Articles by Deepa Mohan

After a long time, I went to attend a concert in the centre of town. Shankar Mahadevan, Sivamani, Zakir Hussain and Selvaganesh were playing/singing, and it would be interesting, I thought. I did, also, get some nice images...But, I reckoned, without the truly terrible traffic jam, that held us up all the way from the Johnson Market signal to Richmond Road, at which point, we got off the auto and just started walking towards Museum Road, where the concert was being held at the St Joseph Boys' School grounds.The wisdom of holding such a popular event in the middle of…

Some of the cyclists of Bengaluru decided to organise an event called 'Critical Mass' on the evening of 27th November in the city. They would like to reclaim the roads of their city for cycles and other forms of non-motorised transport. All over the world, the Critical Mass (CM) is done on the last Friday of the month. Even though it was a working day, the idea was to spread the message in a live form to a large commuter base. If it were to be on a weekend, it would simply be a weekend leisure ride. CM helps in…

Those who looked up into the sky yesterday had a smile on their faces...because the night had a smile upon its face, too.  For those who want more details, click hereI was lucky to quickly get this image on my little Canon S3, but by the time we got our DSLR's and set up a tripod, the cloud cover ensured that there was no photograph possible! ⊕

It was an unusual way to end a predominantly techie meet...the FOSS.in (Free and Open Source Software annual meet which happens at the J N Tata Auditorium) closed with a keynote address by Kalyan Varma, who is well-known in software,photography, and wildlife circles.The tagline for this year's meet was, "Talk is cheap. Show me the code"!After the "workouts" discussions and reports were over, the well-"connected" audience settled down for the keynote address:Kalyan, about whom I have written in Citizen Matters here and here , put the finishing touches to his presentation:He then talked about "Free World:Sharing and Caring".He started out…

I belong to a volunteer group called Clean and Green, which has been going out on trips to the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and cleaning up as much of the plastic trash as possible in the time available. On the last two occasions, Wipro has both sponsored the trip, as well as providing volunteers to help us with our task.I thought I would post about how a cleanup usually happens....this is probably the 16th or 17th such trip we are making. This time, the trash collected in two hours was 167 kg, and I am happy to say that the amount…

As art becomes big business, it is not surprising to find art galleries springing up everywhere in Bangalore; but when one finds a gallery that is somewhat different, it is rather intriguing! I met young Veena Narsasetty, an artist and sculptor, who was exhibiting for a show at a gallery called ‘Swasti’. The unusual thing about the gallery is that it is funded and run by Health Care Global, an organisation that runs an oncology hospital in Bangalore. Health Care Global (HCG) is about five years old, and has seven hospitals all over India. Dr. Bhagya Ajaikumar, wife of the…

I regularly visit this lady cobbler in J P Nagar 3rd Phase:I am always impressed by her cheerful, smiling demeanour,and struck up a long conversation with her today. Her name is Mariamma, and she hails from a village near Tiruvannamalai.She says she has four  children. "They are all grown up, and are working," she says. Her husband passed away a few years ago. Though there is usually a stigma attached to the profession of a cobbler, she did not let this deter her, and plies her trade happily. She says her little stall keeps her occupied, and keeps her from…

I received the monthly update from Max Mueller Bhavan (Goethe Institut) and it was heartwarming to see this announcement:Inauguration of the new Solar Roof4.30 p.m. on November 20thWe are proud to announce a unique initiative - the installation of a photo-voltaic system on the roof of the Bhavan - one step forward in the movement towards conservation of scarce resources and utilisation of renewable energy. The implications of this project, executed by IBC Solar under the Solar Roof Project India of dena, the German Energy Agency (Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH), are expected to radiate far beyond the walls of the Institute!The…

One of the great benefits of living in a metro is the opportunity of getting to taste the culture and art of other lands. This time, Ranga Shankara, as part of their AHA! initiative of theatre for children, brought the mammoth production of Choon Hyang (‘True Love’) by Theater Seoul, all the way from Korea.It could not have been an easy task to bring 20 children all the way from Korea to India, but Theatre Seoul in conjunction with Inko Centre (Indo-Korean centre) managed it. Natia Lee, the producer of the play and president of Theatre Seoul, also admitted that…

Vijay Narnampatti and I had been to Seshadri Road yesterday to talk to the members of the Empowered Committee as they inspected the road, on which dozens of majestic trees are slated to be felled.While we were waiting for them, this caught my eye....I am going to let the banner speak for itself!Comments, though, are welcome! ⊕