Articles by Deepa Mohan

Dramanon is a young Bangalore-based theatre group whose fortunes I have been following for a fair length of time now, and I have been impressed with their commitment to English theatre, given the obstructions that an amateur group has always to face: affordability of theatre space, funding obstacles, and rehearsal difficulties with day jobs to take care of. They like to choose plays, that, in their own words, "have spunk", and this time, the play in question was Elling, Simon Bent's adaptation of a cult Norwegian film, which in turn was based on a novel by Ingvar Ambjørnsen. 'Elling' by…

I went for a short walk just now...and here are the things I did....I went across to the "Samatha" cobbler's booth across the road, and found that after 6 days, the cobbler was still absent, and the booth closed. After the closure of the booth where my "regular" lady cobbler used to repair my footwear and handbags...this man was my "regular" guy. Strangely, no other vendor in the area knows where he has gone, or what has happened to him...he's a hard-working guy (though sometimes the smell of liquor wafts across!) and does good work, so I  hope he's just…

It was a lovely evening to walk down to Ranga Shankara to see my first ‘serious’ play since my return to the city after a long absence....and I was not disappointed. “Ms.Meena”, on at Ranga Shankara from July 28 to August 1, is a joint effort between the members of Perch, a Chennai-based theatre group, and rafiki, a Bangalore group. The creative use of props - two brooms have become the handrail of a bus and the winnowing frame the steering wheel. Pic: Deepa Mohan. Sachin Gurjale and Sunitha of rafiki had watched two productions of Perch - Sangathi Arinhya…

I was going to photograph something else, when this generator housing caught my eye: The housing said, Caterpillar, which is a well-known brand..but what really caught my attention was this "Butterfly Enclosure"!I wonder what this particular "Butterfly Enclosure" actually is? There IS a picture of a butterfly on the generator housing...but I don't really think they capture butterflies....or if they do, someone must tell them that...butterflies are free! ⊕

Amoghavarsha, an experienced wildlife photographer, is conducting another monsoon wildlife/photography expedition.The next monsoon expedition to Agumbe is scheduled for 28th and 29th of August. This will be the last expedition in the peak monsoons, after this the monsoons will subside and so will photography opportunities.The last expedition was exciting and very fruitful with sightings of 2 wild King Cobras at close quarters and of course many more snakes, frogs and nocturnal animals.Do take a look athttp://amoghavarsha.com/workshops/agumbe/for more information, testimonials and photographs.If any of you are interested, contact Amogh at +91 99010 44344.

It is very easy to review a play which has had a house-full audience, which was cheered to the echo, and was obviously enjoyed to the hilt by every child in the audience!"Tale of Haruk", a Korean fairy tale, staged by TUIDA, a Korean performance group (that aims to be nature-friendly in play-making) was brought to the Bangalore children by way of Ranga Shankara's AHA! initiative to provide theatre for children, supported by Britannia. The production used puppetry, some amount of sleight of hand, a set of musical instruments that are recycled from items of ordinary use,and a talented cast…

For a long time, I've heard references by foodies to J P Nagar being  "Cheapie Nagar"  as there were only eateries, no "restaurants" in the area. Well, this seemed to suit most people fine, as they would drop in at a Darshini, or an IT-service eatery, to have a quick bite, and "dining out" meant dressing up and going to the centre of the town.As traffic increased, so did the reluctance of the people of south Bangalore to brave logjams to go out for dinner...and perhapss gap and decided to fill it. "Aroy" ("delicious" in Thai) opened a few months ago,…

The law says that helmets are compulsory, and that one should not drive a two-wheeler without a helmet.These gentlemen are totally law-abiding...they have not one helmet, but two!I'm sure they feel that their heads (and the brains inside them) are totally protected in case of an accident. ⊕

I posted once about the Monkey Puzzle Tree with its beautiful leaves (go see the huge trees near the Glass House  in Lalbagh, if you can!)and later, I got theMonkey Puzzle Butterfly amongst other things, on a nature trail:A few days ago, it was very nice to see that someone still cares about our Bangalore heritage, and has re-created the Monkey Puzzle architectural detail for their home:Possibly this feature was so called because monkeys used to sit on it...it's also called "Monkey Top".

I was walking along and spotted this...If I can achieve good management by rubber road humps, Bangalore must be the best managed city in the world. I also have all those dust bins to help me....not to mention the traffic cons!⊕