Articles by Deepa Mohan

I was looking forward very much to the Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival this year, and was even happier to note that there would be a curtain-raiser montage of Shakespeare by Evam. Evam, to use a punning phrase, usually has its act together, and I was looking forward to some good pre-entertainment entertainment.Alas, I do not know who thought of using the entire ground floor space of Ranga Shankara (and the stairs, too) as a stage for the montage. Though the idea was a novel one, and intended to gather in the audience all over, with scenes being played at different…

I've spoken before of my friend who has now developed into a professional wildlife photographer. He got together with a team, and directed this video; the images are all from Karnataka:   The lyrics are written by H S Venkateshamurthy, and Ricky Kej is the music director. here is the Deccan Herald write-up about it. It is being released today, on the occasion of Rajyostava Day. Congrats, Amogh, and may other such efforts follow! ⊕

There inature, conservation and bird-watching communities in Bangalore are deeply saddened  at the loss of one of their  champions, Deepak Arya.   Deepak Arya was well-known to the rock-climbing and birding communities of Bangalore; he had been quite active in protesting against the privatization of public commons, and his last major initiative was for the protection of the Turahalli Forest, which was under threat. He was also documenting the history of the common vegetables that we use.Under the email id of "z_axis" (he explained to me once that we had the 'x' and 'y' axis in a graph, so he wanted to…

Timber Depot, Dandeli, Karnataka, 251012The sun slants into the groveIn a million rays.The leaves take beautyIn a million ways.We, who see it, cannot hope to createA hundredth part of such a scene.We can only capture and share...And be awed by what we have seen.A salute to Karnataka, my home,my mother, and my muse...She came into being on this day. ⊕

I can certainly understand, and applaud, an effort by a police station to get the common citizens of Bangalore involved. But this mural, painted on the J P Nagar Police Station, seems to want the citizens to "join hands" with the Bangalore Police in committing as many illegal acts as possible!Well, I got the gist, but the mural made me smile all the way home! ⊕

Going around, visiting my friends and also checking out the condition of lakes, I got some images I'd like to share with you.One of my friends, Hema, has a simple "golu" this time, without the kalasha that would make it mandatory for her to stay home all the nine days and offer worship:Here she is, contemplating it:Here's the rangoli she's done for it:and the decorated plate for it:Another of my friends, Arun, helped his mother set up a traditional golu, with the village next to the steps, and all the dolls on them, being symbolic of the universe that the…

"Krafff", staged by La Compagnie du Théâtre Romette ( a collaboration between an artistic director, Johanny Bert and a choreographer Yan Raballand) cannot be called a "play" in the usual sense of the term. There are a team of five "actors"who, on stage, create a life-sized mannikin out of lengths of craft paper and a few rubber bands. Four of them ,(whom I must designate as puppeteers, though they claim not to be) then bring the marionette to life, and it interacts, for a riveting 35 minutes, with the fifth member, who is a dancer and acrobat, with all the…

When I realized that a play by the famous actor Steve Martin, which had also drawn more than its fair share of controversy, was going to be staged by   Tahatto   a young Bangalore-based theatre group, I was very intrigued, and contrary to my usual habit of not travelling across town for a play, did so...and was not disappointed. Set in a Parisian bar in 1904, the play imagines a comical encounter between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein, both of whom are in their early twenties and fully aware of their amazing potential. Not content with this, Steve Martin introduces…

I visited my friend Dr. Sanjeev Managoli today, and in idle curiosity, asked him, "Don't you have a landline in your home?" Sanjeev immediately took out this registration form where he has applied for a BSNL connection. It is dated June 2012:It's now four months, and he has heard nothing about the connection yet.I thought that BSNL were giving off-the-shelf connections now, after hordes of subscribers surrendered their connections with the advent of mobile phones, sick of the monopolistic pathetic service of BSNL.However, it seems that sometimes BSNL hasn't improved at all.... ⊕

I've been doing this for years, and been reviled as "cheap"...but now recycling has become "cool" and here's my how-to....Requirements:Envelopes. This obviously works better with the long envelopes that arrive in the post. "Windowed" envelopes won't work (those with a cellophane window to display the name and address inside.) I use this method on invitation cards and thick envelopes, too, but be prepared for the occasional tearing and wastage.A sharp paper-knife, of the sort I have photographed. The blade needs to be thin, long and sharp.How:Slit open the glued folds of the envelope, on the width (after having opened it…