Articles by Deepa Mohan

"Other Voices" 1 Madhav Bagh, a Ranga Shankara "Other Voices" presentation, featuringRevathy, returns this week-end. The play is written by Chetan Datar,translated by Shanta Gokhale, and directed by Mariam Jetpurwala. Theshows are at 9:45 pm on Sat, Nov 19 and 9:30 PM on Sun, Nov 20. Theduration of the play is 40 mins.Tickets are available at Ranga Shankara and indianstage.in. Given theintimate space of an "Other Voices" performance, the number of seatsis very limited."Other Voices" is a unique theatre experience at Ranga Shankara. It istheatre performed in an intimate space, after the show in the mainauditorium, in an informal setting (for…

One building...On my way to and from the Bangalore International Airport, one building often catches my eye:I have long known the custom of the Parsi community to dispose of their dead by exposing the bodies to the elements and to the sun. I vaguely remember being shown a "Tower of Silence" in Mumbai, many decades ago.I googled for "Tower of Silence", and got this link about Dakhma, transliterated as "Tower of Silence" I was not sure if the Tower of Silence in Bangalore is being used now...but a little digging produced this link to an article in the Hindu ...which…

 It was a great way to celebrate Children's Day.... When Usha Rajagopalan asked me to take several people around the 1km perimeter of Puttenahalli Lake, I was very happy indeed to conduct the nature trail.We all assembled there at 6am:The sun also decided to come up and join us: There were about 50 people altogether, including old friends like Shashi and Shalini.Obviously, I wasn't able to take too many photographs, but with Poornima and Srini along, we sighted quite a few interesting things, such as thisSPOTTED OWLETon top of a dead palm trunk:and thisPURPLE HERONwhich seems to be a regular resident:It was…

A short but satisfying trip to Nandi Hills....As usual, by consensus, Nandi Hills was agreed upon as the destination for Saturday's birding trip, and 7 of us....Kannan,Nandan, Naveen,Poornima, Santosh,Sumeet, and I...left very early in the morning, so as to catch the sunrise at Nandi Hills.As it happened, we caught the beautiful "moon set" instead. The moon was just a day past full, and still looked quite gorgeous as it sank down in the west, behind the bettA (hill) that is Nandi. By the time we'd queued up for our tickets, and got into the road, and gone up the hill…

Out of sight, out of mind...that's what usually happens to the garbage that we throw out of our homes. I've been trying all yesterday, and up to now, to load some photos to Photobucket, so I can write about the Trash Trail I went on yesterday...but I think the internet connection is terrible, so I'll write about it and you can see the photos (with the narrative) at my Facebook account, here I'm sorry, but you need a Facebook account to be able to see the photos.I'm adding the few photos I was able to post...starting with this one...illustrative of the…

There was an extra festive element at the Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival this time, as it fell between Dasara and Deepavali. The Theatre Festival started on October 16 and wound up on October 23. Street play at Ranga Shankara. Pic: H V Venugopal This year's theme was "Political Theatre," a controversial topic that brings out debate, and creativity, in people. Keeping with the theme, there were several contemporary folk theatre performances and documentaries screened, with vigorous discussions at the end. Sadanand Menon's workshop on Theatre and Arts Appreciation was very well-attended, as was the seminar on the same theme. "It…

 The discounts are getting really incredible these days...a few days before the festival of Deepavali, I saw this near Yelahanka: A friend suggested that the board was on its side because the discount was heavy!How much more will vendors offer to the gullible public to pull them in? And who are the people who believe that anyone will sell something commercially at a 90% discount? ⊕

Today, I was asked to judge a debate on the theme, "Are Women Truly LIberated?" for the Inner Wheel of one of the Rotary Clubs of Bangalore. I had a fellow-judge, a lady called Purnima Ranganath, and there were two teams of three speakers each. The moderator was my friend Raji Radhakrishna, who invited me. Since it was also "Spread Breast Cancer Awareness Day", every woman had a pink rosette pinned on as a corsage, including the District Governor, who came to attend: The debate waxed fast and furious, and the "for" team were very positive about women being liberated...however,…

Recently, new bus shelters have come upall over Bangalore. Extensive space has been given over to advertising, and some space has also been allocated, at the top of the bus shelter, to give the name of the bus stop. However, not a single bus shelter has any provision for some essential information...the bus routes stopping at the particular stop. I am not talking about timings as there may not be adhered to at all. But certainly, the route nos. and the series of stops could be displayed.  It surprises me that such an essential feature has been left out of…

I received the following email from another member of the cycling egroup that I belong to: I'm Charles Hayward and I had a large stroke on Easter Sunday of this year. Luckily, I was able to recover with minimal residual impact which according to my doctors is attributable to being relatively fit.My fitness (at least recently) is because I cycle, so in recognition of World Stroke Day (which is 29th Oct actually) I wanted to ask people to join with me in lauding the benefits of cycling. My idea was for a group ride starting from Decathlon-Sarjapura- Chitratirupathi-Hope Farm-Varthur-Decathlon. It…