anoo  Bhuyan and Anuja Jaiman in Delhi and Vidya L. Nathan in Bangalore. Apologies for any inconsistent sizing or lack of uniformity. Note for non-Hindi readers or speakers: the sign in the first photograph says: "My voice is higher than my skirt."

Delhi (Anoo Bhuyan):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kolkata:

 

 

 

 

Delhi (Anuja Jaiman):

 

 

Bangalore:

 

 

 

 

 

You can see many more images related to this story from our Reuters photographers as well.

from India Insight:

Delhi gang rape: protests for women’s rights attract politicking instead

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Thomson Reuters)

The perfect recipe of a bad curry is to do everything right, then add one wrong ingredient, or add the right ingredient in the wrong amount. In this case, the ingredient is the mango, or as they call it in Hindi, "aam."

from India Insight:

Elsewhere in India: Maria Sharapova wins hearts, minds of cameramen

Here's some more news that we found in the Indian press over the weekend and would like to share with you. Rather than present stories of great national importance, we would like to highlight some of the items that you are less likely to see in world news reports. Any opinions that the author might express are surely beneath contempt, and are not necessarily those of Thomson Reuters.

Tennis pro Maria Sharapova visited India. Gushing ensued. "The 25-year-old, here to announce her partnership with UK-based real estate company Homestead, sported an infectious smile throughout the interaction even though the lensmen could not get to focus enough of capturing the blonde beauty. 'Well, it is just the hair and make-up you know. I don't wake up looking like this,' quipped Sharapova when a scribe called her pretty. Here only for a day, Sharapova said food and culture was something she would take back from India. 'I arrived last night and asked the chef what should I try of the Indian food. I had a dosa which tasted really nice. I wanted to have this great Indian experience. There is so much energy in the city, I have been in some quiet areas recently, resting. I really like the culture and people. You all have been really welcoming.'" Final score: love-love. (NDTV)

from India Insight:

Elsewhere in India: a Hitchcock escape at Kashmere gate, and more…

(Editor's note: please bear with us as we find a digest that you can digest. Anything that causes indigestion is the result of something that the author said, and is in all likelihood incorrect, specious and wrong)

Here are some stories from the Indian press that caught our attention in recent days. We hope that you find them as interesting as we did.

from India Insight:

Slayer extends its ‘reign in blood’ to Bangalore

Bangalore houses what might be an outsize share of India's metal heads, so it's appropriate that this was the city that thrash metal band Slayer picked for their first show in India. The band played in one of the city's outlying suburbs, and drew a crowd from all over, including Vietnam, as they played a set list that stretched back through albums such as "Reign in Blood," to "Show No Mercy," their debut album from 1983.

"The special part for me is we've never played India. So we can pretty much play anything we've ever played," guitarist Kerry King said at a press conference for the event.

from India Insight:

Cauvery River water fight paralyses Bangalore on Saturday

(This article was reported by Gokul Chandrasekar, Vineet Sharma and Bidya Sapam. Photos by Bidya Sapam)

The water was running in Bangalore on Saturday, but the buses were not.

“I have been waiting for a bus for over two hours now,” said Prabhat Kishan, 60, at the Majestic Bus Station in Bangalore.