City: Bengaluru

Moon Arra Pic: bengaluruhabba.co.in Bengaluru habba kicked off on 11 January, art lovers of Bangalore are in for a beautiful rendezvous with music, culture and art. So, for anyone who would like to get a hold of what's in store, here is a roundup of the bands that’ll be churning out the best of music across various genres, from funk to rock to contemporary and world music. The selected bands/musicians playing at UB city, for Bengaluru Habba are quite literally hand-picked for the expertise in their respective genre of music. Sanjay Divecha - World music will reverberate through Sanjay’s compositions…

It started with an idea - how practical it would be if we could get schools to grow their own gardens. It would not only give children a hands-on experience with organic gardening, pests and plants, but also enable them to enjoy the produce in their mid-day meals. Loyola school teachers at the terrace garden. Pic: S Laxminarayan I discussed this idea with our mentor Dr B N Vishwanath and fellow members of the Garden City Farmers Trust, an NGO working to spread awareness on organic urban farming. We got an immediate thumbs up. Then began my search for funds;…

Back in the early 1980s, against the advice of our friends and relatives in Bangalore, we moved to Yelahanka Satellite Town in the hope of living in peace, fed up of Bangalore's pollution. We compromised a lot for this, putting up with the poor construction quality of KHB, lack of some basic facilities, and distance from city's old airport and culture hubs. Many trees were cut down to accommodate this BBMP office in Yelahanka Satellite Town 1st phase Pic: Sudha Narasimhachar But we were happy the way our layout was planned with lovely parks, and amenities like bus stands, shopping…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike's Rs 600 million garbage segregation plant at Subbarayanpalya, an interior village in Kumbalgudu, which should have been completed by the end of 2011, is still at the tender stage. The area is near Rajarajeshwari Nagar in SW Bengaluru. Sixty-five trucks reportedly visit this site daily to dump waste from Bangalore. Pic: Sankar C G As per information from the BBMP website, the tender process for the 750 metric-tons-per-day plant should have been wound up before April 10, 2011."It was in 2009 that BBMP thought of implementing a new automated garbage plant, similar to the one in…

Traffic police at the prepaid auto center on Residency Road charge Rs. 1 from passengers in the name of "maintenance", although the center is maintained by a private firm free of cost. Some of the prepaid auto centers in the city are now managed by IIHT, a private firm that provides computers, printing machines and printed tickets for the centers.They also repair any hardware or software damage to the computers or printers free of cost and have their institute's name painted on the counter and on the back of the tickets as advertisements.However, the Bangalore City Traffic Police places their…

850 students from various schools in the state, participated in the state level Abacus competition held on Sunday, 8, January, 2012. Aloha, an organisation that runs advanced abacus and mental arithmetic programme, conducted the competition at Shri Krishna Kalyana Mantapa, Rajaji Nagar. Vaibhav Prakash, attempting the questions in the state level competition. Pic: Deepti Sarma Arithmetic through abacus is a Chinese tool that helps develop the part of brain which controls creativity and integration of information.Each student sported an Aloha Tshirt and was armed with the beaded abacus to solve 60 complex arithmetic Qs in 5 mins! Sounds unattainable? It…

In a startling land grab case filed by BTM Layout's Bank Officers' Co- Operative Housing Society against the BDA for illegal land transfer, the Karnataka High Court has ordered the BDA on January 6th to restore the land and maintain it as a park. View of the disputed land from across the street. Pic:Deepthi M S The bank officers cooperative was allotted 30 acres of land in bulk in 1982, at the time of the formation of BTM layout. The land was given to the society on a lease agreement. Most of the land was used for construction except for…

The literary works of illustrious playwright and poet, Thyagaraja Paramasiva Kailasam or TPK, are, without doubt, the best among the modern day writings in Kannada to date - a captivating mix of humour, poignancy & relevance. His works have an essential realism and meaning that are valid to this day.He remains the soul of Kannada theatre and resides in the heart of every connoisseur of Kannada theatre and poetry. Thyagaraja paramasiva kailasam-hailed as a great humourist and one of the doyens of kannada literature A peek into Kailasam's life:The saga of T P Kailasam (1884 to 1946), begins in southern…

A Bangalore of leisurely afternoon siestas, trees in abundance, monkey tops adorning grand bungalows, joyous celebrations unrestrained through the night and cycle rickshaws that got you about town. How do you celebrate the best years of your life? Artist Paul Fernandes does it with a series of 50 paintings that relive vibrant Bengaluru of the 70s. While the series currently reflects life in the Cantonment areas, Paul hopes to extend this in the coming months. aPaulogy opened on 21 December 2011. Paul Fernandes. Pic: Christina Daniels The paintings themselves are not easily classified into any genre, as humorous caricatures meet…

Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust's (PNLIT) "Nurturing Puttenahalli Lake back to its pristine glory" project cleared the December round (Round 4) of Mahindra Group's "Spark the Rise" social campaign. The campaign is a platform to help put ideas into action to drive positive change in the nation and the winners are awarded grant money to put those ideas in to action."We're delighted", says Usha Rajagopal, chairperson of PNLIT in a note to Citizen Matters. Banner on display at the lake asking people to vote. Pic: Swaminathan O P. After the fourth round victory, PNLIT is now eligible for Rs 4…