City: Bengaluru

Hippocampus is proud to present Hoo's Tales, a day-long carnival of stories for the children of Bengaluru and Chennai. We invite you to a magical journey told by theatre artiste, mime artists, ventriloquists, clowns, puppeteers and traditional story tellers. This is a celebration to revive the forgotten art of story telling. Hoo's excited about it. We are sure your little ones will be excited too. So, what are you waiting for. Get your kids and their friends and drop in for a fascinating day at Cubbon Park, Bal Bhavan area on 1 March between 10:30 am and 6 pm. Bring…

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The Mahila Seva Samaja School in Basavangudi opened its brand new state-of-the-art badminton courts to the public on 15 February. The famous badminton player Prakash Padukone inaugurated the facility.Pic: Mahila Seva Samaja. Previously the school housed one single badminton court in its old auditorium, which was demolished to build two new courts in the sports and cultural complex of the school Members of the Mahila Seva Samaja, the school children and other ladies in the vicinity of the school have been utilising the facility as members since its inception in 1959. Of the two new courts, one is reserved for…

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While all of Bangalore geared up for Valentines Day last week with all its finesse a café in Koramangala had something less obvious in mind. Brew Haha located near Jyothi Nivas College (Koramangala) in association with Muziboo.com introduced two upcoming Indie bands to its love-struck clientele and regular customers. The warm ambience and eager crowd merged to create a welcome platform for the bands ‘River X' which also goes by the name ‘Unknown River' and ‘Grubby Halo". Watching the bands perform. Rochelle D'Silva shot this pic with her cellphone. While all the customers were being accommodated the bands set up…

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Sure enough, the Lokayukta is doing a good job in rounding up corrupt and inefficient officials and we congratulate them for that. However, we at Citizen Matters always wondered what made the Lokayukta tick, what happened to the people who were booked, and whether the Karnataka Lokayukta Act was powerful enough to make the Lokayukta an extremely effective anti-corruption organisation. Well, we decided to interview with Justice Santosh Hegde, the present Lokayukta and then draw our own conclusions from what emerged.67-year-old Justice Hedge took office in August 2006 for a five-year term. He was born in Karkala taluk, now in…

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Unhygienic drinking water. Moon-cratered roads. Uncollected, stinking garbage pile-ups. Power thefts. Statue-like BBMP officers. Land grabs. Unauthorised structures. Residential plots converted to commercial properties. Bribe-hankering government staff. This list can go on and on. Bangalore is down in the dumps and its leaders and administrators seem to have abandoned their virtues and lost their will along with their sense of right. Looking at the current state of affairs, there appears to be no hope in sight unless the average citizen picks up the gauntlet. If the power of the Right to Information law is anything to go by, it is…

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Muziboo presents a musical evening on Valentine's day, with performances from the bands 'Grubby Halo' and 'Unknown River' at BrewHaha Cafe, Koramangala. The band Unknown River 'Grubby Halo' will blow hot and cold and lukewarm with its originals and some classic covers like 'I Can't Help Falling in Love With You', 'Hit the Road Jack' and 'Hey Jude'. Its originals like "Love Remains", 'New Man By Your Side', 'Top Brass Caviar'and 'Moody Drunkard Blues' would go a long way in wooing and melting hearts. 'Unknown River' with its bluesy instrumental performance should add more colour and class to the pink…

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We all carry our family histories with us. Memories of mango trees, a large well in the backyard, a pudina patch, tyrannical aunts, loving grandmothers and ‘meese' thathas linger in the albums of our mind. Yet, some extraordinary lives demand more than a walk through the black-and-white photo gallery. Ambi's was one such. Amba Bai, a young woman, pregnant with her third child, woke up to widowhood one bright, summer morning of 1913. Her husband, Srinivasa, had drowned in the Kempambudi Lake (Chamarajpet), where he had gone for a swim. Her father, Krishna Rao, stood between Ambi, as she was…

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"Birth and death are the only certainties in life..." but in our culture, weddings are almost certain, too. And to celebrate the wedding, we need to hire wedding halls or Kalyana Mantapas. However, the hiring of these seems to be beset with various difficulties, and the wedding hall sector seems to be an unorganised one. According to Eshwar Bhosle, who publishes a directory of marriage halls of Bangalore, titled "Kalyana",(see box) about 10 new halls come up in the city every year, and an average of 60 to 80 weddings are performed in each hall every year. There are about…

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What’s TDR to you?

Bangalore's administration and the Karnataka state government are trying to deal with the city's massive traffic woes in one way or another. The most common approach undertaken by governments is to implement schemes to widen roads, build flyovers, and develop mass transit/rapid transit systems. Recently, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) decided to implement its proposal of widening 85 roads in the city. Bangalore's roads are currently handling 32 lakh vehicles, nearly two and a half times the number in 1990s. It was in 2005 that the city's Roads Department announced the road widening scheme for 85 roads. However, the…

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Enough and more has been said about how Bangalore city is the rock and metal capital of our country. It is not inaccurate either for such a claim to be made, and the fact that international musical heavyweights such as Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, Sepultura, The Scorpions (who made their second visit to the city) and America among others visited the city last year as part of their tours just goes to reinforce that statement further. This exposure that the city has been enjoying over the past decade or so has led to a vibrant musical scene, giving artists a chance…

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